standing round us. Godefroi sat at a little distance from
us; and presently came Pondiac, and squatted himself,
after his fashion, opposite to me. This Indian has a
more extensive power than ever was known among that
people; for every chief used to command his own tribe:
but eighteen nations, by French intrigue, had been
brought to unite, and chuse this man for their commander,
after the English had conquered Canada; having been
taught to believe that, aided by France, they might make
a vigorous push and drive us out of North America.
Pondiac asked me in his language, which Godefroi interpreted,
"whether I was come to tell lies, like the rest of
my countrymen." He said, "That Ononteeo (the
French king) was not crushed as the English had reported,
but had got upon his legs again," and presented me a
letter from New Orleans, directed to him, written in
French, full of the most improbable falsehoods, though
beginning with a truth. The writer mentioned the
repulse of the English troops in the Mississippi, who
were going to take possession of Fort Chartres,[1] blamed
the Natchez nation for their ill conduct in that affair,
made our loss in that attack to be very considerable, and
concluded with assuring him, that a French army was
landed in Louisiana, and that his father (the French
king) would drive the English out of the country. I
began to reason with him; but St. Vincent hurried me
away to his cabin; where, when he talked to me of the
French army, I asked him if he thought me fool enough
to give credit to that account; and told him that none but
————
- ↑ The reference here is to the defeat and retreat of Major Arthur Loftus, who left Pensacola early in February, 1764, with a detachment of the 22nd infantry to proceed to the Illinois, and take possession for the English. On the nineteenth of March he was ambushed and fired upon near Tunica Bend on the Mississippi, and obliged to retreat to New Orleans.—Ed.
