1764, July.] OTTAWAS AND MENOMONIES. 173 



exclaimed, in the figurative language of his people, 

 " When our brother came to meet us, the storms 

 ceased, the lake became smooth, and the whole 

 face of nature was changed." 



They disowned all connection or privity with the 

 designs of Pontiac. " Brother," said one of the 

 Ottawa chiefs, " you must not imagine I am 

 acquainted with the cause of the war. I only 

 heard a little bird whistle an account of it, and, 

 on going to Michillimackinac, I found your people 

 killed ; upon which I sent our priest to inquire 

 into the matter. On the priest's return, he brought 

 me no favorable account, but a war-hatchet from 

 Pontiac, which I scarcely looked on, and immedi- 

 ately threw away." 



Another of the Ottawas, a chief of the remoter 

 band of Lake Michigan, spoke to a similar effect, 

 as follows : " We are not of the same people as 

 those residing about Michillimackinac ; we only 

 heard at a distance that the enemy were killing 

 your soldiers, on which we covered our heads, and 

 I resolved not to suffer my people to engage in the 

 war. I gathered them together, and made them 

 sit still. In the spring, on uncovering my head, I 

 perceived that they had again begun a war, and 

 that the sky was all cloudy in that quarter." 



The superintendent thanked them for their fidel- 

 ity to the English ; reminded them that their true 

 interest lay in the preservation of peace, and con- 

 cluded with a gift of food and clothing, and a 

 permission, denied to all the rest, to open a trafifi.c 

 with the traders, who had already begun to assem- 



