f western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio; from the Shawnees it was
passed westward to the Miamis, and the Wyandots of Indiana.

Several thousands of miles had the Bloody Belt traveled, when in March,
of 1763, it was caught and stopped by Ensign Holmes, the young
commander at old Fort Miami near the present city of Fort Wayne,
Indiana.

He sent it back to Detroit, far northward, with a note of warning for
Major Gladwyn the commander. He believed that with the stoppage of the
belt he had checked the plan. Major Gladwyn, in turn, reported to his
superiors that this "was a trifling matter which would blow over."

The belt may have been stopped, but not the word of Pontiac. It
traveled on, until from Lake Superior of the Canada border down to
Kentucky all the tribes between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi
River were only waiting for the Day.

Vague rumors brought in by traders and friendly scouts floated
hither-thither--rumors of mysterious remarks, of secret councils, of a
collecting of arms and powder, and a sharpening of knives and hatchets,
even among tribes remote from the posts.

But the garrisons were not reinforced. The soldiers idled and joked,
the Indians came and went as usual, gates were not closed except at
night.

A Delaware prophet was reported to be preaching death to the Red Coats.
Unrest seethed, and yet could not be traced to any source. On April
27, unknown to a single one of the English at the Great Lakes, a
hundred strange chiefs gathered within a few miles of Detroit itself,
to confer with Pontiac.

In the midst of the forest he addressed them. Here, seated in a large
circle, were Ottawas, Ojibwas, Sacs, Potawatomis, Wyandots, Senecas,
Miamis, Shawnees, Foxes, Delawares, Menominis--all intent for the words
of Pontiac.

His speech was full of fire and eloquence. He was an orator. He
reminded his brothers of their treatment by the English, and of their
better treatment by the French--their friends who had been ousted. He
told them that now was the time to rise, when the war canoes of their
French father were on the way to re-people the land with happiness.

A prophet had been born among the Delawares, said Pontiac. The Great
Spirit had appeared to this prophet in a dream, and had demanded why
the Indians suffered the white strangers to live in this land that he
had provided with everything for the Indian's use.

Let the Indians return to the customs of their ancestors--fling away