At the siege of Detroit, the Indians displayed a high degree of comparative steadiness and perseverance; and their history cannot furnish another instance of so large a force persisting so long in the attack of a fortified place. Their good conduct may be ascribed to their deep rage against the English, to their hope of speedy aid from the French, and to the controlling spirit of Pontiac, which held them to their work. The Indian is but ill qualified for such attempts, having too much caution for an assault by storm, and too little patience for a blockade. The Wyandots and Pottawattamies had shown, from the beginning, less zeal than the other nations; and now, like children, they began to tire of the task they had undertaken. A deputation of the Wyandots came to the fort, and begged for peace, which was granted them ; but when the Pottawattamies came on the same errand, they mercantile pursuits, and soon built himself up a lucrative trade. Later, he branched out in the lumbering business and also commenced dealing quite extensively in real estate. He is still engaged in these two latter occupations, and is constantly adding to his already ample wealth, while at the same time he is doing much to advance the interests of his city and State. For some years past, Mr. Jenks has taken quite an active part in local and State politics, always acting with the Republican party. He has held a number of important official positions in the government of the city of St. Clair, performing his duties in a manner to elicit the praise of even his political opponents. In the fall of 1869, he was elected State senator from the twenty-fourth senatorial district, comprising St. Clair county, and was reëlected to the same position in 1871. While occupying a position in the Senate, he won the confidence of that body and took a leading part in much of the legislation of the one extra and two regular sessions which were held during the time he was a member. He was chairman of the committee on rules and joint rules, and a member of the committees on division of, towns and counties, on public lands and on drainage during the session of 1869-70; and in the session of 1871-72 he was chairman of the committee on public lands, and a member of the committees on constitutional amendments and on the select committee on apportionment. As a man, Mr. Jenks is social and pleasant, and his manners and general bearing is such as to win him the high regard and esteem of his fellow-citizens. He is a man of unswerving honesty and indomitable energy, seldom failing to secure the object for which he labors. insisted, as a preliminary, that some of their people who were detained prisoners by the English should first be given up. Gladwyn demanded, on his part, that the English captives known to be in their village should be brought to the fort, and three of them were accordingly produced. As these were but a small part of the whole, the deputies were sharply rebuked for their duplicity, and told to go back for the rest. They withdrew, angry and mortified; but, on the following day, a fresh deputation of chiefs made their appearance, bringing with them six prisoners. Having repaired to the council room, they were met by Gladwyn, attended only by one or two officers. The Indians detained in the fort were about to be given up, and a treaty concluded, when one of the prisoners declared that there were several others still remaining in the Pottawattamie village. Upon this, the conference was broken off, and the deputies ordered instantly to depart. On being thus a second time defeated, they were goaded to such a pitch of rage, that, as afterwards became known, they formed the desperate resolution of killing Gladwyn on the spot, and then making their escape in the best way they could; but, happily, at that moment the commandant observed an Ottawa among them, and, resolving to seize him, called upon the guard without to assist in doing so. A file of soldiers entered, and the chiefs, seeing it impossible to execute their design, withdrew from the fort, with dark and sullen brows. A day or two afterwards, however, they returned with the rest of the prisoners, on which peace was granted them, and their people set at liberty. CHAPTER XX. CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC CONTINUED-THE BATTLE OF BLOODY RUN- -ADVENTURE OF THE SCHOONER GLADWYN-THE INDIANS SUE FOR FOR SOME time after this peace with the Wyandots and Pottawattamies, nothing of importance occurred at Detroit, except that the garrison was continually harassed by the Ojibwas and Ottawas. But, in the meantime, Gladwyn's little band was being reinforced. Captain Dalzell had left Niagara with twenty-two barges, bearing two hundred and eighty men, with several small cannon and a fresh supply of provisions and ammunition. This detachment reached Detroit at the end of July, 1763, and landed amid the cheers of the garrison. The detachment was composed of soldiers from the 55th and 80th regiments, with twenty independent rangers, commanded by Major Rogers. The barracks in the place being too small to receive them, they were all quartered among the inhabitants. On the day of his arrival, Captain Dalzell had a conference with Gladwyn, and strongly insisted that the time was come when an irrecoverable blow might be dealt at Pontiac. Gladwyn, better acquainted with the position of the enemy, was averse to the attempt; but Dalzell, still urging his request, at last obtained the commandant's consent. Owing to the delay of marching out as at first contemplated, their plans became known to the great chief, and he prepared himself for the battle. However, early the following morning, the thirty-first of July, the gates were thrown open in silence, and the detachment, two hundred and fifty in number, marched out. They filed two deep along the river road, while two bateaux, each bearing a swivel, rowed up the river abreast of them. Lieutenant Brown led the advance guard of twenty-five men, the centre was commanded by Captain Gray, and the rear by Captain Grant. The morning was close and sultry. On their right lay the river and on their left a succession of Canadian houses, with barns, orchards E. O. HAVEN, D. D., LL. D. ERASTUS OTIS HAVEN was born in 1820, and it is his double good fortune to have been a Boston boy and a farmer boy. In intervals of work, he found time to gratify varied and keen intellectual tastes; and made thorough preparation for college. Entering at Middletown, in 1838, he not only mastered liberal studies but acquired their uses also. In 1843, he began—as instructor in the New York Amenia Seminary (of which he became principal in 1846)-a career in the comparatively brief course of which he has left hardly a branch of higher knowledge untaught or ill and corn fields. The inhabitants, roused from sleep, looked from the windows in astonishment and alarm. Thus the English moved forward to the attack, little thinking that behind every available shelter Indian scouts watched every movement, and still less suspecting that Pontiac, aware of their plan, had broken up his camp and was marching against them with all his warriors, armed and painted for battle. "A mile and a half from the fort," says Parkman, “Parent's Creek, ever since that night called Bloody Run, descended through a wild and rough hollow, and entered the Detroit amid a growth of rank grass and sedge. Only a few rods from its mouth, the road crossed it by a narrow, wooden bridge, not existing at the present day. Just beyond this bridge, the land rose in abrupt ridges, parallel to the stream. Along their summits were rude intrenchments, made by Pontiac to protect his camp, which had formerly occupied the ground immediately beyond. Here, too, were many piles of fire-wood, belonging to the Canadians, besides strong picket fences, inclosing orchards and gardens connected with the neighboring houses. Behind fences, wood-piles and intrenchments crouched an unknown number of Indian warriors, with leveled guns. They lay silent as snakes, taught, scarcely a form of wholesome discipline or an element of generous culture unutilized. His services as a minister of the Gospel, as an ecclesiastical journalist, as a public lecturer on various topics, and as a legislator, have been no less distinguished. From 1848 to 1853, he was pastor, successively, over three churches of New York; from 1853 to 1854, professor of Latin, and from 1854 to 1856, professor of rhetoric and English literature, in the University of Michigan; from 1856 to 1863, editor of Zion's Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), the organ of New England Methodism—performing at the same time the duties of member of the local school committee, member of the State board of education, and (1862, 1863) of State senator from the first Middlesex district, being chairman of the joint committee of the legislature on education; from 1863 to 1869, president of the University of Michigan; and, from 1869 to 1872, president of the Northwestern University. While in the Massachusetts legislature, Dr. Haven introduced and secured the enactment of laws-excusing Roman Catholic children from reading the Bible in the public schools, and permitting it to be read by |