284 RUIN OF THE INDIAN CAUSE. [1765 



canoe, and aided by the current, Eraser floated 

 prosperously downwards for a thousand miles, and 

 landed safely in the country of the Illinois. Here 

 he found the Indians in great destitution, and in a 

 frame of mind which would have inclined them to 

 peace but for the secret encouragement they received 

 from the French. A change, however, soon took 

 place. Boats arrived from New Orleans, loaded 

 with a great quantity of goods, which the French, 

 at that place, being about to abandon it, had sent 

 in haste to the Illinois. The traders' shops at 

 Kaskaskia were suddenly filled again. The Indi- 

 ans were delighted ; and the French, with a view 

 to a prompt market for their guns, hatchets, and 

 gunpowder, redoubled their incitements to war. 

 Fraser found himself in a hornet's nest. His life 

 was in great danger ; but Pontiac, who was then 

 at Kaskaskia, several times interposed to save him. 

 The French traders picked a quarrel with him, and 

 instigated the Indians to kill him ; for it was their 

 interest that the war should go on. A party of 

 them invited Pontiac to dinner ; plied him with 

 whiskey ; and, having made him drunk, incited 

 him to have Fraser and his servant seized. They 

 were brought to the house where the debauch was 

 going on ; and here, among a crowd of drunken 

 Indians, their lives hung by a hair. Fraser writes, 

 " He (Pontiac) and his men fought all night about 

 us. They said we would get ofl" next day if they 

 should not prevent our flight by killing us. This 

 Pontiac would not do. All night they did nothing 

 else but sing the death song ; but my servant and 



