276 FATE OF THE FOREST GARRISONS. [1763, June. 



offered no violence to the persons or property of 

 any of the Frenchmen." 



Captain Etherington next related some particu- 

 lars of the massacre at Michillimackinac, sufficiently 

 startling, as will soon appear. He spoke in high 

 terms of the character and conduct of Father 

 Jonois, and requested that Gladwyn would send 

 all the troops he could spare up Lake Huron, that 

 the post might be recaptured from the Indians, and 

 garrisoned afresh. Gladwyn, being scarcely able to 

 defend himself, could do nothing for the relief of 

 his brother officer, and the Jesuit set out on his 

 long and toilsome canoe voyage back to Michilli- 

 mackinac.^ The loss of this place was a very 

 serious misfortune, for, next to Detroit, it was the 

 most important post on the upper lakes. 



The next news which came in was that of the 

 loss of Ouatanon, a fort situated upon the Wabash, 

 a little below the site of the present town of La 

 Fayette. Gladwyn received a letter from its com- 

 manding officer. Lieutenant Jenkins, informing 

 him that, on the first of June, he and several of 

 his men had been made prisoners by stratagem, on 

 which the rest of the garrison had surrendered. 

 The Indians, however, apologized for their con- 

 duct, declaring that they acted contrary to their 

 own inclinations, and that the surrounding tribes 

 compelled them to take up the hatchet.^ These 



1 Pontiac MS. 



2 «' Ouatanon, June 1st, 1763. 

 " Sir : 



" I have heard of your situation, which gives me great Pain ; indeed, 

 we are not in much better, for this morning the Indians sent for me, to 



