; while the garrison, shut
in almost without warning, looked forward to scarcity of provisions.

All English people caught beyond the walls were instantly murdered. But
the French settlers were allowed to go about their usual affairs unhurt.
Queer traditions have come down from them of the pious burial they gave
to English victims of the Indians. One old man stuck his hands out of
his grave. The French covered them with earth. But next time they passed
that way they saw the stiff, entreating hands, like pale fungi, again
thrust into view. At this the horrified French settlers hurried to their
priest, who said the neglected burial service over the grave, and so put
the poor Englishman to rest, for his hands protruded no more.

One of the absent schooners kept for the use of the fort had gone down
river with letters and dispatches. Her crew knew nothing of the siege,
and she narrowly escaped capture. A convoy of boats, bringing the usual
spring supplies, was taken, leaving Detroit to face famine. Yet it
refused to surrender, and, in spite of Pontiac's rage and his continual
investment of the place, the red flag of England floated over that
fortress all summer.

Other posts were not so fortunate in resisting Pontiac's conspiracy.
Fort Sandusky, at the west end of Lake Erie; Fort Ouatanon, on the
Wabash, a little south of where Lafayette, in the state of Indiana, now
stands; Fort Miami, Presqu' Isle, Le Boeuf, Venango, on the eastern
border, and Michilimackinac, on the straits, were all taken by the
Indians.

At Presqu' Isle the twenty-seven soldiers went into the blockhouse of
the fort and prepared to hold it, lining and making it bullet-proof.

A blockhouse was built of logs, or very thick timber, and had no
windows, and but one door in the lower story. The upper story projected
several feet all around, and had loopholes in the overhanging, floor,
through which the men could shoot down. Loopholes were also fixed in the
upper walls, wide within, but closing to narrow slits on the outside.
A sentry box or lookout was sometimes put at the top of the roof. With
the door barred by iron or great beams of wood, and food and ammunition
stored in the lower room, men could ascend a ladder to the second story
of a blockhouse and hold it against great odds, if the besiegers did not
succeed in burning them out.

Presqu' Isle was at the edge of Lake Erie, and the soldiers brought
in all the water they could store. But the attacki