244 PONTIAC AT DETROIT. [1763, May. 



pared to resume his operations with fresh vigor ; 

 and to this intent, he made an improved disposition 

 of his forces. Some of the Pottawattaraies were 

 ordered to lie in wait along the river bank, below 

 the fort ; w^hile others concealed themselves in the 

 woods, in order to intercept any Englishman who 

 might approach by land or water. Another band 

 of the same tribe were to conceal themselves in 

 the neighborhood of the fort, when no general 

 attack was going forward, in order to shoot down 

 any soldier or trader who might chance to expose 

 his person. On the eleventh of May, w^hen these 

 arrangements were complete, several Canadians 

 came early in the morning to the fort, to offer what 

 they called friendly advice. It was to the effect 

 that the garrison should at once abandon the place, 

 as it would be stormed within an hour by fifteen 

 hundred Indians. Gladwyn refused, whereupon 

 the Canadians departed ; and soon after some six 

 hundred Indians began a brisk fusillade, which 

 they kept up till seven o'clock in the evening. A 

 Canadian then appeared, bearing a summons from 

 Pontiac, demanding the surrender of the fort, and 

 promising that the English should go unmolested 

 on board their vessels, leaving all their arms and 

 effects behind. Gladwyn again gave a flat refusal.^ 

 On the evening of that day, the officers met to 

 consider what course of conduct the emergency 

 required ; and, as one of them writes, the com- 

 mandant was almost alone in the opinion that they 



1 MS. Letter — James McDonald to , Detroit, July 12. 



