184 THE CONSPIRACY. [1760-1763. 



Pontiac was now about fifty years old. Until 

 Major Rogers came into the country, he had been^ 

 from motives probably both of interest and incli- 

 nation, a firm friend of the French. Not long 

 before the French war broke out, he had saved the 

 garrison of Detroit from the imminent peril of an 

 attack from some of the discontented tribes of the 

 north. During the war, he had fought on the side 

 of France. It is said that he commanded the 

 Ottawas at the memorable defeat of Braddock ; 

 and it is certain that he was treated with much 

 honor by the French officers, and received especial 

 marks of esteem from the Marquis of Montcalm.^ 



We have seen how, when the tide of aff'airs 

 changed, the subtle and ambitious chief trimmed 

 his bark to the current, and gave the hand of 

 friendship to the English. That he was dis- 

 appointed in their treatment of him, and in all 

 the hopes that he had formed from their alliance, 

 is sufficiently evident from one of his speeches. 

 A new light soon began to dawn upon his untaught 

 but powerful mind, and he saw the altered posture 

 of aff'airs under its true aspect. 



It was a momentous and gloomy crisis for the 

 Indian race, for never before had they been exposed 

 to such imminent and pressing danger. With the 

 downfall of Canada, the tribes had sunk at once 

 from their position of importance. Hitherto the 

 two rival European nations had kept each other 



1 The venerable Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis, remembered to have 

 seen Pontiac, a few days before his death, attired in the complete uni- 

 form of a French officer, which had been given him by the Marquis of 

 Montcalm not long before the battle on the Plains of Abraham. 



