PERIOD II.-UNDER THE BRITISH, 1761-1778.

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CHAPTER VII.

Pontiac's War-His Failure and Death.

LTHOUGH the British had been able to rescue from their French rivals the coveted and long-disputed ownership of the Mississippi Valley, a lion, rampant, relentless, and revengeful, stood in the path of the peaceful occupancy of the territory by its conquerors. The spirit of the Indians remained yet unsubdued. Neither their wishes nor their interests had been consulted by the parties to the treaty of Paris, a fact of which the British. were soon reminded by the unlooked-for and sanguinary sequel to the French-and-Indian War, known as the Pontiac War-the revolt of the Indians under Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas. The object of the insurrection was to wrest from the hated British the domain which French valor, even with the aid of their Indian allies, had failed to hold. In this great chief were united all the best and worst traits of Indian character, and both were clearly displayed in the war of which he was the master-spirit. That such an outbreak could end in but one way was to have been expected, yet such was the bravery and cunning of the Indians that for over two years they successfully hindered the British government from reducing to possession the country of the Illinois.

The Indians had observed with no friendly eye the surrender of Detroit, Mackinac, and other French posts in the Northwest in 1761. The first open manifestation of their discontent occurred when the British troops, under Maj. Robert Rogers, were marching to take possession of the fort first named. The watchful and wily Pontiac placed himself in his path, and inquired why an invading force had entered upon his territory. The British officer assured his aboriginal majesty that the troops of King George did not contemplate any interference with the rights of the children of the forest; that it was their intention simply to take peaceable possession of the military posts which

had been vacated by the French under treaty stipulations. This explanation was apparently satisfactory to the savage chieftain. The pipe of peace was smoked, and Pontiac assured Maj. Rogers that not only should his command pass unmolested through the land of the Ottawas, but that it should receive the protection of the warriors of that nation.

This friendly understanding, however, was not destined to be of long duration. Pontiac had been the constant friend and active ally of the French, whose fortunes he had shared upon many a sanguinary field, from the defeat of Braddock to the capitulation of Fort Niagara. To witness the expulsion of his ancient friends, and to see their places filled by the foe whom he hated in every fibre of his untutored nature, and whom he had so long opposed with all the bravery and cruelty of an untamed savage, could hardly fail to excite in his breast feelings of deadly animosity. This feeling was intensified by the pointed contrast in the demeanor, toward himself and his people, of his former friends and his would-be masters. The French had been affable and easy-going; the British were haughty and contemptuous. The former had treated their uncivilized allies as friends and equals; the latter regarded them as inferiors and dependents. French missionaries had been among his people; they had baptized their children; they had buried their dead; they had won from a portion of his people at least an external observance of the same religion which they professed. The association of the traders and settlers with the natives had been agreeable and satisfactory. The French had not offensively asserted their superiority; they had been willing to learn many things from their savage friends, and not a few Indian women had been wooed and won by their foreign admirers.

It can not, therefore, be wondered at that Pontiac, brooding in his wigwam over the loss of the friendship for which he would have sacrificed his all, nursing his sense of wrongs-even if fancied rather than real-should have meditated plans for revenge. In such feelings he was not alone. Other chiefs also deplored the change which they feared they were powerless to counteract. The French settlers who remained in the Illinois district after its cession to the British crown were quick to perceive this sentiment, and no less ready to fan the smoulder

ATTACK ON DETROIT.

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ing embers of discontent into the flames of war. Timely discovery alone prevented the successful execution of a plot to capture Detroit in 1762, and other hostile demonstrations were frustrated only by the vigilance of the British garrison.

Pontiac's influence over the Indians-not only of his own tribe, but also of others, by whom he was regarded as an "uncrowned king"-was practically unbounded. It was an easy task for so popular a chief to visit the tribes in the Illinois country and adjacent territory and to impart to them his own. distrust of the "British invaders." It was not difficult for him to convince his willing listeners that the ultimate designs of their former foes embraced not only a plan to occupy the surrendered French forts, but also a scheme, regardless of the original proprietorship of the country, to take their lands and extirpate the entire Indian race. In consequence of his representations and personal solicitations, a powerful Indian confederacy was secretly formed, embracing the Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Sacs, Foxes, Menominees, Miamis, Shawnees, and Wyandotts, besides the scattered remnants of other tribes, to make war upon the British. So strong a confederation of aborigines for the accomplishment of a common end had never before been formed in North America.

At a conference of chiefs, it was determined to make an attack—as nearly simultaneous as possible-upon the British posts in the succeeding May (1763). So well laid were the plans of the crafty leader that the forts of Mackinac, Sandusky, Green Bay, St. Joseph, Presque Isle, and Venango fell an easy prey into his hands. The capture of Detroit, Pontiac reserved to himself, and his tactics showed the native treachery of the savage. Pretending that he desired a friendly interview with the commandant, Maj. Henry Gladwin, he encamped, with the women and children of the tribe, within a convenient distance of the fort, the garrison of which numbered but one hundred and seventy-four men, while the Ottawa braves were about four hundred in number. His request for a powwow was readily. granted by the officer in command, who appeared to be devoid of suspicion, and Pontiac, with a number of his chosen warriors, were admitted within the fort. The arms of the Indians were concealed by the drapery of their blankets.

The plan of the attacking party had been to massacre the British officers at a given signal, after which the gates were to be thrown open for the admission of the remainder of the band, who were to lend their aid in completing the work of destruction. But the gallantry of the major had won the attachment of a girl of the Ojibways, whose devotion to her lover proved to be superior to her fealty to her race. She discovered the plot and disclosed it to the commandant. Pontiac was admitted with his chosen band, and Maj. Gladwin patiently listened to his haughty demands, couched in the grandiloquent language characteristic of Indian oratory. But just as the preconcerted signal was about to be given, the drums of the fort rolled out the call to arms, and the outwitted chief found himself surrounded by troops with loaded muskets, commanded by officers whose drawn swords showed how cheap a price they placed upon the blood of himself and his co-conspirators. The disconcerted chief was quick to realize the failure of his plan and to perceive his own discomfiture. Adopting a tone as humble as it had been arrogant, he sued for favor. After a few stern words of warning from Gladwin, the gates were thrown open and the baffled band permitted to depart.

The next day, an attack was made upon the fort, but after a six-hours' contest the Ottawas were forced sullenly to retire. A three-months' siege followed, during which many desperate assaults were made upon the fort.

At the same time the Shawnees and Delawares were laying siege to Fort Pitt, where frequent skirmishes took place. The successful resistance made by the defenders of both these posts had the effect of raising the already inflamed passions of the savages to fever heat. They wreaked their vengeance on the unprotected settlements along the western frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania, among which they spread desolation and death. The defenceless colonists were first plundered and then wantonly butchered. Homes were reduced to heaps of smoking ruins, and all the revolting excesses known to savage warfare were practised upon their helpless inmates. The atrocities of the confederated tribes equaled in horror those of King Philip's war in New England; nothing like it had ever been witnessed in the valleys of the West. It was, in all its essential elements, a war of extermination.

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That the French officers who had been requested by the British to continue in command, owing to the obstacles which the latter found thrown in their way by the Indians, might have exerted a restraining influence over their former allies had they so desired is as certain as is the fact that at first their sympathies were with the savages. The latter also received. from them moral support, and material aid as well in the form of provisions and munitions of war. It has even been alleged that not until Gen. Amherst had remonstrated with Villiers, upon conduct which was in as direct violation of the spirit of treaty obligations as it was contrary to the principles of civilization, did the French commander advise the Indians that governmental control of the western territory had been ceded to the British by solemn treaty, whose terms he must not violate. On the other hand, Gayarre contends, upon what seems to be credible authority, that Villiers acted in good faith toward the British.*

Finding that only the adoption of the most determined policy would avail to bring hostilities to a close, it was resolved in 1764 to dispatch a force of three thousand men, under Gen. John Bradstreet, against the tribes in the neighborhood of the great. lakes, while Col. Henry Bouquet was placed in command of an expedition against the Delawares and Shawnees. Upon the arrival of Gen. Bradstreet at Detroit in October, 1764, the terms of a treaty of peace were agreed upon with the Ottawas, Sacs, Wyandots, and other western tribes, but its provisions were so repugnant to the views of Gen. Thomas Gage, when informed of them, that they were rejected and subsequently arranged upon a more satisfactory basis.

Col. Bouquet having gallantly defeated the savages at Bushy Run (Westmoreland County, Penn.), they, becoming alarmed at the formidable character of the preparations to subdue them, and having grown weary of prolonging a war hitherto barren of any beneficial results to them, the Delawares and Shawnees. sued for a truce, and the terms of peace were finally agreed upon Dec. 5, 1764.

The scenes attending the release of prisoners-a necessary incident to the conclusion of peace-many of whom had been Gayarre's "Louisiana,” II, 99.