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Chapter 7:
Pontiac's war.—the triumvirate ministry continued.
May—September, 1763.
the western territory, of which
England believed
itself to have come into possession, was one massive forest, interrupted only by rocks, or prairies, or waters, or an Indian cleared field for maize.
The
English came into the illimitable waste as conquerors, and here and there in the solitudes, all the way from
Niagara to the
Falls of the
St. Mary and the banks of the
St. Joseph's, a log fort with a picketed inclosure was the emblem of their pretensions.
In their presumptuous eagerness to supplant the
French, they were blind to danger, and their posts were often left dependent on the Indians for supplies.
The smaller garrisons consisted only of an ensign, a sergeant, and perhaps fourteen men; and were stationed at points so widely remote from one another, that, lost in the boundless woods, they could no more be discerned than a little fleet of canoes scattered over the whole
Atlantic, too minute to be perceptible, and safe only during fair weather.
Yet, feeble as they were, their presence alarmed the red man, for it implied the design
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to occupy the country which for ages had been
his own.
1 His canoe could no longer quiver on the bosom of the
St. Mary's, or pass into the clear waters of
Lake Huron, or paddle through the strait that connects
Huron and
Erie, or cross from the waters of the
St. Lawrence to those of the
Ohio, without passing by the
British flag.
By what right was that banner unfurled in the west?
What claim to the red man's forest could the
English derive from victories over the
French?
The
French had won the affection of the savages by their pliability and their temperance, and retained it by religious influence; they seemed no more to be masters, but rather companions and friends.
More formidable enemies now appeared, arrogant in their pretensions, scoffing insolently at those whom they superseded, driving away their Catholic priests, and introducing the traffic in rum, which till then had been effectually prohibited.
Since the
French must go, no other nation should take their place.
Let the
Red Men at once vindicate their right to what was their own heritage, or consent to their certain ruin.
The wide conspiracy began with the lower nations, who were the chief instigators of discontent.
2 The
Iroquois, especially the Senecas,
3 who were very much enraged against the
English,
4 joined with the Delawares
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and Shawnees, and for two years
5 they had been
soliciting the north-western nations to take up arms.
‘The
English mean to make slaves of us, by occupying so many posts in our country,’ said the lower nations to the upper.
6 ‘We had better attempt something now, to recover our liberty, than wait till they are better established.’
So spoke the Senecas to the Delawares, and they to the Shawnees, and the Shawnees to the Miamis
7 and Wyandots, whose chiefs, slain in battle by the
English, were still unavenged,
8 until every Where, from the falls of
Niagara and the piny declivities of
the Alleghanies to the whitewood forests of the
Mississippi9 and the borders of
Lake Superior, all the nations concerted to rise and put the
English to death.
10
A prophetic spirit was introduced among the wigwams.
A chief of the Abenakis persuaded first his own tribe, and then the red men of the west, that the Great Manitou had appeared to him in a vision, saying ‘I am the
Lord of Life; it is I who made all men; I wake for their safety.
Therefore, I give you warning, that if you suffer the Englishmen to dwell among you, their diseases and their poisons shall destroy
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you utterly, and you shall all die.’
11 ‘The Master of
Life himself,’ said the Pottawatamies, ‘has stirred us, up to this war.’
The plot was discovered in March by the officer in command at
Miami;
12 and the
Bloody Belt, which was then in the village and was to be sent forward to the tribes on the
Wabash,
13 was with great difficulty, ‘after a long and troublesome’ interview, obtained from an assembly of the chiefs of the Miamis.
14
On receiving the news, Amherst, who had not much alertness or sagacity, while he prepared reinforcements, pleased himself with calling the acts of the Indians ‘unwarrantable;’ hoped they would be ‘too sensible of their own interest’ to conspire against the
English; and declared that if they did, he wished them to know that, in his eyes, they would make ‘a contemptible figure.’
Yes, he repeated, ‘a contemptible figure.’
The mischief would recoil on themselves, and end in their destruction.
15
But
Pontiac, the colossal chief of the North West, ‘the king and lord of all that country;’
16 a Catawba
17 prisoner, as is said, adopted into the clan of the Ottawas, and elected their chief;
18 respected, and in a manner adored, by all the nations around
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him; a man ‘of integrity and humanity,’
19 according
to the morals of the wilderness; of a comprehensive mind, fertile in resources, and of an undaunted nature, persevered in the design of recovering the land of the Senecas, and all west of it, by a confederacy of insurgent nations.
His name still hovers over the north-west, as the hero who devised and conducted their great but unavailing struggle with destiny for the independence of their race.
Of all the inland settlements,
Detroit was the largest and the most esteemed.
The deep, majestic river, more than a half mile broad, carrying its vast flood calmly and noiselessly between the strait and well-defined banks of its channel, imparted grandeur to a country whose rising grounds and meadows, plains festooned with prolific wild vines, woodlands, brooks and fountains, were so mingled together that nothing was left to desire.
20 The climate was mild, and the air salubrious.
Good land abounded, yielding maize, wheat, and every vegetable.
The forests were a natural park, stocked with buffaloes, deer, quails, partridges and wild turkeys.
Water-fowl of delicious flavor hovered along its streams, which yielded to the angler an astonishing variety of fish, especially the white fish, the richest and most luscious of them all. There every luxury of the table might be enjoyed at the sole expense of labor.
21 The lovely and cheerful region attracted settlers, alike white men and savages; and the
French had so occupied the two banks of the river that their numbers
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were rated even so high as twenty-five hundred
souls, of whom five hundred were men able to bear arms,
22 or as three or four hundred French families;
23 yet an enumeration, in 1764, proved them not numerous,
24 with only men enough to form three companies of lnilitia;
25 and in 1768 the official census reported but five hundred and seventy-two souls,
26—an account which is in harmony with the best traditions.
27 The
French dwelt on farms, which were about three or four acres wide upon the river, and eighty acres deep; indolent in the midst of plenty, graziers as well as tillers of the soil, and enriched by Indian traffic.
The English fort, of which
Gladwin was the commander, was a large stockade, about twenty-feet high and twelve hundred yards in circumference,
28 inclosing, perhaps, eighty houses.
29 It stood within the limits of the present city, on the river bank, commanding a wide prospect for nine miles above and below.
30> The garrison was composed of the shattered remains of the eightieth regiment,
31 reduced to about one hundred and twenty men and eight officers.
Cass: Discourse before the
Michigan Historical Society, from an ancient Diary.
Carver, 155, says, 300. Two
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armed vessels lay in the river;
32 of artillery, there
were but two six-pounders, one three-pounder, and three mortars, so badly mounted as to be of no use, except to inspire terror.
33
The nation of the Pottawatamies dwelt at about a mile below the fort; the Wyandots a little lower down, on the eastern side of the strait; and five miles higher up, but on the same eastern side, the Ottawas.
On the first day of May,
Pontiac entered the fort with about fifty
34 of his warriors, announcing his purpose in a few days to pay a more formal visit.
He appeared on the seventh, with about three hundred warriors, armed with knives, tomahawks and guns, cut short and hid under their blankets.
35 He was to sit down in council, and when he should rise, was to speak with a belt white on one side and green on the other;
36 and turning the belt was to be the signal for beginning a general massacre.
But luckily
Gladwin had the night before been informed of his coming,
37 and took such precautions that the interview passed off without results.
Pontiac was allowed, perhaps unwisely, to escape.
On the morning of the same day, an English party who were sounding the entrance of
Lake Huron were seized and murdered.
38 On the eighth,
Pontiac ap-
39
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peared once more with a pipe of peace, proposing to
come the next day, with the whole
Ottawa nation to renew his friendship.
But on the afternoon of the ninth, he struck his tent, began hostilities, and strictly beleaguered the garrison, which had not on hand provisions enough for three weeks. ‘The first man that shall bring them provisions, or any thing else, shall suffer death.’
Such was
Pontiac's proclamation of the blockade of
Detroit.
On the tenth there was a parley, and the garrison was summoned to capitulate to the
Red Men as the
French had done to the
English.
Not till after
Gladwin had obtained the needed supplies did he break off the treaty, and bid the enemy defiance,
40 yet leaving in their hands the unhappy officer who had conducted the parley.
The garrison was in high spirits, though consisting of no more than one hundred and twenty men,
41 against six or seven hundred besiegers.
42
And now ensued an unheard of phenomenon.
The rovers of the wilderness, though unused to enterprises requiring time and assiduity, blockaded the place closely.
The French inhabitants were divided in their sympathies.
Pontiac made one of them his secretary,
43 and supplied his wants by requisitions upon them all. Emissaries were sent even to
Illinois to ask for an officer who should assume the conduct of the siege.
44 The savages of the west took part in the general hatred of the
English, and would not be reconciled to their dominion.
‘Be of good cheer, my fathers;’
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such were the words of one tribe after another to the
commander at Fort Chartres;—‘do not desert thy children: the
English shall never come here so long as a red man lives.’
‘Our hearts,’ they repeated, ‘are with the
French; we hate the
English, and wish to kill them all. We are all united: the war is our war, and we will continue it for seven years. The
English shall never come into the west.’
45 But the
French officers in
Illinois, though their efforts were for a long time unavailing, sincerely desired to execute the treaty of
Paris with loyalty.
On the sixteenth of May, a party of Indians appeared at the gate of the fort of
Sandusky.
Ensign Paulli, the commander, ordered seven of them—four Hurons and three Ottawas—to be admitted as old acquaintances and friends.
They sat smoking, till one of them raised his head as a signal, on which the two that were next
Paulli seized and tied him fast without uttering a word.
As they carried him out of the room, he saw the dead body of his sentry.
The rest of the garrison lay one here and one there; the sergeant in his garden, where he had been planting—all massacred.
The traders, also, were killed, and their stores plundered.
Paulli was taken as a trophy to
Detroit.
46
At the mouth of the
St. Joseph's the
Jesuit missionaries, for nearly sixty years, had toiled among the heathen, till, at the conquest of
Canada, they made way for an English ensign, a garrison of fourteen soldiers, and English traders, stationed on a spot more than a thousand miles From the sea, and inaccessible
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except by canoes or boats round the promontory of Mi-
chigan.
On the morning of the twenty-fifth of May, a party of Pottawatamies from
Detroit appeared near the fort.
‘We are come,’ said they, ‘to see our relatives and wish the garrison a good morning.’
A cry was suddenly heard in the barracks; ‘in about two minutes,’
Schlosser, the
commanding officer, was seized, and all the garrison, excepting three men,
47 were massacred.
48
Fort Pitt was the most important station west of
the Alleghanies. Twenty boats
49 had already been launched upon the
Ohio, to bear the
English in triumph to the country of the
Illinois.
For three or four weeks bands of Mingoes and Delawares had been seen hovering round the place.
On the twenty-seventh of May, these bitterest enemies of the
English exchanged with English traders three hundred pounds worth of skins for powder and lead, and then suddenly went away, as if to intercept any attempt to descend the river.
On the same day, an hour before midnight, the chiefs of the Delawares having received intelligence from the west, sent their message to
Fort Pitt, recounting the attacks on the
English posts.
‘We are sure,’ they added, giving their first summons, ‘a party is coming to cut you and your people off; make the best of your way to some place of safety, as we would not desire to see you killed in our town.
What goods and other effects you have, we assure you we will take care of, and keep them safe.’
50
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The next day Indians massacred and scalped a
whole family,
51 sparing neither woman nor child, and left behind them a tomahawk,
52 as their declaration of war. Fort Ligonier was threatened, and the passes to the eastward were so watched, that it was very difficult to keep up any intercourse while the woods resounded with the wild death halloos,
53 which announced successive murders.
Near
Fort Wayne, just where the great canal which unites the waters of
Lake Erie and the
Wabash leaves the waters of the
Maumee, stood
Fort Miami, garrisoned also by an ensign and a few soldiers.
Those who were on the lakes saw at least the water course which would take them to
Niagara.
Fort Miami was deep in the forest, out of sight and hearing of civilized man. On the twenty-seventh of May,
Holmes, its commander, was informed that the fort at
Detroit had been attacked, and put his men on their guard; but an Indian woman came to him, saying that the squaw in a cabin, but three hundred yards off, was ill, and wished him to bleed her. He went on the errand of mercy, and two shots that were heard told how he fell.
The sergeant following, was taken prisoner; and the soldiers, nine only in number, and left without a commander, capitulated.
54
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On the thirtieth of May the besieged garrison of
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.
55
At eight o'clock in the night of the last day of
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,
56 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 forty
57 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,
58 they again engaged in
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the game, which is the most exciting sport of the red
men. Each one has a bat curved like a crosier, and ending in a racket.
Posts are planted apart on the open prairie.
At the beginning of the game, the ball is placed midway between the goals.
The eyes of the players flash; their cheeks glow; their whole nature kindles.
A blow is struck; all crowd with violence and merry yells to renew it; the fleetest in advance now driving the ball home, now sending it sideways, with one unceasing passionate pursuit.
On that day the squaws entered the fort, and remained there.
Etherington, the commander, with one of his lieutenants, stood outside of the gate watching the game, fearing nothing.
The
Indians had played from morning till noon; when, throwing the ball close to the gate, they came behind the two officers, and seized and carried them into the woods; while the rest rushed into the fort, snatched their hatchets, which their squaws had kept hidden under their blankets, and in an instant killed an officer, a trader and fifteen men. The rest of the garrison, and all the
English traders, were made prisoners, and robbed of every thing they had; but the
French traders were left at liberty and unharmed.
Thus fell the old post of
Mackinaw on the main.
The fort at
Presque Isle, now
Erie, was the point of communication between
Pittsburg and
Niagara and
Detroit.
It was in itself one of the most tenable, and had a garrison of four and twenty men,
59 and could
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most easily be relieved.
On the twenty-second of
June, after a two days defence, the commander, out of his senses
60 with terror, capitulated;
61 giving up the sole chance of saving his men from the scalpingknife.
62 He himself, with a few others, were carried in triumph by the Indians to
Detroit.
63
The capitulation at
Erie left Le Boeuf without hope.
Attacked on the eighteenth, its gallant officer kept off the enemy till midnight.
The
Indians then succeeded in setting the blockhouse on fire; but he .escaped secretly, with his garrison, into the woods,
64 while the enemy believed them all buried in the flames.
65
As the fugitives, on their way to
Fort Pitt, passed
Venango, they saw nothing but ruins.
The fort at that place was consumed, never to be rebuilt; and not one of its garrison was left alive to tell the story of its destruction.
66
Nor was it the garrisoned stockades only that encountered the fury of the savages.
They roamed the wilderness, massacring all whom they met. They struck down more than a hundreds
67 traders in the woods, scalping every one of them; quaffing their gushing life-blood, horribly mutilating their bodies.
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They prowled round the the cabins of the husband
men on the frontier; and their tomahawks struck alike the laborer in the field or the child in the cradle.
They menaced Fort Ligonier, at the western foot of
the Alleghanies, the outpost of
Fort Pitt.
They passed the mountains, and spread death even to
Bedford.
The unhappy emigrant knew not if to brave danger, or to leave his home and his planted fields, for wretchedness and poverty.
Nearly five hundred families, from the frontiers of
Maryland and
Virginia, fled to
Winchester, unable to find so much as a hovel to shelter them from the weather, bare of every comfort, and forced to lie scattered among the woods.
68
To the horrors of Indian warfare were added new dangers to colonial liberty.
In
Virginia nearly a thousand volunteers, at the call of the
Lieutenant Governor, hastened to
Fort Cumberland and to the borders; and the
Lieutenant Governor of
Maryland was able to offer aid.
69 The undecided strife between the proprietaries and the assembly of Pennsylvania checked the activity of that province.
Its legislature sanctioned the equipment of seven hundred men, but refused to place them under the orders of the
British general.
Its design was rather to arm and pay the farmers and reapers on the frontier as a resident force for the protection of the country.
This policy, from which it would not swerve, excited the utmost anger in the officers of the army.
70 Their invectives
71 against
Pennsylvania brought upon it once
more the censure of the king
72 for its ‘supine and neglectful conduct;’ but the censure was no longer addressed to its government; for the ministry was firm in the purpose of keeping up an army in
America, and substituting taxes by parliament for requisitions by the crown.
So the general, with little aid from
Pennsylvania, took measures for the relief of the
West.
The fortifications of
Fort Pitt had never been finished, and the floods had opened it on three sides.
But the brave
Ecuyer, its commander, without any engineer, or any artificers but a few shipwrights, raised a rampart of logs round the fort, above the old one, palisaded the interior of the area, constructed a fire-engine, and in short took all precautions which art and judgment could suggest for the preservation of his post.
73 The garrison consisted of three hundred and thirty men,
74 officers and all included, and was in no immediate danger;
75 but it was weakened by being the asylum of more than two hundred women and children.
76 On the twenty-first of June, a large party of Indians made a vigorous though fruitless assault on Fort Ligonier;
77 the next day, before the issue of this
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attempt could have been heard, other savages ap-
peared on the clear ground before
Fort Pitt, and attacked it on every side, killing one man and wounding another.
The night of the twenty-third, they strolled round the fort to reconnoitre it, and after midnight sought a conference.
78
‘
Brother, the
commanding officer,’ said Turtle's Heart, a principal warrior of the Delawares, ‘all your posts and strong places, from this backwards, are burnt and cut off. Your fort, fifty miles down (meaning
Ligonier), is likewise destroyed before now. This is the only one you have left in our country.
We have prevailed with six different nations of
Indians, that are ready to attack you, to forbear till we came and warned you to go home.
They have further agreed to permit you and your people to pass safe to the inhabitants.
Therefore, brother, we desire that you may set off to-morrow, as great numbers of Indians are coming here, and after two days we shall not be able to do any thing with them for you.’
79 The brave commander, in his reply to this second summons, warned the Indians of their danger from three English armies, on their march to the frontier of
Virginia, to
Fort Pitt and to the north-west.
80
A schooner, with a reinforcement of sixty men,
had reached the
Detroit in June; at daybreak of the twenty-ninth of July the garrison was surprised
81 by the appearance of
Dalyell, an aide-de-camp to
Amherst,
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with a detachment of two hundred and sixty
men.
82 They had entered the river in the evening, and came up under cover of the night, or so small a command would have been intercepted, for the enemy were numerous, brave, and full of confidence from success.
At once, after but one day's rest,
Dalyell proposed a midnight sally against the besiegers.
He was warned that they were on their guard; but the opinions and express instructions of
Amherst were on his side.
‘The enemy,’ said he, ‘may be surprised in their camp and driven out of the settlement.’
Gladwin expressed a very different judgment.
‘You may do as you please,’ said
Dalyell, ‘but there is no difficulty in giving the enemy an irrecoverable blow.’
83 Gladwin reluctantly yielded, and, half an hour before three o'clock on the last morning of July,
Dalyell marched out with two hundred and forty-seven chosen men, while two boats followed along shore to protect the party and bring off the wounded and dead.
They proceeded in double file, along the great road by the river side, for a mile and a half, then forming into platoons, they advanced a half mile further, when they suddenly received, from the breastworks of the Indians, a very heavy and destructive fire, which staggered the main body and put the whole into confusion.
As the savages outnumbered the
English, the party which made the sally could escape being surrounded only by an inglorious retreat.
Twenty of the
English were killed, and forty-two
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wounded; leaving to a peaceful rivulet the name of
The
Bloody Run, in memory of that day.
Dalyell himself fell while attempting to bring off the wounded;
84 his body remained to the victors; his scalp became one more ornament to the red man's wigwam.
The victory encouraged the confederates.
The wavering began to fear no longer to be found on the side of
Pontiac; two hundred recruits joined his forces, and the siege of
Detroit was continued by bands exceeding a thousand men.
85
The vigor and courage that pervaded the whole wilderness was without example.
Once more the Delawares gathered around
Fort Pitt, accompanied by the Shawnees.
The chiefs, in the name of their tribes and of the north-western
Indians, for a third time, summoned the garrison to retire.
‘You sent us word,’ said they, ‘that you were not to be removed.
Brothers, you have towns and places of your own. You know this is our country, and that your having possession of it must be offensive to all nations.
You yourselves are the people that have disturbed the chain of friendship.
You have nobody to blame but yourselves for what has happened.
All the nations over the lakes are soon to be on their way to the
Forks of the
Ohio.
Here is the wampum.
If you return quietly home to your wise men, this is the furthest they will go. If not, see what will be the consequence; so we desire that you do remove off.’
86 The next day
Ecuyer gave his answer.
‘You suffered
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the
French,’ said he, ‘to settle in the heart of
your country; why would you turn us out of it now?
I will not abandon this post; I have warriors, provisions, and ammunition in plenty to defend it three years against all the Indians in the woods.
Go home to your towns, and take care of your women and children.’
87
No sooner was this answer received than the united forces of the Delawares, Shawnees, Wyandots, and Mingoes closely beset and attacked the fort.
With incredible boldness they took post under the banks of both rivers, close to the fort, where, digging holes, they kept up an incessant discharge of musketry and threw fire arrows.
They were good marksmen, and, though the
English were under cover, they killed one and wounded seven.
Ecuyer himself was struck on the leg by an arrow.
88 This continued through the last day of July, when they vanished from sight.
Bouquet was at that time making his way to relieve
Fort Pitt and reinforce
Detroit.
His little army consisted chiefly of the remains of two regiments of Highlanders,
89 who, having been wasted by the enfeebling service of the
West Indies, were now to brave the danger of mountain passes and a slow and painful journey through the wilderness.
He moved onwards with but about five hundred men, driving a hundred beeves and twice that number of sheep, with powder,
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flour, and provisions on pack-horses and in wagons
drawn by oxen.
Between
Carlisle and
Bedford they passed the ruins of mills, deserted cabins, fields waving with the harvest, but without a reaper, and all the signs of a savage and ruthless enemy.
On the twenty-eighth of July the party left
Bedford, to wind its way, under the parching suns of midsummer, over
the Alleghanies, along the narrow road, which was walled in by the dense forest on either side.
On the second day of August the troops and con-
voy arrived at
Ligonier, but the commander could give no intelligence of the enemy.
All the expresses for the previous month had been killed or forced to return.
Leaving the wagons at
Ligonier,
Bouquet, on the fourth of August, proceeded with the troops and about three hundred and fifty pack-horses.
At one o'clock on the fifth, the savages, who had been besieging
Fort Pitt, suddenly attacked the advanced guard; but two companies of Highlanders drove them from their ambuscade.
When the pursuit ceased, the savages returned.
The Western Nations, as if at the crisis of their destiny, fought like men contending, for their homes, and forests, and hunting grounds, and all that they loved most.
Again the
Highlanders charged with fixed bayonets; but as soon as the savages were driven from one post they appeared in another, and at last were in such numbers as to surround the
English, who would have been utterly routed and cut to pieces but for the cool behavior of the troops and the excellent conduct of the officers.
90
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Night intervened, during which the
English re-
mained on
Edge Hill, a ridge a mile to the east of
Bushy Run, commodious for a camp except for the total want of water.
All that night hope cheered the
Red Men. Morning dawned only to show the
English party that they were beleaguered round on every side.
They could not advance to give battle; for then their convoy and their wounded men would have fallen a prey to the enemy: if they remained quiet, they would be picked off one by one, and crumble away miserably and unavenged; yet the savages pressed upon them furiously, and grew more and more audacious.
With happy sagacity,
Bouquet took advantage of their resolute intrepidity, and feigned a retreat.
The red men hurried to charge with the utmost daring, when two companies, that had been purposely concealed, fell upon their flank; others turned and met them in front; and the Indians, yielding to the irresistible shock, were utterly routed and put to flight.
But
Bouquet in the two actions lost, in killed and wounded, about one-fourth of his men,
91 and almost all his horses; so that he was obliged to destroy his stores, and was hardly able to carry his wounded.
That night the
English encamped at
Bushy Run, and in four days more they arrived at
Pittsburg.
From that hour the
Ohio valley remained securely to the white man.
Before the news of the last disaster could reach
New-York, the anger of
Amherst against ‘the bloody
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villains’ knew no bounds; and he became himself a
man of blood.
‘As to accommodation with the savages, I will have none,’ said he, ‘until they have felt our just revenge.
I would have every measure that can be fallen upon for their destruction taken.’
Pontiac he declared to be ‘the chief ringleader of mischief.’
‘Whoever kills
Pontiac,’ he continued, ‘shall receive from me a reward of one hundred pounds;’
92 and he bade the commander at
Detroit make public proclamation for an assassin.
He deemed the Indians not only unfit to be allies, and unworthy of being respected as enemies, ‘but as the vilest race of beings that ever infested the earth, and whose riddance from it must be esteemed a meritorious act, for the good of mankind.
You will, therefore,’ such were his instructions to the officers engaged in the war, ‘take no prisoners, but put to death all that fall into your hands.’
93
Had this spirit prevailed, the war would have for ever continued in an endless series of alternate murders, in which the more experienced Indian excelled the white man. The
Senecas, against whom
Amherst had specially directed unsparing hostilities, lay in
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133]
ambush for one of his convoys about three miles be-
low
Niagara Falls; and on its return down the carrying-place, fell upon it with such suddenness and vigor that but eight wounded men escaped with their lives, while seventy-two were victims to the scalping-knife.
The first effective measures towards a general pacification proceeded from the
French in
Illinois.
De Neyon, the
French officer at Fort Chartres, sent belts and messages, and peace-pipes to all parts of the continent, exhorting the many nations of savages to bury the hatchet, and take the
English by the hand, for they would never see him more.
94 95 
