270 PONTIAC IN THE WEST. [1765. 



in the autumn of 1764, faithfully acquitted them- 

 selves of their trust. They visited the Indian vil- 

 lages along the river banks, kindling- the thirst for 

 blood and massacre in the breasts of the inmates. 

 They pushed their sanguinary mission even to the 

 farthest tribes of Southern Louisiana, to whom the 

 great name of Pontiac had long been known, and 

 of late made famiUar by repeated messages and 

 embassies.^ This portion of their task accom- 

 plished, they repaired to New Orleans, and demanded 

 an audience of the governor. 



New Orleans was then a town of about seven 

 thousand white inhabitants, guarded from the river 

 floods by a levee extending for fifty miles along 

 the banks. The small brick houses, one story in 

 height, were arranged with geometrical symmetry, 

 like the squares of a chess-board. Each house 

 had its yard and garden, and the town was enliv- 

 ened with the verdure of trees and grass. In front, 

 a public square, or parade ground, opened upon 

 the river, enclosed on three sides by the dilapi- 

 dated church of St. Louis, a prison, a convent, 

 government buildings, and a range of barracks. 

 The place was surrounded by a defence of pali- 

 sades strong enough to repel an attack of Indians, 

 or insurgent slaves.^ 



1 By the correspondence between the French officers of Upper and 

 Lower Louisiana, it appears that Pontiac's messengers, in several instances, 

 had arrived in the vicinity of New Orleans, whither they had come, partly 

 to beg for aid from the French, and partly to urge, the Indians of the 

 adjacent country to bar the mouth of the Mississippi against the English. 



2 Pittman, European SdfJetnents on the Mississippi, 10. The author of 

 this book is the officer mentioned in the text as having made an unsuc- 

 cessful attempt to reach the Illinois. 



