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would consent to receive, and far more than they were capable of understanding; but they still remained savages, and were watched more than they were trusted. The few French agricultural settlers kept within easy reach of the shelter and protection of the fort. Sixty years of the French system of governmental absolutism, official venality, trade monopoly, and individual dependence had maintained for the king a nominal sovereignty over the Lake country, but it had established no colony worthy the name. On all the upper lakes not a vessel unfurled sails to the breeze; the canoe and other row-boats met the wants of such transportation as the existing traffic called for. There was no printing-press in Michigan, for there was none in all New France. The time was to come when at many a waterfall and crossing of trails in the peninsula, some small company, less numerous than that with which La Motte Cadillac founded Detroit, coming with their axes and other agricultural implements, but above all with their families for permanent homes, would within a single year have more of permanent worth to show for their labors.

CHAPTER III.

PONTIAC'S VAIN STRUGGLE FOR THE HOMES OF HIS PEOPLE.

ON the memorable ninth day of September, 1759, the garrison of Quebec sorrowfully opened its gates, and the investing British army marched in and took possession. It was the stronghold of all Canada; and from New Hampshire to Georgia Americans welcomed the news with exuberant rejoicings as the prelude to the inevitable submission of all New France, and the termination of the savage warfare that under French inspiration had so long disquieted and at times devastated their northern and western borders. Canada also was alive to the significance of the great event; for it was plain to all men that the permanent occupation of Quebec by British forces involved the overthow of French power in America. Accordingly a vigorous effort was made to recover the place the following year, but it proved abortive, and on September 8, 1760, M. de Vaudreuil, the governor-general, surrendered Montreal, and with it all Canada, to General Amherst, the British commander. By the articles of capitulation the

ROGERS, THE PARTISAN LEADER.

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undisturbed enjoyment of their property and the free exercise of their religion were guarantied to the people, but an article stipulating for the preservation of existing laws was refused, and the people were given to understand that they had become subjects of the British crown, and would be treated as such.

:

Four days later General Amherst issued an order to Major Robert Rogers, directing him to proceed with a military force to Detroit and Michilimackinac and take possession of those posts and administer oaths of allegiance to the inhabitants. Rogers was the most noted partisan leader of the day he had been active and conspicuous in the war from the first; no Indian had surpassed him in woodcraft or in cunning, and few either white or red had equaled him in daring or in prowess. He had suffered hardships of every nature incident to war: sickness, and wounds, and captivity, and starvation; but his endurance was equal to every emergency, and he had come out of every trial with no abatement of courage or determination. From Lake Champlain to Quebec forest glens had echoed the deadly reports of his rifle, and were red with the bloody footsteps of his men. He received with pleasure the order which was to complete on the upper lakes the victory at Quebec, and started the next day, taking the route by Lake Ontario, the Niagara River, and Lake Erie to Presque Isle, from which he diverged for

the delivery of dispatches to General Monckton at Pittsburgh. Returning to Presque Isle he resumed his journey along the south shore of Lake Erie until November 7th, when he encamped at the mouth of a river which he called the Chogage, and which has been variously conjectured to have been the Chagrin, the Cuyahoga, and the Grand. Here he was met by a party of Indians who announced themselves messengers of Pontiac, the ruler and king of all that country, and who admonished the British commander in the name of their master, that no further advance should be made until Pontiac, who was near at hand, should arrive and give permission. The chief soon followed the embassy, and in haughty tones demanded of Rogers how he dared to enter his country without permission. Rogers replied that he had come with no hostile purpose against the Indians, and that his sole business was to remove from the country the French, who had been an obstacle to peace and trade between the Indians and the English. In token of friendship, strings of wampum were then delivered to Pontiac, who received them graciously, but signified his will that the party should proceed no farther until the morning; and after exchange of friendly courtesies he took his departure. The next morning he again appeared, smoked the pipe of peace with Major Rogers, gave consent to his proceeding on his journey, and offered to

THE FRENCH ABANDON THE FORTS.

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accompany him to Detroit and give him any necessary protection against unfriendly or excited Indians. The offer was accepted by Major Rogers, and the party proceeded, sending forward in advance a notification of the coming and of its purpose. M. Bellestre, then in command at Detroit, was still vainly hoping that Canada, by a supreme effort, might be recovered by the French, and he seems to have made some effort to arouse the animosity of the Indians in the neighborhood against the English, and to induce them to aid him in resistance; but Rogers gathered them in council near the mouth of the Detroit River, and having assured them of his fixed purpose to send the French away, promised to leave the Indians in possession of their own country, and to settle with them amicably all matters which might be the subject of controversy. The Indians received his assurances as satisfactory, and when on November 29th Rogers reached Detroit, the French commandant, perceiving that resistance would be futile, surrendered the post. From Detroit was sent out a detachment which took possession of Fort Miami on the Maumee and Fort Ouatanon on the Wabash, and Rogers himself started with a force to occupy Michilimackinac, but found the season too far advanced, and was obliged to abandon the undertaking. It was not until the fall of the next year that small forces, sent out from Detroit by command of Sir William Johnson, took possession