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prairie. Listen, and recollect that these are Pontiac's words." Having 

 then despatched scouts upon the Mississippi and the Ohio, he hastened 

 with some of his warriors to Fort Chartres, where he addres?ed Mr. St. 

 Ange de Bellerive in the following terms: 



'• Father, we have long wished to see thee, to shake hands with thee, 

 find, whilst smoking the calumet of peace, to recall the battles in which 

 we fought together against the misguided Indians and the Enalish dogs. 

 I love the French, and I have come iiere with my warriors to avenge their 

 wrongs," (fcc, &.c. Mr. de St. Ange was a Canadian officpr of great bra- 

 verj', and too much honor to be seduced by this language. Besides, he 

 knew too well the Indian character, to lose sight of tlie fact that the love 

 of plunder was probably, at bottom, a stronger inducement for Pontiac 

 than his love for the French. This visit, which was terminated by an 

 exchange of civilities, might, nevertheless, have brought difliculiies upon 

 the small garrison of Fort Chartres. But news arrived that the Indians of 

 Lower Louisiana had attacked the British expedition, some miles below 

 Natcliez, and repulsed it. Ponliac became then less active in guarding the 

 rivers; and, as he believed that the occupation of the country had been 

 retarded again, he and his party were about to retire altogether. During 

 the time, however, that the news took to arrive, the British had succeeded 

 in getting up another expedition, on the Ohio; and Captain Stirling, at 

 the head of a company of Scots, arrived unexpectedly iti the summer of 

 1765; taking possession of the fort before the Indians had time to offer any 

 resistance. At this news, Pontiac raved ; swearing that, before he left the 

 country, he would retake the fort, and bear away Captain Stirling's scalp. 

 But the intervention of Mr. St. Ange and iNlr. I^aclede put an end to these 

 savage threats. Pontiac returned to the north, made peace with the Brit- 

 ish, from whom he received a pension, and seemed to have biiried all ani- 

 mosity against them. But, by his restless spirit, he soon aroused new sus- 

 picions; and we are informed by Captain Jonathan Carver, that Pontiac 

 haviug gone, in the year 1707, to hold a council in the Illinois country, an 

 Indian, who was either commissioned by one of the English governors, or 

 instigated by the love he bore the English nation, attended him as a spy; 

 and being convinced, from the speech Pontiac made in the council, that he 

 still retained his former prejudice against those for whom he now professed 

 friendship, he plunged his knife into his heart as soon as he had done 

 speaking, and laid him dead on the spot. 



Captain Carver travelled throuoh the northern region, but never was 

 south of the Prairie du Chien; so that his information is probably incor- 

 rect. The celebrity of Pontiac, as well as the distinguished part he took 

 in the Indian wars of the west, will justify me, therefore, for introducing 

 here a somewhat different statement of the manner of his death, as I have 

 it from two of the most respectable living authorities of the day — Colonel 

 Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis, and Colonel Pierre Menard, of Kaskaskia. 

 It is as follows : Pontiac's last residence was in St. Louis. One day he 

 came to Mr. de St. Ange, and told him that he was going to pay a visit to 

 the Kaskaskia Indians. Mr. de St. Ange endeavored to dissuade him from 

 it, reminding him of the little friendship that existed between him and the 

 British. Pontiac's answer was : " Captain, I am a man ! I know how to 

 fight. I have always fought openly. They will not murder me ; and if 

 any one attacks me as a brave man, I am his match." He went otf ; was 

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