Note 158 — Chapter VII · 1760-1763. ANGER OF THE INDIANS.—THE CONSPIRACY.

Examination of Gershom Hicks, a spy. See Pennsylvania Gazette, No. 1846.

Many passages from contemporary letters and documents might be cited in support of the above. The following extract from a letter of Lieut. Edward Jenkins, commanding at Fort Ouatanon on the Wabash, to Major Gladwin commanding at Detroit, is a good example. The date is 28 March, 1763. “The Canadians here are eternally telling lies to the Indians.... One La Pointe told the Indians a few days ago that we should all be prisoners in a short time (showing when the corn was about a foot high), that there was a great army to come from the Mississippi, and that they were to have a great number of Indians with them; therefore advised them not to help us. That they would soon take Detroit and these small posts, and then they would take Quebec, Montreal, &c., and go into our country. This, I am informed, they tell them from one end of the year to the other.” He adds that the Indians will rather give six beaver-skins for a blanket to a Frenchman than three to an Englishman.