Note 215 — Chapter XIII · 1763. ROUT OF CUYLER’S DETACHMENT.—FATE OF THE FOREST GARRISONS.

Penn. Gaz. No. 1807. MS. Letter—Wilkins to Amherst, June 18.

This incident may have suggested the story told by Mrs. Grant, in her Memoirs of an American Lady. A young British officer, of noble birth, had been living for some time among the Indians, and having encountered many strange adventures, he was now returning in a canoe with a party of his late associates,—none of them, it appears, were aware that hostilities existed,—and approached the schooner just before the attack commenced, expecting a friendly reception. Sir Robert D——, the young officer, was in Indian costume, and, wishing to surprise his friends, he made no answer when hailed from the vessel, whereupon he was instantly fired at and killed.—The story is without confirmation, in any contemporary document, and, indeed, is impossible in itself. Sir Robert Davers was killed, as before mentioned, near Lake St. Clair; but neither in his character, nor in the mode of his death, did he at all resemble the romantic adventurer whose fate is commemorated by Mrs. Grant.