THE WAMPUM OF PEACE BELT
Active and ceaseless as was the chieftain, he could not do more than a fraction of the work alone. It was necessary to travel hundreds of miles through the trackless wilderness, often in the depth of winter, or when the floods descended and the hurricanes uprooted the forest trees. But while he was forever planning, his faithful ambassadors were busy, and so perfect was the work done by him and them, that every tribe between the Ottawa and Lower Mississippi was visited, and many were won to the support of the iron-willed chieftain.
Sir William Johnson held the Six Nations in New York in a tight grasp. He suddenly found Pontiac's messengers among them and doing dangerous work; but he was a warm friend of the English, as he proved when the Revolution broke out, and he succeeded in keeping his warlike wards from going to the support of the Ottawa leader, excepting only the fierce Senecas, who pledged the ambassadors that when Pontiac called them, they would be ready to fight against the English. He fixed upon May 7, 1763, as the day when the general attack should be made upon all the forest garrisons covering a wide area.
Now, every one must see the impossibility of keeping secret this far-reaching conspiracy. The situation was different from that of Opecancanough in Virginia. That hoary leader of the Powhatans was able to do all his plotting in the depths of the woods, and his objective point was the settlements along the James. Pontiac's area of operations covered thousands of square miles; some of the tribes to whom he appealed were unfriendly to him, and the score and more of forts were widely separated. Here and there, the commandants, or those under them, had made warm friends of the red men, who could be counted upon to give them notice of any danger. It was impossible, therefore, to keep the plot secret during the two years it was coming to a head; the wonder is that it did not become generally known much earlier than was actually the fact.
The records of all wars with savages betray a strange blindness on the part of the whites to the signs of danger around them. This blindness may be due to their unwillingness to believe ill of those who have acted well for a long time, but none the less, it is hard to understand why it should deceive those who ought to be the last ones in the world to be caught off their guard in such surroundings.
Ensign Holmes had charge of the small garrison at Fort Miama, where Fort Wayne, Indiana, now stands. One day, an Indian of the neighborhood, who had shown a strong liking for the officer, came to him with the war belt that had been brought to his tribe by one of Pontiac's messengers. The Ensign's suspicions were roused, and he questioned his dusky friend closely. He revealed the whole plot.
THE INDIAN MASSACRE IN WYOMING VALLEY, PENNSYLVANIA.
On July 3, 1778, Major Butler, commanding a force of Indians, British
and Tories, descended upon the beautiful Wyoming Valley, in Pennsylvania,
to dispossess the Continentals. The Indians could not be restrained and
a brutal massacre of men, women and children followedthe battle.
