e the winning side, they were content to follow his
leadership. No sooner, however, did the tide of fortune turn against
him with the failure of his attempt to capture the schooner, than these
tribes sent a deputation of chiefs to Gladwyn with proposals for peace.
This was granted them and the treaty was consummated by a general
exchange of prisoners.

It was owing to Pontiac's distrust of these allies, to whom had been
intrusted the attack on Cuyler's expedition, that he had secretly sent
Ah-mo and Atoka to provide for the safety of Edith Hester, rightly
thinking that they could act more effectively than a larger party and
at the same time attract less notice. How they succeeded in conveying
their charge to an island on which was maintained a picket of Ottawa
warriors, has already been told.

This picket post was a source of grievance to the Wyandots, who,
dwelling nearest the mouth of the river, claimed that they alone were
entitled to occupy that territory and guard its approaches. After
their victory over Cuyler, they protested so loudly against the
continuation of the Ottawa outpost on their island, that Pontiac
reluctantly ordered it to be withdrawn, and the captives who were held
there to be brought to his own village.

Thus it happened that to these Indians was left the entire guarding of
the southern approaches to Detroit; and when, at the end of July, a
strong detachment of troops in twenty-two bateaux, under command of
Captain Dalzell, appeared at the mouth of the river, they having just
concluded their treaty of peace, allowed it to pass up unmolested. The
flotilla came up at night; and at sunrise, as the sea of fog covering
the vicinity of Detroit began to roll away in fleecy masses, its
foremost boats were discovered by a sentinel, who at once announced the
joyful intelligence. As before, the beleaguered garrison hastened to
the water front in anxious expectancy. Were the approaching boats
indeed filled with friends come to their relief, or, as in the former
case, with victorious savages and dejected captives? Not until the
questioning salute of their guns was answered by the glad roar of a
swivel from the foremost boat was the query answered, and the
apprehensions of the war-worn garrison changed to a joyous certainty.

All at once their rejoicings were silenced by a double sheet of fire
that leaped from both banks of the river at once. A hail of bullets
was poured into the crowded boats from