1763, Mat.] ESCAPE OF PRISONERS. 265 



foam, and narrowly missing the foremost canoe. 

 At this, the pursuers drew back in dismay ; and 

 the Indians on shore, being farther saluted by 

 a second shot, ceased firing, and scattered among 

 the bushes. The prisoners soon reached the vessel, 

 where they were greeted as men snatched from 

 the jaws of fate ; " a living monument," writes an 

 officer of the garrison, " that Fortune favors the 

 brave." ' 



They related many particulars of the catastrophe 

 which had befallen them and their companions. 

 Lieutenant Cuyler had left Fort Niagara as early 

 as the thirteenth of May, and embarked from Fort 

 Schlosser, just above the falls, with ninety-six men 

 and a plentiful supply of provisions and ammuni- 

 tion. Day after day he had coasted the northern 

 shore of Lake Erie, and seen neither friend nor foe 

 amid those lonely forests and waters, until, on the 

 twenty-eighth of the month, he landed at Point 

 Pelee, not far from the mouth of the River Detroit. 

 The boats w^ere drawn on the beach, and the party 

 prepared to encamp. A man and a boy went to 

 gather firewood at a short distance from the spot, 

 when an Indian leaped out of the woods, seized 

 the boy by the hair, and tomahawked him. The 

 man ran into camp w4th the alarm. Cuyler imme- 

 diately formed his soldiers into a semicircle before 

 the boats. He had scarcely done so when the 

 enemy opened their fire. For an instant, there was 

 a hot blaze of musketry on both sides ; then the 



1 Penn. Gaz. No. 1807. St. Aubin's Account, MS. Peltier's Account, 

 MS. 



