xcellent character amongst his nation. He
warned Henry that he, Wawatam, had had bad dreams during the winter,
in which he had been disturbed "by the noises of evil birds", and gave
him other roundabout warnings that the Indians of different tribes
were going to attack the British garrison at Michili-Makinak, and
endeavour to destroy all the English in Upper Canada. Henry did not
pay over much attention to this warning, because "the Indian manner of
speech is so extravagantly figurative".

The King's birthday was celebrated with, no doubt, somewhat tipsy
rejoicings in the summer of 1763. The Ojibwe Indians outside the fort
pretended they were going to have a great game of La Crosse with the
S[-a]ki or "Fox" Indians. This game was got up to find a pretext for
entering the fort and taking the British officers and garrison at a
disadvantage. Some of the officers and soldiers, suspecting nothing in
the way of danger, were outside the fort by the waterside. However,
the sport commenced, and suddenly the ball was struck over the pickets
of the fort. At once the Ojibwes, pretending great ardour in their
game, came leaping, struggling and shouting over the defences into the
fort as though "in the unrestrained pursuit of a rude, athletic
exercise". Once inside the fortifications, they attacked the
unsuspicious and unarmed soldiers and officers, of whom they killed
seventy out of ninety.

Henry had not gone with the others, but had stayed in his room writing
letters. Suddenly he heard the Indian warcry and a noise of general
confusion. Looking out of his window he saw a crowd of Indians inside
the fort furiously cutting down and scalping every Englishman they
could reach. Meantime, the French Canadian inhabitants of the fort
looked on calmly, neither intervening to stop the Indians, nor
suffering any injury from them. Realizing that all his fellow
countrymen were practically destroyed, Henry endeavoured to hide
himself. He entered the house of his next-door neighbour, a Frenchman,
and found the whole family at the windows gazing at the scene of blood
before them. He implored this Frenchman to put him into some place of
safety until the massacre was over. The latter merely shrugged his
shoulders and intimated that he could do nothing for him; but a Pani
Indian woman, a slave of this Frenchman, beckoned to Henry to follow
her, and hid him in a garret. Then the Indians burst into the house
and asked the Frenchman if he had got any