308 DEATH OF PONTIAC. [1769. 



with the lapse of time ; yet for many months we 

 can discern no trace of Pontiac. Records and tra- 

 ditions are silent concerning him. It is not until 

 April, 1769, that he appears once more distinctly 

 on the scene. ^ At about that time he came to the 

 Illinois, with what design does not appear, though 

 his movements excited much uneasiness among the 

 few English in that quarter. Soon after his arrival, 

 he repaired to St. Louis, to visit his former acquaint- 

 ance, St. Ange, who was then in command at that 

 post, having offered his services to the Spaniards 

 after the cession of Louisiana. After leaving the 

 fort, Pontiac proceeded to the house of which 

 young Pierre Chouteau was an inmate ; and to the 

 last days of his protracted life, the latter could viv- 

 idly recall the circumstances of the interview. The 

 savage chief was arrayed in the full uniform of a 

 French officer, which had been presented to him as 

 a special mark of respect and favor by the Marquis 

 of Montcalm, towards the close of the French war, 

 and which Pontiac never had the bad taste to wear, 

 except on occasions when he wished to appear with 

 unusual dignity. St. Ange, Chouteau, and the 

 other principal inhabitants of the infiint settlement, 

 w^hom he visited in turn, all received him cordially, 

 and did their best to entertain him and his attend- 



1 Carver says that Pontiac was killed in 1767. This may possibly 

 be a mere printer's error. In the Maryland Gazette, and also in the Penn- 

 sylvania Gazette, were published during the month of August, 1769, several 

 letters from the Indian country, in which Pontiac is mentioned as having 

 been killed'during the preceding April. M. Chouteau states that, to the 

 best of his recollection, the chief was killed in 1768 ; but oral testimony 

 is of little weight in regard to dates. The evidence of the Gazettes ap- 

 pears conclusive. 



