310 DEATH OF PONTIAC. [1769. 



lapse of a century, and offers at this day an aspect 

 not widely different from that which met the eye 

 of Pontiac, when he and his chiefs landed on its 

 shore. 



The place w^as full of Illinois Indians ; such a 

 scene as in our own time may often be met with in 

 some^ squalid settlement of the border, where the 

 vagabond guests, bedizened with dirty finery, tie 

 their small horses in rows along the fences, and 

 stroll idly among the houses, or lounge about the 

 dramshops. A chief so renowned as Pontiac could 

 not remain long among the friendly Creoles of 

 Cahokia without being summoned to a feast ; and 

 at such primitive entertainment the whiskey-bottle 

 would not fail to play its part. This was in truth 

 the case. Pontiac drank deeply, and, when the 

 carousal was over, strode down the village street to 

 the adjacent woods, where he was heard to sing 

 the medicine songs, in whose magic power he 

 trusted as the warrant of success in all his under- 

 takings. 



An English trader, named Williamson, was then 

 in the village. He had looked on the movements 

 of Pontiac with a jealousy probably not diminished 

 by the visit of the chief to the French at St. Louis ; 

 and he now resolved not to lose so favorable an 

 opportunity to despatch him. With this view, he 

 gained the ear of a strolling Indian, belonging to 

 the Kaskaskia tribe of the IlUnois, bribed him with 

 a barrel of liquor, and promised him a farther 

 reward if he would kill the chief. The bargain 

 was quickly made. When Pontiac entered the 



