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BRITISH AND FRENCH TRADER.

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had exercised so treacherous and so mischievous an influence. Although at this date Illinois was a portion of Canada, the fort, being held in military occupation, remained under the control of the commander-in-chief in New York.

This act, carried out without opposition, concluded the Indian wars. They had lasted two years and a half, having commenced with the attack on Detroit. It is difficult to reject the impression, that had the French remained in possession of the country west of the Mississippi, Canada would have been subjected to a continuance of the intrigue which had been so fruitful of mischief and trouble. We should have had a western Acadia, with its disaffection, disloyalty and machinations enlisted to excite the prejudices and passions of an ignorant population, incapable of judging the extent that for political ends they were deceived and misdirected. The Mississippi trade was the chief maintenance of New Orleans; the principal source of its profit was to be found in the Illinois country. The territory west of the Mississippi, except within a few leagues of New Orleans, remained without settlement. It was only after the peace of 1763 that a few traders' huts were erected at Saint Louis. The French had determined to fortify the mouth of the Missouri, and every inducement would have been used to retain their influence over the Indian mind, extending far within the river's eastern banks.

The British traders as a rule were hard, stern, and without. compunction in obtaining money, and thought little of anything beyond the success of their ventures. Henry cannot be accepted as a representative man. It is to be feared that the story of "Inkle and Yarico" is only too suggestive of their general character. They had courage, determination, resolution, remained undaunted in the most critical danger, and possessed an undying love of adventure. On the other hand, they shrank from no alternative by which their ends could be gained. In their manner they affected disdain of the Indian, amounting to brutality, even when living among them, and accepting relationship with them. They failed not only to create kindly feelings in their behalf, but as a rule

The

they gave rise to aversion, amounting often to hatred. power of the British trader was based upon the fear which he could call forth.

The French traders on the contrary, while living with the Indians, affected the manners of the enfant du sol. The association of religion, unknown in the English relationship, lent its aid to give grace and charm to the presence of the French. The missionary was the link between the races. The voyageurs treated the Indians with invariable kindness; the higher officials especially, who supplied their wants and periodically gave them presents. At the same time there was no relaxation in the development of the fur trade, from the constant desire of obtaining the largest profit derivable from it. One source of French power was to awaken distrust and hate of the British, which their harsh manners and the contemptuous behaviour of the provincial trader towards the Indian by no means made difficult. The distrust, which the French officials strove to create, was made more certain by constant misrepresentation. Many of the extreme western tribes, even previous to coming in contact with the English in any form, had been taught to hate them by the reports they had received of their cruelty and injustice. They believed that the design had been formed to drive them from their lands, and people the territory with the southern tribes, and that they themselves would be kept in slavery, or, if they resisted, be deliberately killed.

The western Indians were inferior in intelligence to the Six Nations of New York, and more readily became the dupes of those deceiving them. Within a few months of the peace, they were led to believe that France would reappear on the continent to establish her power. Had the transfer of the country west of the Mississippi not been made to Spain, it is by no means improbable that, with a view of retaining the profits of the trade east of the great river, the Indians would have been kept in a continual fever by French agents furnishing them with the necessary powder and shot, and inciting them to aggression, plunder and murder. The scenes of the eastern

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POPULATION OF THE ILLINOIS.

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Acadia would have been re-enacted by the French Illinois population, if the same vacillation in the treatment of the outrages against law and order had been followed in the west. In a few years self-protection would have again exacted the expatriation of the aggressors, who, unaffected by lenity, remained irreconcilable enemies. The changes in the political condition of Louisiana removed the cause for this intrigue, and made any such activity unprofitable. The sovereignty of Spain was extremely unwelcome to the French of Louisiana. Many preferred acknowledgment of British rule to transferring their allegiance to Spain; and the majority of those present in Illinois accepted the new government under which Canada was placed, rather than change the entire condition of their lives by the adoption of Spanish law and custom. At this date the settlements on the castern shore of the Mississippi, from the mouth of the Ohio towards Saint Louis, were reported by Fraser, of the 78th, to contain a population of 2,050 souls, with 900 negroes.

Pontiac was present at a congress held by sir William Johnson in July, 1766, at Oswego, with the chiefs of the Ottawas, Pottawatamies, Hurons and Chippewas. The object of the meeting was to confirm the proceedings of Croghan in 1765. Johnson congratulated all who were present on the establishment of peace, which permitted traders to visit the posts with the goods required for use. He stated that proper officers, men of honour and probity, had been placed there to attend to their complaints, and smiths sent to repair their arms and implements. This act of consideration caused expense, and they must accept it as a mark of the favour of

Many of the white men and negroes were generally passing up and down the Mississippi to New Orleans. Extract of a letter from lieut. Fraser, 78th regiment. 15th May, 1765. Can. Arch., A. & W. I., 121.2, p. 662.

their father the king "this best of princes." He alluded to the murder of two soldiers at Detroit and demanded satisfaction

should be given for the wrong. A negro had murdered two Indian women in that neighbourhood. Johnson pointed out that he was of different colour and did not belong to our race, nevertheless that he would be punished for his crime. He promised also the chastisement of the frontier men, who had attacked and killed some Indians near fort Pitt, and, generally, redress for any injuries the tribes had suffered.

On the following day, the chiefs reappeared to reply to this address. After the chief of the Hurons had made his oration, Pontiac spoke in the name of the nations to the westward. He fully accepted the peace, renouncing the king of France, "now that he is gone," and promising in the future all avoidance of the enmity of the past. When the congress separated on the 30th of July, the most amicable feeling prevailed. Pontiac promised to pay sir William Johnson a visit in the spring.

Pontiac played so prominent a part in the attack on Detroit that he has been regarded as the originator of the war, and as having shaped the events which so rapidly succeeded each other. Undoubtedly Pontiac possessed ability, rare in the Indian character; but now that the whole sources of information in the dominion archives are open to investigation, I cannot conceive that this opinion can be maintained. Whatever the capacity of Pontiac, he remained a savage, and there is no warrant for ranking him at a higher estimate than an instrument in the hands of the French officials and traders of New Orleans: the terms may be said to be synonymous. Without the assistance of ammunition and supplies from Louisiana, without the promise of continued assistance and the eventual recognition of the success he might obtain, there could have been no durable organized hostility on his part, or that of any Indian. The traders from New Orleans were always seeking to inflame the passions, excite the jealousies, awaken the fears and appeal to the greed of the Indians whom they desired. to influence. With the assumption of sovereignty over the

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DEATH OF PONTIAC.

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territory by Spain, there was no longer any cause for appeal either to the ambition or sentiment of Pontiac and men of his class. The French of Illinois had ceased to feel dependence on New Orleans. They had been thrown more into connection with the French Canadians of Quebec and Montreal; a relationship infinitely more congenial to them than that of the newly-arrived officials of Spain, and henceforth they ceased their connection with Louisiana to become identified with Canada.

Fort Chartres in the possession of a British garrison was a proclamation to Pontiac that he could no longer look for the aid and countenance he had hitherto received from its commandant. The Shawanees and Delawares had accepted the authority of fort Pitt. There was no longer a French governor at New Orleans to receive him with consideration, and indirectly supply his wants. He saw no course open to him, but to allow himself to be carried down the current of events. He felt strongly he had been ill-treated. by the French. Croghan wrote to Johnson in November, 1765, and the principal men of these nations admitted that they had been urged on to the attack by the French, who had supplied them in all directions with ammunition and provisions, and that they now believed that it was entirely with the view of furthering French interests.*

Pontiac lived two years longer, but he is not again heard of. The peace remained unbroken. There are many stories told of his death, but in reality nothing is known beyond the fact, that he was killed by an Indian in 1767, and that his body was found, his skull cleft with a tomahawk. The fables which had been indulged in during his life were continued after his demise. Peltier who, has been named in connection with the attack of Detroit,† tells us that the Indian who killed him was in love with his wife, a social tragedy not usual in Indian life. My own theory is, that his death arose through a quarrel in a drunken debauch. It has also been surmised that some

N.Y. Doc., VII., p. 787.

Ante, p. 13, note.