swimming off in all directions, to escape the threatened explosion. The schooner was cleared of her assailants, who did not dare to renew the attack; and, on the following morning, she sailed for the fort, which she reached without molestation. Six of her crew escaped unhurt. Of the remainder, two were killed, and four seriously wounded; while the Indians had seven men killed upon the spot, and nearly twenty wounded, of whom eight were known to have died within a few days after. As the action was very brief, the fierceness of the struggle is sufficiently apparent from the loss on both sides.

The appearance of the men, says an eye-witness who saw them on their arrival, was enough to convince every one of their brayery, they being as bloody as butchers, and their bayonets, spears and cutlasses bloody to the hilt. The survivors of the crew were afterwards rewarded as their courage deserved. The schooner, so boldly defended by her crew against a force of more than twenty times their number, brought to the fort a much needed supply of provisions. It was not, however, adequate to the wants of the garrison, and the whole were put upon the shortest possible allow

ance.

CHAPTER XXI.

CONCLUSION OF PONTIAC'S WAR-THE S EGE OF DETROIT RAISED BRADSTREET IN THE WEST-THE ENGLISH AT PEACE-THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR-INSTIGATING SAVAGES TO TAKE AMERICAN SCALPSCAPTAIN BYRD'S EXPEDITION-HAMILTON'S EXPEDITION-HIS CAPTURE-DE PEYSTER COMMANDS AT DETROIT-AMERICAN LIBERTY TRIUMPHANT-PEACE RESTORED.

IT WAS now the end of September. The Indians had pressed the siege with a determination unknown to their race, since the beginning of May; but at length their constancy began to wane. The tidings that Major Wilkins was approaching with a strong detachment reached their camp, and they began to fear the consequences of an attack, especially as their ammunition was nearly expended. By this time, most of the tribes around Detroit were disposed to sue for peace. They wished to retire unmolested to their wintering grounds, and renew the war in the spring. Accordingly, on the twelfth of October, Wapocomoguth, great chief of the Mississaugas, visited the fort with a pipe of peace. He made a speech to Major Gladwyn, asking for peace, to which the commandant replied, telling him that he could not himself grant peace, but would consent to a truce. This was accepted, and Gladwyn availed himself of the opportunity to collect provisions from the Canadians, and succeeded so well that the fort was soon furnished for the winter. After overtures of peace, Pontiac withdrew, with his chiefs, to the Maumee, to stir up the Indians in that quarter, with a view of resuming the war in the spring.

About the middle of November, after quiet had been restored around the fort at Detroit, two friendly Indians visited the fort, and one of them took a closely folded letter from his powderhorn and handed it to Gladwyn. The note was from Major Wilkins, and contained the disastrous news that the detachment

under his command had been overtaken by a storm; that many of the boats had been wrecked; that seventy men had perished; that all its stores and ammunition had been destroyed, and the detachment forced to return to Niagara. This intelligence had

HON. R. P. ELDRIDGE.

ROBERT P. ELDRIDGE, a prominent lawyer of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit, was born on the banks of the Hudson, in the township of Greenwich, Washington county, New York, in 1808.

The winter after he was six years of age, his father moved to Lebanon, Madison county, and from there to the township of IIamilton, on the east side of the west branch of the Chenango river, in the same county. The spring after he reached his fourteenth year, he was sent to the academy at the village of Hamilton to prepare for a collegiate education, but his

an effect upon the garrison which rendered the prospect of the cold and cheerless winter yet more dreary and forlorn. But the winter came, and was endured by these hardy soldiers; and, with the return of spring their savage enemies began to appear. They endured their assaults until the twenty-sixth of August, when Bradstreet's fleet came sailing up the river, to the relief of the disconsolate garrison. They were welcomed by the cannon of the garrison, and cheer after cheer pealed forth from the crowded ramparts. Well might Gladwyn and his soldiers rejoice at the approaching succor. They had been beset for more than fifteen months by their savage enemies; and, though there were times when not an Indian could be seen, yet woe to the soldier who should wander into the forest in search of game, or stroll too far beyond range of the cannon.

The army had no sooner landed than the garrison was relieved and fresh troops substituted in their place. Bradstreet next inquired into the conduct of the Canadians of Detroit, and pun ished such of them as had given aid to the Indians. A few only were found guilty, the more culpable having fled to the Illinois, on the approach of the army. Pontiac, too, was gone. The great war chief-his vengeance unslaked, and his purpose unshaken

mother dying when he was sixteen, his father's family was broken up; the children, of which there were eight, were separated and never again were they all assembled under the one roof. From this time, he was compelled to teach school winters in order to study summers, and from necessity was obliged to abandon the idea of "going through college."

In his seventeenth year, at the earnest request of his father, he entered the law office of Stowe & Girdly, one of the most eminent law firms of Madison county, New York. While in this law office, he was required to labor very hard at the table, copying; yet he received much valuable information from Judge Girdly, in the science of the profession he was destined to pursue.

At the close of his school in the spring of 1826, after paying his little necessary indebtedness, he found himself the owner of twenty dollars, and with this amount he started for the territory of Michigan, being utterly unacquainted with the world, and with no practical experience in any business, except school teaching.

Mr. Eldridge landed in Detroit on the 26th day of May, 1826, poorly

had retired to the banks of the Maumee, whence he sent a haughty defiance to the English commander. The Indian villages near Detroit were half emptied of their inhabitants, many of whom still followed the desperate fortunes of their indomitable leader. Those who remained were, for the most part, brought by famine and misery to a sincere desire for peace, and readily obeyed the summons of Bradstreet to meet him in council.

The council was held in the open air, on the morning of the seventh of September, with all the accompaniments of military display which could inspire awe and respect among the assembled savages. The tribes, or, rather, fragments of tribes, represented at this meeting, were the Ottawas, Ojibwas, Pottawattamies, Miamis, Sacs, and Wyandots. The Indians of Sandusky kept imperfectly the promise they had made, the Wyandots of that place alone sending a full deputation; while the other tribes were merely represented by the Ojibwa chief, Wasson. This man, who was the principal chief of his tribe, and the most prominent orator on the present occasion, rose and opened the council. He frankly confessed that the tribes which he represented were all justly chargeable with the war, and now deeply regretted it. Bradstreet would grant peace only on condition that they should

clad, and with ten shillings as the sum total of his capital. After a short time, some gentlemen in Detroit with the under-sheriff of Wayne county, fitted up the "debtors room," in the jail, for a school room, and he went to teaching their boys at $3.00 per quarter. At the end of six weeks, pleasantly occupied in conducting his school, he was stricken down by a severe attack of bilious fever, which, had it not been for the kind care of a Mr. Seymour, with whom he boarded, and a naturally strong constitution, would have proved fatal. Recovering, he collected what was due him, paid his debts, and with the remainder, one dollar and a half, paid his stage fare to Pontiac, Michigan, where he had engaged to teach school during the winter of 1826-27. While teaching this school, he devoted his evenings and Saturdays to recording deeds in the register of deeds office for Oakland county. Aside from this, he found some time to pursue his legal studies in the office of Governor Richardson. During this winter, he was severely afflicted with inflammation of the eyes, the healing of which cost him more than what he had earned teaching school.