manded rather than
asked, were stingy in trading, and cheated by means of liquor.

"When the Indians visited the forts, instead of being treated with
attention and politeness, they were received gruffly, subjected to
indignities, and not infrequently helped out of the fort with the butt
of a sentry's musket or a vigorous kick from an officer."

Pontiac and his people soon saw this. The French-Canadian traders
still at large took pains to whisper, in cunning fashion, that the
great French king was old and had been asleep while the English were
arming; but that now he had awakened, and his young men were coming to
rescue his red children. A fleet of great canoes was on its way up the
St. Lawrence River, to capture the Lakes, and the French and the
Indians would again live together!

The Three Fires and their allies the Sacs and the Wyandots longed for
the pleasant company of their French brothers. In his village on the
Canada border just across the river from Detroit, Pontiac watched these
"Red Coats" for two years and found, as he thought, nothing good in
them or their cheating traders and he resolved to be rid of them all.

With the eye of a chief and a warrior he had noted, also, that they
were a foolish people. As if despising the power of the Indian, they
garrisoned their posts with only small forces, although many of these
posts were lonely spots, far separated by leagues of water and forest
from any outside aid. Messages from one to another could be easily
stopped.

The French were being allowed to remain and to move about freely. The
peace treaty between the French and the English had not yet been
signed. No doubt the French would join the Indians in driving the
invaders from this country so rich in corn and fish and game.

Out of his brooding and his hate, Pontiac formed his plan. It was a
plan like the plan of Opechancanough and King Philip, but on a larger
scale. He worked at it alone, until he was prepared to set it in
motion.

Then, late in the year 1762, he sent to the eastward his runners
bearing to the Senecas a red-stained tomahawk and a Bloody Belt.

They carried the message:

"The English mean to make slaves of us, by occupying so many posts in
our country. Let us try now, to recover our liberty, rather than wait
until they are stronger."

From the Senecas the Bloody Belt was passed to the Delawares of western
New York and eastern Pennsylvania; from the Delawares to the Shawnees
o