He died
soon after his imprisonment; the iron of humiliation had probably eaten
into the heart of a man who, whatever his faults, had many estimable
qualities, and loved his native country.

For several years Canada was under what has been generally called the
military regime; that is to say, the province was divided into the
three districts of Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal, of which the
government was administered by military chiefs; in the first place by
General Murray, Colonel Burton, and General Gage respectively. These
military authorities--notably General Murray--endeavoured to win the
confidence of the people by an impartial and considerate conduct of
affairs. Civil matters in the parishes were left practically under the
control of the captains of militia, who had to receive new commissions
from the British Crown. Appeal could be always made to the military
chief at the headquarters of the district, but, as a matter of fact,
the people generally managed their affairs among themselves, in
accordance with their old usages and laws. Military councils tried
criminal cases according to English law.

While the French Canadians were in the enjoyment of rest on the banks
of the St. Lawrence and its tributary rivers, the Western Indians, who
had been the allies of France during the war, suddenly arose and seized
nearly all the forts and posts which {269} had been formerly built by
the French on the Great Lakes, in the valley of the Ohio, and in the
Illinois country. After the taking of Montreal, Captain Robert Rogers,
the famous commander of the Colonial Rangers, whose name occurs
frequently in the records of the war, was sent by General Amherst to
take possession of the forts at Presqu'ile, Detroit, Michillimackinac,
Green Bay, and other places in the West. In the course of a few months
there were in all these western posts small garrisons of English
soldiers. In the neighbourhood of Detroit and Michillimackinac there
were French Canadian villages, conspicuous for their white cottages
with overhanging bark roofs and little gardens, orchards, and meadows.
Forts Chartres and Vincennes were still in the possession of the
French, and there was a population of nearly two thousand French
Canadians or Louisiana French living in the Illinois country, chiefly
at Cahokia and Kaskaskia on the Mississippi. The Indian tribes that
took part in the rising of 1763 were the Ottawas, Pottawattomies,
Ojibways (Chippeways),