half before peace generally
reigned and Canada could be considered secure from Indian attacks.

At Detroit, where Major Gladwin was in command, Pontiac hoped to seize
the fort by a stratagem. The Ottawas and other Indians under that
chief were to meet the English officers in council within the fort at
an appointed time. They had filed off the tops of the barrels of their
muskets so as to conceal them easily under their garments. While in
council Pontiac was to give a signal which would tell the assembled
warriors that the time had come for falling on the garrison and taking
possession of the fort.[1] Some writers give credence to the story
that an Indian maiden, the mistress of Gladwin, warned him of the
scheme of the Indian chief, who came to the council, in accordance with
his intention, and found the garrison in arms and ready for any
treacherous movement on his part. He left the fort in anger, and soon
afterwards attacked it with all his force, though to no purpose, as
Gladwin was able to hold it for many months, until aid reached him from
{272} the east. As one Indian woman's devotion saved Detroit, so the
treachery of a Delaware girl gave Fort Miami and its little garrison to
the Indians encamped on the Maumee. Holmes, the commandant, was her
lover, and believed her when she told him that a squaw, who was
seriously ill in one of the wigwams, wished to see him. He proceeded
on his charitable mission, and was shot dead while about entering the
place of his destination. At Michillimackinac Captain Etherington was
surprised by a clever piece of strategy on the part of a body of Sacs
and Ojibways, who invited him to witness a contest between them at
their favourite sport of Lacrosse, which in these modern times has been
made the national game of Canadians. While the game was going on, the
gate was left open while the officers and soldiers stood in groups
outside, close to the palisades, watching the Indians as they tossed
the ball to and fro between the goals on the level ground opposite the
fort. The squaws, wrapped in their blankets, passed in and out the
fort, without attracting any attention from the interested spectators.
Suddenly, when the game was most hotly contested, the ball was
violently driven in the direction of the pickets of the fort. A crowd
of the savage players tumultuously followed the ball, and in a moment
were inside the fort where they snatched weapons from the squaws. One
officer an