The courier who took the belt to the north, offered peace to all the tribes wherever he passed ; and to Detroit, where he arrived on the last of October, he bore a

letter in the nature

of a pro

clamation, informing the inhabitants of the cession of Canada to England ; another addressed to twenty-five nations by name, and particularly to Pontiac, and a third to the commander, express ing a readiness to surrender to the English all the forts of the

The next morning Pontiac

Ohio and east of the Mississippi. 2 " the raised the

peace which his father the French had sent him," and departed with his followers, disap pointed but unrelenting. siege, accepted

The Lenapes and their allies had, in the meantime, performed their allotted work.

Ruined mills, deserted cabins, fields wav

ing with the harvest but without reapers, attested their ruthless

warfare east of the Alleghanies, while at Fort Pitt they held suc

The Virginia troops under Boquet, who had been sent out against them, barely escaped destruction. At Edge hill,

cessful siege.

on the 5th and 6th of August, 1763, stratagem alone saved him.

Taking advantage of the intrepidity of his assailants, he feigned a retreat.

The allies hurried to charge with the utmost daring,

when two companies, that had been purposely upon their flank ; others turned and

concealed,

met them in front

;

fell

and the

Indians, yielding to the irresistible shock, were routed and put

It is a singular fact, that the actors in tragic affair were not of