APPENDIX C. 



DETROIT AND MICHILLIMACKINAC. 



1. The Siege of Detroit. (Chap. IX.-XV.) 



Tlie authorities consulted respecting tlie siege of Detroit consist of 

 numerous manuscript letters of officers in the fort, including the oflacial 

 correspondence of the commanding officer ; of several journals and frag- 

 ments of journals ; of extracts from contemporary newspapers ; and of 

 traditions and recollections received from Indians or aged Canadians 

 of Detroit. 



The PoxTiAC Manuscript. 



This curious diary was preserved in a Canadian family at Detroit, 

 and afterwards deposited with the Historical Society of Michigan. It is 

 conjectured to have been tlie work of a French priest. The original is 

 written in bad French, and several important parts are defaced or to^n 

 away. As a literary composition, it is quite worthless, being very diffuse 

 and encumbered with dull and trivial details ; yet this very minuteness 

 affords strong internal evidence of its authenticity. Its general exactness 

 with respect to facts is fully proved by comparing it with contemporary 

 documents. I am indebted to General Cass for the copy in my posses- 

 sion, as well as for other papers respecting the w^ar in the neighborhood 

 of Detroit. 



The manuscript appears to have been elaborately written out from a 

 rough journal kept during the progress of the events which it describes. 

 It commences somewhat ambitiously, as follows : — 



" Pondiac, great chief of all the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawatta- 

 mies, and of all the nations of the lakes and rivers of the North, a man 

 proud, vindictive, warlike, and easily offended, under pretence of some 



