166 THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST. [1760. 



permission. Rogers informed him that the French 

 were defeated, that Canada had surrendered, and 

 that he was on his way to take possession of 

 Detroit, and restore a general peace to white men 

 and Indians ahke. Pontiac listened with attention, 

 but only replied that he should stand in the path 

 of the English until morning. Having inquired if 

 the strangers were in need of any thing which his 

 country could afford, he withdrew, with his chiefs, 

 at nightfall, to his own encampment ; while the 

 English, ill at ease, and suspecting treachery, stood 

 well on their guard throughout the night.^ 



In the morning, Pontiac returned to the camp 

 with his attendant chiefs, and made his reply to 

 Eogers's speech of the previous day. He was 

 willing, he said, to live at peace with the English, 

 and suffer them to remain in his country as long 

 as they treated him with due respect and deference. 

 The Indian chiefs and provincial officers smoked 

 the calumet together, and perfect harmony seemed 

 established between them.^ 



Up to this time, Pontiac had been, in word and 

 deed, the fast ally of the French ; but it is easy to 

 discern the motives that impelled him to renounce 

 his old adherence. The American forest never pro- 

 duced a man more shrewd, politic, and ambitious. 

 Ignorant as he was of what was passing in the 

 world, he could clearly see that the French power 



1 There can be no reasonable doubt, that the interview with Pontiac, 

 described by Rogers in his Account of North America, took place on the 

 occasion indicated in his Journals, under date of the 7th of November. 

 The Indians whom he afterwards met are stated to have been Hurons. 



2 Rogers, Journals, 214; Account of North America, 240, 243. 



