ng Indians made
breastworks of logs, and shot burning arrows on the shingle roof.
All the water barrels were emptied putting out fires. While some men
defended the loopholes, others dug under the floor of the blockhouse and
mined a way below ground to the well in the fort where Indians swarmed.
Buildings in the inclosure were set on fire, but the defenders of the
blockhouse kept it from catching the flames by tearing off shingles
from the roof when they began to burn. The mining party reached the well,
and buckets of water were drawn up and passed through the tunnel to the
blockhouse. Greatly exhausted, the soldiers held out until next day,
when, having surrendered honorably, they were all taken prisoners as
they left the scorched and battered log tower. For savages were such
capricious and cruel victors that they could rarely be depended upon to
keep faith. Pontiac himself was superior to his people in such matters.
If he had been at Presqu' Isle, the garrison would not have been seized
after surrendering on honorable terms. However, these soldiers were not
instantly massacred, as other prisoners had been in war betwixt French
and English, when savage allies could not be restrained.

Next to Detroit the most important post was Michilimackinac.

This was not the island in the straits bearing that name, but a
stockaded fort on the south shore of Michigan, directly across the
strait from St. Ignace. To this day, searching along a beach of deep,
yielding sand, so different from the rocky strands of the islands,
you may find at the forest edge a cellar where the powder house stood,
and fruit trees and gooseberry bushes from gardens planted there more
than two hundred years ago.

Michilimackinac, succeeding St. Ignace, had grown in importance, and was
now a stockaded fort, having French houses both within and outside it,
like Detroit. After Father Marquette's old mission had been abandoned
and the buildings burned, another small mission was begun at L'Arbre
Croche, not far west of Fort Michilimackinac, such of his Ottawas as
were not scattered being gathered here. The region around also was full
of Chippewas or Ojibwas.

All these Indians hated the English. Some came to the fort and said to a
young English trader named Alexander Henry, who arrived after the white
flag was hauled down and the red one about to be hoisted:--

"Englishman, although you have conquered the French, you have not
conquered us. We are not your sl