diers were stationed at Fort Miami
to keep the officers at Detroit informed of any interesting
events in that neighbourhood. Provisions being scarce at
Detroit, Rogers sent the majority of his force to Niagara;
and on December 10 set out for Michilimackinac with an
officer and thirty-seven men. But he was driven back by
stormy weather and ice, and forced, for the present year,
to give up the attempt to garrison the posts on Lakes
Huron and Michigan. Leaving everything in peace at Detroit,
Rogers went to Fort Pitt, and for nine months the forts
in the country of the Ottawa Confederacy were to be left
to their own resources.

Meanwhile the Indians were getting into a state of unrest.
The presents, on which they depended so much for existence,
were not forthcoming, and rumours of trouble were in the
air. Senecas, Shawnees, and Delawares were sending
war-belts east and west and north and south. A plot was
on foot to seize Pitt, Niagara, and Detroit. Seneca
ambassadors had visited the Wyandots in the vicinity of
Detroit, urging them to fall on the garrison. After an
investigation, Captain Campbell reported to Amherst that
an Indian rising was imminent, and revealed a plot,
originated by the Senecas, which was identical with that
afterwards matured in 1763 and attributed to Pontiac's
initiative. Campbell warned the commandants of the other
forts of the danger; and the Indians, seeing that their
plans were discovered, assumed a peaceful attitude.

Still, the situation was critical; and, to allay the
hostility of the natives and gain their confidence,
Amherst dispatched Sir William Johnson to Detroit with
instructions 'to settle and establish a firm and lasting
treaty' between the British and the Ottawa Confederacy
and other nations inhabiting the Indian territory, to
regulate the fur trade at the posts, and to settle the
price of clothes and provisions. He was likewise to
collect information as exhaustive as possible regarding
the Indians, their manners and customs, and their abodes.
He was to find out whether the French had any shipping
on Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior, what were the
best posts for trade, and the price paid by the French
for pelts. He was also to learn, if possible, how far
the boundaries of Canada extended towards the Mississippi,
and the number of French posts, settlements, and inhabitants
along that river.

Sir William left his home at Fort Johnson on the Mohawk
river early in July 1761. S