Fontainbleau. Now, it was trusted, there would be an end to these
horrid ravages that had desolated the interior of the country. The
month of May proved the fallacy of such hopes. In that month the
famous insurrection of the Indian tribes broke out, which, from the
name of the chief who was its prime mover and master-spirit, is
commonly called Pontiac's war. The Delawares and Shawnees, and other
of those emigrant tribes of the Ohio, among whom Washington had
mingled, were foremost in this conspiracy. Some of the chiefs who had
been his allies had now taken up the hatchet against the English. The
plot was deep laid, and conducted with Indian craft and secrecy. At a
concerted time an attack was made upon all the posts from Detroit to
Fort Pitt (late Fort Duquesne). Several of the small stockaded forts,
the places of refuge of woodland neighborhoods, were surprised and
sacked with remorseless butchery. The frontiers of Pennsylvania,
Maryland and Virginia were laid waste; and a considerable time elapsed
before the frontier was restored to tolerable tranquility.

Fortunately, Washington's retirement from the army prevented his being
entangled in this savage war, which raged throughout the regions he
had repeatedly visited, or rather his active spirit had been diverted
into a more peaceful channel, for he was at this time occupied in the
enterprise just noticed, for draining the great Dismal Swamp.

Public events were now taking a tendency which, without any political
aspirations or forethought of his own, was destined gradually to bear
him away from his quiet home and individual pursuits, and launch him
upon a grander and wider sphere of action than any in which he had
hitherto been engaged.

Whatever might be the natural affection of the colonies for the mother
country--and there are abundant evidences to prove that it was
deep-rooted and strong--it had never been properly reciprocated. They
yearned to be considered as children; they were treated by her as
changelings. Her navigation laws had shut their ports against foreign
vessels; obliged them to export their productions only to countries
belonging to the British crown; to import European goods solely from
England, and in English ships; and had subjected the trade between the
colonies to duties. All manufactures, too, in the colonies that might
interfere with those of the mother country had been either totally
prohibited or subjected to intolerable restraints. The act