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Conspiracy of Pontiac
The Seige of Detriot
Maj. Maxwell came into the Territory of Michigan in 1761, Capt. of • Provincial Rangers raised in Connecticut Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He arrived late in the fall of that year and remained until 1763. At that early period Detroit and Mackinaw were the only military ports. To monopolize the fur trade, the Northwest British Company had established trading houses at the river Raisin, Mackinaw, Chicago, and at the northwest extremity of Lake St. Clair a short distance up the river. A large French settlement had been formed along Detroit River as early as 1736. In the City of Detroit a number of French huts were erected some within and others without the pickets. With these exceptions the Territory was a wilderness. In August 1763 a body of indians amounting to 3000 from the Mississippi Illinois and their bordering regions, under the command of their Chief, Pontiack, had by strategem taken Mackinaw and massacred the garrison consisting of more than 100 French families. Under pretense of seeking a council they approached Detroit. Pontiac with 36 other Chiefs proposed a council to Maj. Gladen the British commandant with the view of
a treaty of peace and amity. The proposal was accepted and a day fixed for the assemblage. The night previous to the appointed day the horrid plot which Pontiack had formed to take and destroy this garrison was fortunately discovered in this manner. Maj. Gladden had sometime before employed a squaw to make him a pair of moccasons out of a beautiful elk skin.
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