296 OCEAN TO OCEAN ON HOUSEBACR. 



he received word from the commandant of Fort 

 Chartres on the Mississippi telling him that it was 

 impossihle for the French to give any help as they 

 had signed a treaty with the English ; and later 

 similar messages reached him from other points. Still 

 he did not give up. His allies had captured eight 

 forts, and if he eould take Detroit success would un- 

 doubtedly follow. 



In the spring the tribes returned to renew the at- 

 tack upon the well nigh exhausted garrison, keeping 

 up their fiendish tortures, capturing vessels sent with 

 supplies and reinforcements, and bringing the handful 

 of brave men within the palisades to the verge of de- 

 spair. As summer advanced the anxious watchers, 

 hearing the sunset gun thunder out across the water, 

 thought that each night might be their last ; but off 

 in the East, General Bradstreet and his large force 

 were starting to the rescue, and by midsummer they 

 had crushed the hopes, if not the proud spirit of Pon- 

 tiac. Sending one of his officers to this chief with 

 terms of peace, his advances were received with the 

 coldest disdain. Captain Morris, who was the ambas- 

 sador, was met beyond the Indian camp by Pontiac 

 himself, but the chief refused to extend his hand, and 

 bending his glittering eyes upon the officer said, with 

 a voice full of bitterness and hatred, '^The English 

 are liars ! " 



All attempts at conciliation were made in vain. 

 Pontiac, taking with him four hundred warriors, went 

 away, revisiting all the tribes, sending the wampum 

 belt and hatchet stained with vermilion far and wide, 

 and exhorting the Indians to unite in the common 

 cause, threatening, if they refused, to consume them 



