1763, Mat.] FORT ST. JOSEPH. 273 



be Ensign Schlosser, lately commanding at St. 

 Joseph's, together with three private soldiers. 

 The Indians wished to exchange them for several 

 of their own tribe, who had been for nearly two 

 months prisoners in the fort. After some delay, 

 this was effected ; and the garrison then learned the 

 unhappy fate of their comrades at St. Joseph's. 

 This post stood at the mouth of the River St. 

 Joseph's, near the head of Lake Michigan, a spot 

 which had long been the site of a Eoman Catholic 

 mission. Here, among the forests, swamps, and 

 ocean-like waters, at an unmeasured distance from 

 any abode of civilized man, the indefatigable Jesuits 

 had labored more than half a century for the 

 spiritual good of the Pottawattamies, who lived 

 in great numbers near the margin of the lake. 

 As early as the year 1712, as Father Marest 

 informs us, the mission was in a thriving state, 

 and around it had gathered a little colony of the 

 forest-loving Canadians. Here, too, the French 

 government had established a military post, whose 

 garrison, at the period of our narrative, had been 

 supplanted by Ensign Schlosser, with his command 

 of fourteen men, a mere handful, in the heart of 

 a wilderness swarming with insidious enemies. 

 They seem, however, to have apprehended no 

 danger, when, on the twenty-fifth of May, early in 

 the morning, the officer was informed that a large 

 party of the Pottawattamies of Detroit had come 

 to pay a visit to their relatives at St. Joseph's. 

 Presently, a chief, named Washashe, with three or 

 four followers, came to his quarters, as if to hold a 



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