The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada

_Orsbourn._ Long have we toil'd, and rang'd the woods in vain; No Game, nor Track, nor Sign of any Kind Is to be seen; I swear I am discourag'd And weary'd out with this long fr...

The people of the northern English colonies had learned to regard their Canadian neighbors with the bitterest enmity. With them, the very name of Canada called up horrible recol...

The campaign of 1763, a year of disaster to the English colonies, was throughout of a defensive nature, and no important blow had been struck against the enemy. With the opening...

The work of ravage had begun afresh upon the borders. The Indians had taken the precaution to remove all their settlements to the western side of the River Muskingum, trusting t...

The Indian is a true child of the forest and the desert. The wastes and solitudes of nature are his congenial home. His haughty mind is imbued with the spirit of the wilderness,...

The following morning was warm and sultry. It was the fourth of June, the birthday of King George. The discipline of the garrison was relaxed, and some license allowed to the so...

The French colonists of Canada held, from the beginning, a peculiar intimacy of relation with the Indian tribes. With the English colonists it was far otherwise; and the differe...

The Winter passed quietly away. Already the Indians began to feel the blessings of returning peace in the partial reopening of the fur-trade; and the famine and nakedness, the m...

We have followed the war to its farthest confines, and watched it in its remotest operations; not because there is any thing especially worthy to be chronicled in the capture of...

While perils were thickening around the garrison of Detroit, the British commander-in-chief at New York remained ignorant of its danger. Indeed, an unwonted quiet had prevailed,...

Along the Western frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, terror reigned supreme. The Indian scalping-parties were ranging everywhere, laying waste the settlements, d...

The repulse of Loftus, and rumors of the fierce temper of the Indians who guarded the Mississippi, convinced the commander-in-chief that to reach the Illinois by the southern ro...

The advancing frontiers of American civilization have always nurtured a class of men of striking and peculiar character. The best examples of this character have, perhaps, been...

The Conestoga murders did not take place until some weeks after the removal of the Moravian converts to Philadelphia; and the rioters, as they rode, flushed with success, out of...

The American colonies of France and England grew up to maturity under widely different auspices. Canada, the offspring of Church and State, nursed from infancy in the lap of pow...

The night passed without alarm. The sun rose upon fresh fields and newly budding woods, and scarcely had the morning mists dissolved, when the garrison could see a fleet of birc...

We return once more to Detroit and its beleaguered garrison. On the nineteenth of June, a rumor reached them that one of the vessels had been seen near Turkey Island, some miles...

We have already seen how, after the defeat of Braddock, the western tribes rose with one accord against the English. Then, for the first time, Pennsylvania felt the scourge of I...

When, by the treaty of Paris, in 1763, France ceded to England her territories east of the Mississippi, the Illinois was of course included in the cession. Scarcely were the art...

Along the thinly settled borders, two thousand persons had been killed, or carried off, and nearly an equal number of families driven from their homes.[351] The frontier people...

In the spring of the year 1763, before the war broke out, several English traders went up to Michillimackinac, some adopting the old route of the Ottawa, and others that of Detr...

The miserable multitude were soon threatened with famine, and gathered in crowds around the tents of Bouquet, begging relief, which he had not the heart to refuse. After a delay...

From the time when peace was concluded with the Wyandots and Pottawattamies until the end of July, little worthy of notice took place at Detroit. The fort was still watched clos...

On the morning after the detention of the officers, Pontiac crossed over, with several of his chiefs, to the Wyandot village. A part of this tribe, influenced by Father Pothier,...

The country was scarcely transferred to the English, when smothered murmurs of discontent began to be audible among the Indian tribes. From the head of the Potomac to Lake Super...

To begin the war was reserved by Pontiac as his own peculiar privilege. With the first opening of spring his preparations were complete. His light-footed messengers, with their...

To the credulity of mankind each great calamity has its dire prognostics. Signs and portents in the heavens, the vision of an Indian bow, and the figure of a scalp imprinted on...

The war was over. The plains around Montreal were dotted with the white tents of three victorious armies, and the work of conquest was complete. Canada, with all her dependencie...

We turn to a region of which, as yet, we have caught but transient glimpses; a region which to our forefathers seemed remote and strange, as to us the mountain strongholds of th...

I interrupt the progress of the narrative to glance for a moment at the Indians in their military capacity, and observe how far they were qualified to prosecute the formidable w...

I return to the long-forgotten garrison of Detroit, which was left still beleaguered by an increasing multitude of savages, and disheartened by the defeat of Captain Dalzell's d...

While Bouquet was fighting the battle of Bushy Run, and Dalzell making his fatal sortie against the camp of Pontiac, Sir William Johnson was engaged in the more pacific yet more...

_Murphey._ Ay, any thing to get an honest Living, Which, faith, I find it hard enough to do; Times are so dull, and Traders are so plenty, That Gains are small, and Profits come...

_Effects of the Peace._--_Pontiac repairs to Oswego._--_Congress at Oswego._--_Speech of Sir William Johnson._--_Reply of Pontiac._-- _Prospects of the Indian Race._--_Fresh Dis...

_General Characteristics.--Tribal Divisions.--Mode of Government.-- Social Harmony.--The Totem.--Classification of Tribes.--The Iroquois.-- Their Position and Character.--Their...

_The Puritan and the Canadian.--Fort Frederic.--Acadia.--The French on the Ohio.--Mission of Washington.--Trent driven from the Ohio.--Death of Jumonville.--Skirmish at the Grea...

_The King's Birthday.--Heedlessness of the Garrison.--Indian Ball-play.--The Stratagem.--Slaughter of the Soldiers.--Escape of Alexander Henry.--His appalling Situation.--His Hi...

_Champlain defeats the Iroquois.--The Iroquois Wars.--Misery of Canada.--Expedition of Frontenac.--Success of the French.--French Influence in the West.--La Verandrye.--The Engl...

_Sufferings of the Frontier.--Treaties with the Western Tribes.-- Christian Frederic Post.--The Iroquois.--The remote Tribes.--The Forest.--Indian Population.--Condition of the...

_Contrast of French and English Colonies.--Feudalism in Canada.-- Priests and Monks.--Puritanism and Democracy in New England.--French Life in Canada.--Military Strength of Cana...

_Renewal of Indian Ravages._--_David Owens, the White Savage._-- _Advance of Bouquet._--_His Message to the Delawares._--_The March of his Army._--_He reaches the Muskingum._--_...

_The Morning of the Council.--Pontiac enters the Port.--Address and Courage of the Commandant.--The Plot defeated.--The Chiefs suffered to escape.--Indian Idea of Honor.--Pontia...

_Re-enforcement sent to Detroit.--Attack on the Schooner.--Relief at Hand.--Disappointment of the Garrison.--Escape of Prisoners.--Cuyler's Defeat.--Indian Debauch.--Fate of the...

_Memorials on Indian Affairs._--_Character of Bradstreet._--_Departure of the Army._--_Concourse of Indians at Niagara._--_Indian Oracle._-- _Temper of the Indians._--_Insolence...

_Discontent of the Tribes.--Impolitic Course of the English.-- Disorders of the Fur-trade.--Military Insolence.--Intrusion of Settlers.--French Intrigue.--The Delaware Prophet.-...

_Attack on the Armed Vessel.--News of the Treaty of Paris.--Pontiac summons the Garrison.--Council at the Ottawa Camp.--Disappointment of Pontiac.--He is joined by the Coureurs...

_The Indians as a military People.--Their inefficient Organization.-- Their insubordinate Spirit.--Their Improvidence.--Policy of the Indian Leaders.--Difficulties of Forest War...

_The Voyager on the Lakes.--Michillimackinac in 1763.--Green Bay and Ste. Marie.--The Northern Wilderness.--Tribes of the Lakes.-- Adventures of a Trader.--Speech of Minavavana....

_Strange Phenomenon.--Origin and History of Detroit.--Its Condition in 1763.--Character of its Inhabitants.--French Life at Detroit.--The Fort and Garrison.--Pontiac at Isle a l...

_The Christian Wyandots join Pontiac.--Peril of the Garrison.--Indian Courage--The English threatened with Famine.--Pontiac's Council with the French.--His Speech.--He exacts Pr...

_Extent of British Settlements in 1763._--_Forts and Military Routes._--_Fort Pitt._--_The Pennsylvania Frontier._--_Alarms at Fort Pitt._--_Escape of Calhoun._--_Slaughter of T...

_Mission of Croghan._--_Plunder of the Caravan._--_Exploits of the Borderers._--_Congress at Fort Pitt._--_Fraser's Discomfiture._-- _Distress of the hostile Indians._--_Pontiac...

_Dalzell's Detachment.--Dalzell reaches Detroit.--Stratagem of the Wyandots.--Night Attack on Pontiac's Camp.--Indian Ambuscade.--Retreat of the English.--Terror of Dalzell's Tr...

_The victorious Armies at Montreal.--Major Robert Rogers.--His Expedition up the Lakes.--His Meeting with Pontiac.--Ambitious Views of Pontiac.--He befriends the English.--The E...

_Virginian Backwoodsmen._--_Frontiers of Virginia._--_Population of Pennsylvania._--_Distress of the Settlers._--_Attack on Greenbrier._-- _A captive Amazon._--_Attack on a Scho...

_Excitement of the Borderers._--_Their Designs._--_Alarm of the Quakers._--_The Converts sent to New York._--_The Converts forced to Return._--_Quakers and Presbyterians._--_War...

_Desperation of the Borderers._--_Effects of Indian Hostilities._-- _The Conestoga Band._--_Paxton._--_Matthew Smith and his Companions._-- _Massacre of the Conestogas._--_Furth...

_The Army of Bouquet._--_Dangers of his Enterprise._--_Fort Ligonier relieved._--_Bouquet at Fort Bedford._--_March of his Troops._-- _Unexpected Attack._--_The Night Encampment...

_Cession of French Territory in the West._--_St. Louis._--_St. Ange de Bellerive._--_Designs of Pontiac._--_His French Allies._--_He visits the Illinois._--_His great War-belt._...

_Pontiac musters his Warriors.--They assemble at the River Ecorces.-- The Council.--Speech of Pontiac.--Allegory of the Delaware.--The Council dissolves.--Calumet Dance at Detro...

_Panic among the Settlers._--_Embarrassments of Amherst._--_Colonel Bouquet._--_His Correspondence with the Commander-in-Chief._-- _Proposal to infect the hostile Indians with S...