1765] CROGHAN'S EFFORTS SUCCESSFUL. 297 



concluded his speech with the common termination 

 of an Indian harangue, and desired that the rum 

 barrel might be opened, and his thirsty warriors 

 allowed to drink. 



At the end of September, having brought these 

 protracted conferences to a close, Croghan left 

 Detroit, and departed for Niagara, whence, after 

 a short delay, he passed eastward, to report the 

 results of his mission to the commander-in-chief. 

 But before leaving the Indian country, he exacted 

 from Pontiac a promise that in the spring he would 

 descend to Oswego, and, in behalf of the tribes 

 lately banded in his league, conclude a treaty of 

 peace and amity with Sir William Johnson.^ 



Croo:han's efforts had been attended with simial 

 success. The tribes of the west, of late bristling 

 in defiance, and hot for fight, had craved forgive- 

 ness, and proffered the calumet. The war w^as 

 over ; the last fhckerinsfs of that wide conflaofration 

 had died away ; but the embers still glowed beneath 

 the ashes, and fuel and a breath alone w^ere want- 

 ing to rekindle those desolating fires. 



In the mean time, a hundred Highlanders of the 

 42d Eegiment, those veterans whose battle-cry had 

 echoed over the bloodiest fields of America, had 



1 In a letter to Gage, without a date, but sent in the same enclosure 

 as his journal, Croghan gives his impression of Pontiac in the following 

 words : — 



"Pondiac is a shrewd, sensible Indian, of fevv words, and commands 

 more respect among his own nation than any Indian I ever saw could do 

 among his own tribe He, and all the principal men of those nations, 

 seem at present to be convinced that the French had a view of interest in 

 stirring up the late differences between lus Majesty's subjects and them, 

 and call it a beaver war." 



