196 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



ture an investigation of the abuses practised under the present 

 system, and, as I beheve, a radical change of it." 



Pontiac has already been mentioned, and the part he took 

 in opposition to the transfer of the dominion of the Illinois 

 country from the French to the English. He was born about 

 the begnming of the eighteenth century, and died a few years 

 after that exchange of masters, about the year 1767, killed, 

 it is said, by a blow from a Kaskaskia. He seems to have 

 been possessed of a great degree of bravery and cruelty, if 

 the deeds of his savage forces and allies were countenanced 

 by him. He is said to have been an Ottaw^a, though this is 

 not certain. By some he is called a Huron, others say 

 a Sauk. He belonged to some of the tribes about Lake 

 Michigan, but further I have not seen an authentic statement. 

 He appears to have had great influence with all the tribes in 

 the neighborhood of the Lake, Ottawa, Huron, Miami, and 

 others, though his power failed to induce them to take up the 

 tomahaAvk to resist the English domination. His hatred to 

 the English seems to have been instinctive and invincible. 

 His designs were great, and his energ}'' and boldness sufficient 

 for all occasions. He was not without that very frequent 

 accompaniment of Indian character, treacheiy. A hundred 

 men possess the qualities, where one acquires the character, 

 of a hero. It is necessary that accident and circumstance 

 concur to bring the qualities to the observation of the world. 

 Pontiac was favored in this respect. The nations of red 

 men in that quarter had not lived in harmony the most per- 

 fect. From the Dahcotahs on the west to the Iroquois, east, 

 and from the Hurons on the Lake, to the Ohio, for a long 

 course of years, bloody wars had carried almost extermina- 

 tion to some tribes and nations. A single generation had 

 witnessed the numerous and powerful Illinois nearly swept 

 from the land. This was a school to make a warrior, and 



