316 THE FIGHT OF BLOODY BRIDGE. [1763, July. 



by full two hundred Indians. The two armed 

 bateaux had gone down to the fort, laden with the 

 dead and wounded. They now returned, and, in 

 obedience to an order from Grant, proceeded up 

 the river to a point opposite Campau's house, where 

 they opened a fire of swivels, which swept the 

 ground above and below it, and completely scat- 

 tered the assailants. Rogers and his party now 

 came out, and marched down the road, to unite 

 themselves with Grant. The two bateaux accom- 

 panied them closely, and, by a constant fire, re- 

 strained the Indians from making an attack. 

 Scarcely had Rogers left the house at one door, 

 w^hen the enemy entered it at another, to obtain the 

 scalps from two or three corpses left behind. Fore- 

 most of them all, a withered old squaw rushed in, 

 with a shrill scream, and, slashing open one of the 

 dead bodies with her knife, scooped up the blood 

 between her hands, and quaffed it with a ferocious 

 ecstasy. 



Grant resumed his retreat as soon as Rogers had 

 arrived, falling back from house to house, joined 

 in succession by the parties sent to garrison each. 

 The Indians, in great numbers, stood whooping 

 and yelling, at a vain distance, unable to make an 

 attack, so well did Grant choose his positions, and 

 so steadily and coolly conduct the retreat. About 

 eight o'clock, after six hours of marching and com- 

 bat, the detachment entered once more within the 

 sheltering palisades of Detroit. 



In this action, the English lost fifty-nine men 

 killed and wounded. The loss of the Indians 



