surprise on the fourth instant by the Chippewas at which time Lieut. Jamett, and twenty more were killed, and the rest taken prisoners, but our good friends, the Ottowas, have taken Lieut. Lesley, me, and eleven men off their hands, and have promised to reinstate us again. You will, therefore, on the receipt of this, which I send by a canoe of Ottawas, set out with all your garrison and what English traders you have with you, and come, with the Indians who give you this, who will conduct you safe to me. . . . . Tell the savages that you are obliged to come here, to open the road which the Chippewas have shut up," etc.
At the time Mackinaw was surprised, the siege of Detroit by Pontiac was taking place. Among his men was a band of Saginaw Ojibways. On the 18th of June, eight Ojibways came from Mackinaw, one of whom was Nonchanek or Kinonchanek, the son of the head chief, bringing news of the capture at Mackinaw; he remained but a few days, and after his departure it was rumored that he would soon return with eight hundred warriors. Kinonchanek, however, did not approve of the course of Pontiac, in slaughtering so many.
OJIBWAYS CONFER WITH SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON.
It was now necessary for the English to assert their power in the northwest, and conciliate the tribes. During the spring of 1764, Match-e-ke-wis, the leader of the assault on Mackinaw, came to the house of J.B. Cadot,[1] the Canadian trader at Sault Ste. Marie, in a canoe full of warriors, with evil intent towards Alexander Henry, an English trader, who was at the house on a visit, but while there a messenger, and some other Indians, arrived with a request that they should meet Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, in council at Niagara. A coun-
- ↑ Stone's Life of Johnson, vol. ii. p. 218.
