CHAPTER X. 



1763. 

 DETROIT. 



To the credulity of mankind each great calamity 

 has its dire prognostics. Signs and portents in the 

 heavens, the vision of an Indian bow, and the fig- 

 ure of a scalp imprinted on the disk of the moon, 

 warned the New England Puritans of impending 

 war. The apparitions passed away, and Philip of 

 Mount Hope burst from the forest with his Narra- 

 gansett warriors. In October, 1762, thick clouds 

 of inky blackness gathered above the fort and 

 settlement of Detroit. The river darkened beneath 

 the awful shadows, and the forest was wrapped in 

 double gloom. Drops of rain began to fall, of 

 strong, sulphurous odor, and so deeply colored 

 that the people, it is said, collected them and used 

 them for writing.^ A literary and philosophical 

 journal of the time seeks to explain this strange 

 phenomenon on some principle of physical science ; 

 but the simple Canadians held a different faith. 

 Throughout the winter, the shower of black rain 

 was the foremost topic of their fireside talk ; and 



1 Carver, Travels, 153. Gent. Mag. XXXIV. 408. 



