1763, June.] ESCAPE OF ALEXANDER HENRY. 341 



into the fort, and all was carnage and confusion. 

 At the outset, several strong hands had fastened 

 their gripe upon Etherington and Leslie, and led 

 them away from the scene of massacre towards the 

 woods. ^ Within the area of the fort, the men were 

 slaughtered without mercy. But here the task of 

 description may well be resigned to the pen of the 

 trader, Henry. 



" I did not go myself to see the match which was 

 now to be played without the fort, because, there 

 being a canoe prepared to depart on the following 

 day for Montreal, 1 employed myself in writing 

 letters to my friends ; and even when a fellow- 

 trader, Mr. Tracy, happened to call upon me, say- 

 ing that another canoe had just arrived from 

 Detroit, and proposing that I should go with him 

 to the beach, to inquire the news, it so happened 

 that I still remained to finish my letters ; promising 

 to follow Mr. Tracy in the course of a few minutes. 

 Mr. Tracy had not gone more than twenty paces 

 from my door, when I heard an Indian war-cry, 

 and a noise of general confusion. 



" Going instantly to my window^, I saw a crowd 

 of Indians, within the fort, furiously cutting down 

 and scalping every Englishman they found : in 

 particular, I witnessed the fate of Lieutenant 

 Jamette. 



" I had, in the room in which I was, a fowling- 

 piece, loaded with swan shot. This I immediately 

 seized, and held it for a few minutes, waiting 

 to hear the drum beat to arms. In this dreadful 



1 MS. Letter — Etherington to Gladwyn, June 12. See Appendix, C. 



