“Detroit, July 8th, 1763.
“Since the Commencement of this Extraordinary Affair, I have been Informed, that many of the Inhabitants of this Place, seconded by some French Traders from Montreal, have made the Indians Believe that a French Army & Fleet were in the River St. Lawrence, and that Another Army would come from the Illinois; And that when I Published the cessation of Arms, they said it was a mere Invention of Mine, purposely Calculated to Keep the Indians Quiet, as We were Affraid of them; but they were not such Fools as to Believe me; Which, with a thousand other Lies, calculated to Stir up Mischief, have Induced the Indians to take up Arms; And I dare say it will Appear ere long, that One Half of the Settlement merit a Gibbet, and the Other Half ought to be Decimated; Nevertheless, there is some Honest Men among them, to whom I am Infinitely Obliged; I mean, Sir, Monsieur Navarre, the two Babys, & my Interpreters, St. Martin & La Bute.”
[204] The annals of these remote and gloomy regions are involved in such obscurity, that it is hard to discover the precise character of the events to which Pontiac here refers. The only allusion to them, which the writer has met with, is the following, inscribed on a tattered scrap of soiled paper, found among the M’Dougal manuscripts:—
“Five miles below the mouth of Wolf River is the Great Death Ground. This took its name from the circumstance, that some years before the Old French War, a great battle was fought between the French troops, assisted by the Menomonies and Ottaways on the one side, and the Sac and Fox Indians on the other. The Sacs and Foxes were nearly all cut off; and this proved the cause of their eventual expulsion from that country.”
The M’Dougal manuscripts, above referred to, belonged to a son of the Lieutenant M’Dougal who was the fellow-prisoner of Major Campbell. On the death of the younger M’Dougal, the papers, which were very voluminous, and contained various notes concerning the Indian war, and the captivity of his father, came into the possession of a family at the town of St. Clair, in Michigan, who permitted such of them as related to the subjects in question to be copied by the writer.
[205] Peltier’s Account, MS.
[206] Gouin’s Account, MS.
[207] Tradition related by M. Baby. The following is from the Diary of the Siege: “Mr. St. Martin said ... that one Sibbold that came here last winter with his Wife from the Illinois had told at Mr. Cuellierry’s (Quilleriez) that they might expect a French Army in this Spring, and that Report took rise from him. That the Day Capt. Campbell & Lt. McDougal was detained by the Indians, Mr. Cuellierry accepted of their Offer of being made Commandant, if this Place was taken, to which he spoke to Mr. Cuellierry about and ask’d him if he knew what he was doing, to which Mr. Cuellierry told him, I am almost distracted, they are like so many Dogs about me, to which Mr. St. Martin made him no Answer.”
[208] Rogers, Account of North America, 244. The anonymous Diary of the Siege says that they bore the figure of a “coon.”
[209] MS. Letter—Gage to Lord Halifax, April 16, 1764.