FOUR BAYS AT DETROIT. 293 



account of its being the great stronghold of the 

 West. 



In 1763, Pontiac had arranged his famous scheme 

 for either annihilating the obnoxious newcomers or 

 driving them east of the Alleghenies. They did not 

 treat him so considerately as the old claimants, and he 

 was far-seeing enough to realize the result. Aflame 

 with hatred and determined to save his people from 

 the fate that awaited them, he visited the great tribes 

 that were friendly, and sought their co-operation. 

 In a speech at the great council held at Ecorse on the 

 twenty-seventh of April, 1762, he said, "As for these 

 English — these dogs dressed in red who have come 

 to rob you of your hunting-grounds and to drive away 

 the game — you must lift the hatchet against them and 

 wipe them from the face of the earth. ^' The plan 

 was worthy of a Napoleon. The confederated tribes 

 were to attack simultaneously all the Western forts, 

 while his particular band was to be brought against 

 Detroit. This point he had expected to take by 

 stratagem and would no doubt have succeeded but 

 for the betrayal of the plot by an Ojibway maiden 

 who was in love with the British commandant. The 

 day before its execution this Indian girl brought Major 

 Gladwyn a pair of moccasins which he iiad asked her 

 to make for him, and on her way home with the re- 

 mainder of the deer-skin, which he had furnished 

 for the same purpose, she lingered about the gate 

 so as to attract the attention of the sentinel. He 

 saw that she seemed to be troubled about something, 

 and asked her to return. Wavering between love and 

 duty to her race, she hesitated ; but finally the im- 

 pulse of her heart prevailed, and returning to the 



