“Sir:
“I had the favor of Yours, with General Amherst’s Dispatches.
“I have sent You an Express with a very Important piece of Intelligence I have had the good fortune to Discover. I have been Lately alarmed with Reports of the bad Designs of the Indian Nations against this place and the English in General; I can now Inform You for certain it Comes from the Six Nations; and that they have Sent Belts of Wampum & Deputys to all the Nations, from Nova Scotia to the Illinois, to take up the hatchet against the English, and have employed the Messagues to send Belts of Wampum to the Northern Nations....
“Their project is as follows: the Six Nations—at least the Senecas—are to Assemble at the head of French Creek, within five and twenty Leagues of Presqu’ Isle, part of the Six Nations, the Delawares and Shanese, are to Assemble on the Ohio, and all at the same time, about the latter End of this Month, to surprise Niagara & Fort Pitt, and Cut off the Communication Every where; I hope this will Come time Enough to put You on Your Guard and to send to Oswego, and all the Posts on that communication, they Expect to be Joined by the Nations that are Come from the North by Toronto.”
[161] Letter, Geo. Croghan to Sir J. Amherst, Fort Pitt, April 30, 1763, MS. Amherst replies characteristically, “Whatever idle notions they may entertain in regard to the cessions made by the French Crown can be of very little consequence.”
Croghan, Sir William Johnson’s deputy, and a man of experience, had for some time been anxious as to the results of the arrogant policy of Amherst. On March 19th he wrote to Colonel Bouquet: “How they (the Indians) may behave I can’t pretend to say, but I do not approve of Genl. Amherst’s plan of distressing them too much, as in my opinion they will not consider consequences if too much distrest, tho’ Sir Jeffrey thinks they will.”
Croghan urges the same views, with emphasis, in other letters; but Amherst was deaf to all persuasion.
[162] Drake, Life of Tecumseh, 138.
Several tribes, the Miamis, Sacs, and others, have claimed connection with the great chief; but it is certain that he was, by adoption at least, an Ottawa. Henry Conner, formerly government interpreter for the northern tribes, declared, on the faith of Indian tradition, that he was born among the Ottawas of an Ojibwa mother, a circumstance which proved an advantage to him by increasing his influence over both tribes. An Ojibwa Indian told the writer that some portion of his power was to be ascribed to his being a chief of the Metai, a magical association among the Indians of the lakes, in which character he exerted an influence on the superstition of his followers.
[163] The venerable Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis, remembered to have seen Pontiac, a few days before his death, attired in the complete uniform of a French officer, which had been given him by the Marquis of Montcalm not long before the battle on the Plains of Abraham.