“I shall Add no more at present; Capt. Dalzell will Inform you of the steps taken for Reinforcing you: and you may be assured—the utmost Expedition will be used for Collecting such a Force as may be Sufficient for bringing Ample Vengeance on the Treacherous and Bloody Villains who have so Perfidiously Attacked their Benefactors.” MacDonald, and after him, Rogers, says that, after the detention of the two officers, Pontiac summoned the fort to surrender, threatening, in case of refusal, to put all within to the torture. The anonymous author of the Diary of the Siege adds that he sent word to Gladwyn that he kept the officers out of kindness, since, if they returned to the fort, he should be obliged to boil them with the rest of the garrison, the kettle being already on the fire.
[197] Pontiac MS.
[198] MS. Letter—James McDonald to ——, Detroit, July 12.
[199] Penn. Gaz. No. 1808.
[200] MS. Letter from an officer at Detroit—no signature—July 31.
Extract from a letter dated Detroit, July 6.
“We have been besieged here two Months, by Six Hundred Indians. We have been upon the Watch Night and Day, from the Commanding Officer to the lowest soldier, from the 8th of May, and have not had our Cloaths off, nor slept all Night since it began; and shall continue so till we have a Reinforcement up. We then hope soon to give a good account of the Savages. Their Camp lies about a Mile and a half from the Fort; and that’s the nearest they choose to come now. For the first two or three Days we were attacked by three or four Hundred of them, but we gave them so warm a Reception that now they don’t care for coming to see us, tho’ they now and then get behind a House or Garden, and fire at us about three or four Hundred yards’ distance. The Day before Yesterday, we killed a Chief and three others, and wounded some more; yesterday went up with our Sloop, and battered their Cabins in such a Manner that they are glad to keep farther off.”
[201] Pontiac MS.
[202] Penn. Gaz. No. 1808.
[203] Extract from a MS. Letter—Major Gladwyn to Sir J. Amherst.