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no means intended to result as it unfortunately did. The same writer who states that Pontiac soleninly pledged his word for the Captain's safety, states that the assassin fled to Saginaw, apprehensive of his vengeance; and that he used every exertion to apprehend the murderer, who would no doubt have paid for his temerity with his life.*

W.

No act has ever been ascribed to Pontiac which would lead us to doubt this conclusion. Nothing like sanguinary disposition, or a disposition to tolerate cruelty in others, belonged to his character. have observed his treatment of Rogers, at a time when he had no doubt resolved upon war, and when he already felt himself to have been ill-treated by the English. That gentleman relates an anecdote of him which occurred during the war, still more honorable to the chieftain. As a compliment, Rogers sent him a bottle of brandy, by the hands of a FrenchHis Councillors advised him not to taste it; it must be poisoned, said they, and sent with a design to kill him. But Pontiac laughed at their suspicions. "He cannot," he replied, "he cannot take my life, 1 have saved his !"

man.

In 1765, an English officer, Lieutenant Frazer, with a company of soldiers, went among the Illinois, where was a French station, at which Pontiac then was,-probably with a view of observing the chieftain's movements. He considered it an aggression, and called upon the French Commandant to deliver his visitors into his hands. The Officer attempted to pacify him, in vain. "You," [the French,] said he, "were the first cause of my striking the English This is your tomahawk which I hold in my hand.' He then ordered his Indians, whom by this time he had mustered in large numbers from the neighborhood, to seize upon the English at once. The order was generally obeyed, but Frazer escaped. The Indians threatened to massacre all the rest, unless he

* Governor Cass.

should be given up, upon which, he gallantly came forward, and surrendered to Pontiac.

The sequel is worthy of notice. "With the interest of Pondiac," say the papers of the day, "he [Frazer] got himself and his men back again." On the arrival of another Indian chief, with a white woman for a wife, who did all in their power to exasperate the savages, they seized upon the English again. "But Pondiac ordered them to give the men back," and the order was again obeyed. Frazer wished to stay longer, and Pontiac promised to protect him. He however advised him, considering the disposition of the Indians, to leave the country, and he accordingly went down the river in a batteau, and at length made his way to New-Orleans. "He says, Pondiac is a clever fellow, and had it not been for him, he should never have got away alive."

Of the oratory of the Ottawa Chieftain there remain but few and scanty memorials. Like Philip,

he has derived his distinction more from actions than words, and that (as also in Philip's case,) without the aid of any very signal renown as a mere warrior. The only speech of his we have met with, was made on the occasion of a conference with the French at Detroit, held upon the 23d of May, 1763, in the hope of inducing them to join him in the reduction of the fort. The style of delivery cannot now be ascertained; but the reasoning is close and ingenious.

"My Brothers!" he said, "I have no doubt but this war is very troublesome to you, and that my warriors, who are continually passing and re-passing through your settlements, frequently kill your cattle, and injure your property. I am sorry for it, and hope you do not think I am pleased with this conduct of my young men. And as a proof of my friendship, recollect the war you had seventeen years ago, [1746] and the part I took in it. The Northern nations combined together, and came to destroy you. Who defended you? Was it not myself and my young men? The great Chief, Mackinac, [the Turtle]

said in Council, that he would carry to his native vil. lage the head of your chief warrior, and that he would eat his heart and drink his blood. Did I not then join you, and go to his camp and say to him, if he wished to kill the French, he must pass over my body, and the bodies of my young men? Did I not take hold of the tomahawk with you, and aid you in fighting your battles with Mackinac, and driving him home to his country? Why do you think would turn my arms against you? Am I not the same French Pontiac, who assisted you seventeen years ago? I am a Frenchman, and I wish to die a Frenchman."

After throwing a war-belt into the midst of the council, he concluded in the following strain :

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My Brothers! I begin to grow tired of this bad meat, which is upon our lands. I begin to see that this is not your case, for instead of assisting us in our war with the English, you are actually assisting them. I have already told you, and I now tell you again, that when I undertook this war, it was only your interest I sought, and that I knew what I was about. I yet know what I am about. This year they must all perish. The Master of Life so orders it. His will is known to us, and we must do as he says. And you, my brothers, who know him better than we do, wish to oppose his will! Until now, I have avoided urg ing you upon this subject, in the hope, that if you could not aid, you would not injure us. I did not wish to ask you to fight with us against the English, and I did not believe you would take part with them. You will say you are not with them. I know it, but your conduct amounts to the same thing. You will tell them all we do and say. You carry our counsels and plans to them. Now take your choice. You must be entirely French, like ourselves, or entirely English. If you are French, take this belt for yourselves and your young men, and join us. If you are English, we declare war against you."

*

*

The man who had the ability and the intrepidity to

express himself in this manner, hardly needed either the graces of rhetoric or the powers of the warrior, to enforce that mighty influence which, among every people and under all circumstances, is attached, as closely as shadow to substance, to the energies of a mighty mind. Those energies he exerted, and that influence he possessed, probably beyond all precedent in the history of his race. Hence it is that his memory is still cherished among the tribes of the north. HISTORY itself, instead of adding to his character in their eyes, has only reduced him to his true proportions in our own. TRADITION Still looks upon him as it looked upon the Hercules of the Greeks.

CHAPTER VIII.

Account of the Delawares-Their ancient great men including TAMENEND-History during the Revolu tionary War-Two Parties among them-WHITE EYES, leader of one, and Captain PIPE, of the otherManœuvres, speeches, plots and counter-plots of these men, their parties, and foreigners connected with both -Anecdotes-Death of WHITE-EYES in 1780-Trib ute of respect paid to his memory.

The most formidable antagonist the Five Nations ever had to contend with, were the DELAWARES, as the English have named them (from Lord de la War) out generally styled by their Indian neighbors, Wapanachi, and by themselves Lenni Lenape, or the Original People. The tradition is, that they and the Five Nations both emigrated from beyond the Mississippi, and, by uniting their forces, drove off or destroyed the primitive residents of the country on this side. Afterwards, the Delawares divided themselves into three tribes, called the Turtle, the Turkey, and the Wolf or Monsey. Their settlements extended from the Hudson to the Potomac; and their descendants finally became so numerous, that nearly forty tribes honored them with the title of Grand-father, which some of them continue to apply at the present day.

The Delawares were the principal inhabitants of Pennsylvania, when William Penn commenced his labors in that region; and the memory of MIQUON, their Elder Brother, as they called him, is still cherished in the legends of all that remains of the nation. That remnant exists chiefly on the western banks of the Mississippi, to which ancient starting-place they have been gradually approximating, stage by stage, ever since the arrival of the Europeans on the coast. Their principal intermediate settlements have been in Ohio, on the banks of the Muskingum, and other

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