Note 482 — Chapter XXX · 1765. RUIN OF THE INDIAN CAUSE.
Reading edition
MS. Letter—Aubry to the Minister, July, 1765. Aubry makes himself merry with the fears of Fraser; who, however, had the best grounds for his apprehensions, as is sufficiently clear from the above as well as from the minutes of a council held by him with Pontiac and other Indians at the Illinois, during the month of April. The minutes referred to are among the Paris Documents.
Pontiac’s first reception of Fraser was not auspicious, as appears from the following. Extract from a Letter—Fort Pitt, July 24 (Pa. Gaz. Nos. 1912, 1913):—
“Pondiac immediately collected all the Indians under his influence to the Illinois, and ordered the French commanding officer there to deliver up these Englishmen [Fraser and his party] to him, as he had prepared a large kettle in which he was determined to boil them and all other Englishmen that came that way.... Pondiac told the French that he had been informed of Mr. Croghan’s coming that way to treat with the Indians, and that he would keep his kettle boiling over a large fire to receive him likewise.”
Pontiac soon after relented as we have seen. Another letter, dated New Orleans, June 19, adds: “He [Fraser] says a Pondiac is a very clever fellow, and had it not been for him, he would never have got away alive.”