182 a:nger of the Indians. [1760-i763. 



many of the Indians fondly believed, the English 

 should all be driven into the sea, and the country 

 restored to its primitive owners. 



It is difficult to determine which tribe was first 

 to raise the cry of war. There were many who 

 might have done so, for all the savages in the back- 

 w^oods were ripe for an outbreak, and the movement 

 seemed almost simultaneous. The Delawares and 

 Senecas were the most incensed, and Kiashuta, a 

 chief of the latter, was perhaps foremost to apply 

 the torch ; but, if this was the case, he touched 

 fire to materials already on the point of igniting. 

 It belonged to a greater chief than he to give 

 method and order to what would else have been a 

 wild burst of fury, and convert desultory attacks 

 into a formidable and protracted war. But for 

 Pontiac, the whole might have ended in a few 

 troublesome inroads upon the frontier, and a little 

 whooping and yelling under the walls of Fort Pitt. 



Pontiac, as already mentioned, was principal 

 chief of the Ottawas. The Ottawas, Ojibwas, and 

 Pottawattamies, had long been united in a loose 

 kind of confederacy, of which he was the virtual 

 head. Over those around him his authority was 

 almost despotic, and his power extended far beyond 

 the limits of the three united tribes. His influence 

 was great among all the nations of the Illinois 

 country ; while, from the sources of the Ohio to 

 those of the Mississippi, and, indeed, to the farthest 

 boundaries of the wide-spread Algonquin race, his 

 name was known and respected. 



The fact that Pontiac was born the son of a 



