312 DEATH OF PONTIAC. [1769. 



Thus basely perished this champion of a ruined 

 race. But could his shade have revisited the scene 

 of murder, his savage spirit would have exulted in 

 the vengeance which overwhelmed the abettors 

 of the crime. Whole tribes w^ere rooted out to 

 expiate it. Chiefs and sachems, whose veins had 

 thrilled with his eloquence ; young warriors, whose 

 aspiring hearts had caught the inspiration of his 

 greatness, mustered to revenge his fate ; and, from 

 the north and the east, their united bands descended 

 on the villages of the Illinois. Tradition has but 

 faintly preserved the memory of the event ; and its 

 only annalists, men who held the intestine feuds of 

 the savage tribes in no more account than the 

 quarrels of panthers or wildcats, have left but a 

 meagre record. Yet enough remains to tell us 

 that over the grave of Pontiac more blood was 

 poured out in atonement, than flowed from the 

 veins of the slaughtered heroes on the corpse of 

 Patroclus ; and the remnant of the Illinois who 

 survived the carnage remained for ever after sunk 

 in utter insignificance.^ 



kaskia wife, with whom he had a quarrel, and she persuaded her two 

 brothers to kill him. 



I am indebted to the kindness of my friend Mr. Lyman C. Draper for 

 valuable assistance in my inquiries in relation to Pontiac's death. 



1 " This murder, which roused the vengeance of all the Indian tribes 

 friendly to Pontiac, brought about the successive wars, and almost total 

 extermination, oY the Illinois nation." — Nicollet, 82. 



" The Kaskaskias, Peorias, Cahokias, and lUonese are nearly all de- 

 stroyed by the Sacs and Foxes, for killing in cool blood, and in time of 

 peace, the Sac's chief, Pontiac." — Mass. Hist. Coll. Second Series, II. 8. 



The above extract exhibits the usual confusion of Indian names, the 

 Kiskaskias, Peorias, and Cahokias being component tribes of the Illonese 

 or Illinois nation, Pontiac is called a chief of the Sacs. This, with 



