brought us all together this day for our mutual good, I declare to all nations that I have settled my peace with you before I came here, and now deliver my pipe to be sent to Sir William Johnson, that he may know I have made peace and taken the King of England for my father." But he was then settled on the Maumee, and declined the invitation to return to his old home, assigning for his refusal a reason that, to one who loved his race and desired its preservation, should have been conclusive. "If we dwelt near you at our old village of Detroit our warriors would always be drunk, and quarrels would arise between us and you." "Where we live is so nigh to you that when we want to drink we can easily come for it."1 Pontiac plainly saw that the struggle for the independence of his people was ended, and that nothing remained for them now but present subjection and, if they remained in the vicinity of white settlements, degrading dissipation with ultimate extinction. In July of the next year he met Sir William Johnson himself at Oswego, and renewed in the most formal manner his assurances of friendship. He assumed to speak the voice of all the Western nations, and Sir William was assured by him that what he agreed to do would be a law to them. With vague reference to what had gone before, he submissively said that "He who made the Universe would have it so."

1 Conspiracy of Pontiac, 556; Hildreth's Pioneer History, 76.

DEATH OF PONTIAC.

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The masterly but unavailing effort of Pontiac for the independence and preservation of his race is often spoken of as a conspiracy; but making due allowance for the barbarous methods of Indian warfare, the fair mind must admit that it was as patriotic and as deserving of generous commemoration as the struggle of Cromwell for the liberties of Englishmen, or of Kosciusko for the independence of Poland. A year later the great chieftain was assassinated at Cahokia, Illinois, by a Kaskaskia Indian instigated to the crime by an English trader, and by the gift of a barrel of liquor and the promise of further reward. The dastardly murder brought speedy vengeance upon the assassin, his tribe, and all their allies. But the chief criminal was unmolested, and as only Indians were the victims, the constituted authorities abstained from all interference.

5

CHAPTER IV.

A DECADE OF MILITARY ABSOLUTISM.

PONTIAC'S war had desolated many settlements, and left behind only the ashes of burned habitations and the bleaching bones of the people. But in the vicinity of Detroit its desolating tracks were few and soon effaced. The French people then resident in Michigan had not been looked upon by the Indians as enemies, and the war had been waged not against them, but against the English, who held them in subjection by force of arms. "It is not to avenge myself alone," said Pontiac to the French of Detroit, "that I make war on the English. It is to avenge you, my brothers. When the English insulted us they insulted you also. I know that they have taken away your arms and made you sign a paper, which they have sent away to their country. Therefore you are left defenseless, and I mean now to avenge your cause and my own together." So their possessions were spared, and they were treated as friends whom the fortune of war had subjected to a hated foreign yoke, which they would willingly embrace the first favoring oppor

MILITARY RULE.

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tunity to cast off. A people so regarded by the enemy must necessarily be distrusted by their own government, and when the war was over the condition of the people of Detroit, under the government of suspicious rulers, was very far from being enviable. The king's proclamation on the ratification of the treaty of cession, in 1763, had established military control, and not until the dawn of the American Revolution, when conciliation of Canada seemed to promise the opportunity for a revival of the former antagonisms between that colony and those which were now becoming rebellious, were any steps taken to give this vast country civil government.

Nominally Detroit was within the jurisdiction of the governor-general of Canada, but its great distance from the capital, and its complete isolation from other settlements, enabled the officer in command to wield at pleasure an authority which was almost autocratic. Complaints of oppression do not appear to have been numerous, but in this there is nothing surprising. The only authority competent to give relief was the military commander of the province. To reach him would be difficult, and if reached, it might be expected he would listen with little favor to complaints of abuses which must naturally attend the administration of a system of which he was himself the head. And moreover, the natural inclinations of the French settlers, who were docile and submis

sive, would lead them to submit silently to such wrongs as were found endurable, rather than to make complaint of the officials whose authority over them was in no manner restricted by law, and might in many ways be abused with impunity.

While Bradstreet remained in command at Detroit he held court for the trial of offenders, and banished some persons on the charge of having given assistance to Pontiac. But this officer had the good sense to perceive that regular courts and a steady administration of the law were essential, and he urged the need of them upon the attention of government. He also believed that encouragement should be given to settlers, though it does not appear that he suggested any particular measures to that end. But at home his views elicited no favorable response. The government showed little inclination to limit the absolutism of military rule, and its regulations in respect to land, while in the main just in so far as they were intended for the protection of the Indians, were well calculated to prevent any extension of the settlements.

By royal proclamation of October 7, 1763, warrants of survey and patents of any lands beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers falling into the Atlantic from the west or northwest, or of any lands not ceded by the Indians, were strictly forbidden. Private persons were also for