[230] Evidence of Benjamin Gray, soldier in the 1st Battalion of the 60th Regiment, before a Court of Inquiry held at Fort Pitt, 12th Sept. 1763. Evidence of David Smart, soldier in the 60th Regiment, before a Court of Inquiry held at Fort Pitt, 24th Dec., 1763, to take evidence relative to the loss of Presqu’ Isle which did not appear when the last court sat.
[231] Loss of the Posts, MS. Pontiac MS. Report of Ensign Christie, MS. Testimony of Edward Smyth, MS. This last evidence was taken by order of Colonel Bouquet, commanding the battalion of the Royal American Regiment to which Christie belonged. Christie’s surrender had been thought censurable both by General Amherst and by Bouquet. According to Christie’s statements, it was unavoidable; but according to those of Smyth, and also of the two soldiers, Gray and Smart, the situation, though extremely critical, seems not to have been desperate. Smyth’s testimony bears date 30 March, 1765, nearly two years after the event. Some allowance is therefore to be made for lapses of memory. He places the beginning of the attack on the twenty-first of June, instead of the fifteenth,—an evident mistake. The Diary of the Siege of Detroit says that Christie did not make his escape, but was brought in and surrendered by six Huron chiefs on the ninth of July. In a letter of Bouquet dated June 18th, 1760, is enclosed a small plan of Presqu’ Isle.
[232] Pontiac MS.
[233] MS. Letter—Gladwyn to Amherst, July 8.
[234] Pontiac MS.
[235] This name is always applied, among the Canadians of the North-west, to the conductor of a trading party, the commander in a trading fort, or, indeed, to any person in a position of authority.
Extract from a Letter—Detroit, July 9, 1763 (Penn. Gaz. No. 1808).
“Judge of the Conduct of the Canadians here, by the Behaviour of these few Sacres Bougres, I have mentioned; I can assure you, with much Certainty, that there are but very few in the Settlement who are not engaged with the Indians in their damn’d Design; in short, Monsieur is at the Bottom of it; we have not only convincing Proofs and Circumstances, but undeniable Proofs of it. There are four or five sensible, honest Frenchmen in the Place, who have been of a great deal of Service to us, in bringing us Intelligence and Provisions, even at the Risque of their own Lives; I hope they will be rewarded for their good Services; I hope also to see the others exalted on High, to reap the Fruits of their Labours, as soon as our Army arrives; the Discoveries we have made of their horrid villianies, are almost incredible. But to return to the Terms of Capitulation: Pondiac proposes that we should immediately give up the Garrison, lay down our Arms, as the French, their Fathers, were obliged to do, leave the Cannon, Magazines, Merchants’ Goods, and the two Vessels, and be escorted in Battoes, by the Indians, to Niagara. The Major returned Answer, that the General had not sent him there to deliver up the Fort to Indians, or anybody else; and that he would defend it whilst he had a single man to fight alongside of him. Upon this, Hostilities recommenced, since which Time, being two months, the whole Garrison, Officers, Soldiers, Merchants, and Servants, have been upon the Ramparts every Night, not one having slept in a House, except the Sick and Wounded in the Hospital.
“Our Fort is extremely large, considering our Numbers, the Stockade being above 1000 Paces in Circumference; judge what a Figure we make on the Works.”
The writer of the above letter is much too sweeping and indiscriminate in his denunciation of the French.