1891-92.) AN EPISODE IN THE PONTIAC WAR. 233 
that they had shared the unhappy fate of their captain, which added the 
more to my uneasiness, fearing that I would not be more favourably dealt 
with. However, towards the evening of that day, I saw Sir Robert’s 
Indian boy, who told me of some of the soldiers being alive. This boy 
having lived long with the English, in speaking their language made me 
think that he would desire to get free from the Indians who used him 
much worse than the English. I therefore thought I might confide in 
him, so laid myself open to him and told him of a scheme I had formed 
of our escape together, which was, that we should both get out of our 
respective beds at night when all were asleep, meet at a certain place 
agreed upon and then untie each other, and as he understood travelling 
in the woods, he would pilot us to Fort Detroit, which was not above 
eighty English miles distant, each of us bringing with him as much fish 
as would be necessary to subsist on during the journey. He agreed to 
this proposal, went off with an intention as I supposed of meeting me 
at the place appointed ; however, towards the end of the evening, I was 
surprised to see my master come into the hut, looking very angrily at me, 
having a wooden post and an axe in his hand. Without saying a word 
he put one end of the post into the ground, and told me in an angry tone 
something I did not understand, with signs to me to lie down on my 
back ; then taking my leg a little below the ankle, put it into the notch 
against which he tied another piece of string, so close that I could not 
move to turn myself on my side, but lay on my back with my hands 
bound, while my master, drawing the ends of the rope under his body 
lay down next me with his squaw ona bearskin. I passed the night like 
a criminal just before execution, with this difference, I had nothing to 
reproach myself, no offence committed against my God or the laws of 
my country ; this treatment gave me good cause to suspect treachery on 
the part of the Indian boy, who I found afterwards had, in order to get 
his pardon, which he did, discovered my intentions of escape. Next 
morning my master loosed my leg, and by means of an Indian who spoke 
English, informed me that he had discovered my intention of escaping, 
and that had I done so or even attempted it, death would have been the 
inevitable consequence, showing me the situation of Fort Detroit, 
surrounded with four Indian nations, viz.: Chippewahs, (the nation I was 
with) Otterwahs, Ponteuatheimies, Wiandots, who so blockaded the place 
that nobody could come in or go out, and that in a few days there would 
not be an Englishman left in it alive; whereupon I found it absolutely 
necessary for my safety to affect to relish their savage manners, and put 
on an air of perfect contentment, which I had often heard was the way 
to gain the affections of the Indians, whereas showing discontented con- 
duct irritates them and creates worse treatment, and even draws down 
