saw the
blockhouse burst into flames. Paully and his men were
landed at the Ottawa camp, where a horde of howling
Indians, including women and children, beat them and
compelled them to dance and sing for the entertainment
of the rabble. Preparations were made to torture Paully
to death at the stake; but an old squaw, who had recently
lost her husband, was attracted by the handsome,
dark-skinned young ensign, and adopted him in place of
her deceased warrior. Paully's hair was cut close; he
was dipped into the stream to wash the white blood from
his veins; and finally he was dressed and painted as
became an Ottawa brave.
News of the destruction of Fort Sandusky was brought to
Gladwyn by a trader named La Brosse, a resident of Detroit,
and a few days later a letter was received from Paully
himself. For nearly two months Paully had to act the part
of an Ottawa warrior. But early in July--Pontiac being
in a state of great rage against the British--his squaw
placed him in a farmhouse for safe keeping. In the
confusion arising out of the attack on Fort Detroit on
the 4th of the month, and the murder of Captain Campbell,
he managed to escape, by the aid, it is said, of an Indian
maiden. He was pursued to within musket-shot of the walls
of Detroit. When he entered the fort, so much did he
resemble an Indian that at first he was not recognized.
The next fort to fall into the hands of the Indians was
St Joseph, on the east shore of Lake Michigan, at the
mouth of the St Joseph river. This was the most inaccessible
of the posts on the Great Lakes. The garrison here lived
lonely lives. Around them were thick forests and swamps,
and in front the desolate waters of the sea-like lake.
The Indians about St Joseph had long been under the
influence of the French. This place had been visited by
La Salle; and here in 1688 the Jesuit Allouez had
established a mission. In 1763 the post was held by Ensign
Francis Schlosser and fourteen men. For months the little
garrison had been without news from the east, when, on
May 25, a party of Potawatomis from about Detroit arrived
on a pretended visit to their relations living in the
village at St Joseph, and asked permission to call on
Schlosser. But before a meeting could be arranged, a
French trader entered the fort and warned the commandant
that the Potawatomis intended to destroy the garrison.
Schlosser at once ordered his sergeant to arm his men,
and went among the French settlers s
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