eeking their aid.
Even while he was addressing them a shrill death-cry rang
out--the sentry at the gate had fallen a victim to the
tomahawk of a savage. In an instant a howling mob of
Potawatomis under their chief Washee were within the
stockade. Eleven of the garrison were straightway put to
death, and the fort was plundered. Schlosser and the
three remaining members of his little band were taken to
Detroit by some Foxes who were present with the Potawatomis.
On June 10 Schlosser had the good fortune to be exchanged
for two chiefs who were prisoners in Fort Detroit.
The Indians did not destroy Fort St Joseph, but left it
in charge of the French under Louis Chevalier. Chevalier
saved the lives of several British traders, and in every
way behaved so admirably that at the close of the Indian
war he was given a position of importance under the
British, which position he held until the outbreak of
the Revolutionary War.
We have seen that when Major Robert Rogers visited Detroit
in 1760, one of the French forts first occupied was Miami,
situated on the Maumee river, at the commencement of the
portage to the Wabash, near the spot where Fort Wayne
was afterwards built. At the time of the outbreak of the
Pontiac War this fort was held by Ensign Robert Holmes
and twelve men. Holmes knew that his position was critical.
In 1762 he had reported that the Senecas, Shawnees, and
Delawares were plotting to exterminate the British in
the Indian country, and he was not surprised when, towards
the end of May 1763, he was told by a French trader that
Detroit was besieged by the Ottawa Confederacy. But though
Holmes was on the alert, and kept his men under arms, he
was nevertheless to meet death and his fort was to be
captured by treachery. In his desolate wilderness home
the young ensign seems to have lost his heart to a handsome
young squaw living in the vicinity of the fort. On May
27 she visited him and begged him to accompany her on a
mission of mercy--to help to save the life of a sick
Indian woman. Having acted as physician to the Indians
on former occasions, Holmes thought the request a natural
one. The young squaw led him to the Indian village,
pointed out the wigwam where the woman was supposed to
be, and then left him. As he was about to enter the wigwam
two musket-shots rang out, and he fell dead. Three
soldiers, who were outside the fort, rushed for the gate,
but they were tomahawked before they could reach it. The
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