The governor in his turn made a speech; but instead of thanking the great warrior for the professions of friendship he had just uttered, he accused him of being a traitor. He told him that the English, who knew every thing, were convinced of his treachery and villainous designs; and as a proof that they were well acquainted with his most secret thoughts and intentions, he stepped towards the Indian chief that sat nearest to him, and drawing aside his blanket discovered the shortened firelock. This entirely disconcerted the Indians, and frustrated their design.
He then continued to tell them, that as he had given his word at the time they desired an audience, that their persons should be safe, he would hold his promise inviolable, though they so little deserved it. However he advised them to make the best of their way out of the fort, lest his young men, on being acquainted with their treacherous purposes, should cut every one of them to pieces. Pontiac endeavoured to contradict the accusation, and to make excuses for his suspicious conduct; but the governor, satisfied of the falsity of his protestations, would not listen to him. The Indians immediately left the fort, but instead of being sensible of the governor’s generous behaviour, they threw off the mask, and the next day made a regular attack upon it.
Major Gladwyn has not escaped censure for this mistaken lenity; for probably had he kept a few of the principal chiefs prisoners, whilst he had them in his power, he might have been able to have brought the whole confederacy to terms, and have prevented a war. But he atoned for this oversight, by the gallant defence he made for more than a year, amidst a variety of discouragements.
During that period some very smart skirmishes happened between the besiegers and the garrison, of which the following was the principal and most bloody. Captain Delzel, a brave officer, prevailed on the governor to give him the command of about two hundred men, and to permit him to attack the enemy’s camp. This being complied with, he sallied from the town before day-break; but Pontiac, receiving from some of his swift-footed warriors, who were constantly employed in watching the motions of the garrison, timely intelligence of their design, he collected together the choicest of his troops, and met the detachment at some distance from his camp, near a place since called Bloody-Bridge. As the Indians were vastly superior in numbers to captain Delzel’s party, he was soon overpowered and driven back. Being now nearly surrounded, he made a vigorous effort to regain the bridge he had just crossed, by which alone he could find a retreat; but in doing this he lost his life, and many of his men fell with him. However, Major Rogers, the second in command, assisted by Lieutenant Breham, found means to draw off the shattered remains of their little army, and conducted them into the fort.
Thus considerably reduced, it was with difficulty the Major could defend the town; notwithstanding which, he held out against the Indians till he was relieved, as after this they made but few attacks on the place, and only continued to blockade it.
The Gladwyn Schooner (that in which I afterwards took my passage from Michillimackinac to Detroit, and which I since learn was lost with all her crew on Lake Erie, through the obstinacy of the commander, who could not be prevailed upon to take in sufficient ballast) arrived about this time near the town with a reinforcement and necessary supplies. But before this vessel could reach the place of its destination, it was most vigorously attacked by a detachment from Pontiac’s army. The Indians surrounded it in their canoes, and made great havock among the crew. At length the captain of the schooner with a considerable number of his men being killed, and the savages beginning to climb up its sides from every quarter, the Lieutenant (Mr. Jacobs, who afterwards commanded, and was lost in it) being determined that the stores should not fall into the enemy’s hands, and seeing no other alternative, ordered the gunner to set fire to the powder-room, and blow the ship up. This order was on the point of being executed, when a chief of the Hurons, who understood the English language, gave out to his friends the intention of the commander. On receiving this intelligence the Indians hurried down the sides of the ship with the greatest precipitation, and got as far from it as possible; whilst the commander immediately took advantage of their consternation, and arrived without any further obstruction at the town.
This seasonable supply gave the garrison fresh spirits; and Pontiac being now convinced that it would not be in his power to reduce the place, proposed an accommodation; the governor wishing as much to get rid of such troublesome enemies, who obstructed the intercourse of the traders with the neighbouring nations, listened to his proposals, and having procured advantageous terms, agreed to a peace. The Indians soon after separated, and returned to their different provinces; nor have they since thought proper to disturb, at least in any great degree, the tranquillity of these parts.
Pontiac henceforward seemed to have laid aside the animosity he had hitherto borne towards the English, and apparently became their zealous friend. To reward this new attachment, and to insure a continuance of it, government allowed him a handsome pension. But his restless and intriguing spirit would not suffer him to be grateful for this allowance, and his conduct, at length grew suspicious; so that going, in the year 1767, to hold a council in the country of the Illinois, a faithful Indian, who was either commissioned by one of the English governors, or instigated by the love he bore the English nation, attended him as a spy; and being convinced from the speech Pontiac made in the council that he still retained his former prejudices against those for whom he now professed a friendship, he plunged his knife into his heart, as soon as he had done speaking, and laid him dead on the spot.
But to return from this digression.
Lake Erie receives the waters by which it is supplied from the three great lakes, through the Straights of Detroit, that lie at its north-west corner. This Lake is situated between forty-one and forty-three degrees of north latitude, and between seventy-eight and eighty-three degrees of west longitude. It is near three hundred miles long from east to west, and about forty in its broadest part: and a remarkable long narrow point lies on its north side, that projects for several miles into the lake towards the south-east.