There were many who

was first to raise the cry of war. might have done so, for all the savages in the backwoods were ripe for an outbreak, and the movement seemed almost simultaneous. The Delawares and Senecas were the most incensed and Kiashuta, chief of the latter, was perhaps foremost to apply the torch, but if this were the case, he touched fire to materials already on the point of igniting. It belonged to a greater chief than he to give method and order to what would else have been a wild burst of fury, and to convert desultory attacks into a formidable and protracted war. But for Pontiac the whole might have ended in a few troublesome inroads upon the frontier, and a little whooping and yelling under the walls of Fort Pitt."

There has been some dispute as to the nationality of Pontiac. Some have made him a member of the tribe of Sacks or Saäkies, but by far the greater number have placed him among the Ottawas. His home was about eight miles above Detroit, on Pechee Island, which looks out upon the waters of Lake St. Clair. His form was cast in the finest mould of savage grace and strength, and his eye seemed capable of penetrating, at a glance, the secret motives which actuated the savage tribes around him. His rare personal qualities, his courage, resolution, wisdom, address, and eloquence, together with the hereditary claim to authority which, according to Indian custom, he possessed, secured for him the esteem of both the French and English, and gave him an influence among the Lake tribes greater than that of any other individual. Early in life he distinguished himself as a chieftain of no ordinary ability. In 1746 he commanded a powerful body of Indians, mostly Ottawas, who gallantly defended the people of Detroit against the formidable attack of several combined northern tribes, and it is supposed that he was present at the disastrous defeat of Braddock, in which several hundred of his warriors were engaged. He had always, at least up to 'the time when Major Rogers came into the country, been a firm friend of the French, and

received many marks of esteem from the French officer, Marquis de Montcalm.

How could he, then, "the daring chief of the Northwest," do otherwise than dispute the English claim to his country? How could he endure the sight of this people driving the game from his hunting grounds, and his friends and allies from the lands they had so long possessed? When he heard that Rogers was advancing along the lakes to take possession of the country, his indignation knew no bounds, and he at once sent deputies, requesting him to halt until such time as he could see him. Flattering words and fair promises induced him, at length, to extend the hand of friendship to Rogers. He was inclined to live peaceably with the English and to encourage their settling in the country as long as they treated him as he deserved, but if they treated him with neglect he would shut up the way and exclude them from it. He did not consider himself a conquered prince, but he expected to be treated with the respect and honor due to a king.

While a system of good management might have allayed every suspicion and engendered peace and good will, a want of cordiality increased the discontent, and Pontiac soon saw that the fair promises which had been made him were but idle words. The Indians were becoming more and more dissatisfied, and he began seriously to apprehend danger from the new government and people. He saw in the English a boundless ambition to possess themselves of every military position on the Northern waters, an ambition which plainly indicated to his far-reaching sagacity that soon, nothing less than undisputed possession of all his vast domain would satisfy them. He saw in them a people superior in arms, but utterly destitute of that ostensible cordiality toward the Indians personally to which his people had been accustomed during the golden age of French dominion, and which they were apt to regard as necessary indications of good faith. There seemed no disposition for national courtesy, individual intercourse or beneficial commerce of any kind. All those circumstances which made

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the neighborhood of the French agreeable, and which might have made their own at least tolerable, they neglected. Their conduct never gave rest to suspicion, while that of the French never gave rise to it. Hence the Indians felt, as Minavavana expressed it, that they had no father among the white men but the King of France," and Pontiac resolved, as he had threatened, to "shut up the way." His plan, as we have said, was to make a contemporaneous assault upon all the British posts, and thus effectually to extinguish the English power at a single blow. This was a stroke of policy which evinced an extraordinary genius, and demanded for its successful execution an energy and courage of the highest order. But Pontiac was fully equal to the task. He was as skillful in executing as he was bold in planning. He knew that success would multiply friends and allies, but friends and allies were necessary to insure success.

First, then, a council must be called, and for this purpose, at the close of 1762, he sent out his embassadors to all the different nations. With the war-belt of wampum and the tomahawk stained red in token of war, these swift footed messengers went from camp to camp and from village to village, throughout the North, South, East and West, and in whatever tribe they appeared the sachems assembled to hear the words of the great Pontiac. The message was everywhere heard with approbation, the war-belt accepted and the hatchet seized as an indication that the assembled chiefs stood pledged to take part in the war.

The grand council assembled on the twenty-seventh day of the following April, on the banks of the little river Ecorce, not far from Detroit. The pipe went round and Pontiac stepped forth, plumed and painted in the full costume of war. He called into requisition all the eloquence and cunning of which he was master. He appealed to their fears, their hopes, their ambition, their cupidity, their hatred of the English, and their love for their old friends, the French. He displayed to them a belt which he said the King of France had sent him, urging

him to drive the English from the country and open the way for the return of the French. He painted, in glowing colors, the common interests of their race, and called upon them to make a stand against a common foe. He told them of a dream in which the Great Manitou had appeared to a chief of the Abenakis, saying, "I am the Maker of heaven and earth, the trees, lakes, rivers, and all things else. I am the Maker of mankind; and because I love you, you must do my will. The land on which you live I have made for you and not for others. Why do you suffer the white men to dwell among you? My children, you have forgotten the customs and traditions of your forefathers. Why do you not clothe yourselves in skins, as they did, and use the bows and arrows, and the stone-pointed lances which they used? You have bought guns, knives, kettles and blankets from the white men, until you can no longer do without them; and what is worse, you have drunk the poison fire-water, which turns you into fools. Fling all these things away; live as your wise forefathers lived before you. And as for these English-these dogs dressed in red, who have come to rob you of your hunting-grounds and drive away the game-you must lift the hatchet against them. Wipe them from the face of the earth, and then you will win again and once more be happy and prosperous. The children of your great father, the King of France, are not like the English. Never forget that they are your brethren. They are very dear to me, for they love the red men, and understand the true mode of worshipping me."

my

favor back

Such an appeal to the passions and prejudices of credulous and excited savages was well calculated to produce the desired effect. If the Great Spirit was with them, it was impossible to fail. Other speeches were doubtless made, and before the council broke up the scheme was well matured.

Thus was the crisis hastening on. While every principle of revenge, ambition and patriotism in the savages was thus being roused up to the highest pitch, and the tomahawk was already lifted for the blow, scarce a suspicion of the savage

design found its way to the minds of the English. Occasionally an English trader would see something in their behavior which caused him to suspect mischief, or 66 some scoundrel half-breed would be heard boasting in his cups that before next summer he would have English hair to fringe his huntingfrock," but these things caused no alarm. Once, however, the plot was nearly discovered. A friendly Indian told the com

mander of Fort Miami that a war-belt had been sent to the warriors of a neighboring village, and that the destruction of himself and garrison had been resolved upon; but when information of this was conveyed to Major Gladwyn, of Detroit, that officer wrote to General Amherst stating that, in his opinion, there had been some irritation among the Indians, but that the affair would soon blow over, and that in the neighborhood of his own fort all was tranquil. Amherst thought that the acts of the Indians were unwarrantable, and hoped that they would be too sensible of their own interests to conspire against the English; he wished them to know that if they did, in his opinion they would make a "contemptible figure." "Yes," said he, "a contemptible figure! They would be the sufferers, and in the end it would result in their destruction.” Deluded men! Almost within rifle shot of Gladwyn's quarters was Pontiac, the arch enemy of the English and the prime mover in the plot, and the sequel proved how "contemptible" was the figure which the savages made!

From north to south and from east to west the work of extirpation soon began. Numbers of English traders, on their way from all quarters of the country to the different posts, were taken, and their goods made the prize of the conquerors. Large bodies of savages were seen collecting around the various forts, yet, strange to say, without exciting any serious alarm. When the blow was struck, which was nearly at the same time, nine out of the twelve British posts were surprised and destroyed! It would doubtless be interesting to notice in detail these nine surprisals, but it is foreign to our purpose to give in full more than one, that of Michilimackinac. We may say,