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[121]

On the thirtieth of May the besieged garrison of

chap. VII.} 1763. May.
Detroit caught a hope of relief, as they saw a fleet of boats sweeping round the point. They flocked to the bastions to welcome their friends; but the death-cry of the Indians announced that the English party, sent from Niagara to reinforce Detroit, had, two nights previously, just before midnight, been attacked in their camp, on the beach, near the mouth of Detroit River, and utterly defeated, a part turning back to Niagara, the larger part falling into the hands of the savages.1

At eight o'clock in the night of the last day of

June.
May, the war belt reached the Indian village near Fort Ouatanon, just below Lafayette, in Indiana; the next morning the commander was lured into an Indian cabin and bound, and his garrison surrendered. The French, moving the victors to clemency by gifts of wampum,2 received the prisoners into their houses. At Michilimackinac, a spot of two acres on the main land, west of the strait, was inclosed with pickets, and gave room for the cabins of a few traders, and a fort with a garrison of about forty3 souls. Savages had arrived near it, as if to trade and beg for presents. From day to day, the Chippewas, who dwelt in a plain near the fort, assembled to play ball. On the second day of June,4 they again engaged in

1 Lieutenant Cuyler's Report of his being attacked and routed by a party of Indians on Lake Erie. Major Wilkins to Sir Jeffery Amherst, Niagara, 6 June, 1763.

2 Lieutenant Jenkins to Major Gladwin, Ouatanon, 1 June, 1763.

3 Captain Etherington to Major Gladwin, Michilimackinac, 12 June, 1763. Etherington's account, contemporary and official, reports but thirty-five privates.

4 ‘Yet, on the second instant’—Capt. Etherington.—Henry's Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories, between the years 1760 and 1776. The author in his old age prepared this interesting work for press, and gave it to the public in October 1809. He makes the garrison consist of ninety; he gives the game of ball as on the king's birth-day; and makes it a trial of skill between the Sacs and Chippewas. These incidents heighten the romance of the story; but I think it better ‘to stoop to truth,’ and follow the authentic contemporary account. The letter of Etherington, as published in Parkman's Pontiac War, 596, reads, ‘Yet, on the 4th instant.’

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