242 TREACHERY OF PONTIAC. [1763, Mat. 



Late in the evening, La Butte, the interpreter, 

 returned to the fort. His face wore a sad and 

 downcast look, which sufficiently expressed the 

 melancholy tidings that he brought. On hearing 

 his account, some of the officers suspected, though 

 probably without ground, that he was privy to the 

 detention of the two ambassadors ; and La Butte, 

 feeling himself an object of distrust, lingered about 

 the streets, sullen and silent, like the Indians among 

 whom his rough life had been spent. 



Da vers, Lieut. Robertson, and the Rest of the Poor People, who have fallen 

 into the Hands of the Merciless Villains. I Trust you did not Know of 

 the Murder of those Gentlemen, when Pontiac came with a Pipe of 

 Peace, for if you had, you certainly would have put him, and Every Indian 

 in your Power, to Death. Such Retaliation is the only Way of Treating 

 such Miscreants. 



" I cannot but Approve of your having Permitted Captain Campbell 

 and Lieut. MacDougal to go to the Indians, as you had no other Method 

 to Procure Provisions, by which means you may have been Enabled to 

 Preserve the Garrison ; for no Other Inducement should have prevailed 

 on you to Allow those Gentlemen to Entrust themselves with the Sav- 

 ages. I am Nevertheless not without ray Fears for them, and were it not 

 that you have two Indians in your Hands, in Lieu of those Gentlemen, I 

 should give them over for Lost. 



" I shall Add no more at present ; Capt. Dalzell will Inform you of the 

 steps taken for Reinforcing you : and you ma}' be assured — the utmost 

 Expedition will be used for Collecting such a Force as may be SuflScient 

 for bringing Ample Vengeance on the Treacherous and Bloody Villains 

 who have so Perfidiously Attacked their Benefactors." MacDonald, 

 and, after him, Rogers, says that, after the detention of the two officers, 

 Pontiac summoned the fort to surrender, threatening, in case of refusal, 

 to put all within to the torture. The anonymous author of the Diary of 

 the Siege adds that he sent word to Gladwyn that he kept the oflficers out 

 of kindness, since, if they returned to the fort, he should be obliged to 

 boil them witli the rest of the garrison, the kettle being already on the 

 fire. 



