ughout
the whole period, the English obtained supplies with no great difficulty
from the neighboring farms. There was little actual fighting, and the
loss of life was insignificant.

By order of General Amherst, the French commander still in charge of
Fort Chartres sent a messenger to inform the redskins definitely that
no assistance from France would be forthcoming. "Forget then, my dear
children,"--so ran the admonition--"all evil talks. Leave off from
spilling the blood of your brethren, the English. Our hearts are now but
one; you cannot, at present, strike the one without having the other for
an enemy also." The effect was, as intended, to break the spirit of the
besiegers; and in October Pontiac humbly sued for peace.

Meanwhile a reign of terror spread over the entire frontier. Settlements
from Forts Le Boeuf and Venango, south of Lake Eric, to Green Bay, west
of Lake Michigan, were attacked, and ruses similar to that attempted at
Detroit were generally successful. A few Indians in friendly guise would
approach a fort. After these were admitted, others would appear, as if
quite by chance. Finally, when numbers were sufficient, the conspirators
would draw their concealed weapons, strike down the garrison, and begin
a general massacre of the helpless populace. Scores of pioneer families,
scattered through the wilderness, were murdered and scalped; traders
were waylaid in the forest solitudes; border towns were burned and
plantations were devastated. In the Ohio Valley everything was lost
except Fort Pitt, formerly Fort Duquesne; in the Northwest, everything
was taken except Detroit.

Fort Pitt was repeatedly endangered, and the most important engagement
of the war was fought in its defense. The relief of the post was
entrusted in midsummer to a force of five hundred regulars lately
transferred from the West Indies to Pennsylvania and placed under the
command of Colonel Henry Bouquet. The expedition advanced with all
possible caution, but early in August, 1763, when it was yet twenty-five
miles from its destination, it was set upon by a formidable Indian band
at Bushy Run and threatened with a fate not un-like that suffered by
Braddock's little army in the same region nine years earlier. Finding
the woods full of redskins and all retreat cut off, the troops, drawn up
in a circle around their horses and supplies, fired with such effect
as they could upon the shadowy forms in the forest. No water was
obtainable, an