00 ft. square S. of what is now Jefferson Avenue
and between Griswold and Shelby streets, and named it Fort Pontchartrain
in honour of the French colonial minister. Indians at once came to the
place in large numbers, but they soon complained of the high price of
French goods; there was serious contention between Cadillac and the
French Canadian Fur Company, to which a monopoly of the trade had been
granted, as well as bitter rivalry between him and the Jesuits. After
the several parties had begun to complain to the home government the
monopoly of the fur trade was transferred to Cadillac and he was
exhorted to cease quarrelling with the Jesuits. Although the
inhabitants then increased to 200 or more, dissatisfaction with the
paternal rule of the founder increased until 1710, when he was made
governor of Louisiana. The year before, the soldiers had been withdrawn;
by the second year after there was serious trouble with the Indians, and
for several years following the population was greatly reduced and the
post threatened with extinction. But in 1722, when the Mississippi
country was opened, the population once more increased, and again in
1748, when the settlement of the Ohio Valley began, the governor-general
of Canada offered special inducements to Frenchmen to settle at Detroit,
with the result that the population was soon more than 1000 and the
cultivation of farms in the vicinity was begun. In 1760, however, the
place was taken by the British under Colonel Robert Rogers and an
English element was introduced into the population which up to this time
had been almost exclusively French. Three years later, during the
conspiracy of Pontiac, the fort first narrowly escaped capture and then
suffered from a siege lasting from the 9th of May until the 12th of
October. Under English rule it continued from this time on as a military
post with its population usually reduced to less than 500. In 1778 a new
fort was built and named Fort Lernault, and during the War of
Independence the British sent forth from here several Indian expeditions
to ravage the frontiers. With the ratification of the treaty which
concluded that war the title to the post passed to the United States in
1783, but the post itself was not surrendered until the 11th of January
1796, in accordance with Jay's Treaty of 1794. It was then named Fort
Shelby; but in 1802 it was incorporated as a town and received its
present name. In 1805 all except one or two buildin