after to relate. The thorough defeat of the Delawares and Shawanees could not but have powerfully told its tale. They themselves had found war to be no pastime. Ninety of their best chiefs had fallen, and on no occasion in their contact with the garrison had they come off unscathed; with winter upon them they were more removed from success than ever. At this crisis news was brought that major Wilkins was leaving fort Niagara with a large and powerful force, which they could not hope to surprise, the object of the expedition being to inflict severe punishment upon them. They knew that in the coming months of cold and privation they must starve, unless they could obtain food by hunting; their only hope of life now lay in peace, and they determined to apply for it.

Gladwin reports that they did so in the most submissive manner.* He was more disposed to listen to the application as he had scarcely flour enough to last a fortnight, and he had the alternative of entertaining the proposals, or, in the event of supplies not reaching him, of abandoning his post. Nevertheless he betrayed no sign of weakness; he told the deputation that they had begun the war, not he; therefore that it was not in his power to make peace. However he did not doubt, if they could convince the British of their sincerity everything would be well again. Hostilities accordingly ceased. Many of the Indians dispersed to their hunting grounds, and Gladwin obtained the flour he was in want of. This proceeding had been hastened by the arrival of a volunteer from fort Chartres, one M. de Quindre, on the 31st of the month, with letters from the governor, dated the 27th of September; one addressed to Gladwin telling him of the peace lately made; a second to the inhabitants of Detroit, offering them facilities to establish themselves on the Mississippi; a third was sent to the Indians engaged in the operations against the fort, notifying them that they might look for no more assistance from the Illinois. A special message of the same tenor was sent directly to Pontiac. The letter of the French commandant to the Indians, however cautiously written, On the 13th of October. Can. Arch., A. & W. I., 121.1, p. 7.

1763]

PONTIAC ASKS FOR PEACE.

47

shewed the desire for a continuance of their past relations. In bidding them farewell, he asked them to entertain kindly feelings towards such of the French as would continue to remain among them. He was himself going to New Orleans, whence he would discuss with the great chief the means of giving them assistance. The western bank of the Mississippi yet remained in the possession of his government, and would supply the wants of those who would cross the river and establish themselves in the territory.

Pontiac did not join in the proposals of peace made in the middle of October. He waited until the end of the month, when he addressed a letter in French to Gladwin,* shewing to the last the influence under which he had acted. He stated that his father, the French king, had sent him word to make peace; he had accepted the counsel and had instructed his young men to bury their tomahawks; he hoped that Gladwin would forget what was passed, as he would do. He, with the Sauteurs and Hurons, proposed to wait upon him, and he asked that an answer should be sent to them. Pontiac then wished him good day. Gladwin replied that as Pontiac commenced the war, the matter must be referred to the general, as Gladwin was not master, and he would report to the general that Pontiac wished to live in peace. That if he behaved well for the future, and the general was convinced of the fact, all would go well. So soon as he received the answer he would communicate it, and so he wished Pontiac good evening.

Pontiac's submission closed the siege, remarkable from the

* Pontiac's letter establishes his dependence on the French, and that it was owing to the failure to obtain further aid, that he made the proposal for peace. I append the two letters, Pontiac's proposal and Gladwin's reply. [Bouquet papers, 19.2, p. 528.]

66

'Copie de la lettre addressée à M. le commandeur à Detroit par Pontiac, le 30 oct. 1763."

"Mon Frère. La parole que mon Père m'a envoyée pour faire la Paix, je l'ai acceptée, tous mes jeunes gens ont enterré leurs cassé-têtes. Je pense que tu oublieras les mauvaises choses qui sont passés il y a quelque temps, de même j'oublierai ce que tu peux m'avoir fait pour ne penser que de bonnes. Moi les Saulteurs, les Hurons, nous devons t'aller parler, quand tu nous demanderas.

length of time it continued, from the 9th of May to the middle of October, upwards of five months. It is the only instance of such perseverance in any Indian attack. Pontiac possessed rare qualities, but with the evidence before us, he cannot be held at a higher estimate than as the instrument of French intrigue. The tact of the French officials in the management of the Indian had been consummated by upwards of a century of experience, and with perfect art they had learned to manipulate native susceptibility, with its mixture of pride and vanity. The Indians who had been gathered round Detroit for the time abandoned the river, and were scattered to their hunting grounds. Pontiac departed to his village on the Maumee. The fort was left unmolested, and the months of winter were available for the works to be strengthened and preparations made for future defence. Gladwin had no illusions as to his own position. He knew that if impelled to continue the struggle, the Indians would with little hesitation revert to the attack; but they were without powder, and the only source from whence they could obtain it was from New Orleans, or the French in the Illinois country. None could ascend by the St. Lawrence. The opinion had been forced upon Gladwin, that no lasting peace could be obtained until those Indian nations who had caused the trouble were well chastised, so their fears for the future would be awakened, and they were taught that the price to be paid for their enmity to traders and detached bodies of men, was the destruction of their villages and crops, the certain suffering of their families, and their own person al punishment by death or exile. The one argument to be

Fais nous la réponse. Je t'envoie ce conseil afin que tu les voyes. Si tu es bien comme moi, tu me feras réponse. Je te souhaite le bon jour." PONTIAC.

"REPONSE. J'ai reçu ta lettre de cette date. Si j'avais commencé la guer re j'aurois pu faire la paix, mais comme vous l'avez commencée, il faut que vous attendiez la volonté du general la-dessus. Je ne suis pas maître, mais je marq ue au General vos dispositions pacifiques à present et que vs [sic] souhaitez de vivre en paix. Ainsi si vous vous comportez bien à l'avenir aussitot le general en sera convaincu je ne doute pas que tout ne soit bien quand je recevrai sa Repon se, je vous en ferai part, je te souhaite le bon soir." GLADWIN.

1763]

THE POLICY OF THE FUTURE.

49

The events of the year

enforced on them was that of force. had established that no real possession of a territory was assured by forts constructed at long distances from each other with weak garrisons. In some cases they even invited aggression. It was essential that the Indians should never again be permitted to be a cause of anxiety; that they must. either be conciliated by the continual presentation of gratuities and gifts, or forcibly restrained by the firm arm of power having strength and organization to rebuke every attempt at the subversion of authority. However, in other respects a beneficial policy might be followed, the Indian mind had to be coerced to the extent of controlling its enmities and awakening its fears. There was no longer doubt as to the system which should be followed, and it was equally felt that no delay should be permitted in its introduction. Whatever the strength of the government, it should be wielded in unison with justice and benevolence; whatever the extent of generous consideration given to Indian requirements and rights, and it should be unswerving, the determination to repress the first symptom of hostile feeling, should never cease to be apparent.

E

CHAPTER IV.

Colonel Henry Bouquet has been mentioned as the devoted lieutenant of Forbes in his advance against fort Duquesne in 1758.* Throughout his career in Canada he was distinguished by the highest qualities, and the service performed by him exacts the most honourable mention; not simply from the success which attended it, but from the fact that this success was in no way fortuitous, but entirely attributable to his genius, thoughtfulness, determination, and untiring devotion to duty.

Bouquet was born at Rolle in the canton of Berne in 1719. At an early age he joined the Dutch service, and afterwards. passed to that of the king of Sardinia. In 1748 he was a captain in the Swiss guards formed at the Hague, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and on the formation of the Royal American regiment, he was with that rank one of the foreign officers who joined it. Endowed with rare ability, of pure personal honour, with a high sense of duty, self-contained and self-reliant, he was the embodiment of Horace's well-known sentence, "in se ipso totus, teres atque rotundus"; at the same time he possessed strong and deep feeling. He was firm in resolve, intrepid in danger, fertile in resource; his constancy of purpose, his firm, well-ordered discipline implanting in the hearts of those who served under him full and perfect confidence.

When the news of the taking of the forts in May and June awoke the attention of Amherst to the full significance and extent of the danger, he made active preparations to place fort Pitt in a state of defence. Bouquet, then in command at Philadelphia, was selected to lead the expedition. On entering upon the duty, Bouquet reported to Amherst the Ante, IV., pp. 195, 211.