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MICHIGAN CHAPTER 12 Complete Defeat of the Savages
ALL the English outside the fort were murdered. The French were not molested. It has been said that Pontiac did not approve these assassinations but was powerless to prevent them. A Frenchman named Desnoyers came down the river in a canoe and landing at the fort reported that two Englishmen, Sir Robert Davers and Captain Robertson, with a boat's crew, who had been sent to St. Clair Flats to discover a passage for a schooner upward bound, had been murdered; also that a powerful band of Ojibwas from Saginaw had joined the forces of Pontiac. An Englishman living on the island, then called He au Cochon, or Hog Island, in charge of a herd of cattle belonging to the government and pastured there, was scalped and the cattle were killed. The entire Ottawa camp was transferred to a point on the high bank of the river just above the mouth of Parent's creek, afterward called Bloody Run. Here Pontiac and his warriors indulged in a war dance and clamored for vengeance upon the English. All the English who had taken refuge in the fort were impressed into the military service. The utmost vigilance was exercised and every precaution was taken to prevent surprise.
Early next morning the attack upon the fort was begun with all the savage forces combined, including the Ottawas, Pottawatomies, Wyandots and Ojibwas. They pelted a rain of bullets against the stockade and an assault was momentarily expected. The savages concealed themselves behind trees, fences, outbuildings, or lay flat
upon the ground, protected by hillocks or logs. They aimed at the loopholes, but their firing had little effect. The shooting was returned from the fort with effective results, so far as could be known. A cannon was brought into service and red-hot slugs of iron were poured into the wooden buildings in which the savages had concealed themselves.
MICHIGAN
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