as Acadia, with all their dependencies. The
French Canadians were allowed full liberty "to profess the worship of
their religion according to the rites of the Romish Church, as far as
the laws of Great Britain permit." The people had permission to retire
from Canada with all their effects within eighteen months from the date
of the ratification of the treaty. All the evidence before us goes to
show that only a few officials and seigniors ever availed themselves of
this permission to leave the country. At this time there was not a
single French settlement beyond Vaudreuil until the traveller reached
the banks of the Detroit between Lakes Erie and Huron. A chain of forts
and posts connected Montreal with the basin of the great lakes and the
country watered by the Ohio, Illinois, and other tributaries of the
Mississippi. The forts on the Niagara, at Detroit, at Michillimackinac,
at Great Bay, on the Maumee and Wabash, at Presqu' isle, at the junction
of French Creek with the Alleghany, at the forks of the Ohio, and at
less important localities in the West and South-West, were held by small
English garrisons, while the French still occupied Vincennes on the
Wabash and Chartres on the Mississippi, in the vicinity of the French
settlements at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and the present site of St. Louis.

Soon after the fall of Montreal, French traders from New Orleans and the
French settlements on the Mississippi commenced to foment disaffection
among the western Indians, who had strong sympathy with France, and were
quite ready to believe the story that she would ere long regain Canada.
The consequence was the rising of all the western tribes under the
leadership of Pontiac, the principal chief of the Ottawas, whose
warriors surrounded and besieged Detroit when he failed to capture it by
a trick. Niagara was never attacked, and Detroit itself was successfully
defended by Major Gladwin, a fearless soldier; but all the other forts
and posts very soon fell into the hands of the Indians, who massacred
the garrisons in several places. They also ravaged the border
settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and carried off a number of
women and children to their wigwams. Fort Pitt at the confluence of the
Alleghany and the Monongahela rivers--the site of the present city of
Pittsburg--was in serious peril for a time, until Colonel Bouquet, a
brave and skilful officer, won a signal victory over the Indians, who
fled in dismay to their forest