290 BLOCKADE OF DETEOIT. [1763, June. 



iiig inhabitants, by which several were killed ; and 

 then, furling her sails, lay peacefully at anchor by 

 the side of her companion vessel, abreast of the 

 fort. 



The schooner brought to the garrison a much- 

 needed supply of men, ammunition, and provisions. 

 She brought, also, the important tidings that peace 

 was at length concluded between France and Eng- 

 land. The bloody and momentous struggle of the 

 French war, which had shaken North America 

 since the year 1755, had indeed been virtually 

 closed by the victory on the Plains of Abraham, 

 and the junction of the three British armies at 

 Montreal. Yet up to this time, its embers had 

 continued to burn, till at length peace was com- 

 pletely established by formal treaty between the 

 hostile powers. France resigned her ambitious 

 project of empire in America, and ceded Canada 

 and . the region of the lakes to her successful rival. 

 By this treaty, the Canadians of Detroit were placed 

 in a new position. Hitherto they had been, as it 

 were, prisoners on capitulation, neutral spectators 

 of the quarrel between their British conquerors 

 and the Indians ; but now their allegiance was 

 transferred from the crown of France to that of 

 Britain, and they were subjects of the English 

 king. To many of them the change was extremely 

 odious, for they cordially hated the British. They 

 went about among the settlers and the Indians, 

 declaring that the pretended news of peace was 

 only an invention of Major Gladwyn ; that the king 

 of France would never abandon his children ; and 



