until the woman at length disclosed everything which had come to her knowledge.

Her information was not received with implicit credulity, but the major thought it prudent to employ the night in taking active measures for defense. A strict guard was kept upon the ramparts during the night, it being apprehended that the Indians might anticipate the preparations now known to have been made for the next day. Nothing, however, was heard after dark, except the sound of singing and dancing in the Indian camp, which they always indulged in upon the eve of any great enterprise.

In the morning, Pontiac and his warriors sang their war-song and danced their war-dance, and then repaired to the fort. They were admitted without hesitation, and conducted to the council house, where Major Gladwyn and his officers were prepared to receive them. They perceived at the gate, and as they passed through the streets, an unusual activity and movement among the troops. The garrison was under arms, the guards doubled, and the officers were armed with swords and pistols. Pontiac inquired of the British commander, what was the cause of this unusual appearance. He answered that it was proper to keep the young men to their duty, lest they should become idle and ignorant. The business of the council then commenced, and Pontiac proceeded to address Major Gladwyn. His speech was bold and menacing, and his manner and gesticulations vehement, and they became still more so as he approached the critical moment. When he was upon the point of presenting the belt to Major Gladwyn, and all was breathless expectation, the drums at the door of the council house suddenly rolled the charge, the guards leveled their pieces, and the officers drew their swords from their scabbards. Pontiac, whose eagle eye had never quailed in battle, turned pale and trembled. This unexpected and decisive proof that his treachery was discovered entirely disconcerted, him. He delivered the belt in the usual manner, and thus failed to give his party the concerted signal of attack; while his warriors stood looking at each other in astonishment, Major Gladwyn immediately approached Pontiac, and drawing aside his blanket, discovered the shortened rifle, and then, after stating his knowledge of his plan, advised him to leave the fort before his young men should discover their design and massacre them. He assured him, as he had promised him safety, that his person should be held unharmed until he had advanced beyond the pickets. The Indians immediately retired, and as soon as they had passed the gate, they gave the yell and fired upon the garrison. Several persons living without the fort were then murdered, and hostilities commenced.

The cannibalism of the savages, at this time, may be learned from the fact, that a respectable Frenchman was invited to their camp to partake of some soup. Having finished his repast he was told that he had eaten a part of an English woman, a Mrs.

Turnbell, who had been among the victims; a knowledge that, probably, did not improve his digestion.

The savages soon stationed themselves behind the buildings, outside the pickets, and kept up a constant, though ineffectual fire upon the garrison. All the means which the savage mind could suggest were employed by Pontiac to demolish the settlement of Detroit. During the siege, which lasted more than two months, the savages endavored to make a breach in the pickets, and aided by Gladwyn, who, as a stratagem, had ordered his men to cut also on the inside, this was soon accomplished, and the breach immediately filled with Indians. At this instant a cannon was discharged upon the advancing savages, which made destructive havoc. After that period the fort was merely invested; supplies were cut off, and the English were reduced to great distress from the diminution of their rations and the constant watchfulness required to prevent surprise.

While the siege was in progress, twenty batteaux with ninetyseven troops and stores, on their way from Niagara to Detroit, arrived at Point Pelee, on Lake Erie, about fifty miles easterly from Detroit. Apprehending no danger, the troops landed and encamped. The Indians, who had watched their movements, attacked them about dawn of day, and massacred or took prisoners all except thirty, who succeeded in escaping in a barge across the lake to Sandusky Bay. The Indians placed their prisoners in the batteaux, and compelled them to navigate them on the Canadian side of the lake and river, toward Detroit. As the fleet of boats was discovered coming around the point of the Huron Church, the English assembled on the ramparts to witness the arrival of their friends; but they were only greeted by the death-song of the savages, which announced their fate. The light of hope flickered on their countenances only to be clouded with the thick darkness of despair. It was their barges, but they were in possession of the savages, and filled with the scalps and prisoners of the detachment. The prisoners, with the exception of a few who escaped when opposite the town, were taken to Hog Island, above Detroit, massacred and scalped.

A few weeks after, a vessel from Niagara with sixty troops, provisions, and arms, entered Detroit River. For the purpose of boarding her as she ascended, the Indians repaired to Fighting Islands, just below the city, which she soon reached, and then, for want of wind, was obliged to anchor. The captain concealed his men in the hold, and in the evening, the Indians proceeded in silence to board the vessel from their canoes, while the men on board were required to take their stations at the guns. The Indians approached near the side, when the signal for a discharge was given by a blow upon the mast with a hammer. Many of the Indians. were killed and wounded, and the remainder, panic stricken, paddled away in their canoes with all speed. After this, Pontiac endeavored to burn the vessels that lay anchored before Detroit, for

which object he made an immense raft from several barns, which he pulled down for that purpose, and filled it with pitch and other combustibles. It was then towed up river and set on fire, under the supposition that the current would float the blazing mass against the vessels. The English foiled this attempt by anchoring boats, connected by chains, above their vessels.

During the siege, the body of the French people around and in Detroit were neutral. Pontiac, in a speech of great eloquence and power, endeavored to persuade them to join his cause; but his solicitations did not prevail, and shortly after, on the 3d of June, the French had a double reason for maintaining neutrality in the news which they received of the treaty of peace, by which France ceded their country to England.

On the 29th of July, three hundred regular troops, under Captain Dalyell, arrived, in gun-boats, from Canada. On the night of the 30th, Captain Dalyell, with over two hundred men, attempted to surprise Pontiac's camp. That chieftain having by some means been apprised of the contemplated attack, was prepared, and lay in ambush with his Indians, concealed behind high grass, at the Bloody Bridge, one and a half miles above Detroit. As the English reached the bridge, a sudden and destructive fire was poured upon them. This threw them into the utmost confusion. The attack in the darkness, from an invisible force, was critical. The English fought desperately, but were obliged to retreat, with the loss of their commander, and over sixty in killed and wounded.

The operations of Pontiac in this quarter soon called for the efficient aid of government, and during the season, General Bradstreet arrived to the relief of the posts on the lakes, with an army of three thousand men. The tribes of Pontiac, excepting the Delawares and the Shawanese, finding that they could not successfully compete with such a force, laid down their arms and made peace. Pontiac, however, took no part in the negotiation, and retired to Illinois, where he was, a few years after, assassinated by an Indian of the Peoria tribe.

THE FIRST SPANISH GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA.

In the latter part of the French War, Spain joined with France against Great Britain, through alarm at the increasing power of Britain in America. The consequences of this step were very serious to her, as by it she lost Havana, the key to the Gulf of Mexico. The treaty of Paris, concluded in 1763, restored Havana to Spain, though to' regain it she was obliged to cede Florida to England.

By a secret article of this treaty, as a compensation for the loss of Florida, Louis XV engaged to relinquish to Spain his remaining Louisiana possessions. For awhile this was kept secret from

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the people of the colony; but when it was known, such was their attachment to the mother country, that they were thrown into utter despair. Several years elapsed ere Spain took formal possession. In the meantime, the colonists in vain sent commissioners to the court of France to have the obnoxious feature of the treaty annulled.

In 1766, Don Ulloa, who had been appointed Governor by Spain, arrived at New Orleans, with two companies of infantry, to take possession in the name of his king; but actuated by an incomprehensible obstinacy, he refused to show to the Superior Council the proofs of his mission. At last that body, conforming to the wishes of the people, as expressed by public meetings and petitions, insisted that Ulloa should either produce his credentials from the Spanish king, that they might be duly registered and promulgated through the province, or leave it within a month. The citizens took up arms to enforce the demand, and Ulloa embarked his troops on board of a Spanish vessel, and left the country.

In July, 1769, the hopes that the colonists still entertained that France would retain Louisiana, were crushed by the tidings that Captain-General O'Reilly was at the mouth of the Mississippi with a fleet, having on board four thousand nine hundred Spanish troops.

The colonists seeing that there was no alternative but submission, made choice of three representatives, Lafreniere, Grandmaison and Marent, to signify to the Spanish commander the submission of the colony; accompanied by a request, however, that those who wished to leave the country, should be allowed two years to dispose of their property. O'Reilly received the deputies with affability; assured them that he should cheerfully comply with all reasonable demands, that those who were willing to remain, should enjoy a mild and paternal government; and, in regard to past offenses, the perfidious commander added that he was disposed to forget them, and had come not to punish, but to pardon.

This declaration somewhat calmed the excitement of the people, and they prepared to receive the Spanish general with decent respect.

The next day he landed at the head of his troops, and they marched in battle array to the parade-ground, where Aubry, with the French garrison, was waiting to receive them. The white flag of France, which was waving on a high pole, was now slowly lowered, and that of Spain hoisted in its place, while the troops of both nations kept up an irregular discharge of small arms. Thus ended the dominion of the French on the shores of the Mississippi, where they had ruled for seventy years; and Louisiana became a dependency of Spain.

The new Spanish governor was by birth an Irishman, who, going to Spain with a body of Irish troops, had been so successful in gaining the king's favor, that he loaded him with honors and ben