but it was not until September 8, 1760, that the entire territory was ceded.

No information, was sent to Detroit and the peaceful community assumed that no news was good news. Maj. Rogers was sent with a British force from Niagara to take over the fort at Detroit. The expedition traveled in bateaux along the south shore of Lake Erie. They camped one night at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, where Cleveland now stands, and a bold Indian warrior visited the camp. He told Maj. Rogers that his name was Pontiac; that he was head chief of the Indian nations of the lake country:

"Why have you come into my country without permission or invitation? Do you come in peace or in war?" he asked. "I have come in the name of the great King of England to take possession of Detroit," answered Rogers.

"This country does not belong to your great king; it is my country and my people control it; all the country of the lakes,' said Pontiac.

"We come only to trade; we do not want your lands. We will give you better trade than the French. We will not cheat you as the French have done."

Pontiac eyed Rogers suspiciously and said: "I will stand in your path until morning and will protect you from harm. At daylight you may proceed safely on your way.

Pontiac was a dignified, commanding figure, then in the prime of life. He had his summer camp on Pêche Island, off the Canadian shore of Lake St. Clair immediately above Belle Isle. He was a man of medium height, strongly built and rather simply dressed, but his face, with strong, regular features, large nose and flaming eyes, showed strong character and his air was that of one accustomed to be obeyed in all his commands and of a man who demanded respect from white men as well as Indians.

P

CHAPTER VII

Beginning oF BRITISH CONTROL

ONTIAC dispatched some of his swiftest runners and canoemen to carry the news of Rogers' approach to the

last French commandant at Detroit, François Marie Picôte de Bellestre, who had held the post since 1758. Bellestre could not believe that his government had left him in complete ignorance of so important an event as a surrender of all Canada and all New France. He had received no instructions, so he regarded the message as a wild, unfounded rumor. To show his contempt for it he drew a picture of a man on whose head a crow was perched and feeding on his brain. This he posted on the gate of the stockade. He told the Indians that he was the crow and that he would eat the brains of the English.

When Rogers arrived at Springwells he sent a messenger to the fort with a report of the surrender and a request that the post be turned over peaceably on his arrival. Bellestre was crushed by the news. When Rogers and his company of troops arrived Bellestre had the drummers beat the assembly, a formal salute was fired from the cannon and the French flag was hauled down, with the usual honors, from the staff where it had floated for 59 years. The French garrison marched out of the fort, the British garrison entered, and all the labor, sacrifice and perils of that long period since Cadillac's arrival had come to naught. Cadillac came to hold back the English from the upper lakes, but now the English were here as conquerors.

With beating drums and flying colors the British troops entered the fort. The flag of Great Britain was secured to the halyards of the flagstaff and then it rose slowly to the peak. Again the guns roared, cheers resounded and many voices speaking a strange language clamored in the streets and about the barracks. The old French families within the town and those living on the farms up and down the shore, from the mouth of the

River Raisin to the L'Anse Creuse Bay on Lake St. Clair, heard the news in a dazed state of mind and wondered how they would live under the new king; under a code of laws of which they were ignorant and in intimate association with a race for whom they entertained a hereditary hatred.

During the 59 years 18 French commandants had governed Detroit affairs. They had been good and bad and indifferent in character, but the people had lived happily for the most part; they were accustomed to their surroundings. Their homes were here and all their worldly possessions, so they decided to stay on, and to hope and plan for a recovery of the territory into French possession.

For a time the French people treated the British soldiers coldly and regarded them with suspicion, but most of them were of friendly disposition and after a few weeks the French girls of the settlement, who had at first tossed their heads and switched their skirts contemptuously on meeting the strange soldiers, began to look backward over their shoulders at the passing red-coats. Presently friendly relations were established between the younger set. But the older soldiers and the older French inhabitants, although mutually polite, hardly disguised their contempt for one another.

Ten years before the surrender Chevalier Repentigny had been granted a great tract of land about Sault Sainte Marie and had built a fort and several houses there inside a strong stockade. On hearing of the surrender he abandoned it and returned to France. It remained in abandonment for several years. The Mackinac Island post was also abandoned.

Maj. Rogers found Detroit a town of 300 dwellings and about 2,000 inhabitants. Several French families held Indian slaves, whom they had bought from returning war parties. The fort was in excellent condition, but short of supplies. Robert Navarre was retained as civil officer, and he was able to supply 20,000 pounds of flour, 100 bushels of peas and 100 bushels of corn. Maj. Rogers distributed bodies of troops to posts at Maumee and Sandusky, and was afterwards succeeded as commandant by Capt. Donald Campbell, who was destined to

figure in a tragedy three years later. Governmental supervision was under Sir William Johnson of northern New York and Gen. Thomas Gage, who were lieutenants of Sir Jeffrey Amherst, governor-general of the British colony.

French submission to British rule in Detroit was more an outward appearance than an inward feeling. Some were reconciled to the new conditions and dismissed the whole matter with a quick shrug of the shoulders and the exclamation, “C'est la guerre" (It is war). Others were irreconcilable. Two or three of the leading French citizens appeared to be very intimate with strange Indians who came and went on unknown business. On rare occasions the head chief of the region, the imperious Pontiac, would appear in town, but rarely in the fort. He seemed on excellent terms with some of the malcontent French, but even toward them he never for a moment unbent his dignity.

The fort and stockaded town of Detroit as surrendered by Bellestre was a much larger inclosure than the original town of Cadillac. Its area now measured 372 feet north and south, and 600 feet east and west. At each corner were strong bastions, or flanking towers, which commanded the approach to the gates. The armament now consisted of five cannon, three mortars and two 3-pounder guns. The narrow streets laid out by Cadillac and their houses still remained, but the streets had been extended and continued beyond the walls of the stockade. In fact, there were more houses outside the stockade than within it.

Desiring to secure the good will of the Indians and to build up the trade of the post, Gen. Amherst sent Sir William Johnson to Detroit to make a study of the locality. Sir William was an Irishman of considerable means who had lived for many years among the Indians of the Iroquois tribes of New York. He had built a rude castle at what is now Johnstown, N. Y.; had married an Indian woman named Molly Brant, of the Mohawk tribe, and had sent her brother, Joseph Brant, who was destined to figure in American history, to be educated in the schools of Connecticut.

Sir William was the ablest Indian commissioner of the country and his influence with the Indians was of great advantage to the government. He made the journey up Lake Erie in

bateaux with 300 soldiers and large stores of ammunition, in charge of Capt. Henry Gladwin, and arrived in Detroit, Sept. 3, 1761. He remained here to treat with the Indians for 15 days and secured treaties with the Ottawas, Pottawatomies and Miamis, who lived near the town; with the Chippewas from the north and with the Delawares, Shawnees and Senecas of Ohio. He was very liberal in distributing presents and made an excellent impression on both the white residents and the native Indians.

While in Detroit he met Col. Du Quesne and Maj. La Mothe, who had surrendered their swords to him at Niagara during the French and Indian War. During his stay his life was one continuous round of gaieties. He was soon going in and out of the homes of the citizens like an old friend and on familiar terms with everybody. He visited Fr. Potier's Huron Mission at Sandwich and carried a welcome with him. His diary of the visit tells the story. A short extract will show something of the man and the time he had in Detroit:

"September 6-A very fine morning. This evening I am to dine with Capt. Campbell, who is also to give the ladies a ball, that I may meet them. They assembled at 8 p. m. to the number of 20. I opened the ball with Mlle. Cuillerier, a fine girl; we danced until 5 o'clock in the morning.

"Monday, September 14.—I had for dinner this evening the French gentlemen of Detroit; also the Vicar-general Bocquet of the French church, and the Jesuit Father Potier of the Huron Mission, on the opposite side of the river. There was plenty of good wine and my guests got very merry. I invited them to a ball that I am going to give tomorrow night."

That Mlle. Cuillerier was a daughter of the Beaubien family. The family name was Cuillerier, but, like many of the early French families, they added the "de Beaubien" to give the appearance of aristocratic origin. Later the original names were commonly dropped and the adopted name retained. The St. Aubin family of Detroit is another example, their original name having been Cassé. For several years Sir William carried on correspondence with Mlle. Cuillerier, until she married James Sterling, a Scotch trader of Detroit. She figures prominently later on in the story of the Pontiac conspiracy.