1769.] DEATH OF PONTIAC. 311 



forest, the assassin stole close upon his track ; and, 

 watching his moment, glided behind him, and 

 buried a tomahawk in his brain. 



The dead body was soon discovered, and startled 

 cries and wild bowlings announcd the event. The 

 word w^as caught up from mouth to mouth, and the 

 place resounded with infernal yells. The warriors 

 snatched their weapons. The Illinois took part 

 with their guilty countryman ; and the few follow- 

 ers of Pontiac, driven from the village, fled to 

 spread the tidings and call the nations to revenge. 

 Meanwhile the murdered chief lay on the spot 

 where he had fallen, until St. Ange, mindful of 

 former friendship, sent to claim the body, and 

 buried it with warlike honors, near his fort of St. 

 Louis. ^ 



1 Carver, Travels, 166, says that Pontiac was stabbed at a public 

 council in the Illinois, by " a faithful Indian who was either commissioned 

 by one of the English governors, or instigated by the love he bore the 

 English nation." This accoimt is without sufficient confirmation. Car- 

 ver, who did not visit the Illinois, must have drawn his information from 

 hearsay. The open manner of dealing with his victim, which he ascribes 

 to the assassin, is wholly repugnant to Indian character and principles ; 

 while the gross cliarge, thrown out at random against an English governor, 

 might of itself cast discredit on the story. 



I have followed the account which I received from M. Pierre Chouteau, 

 and from M. P. L. ■ Cerre, another old inhabitant of the Illinois, whose 

 father was well acquainted with Pontiac. The same account may be 

 found, concisely stated, in Nicollet, p. 81. M. Nicollet states that he 

 derived his information both from M. Chouteau and from the no less 

 respectable authority of the aged Pierre Menard of Kaskaskia. The 

 notices of Pontiac's death in the provincial journals of the day, to a cer- 

 tain extent, confirm this story. We gather from them, that he was killed 

 at the Illinois, by one or more Kaskaskia Indians, during a drunken frolic, 

 and in consequence of his hostility to the English. One letter, however, 

 states on hearsay that he was killed near Fort Chartres ; and Gouin's tra- 

 ditional account seems to support the statement. On this point, 1 have 

 followed the distinct and circumstantial narrative of Chouteau, supported 

 as it i? by Cerre. An Ottawa tradition declares that Pontiac took a Kas- 



