The Plymouth Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1878-1901, 1901-08-22

out Dattle. Inc desperate enterprise
of General Wolfe on the Plains O
Abraham before Quebec was crowned
with success, at the cost of the lives
of the opposing generals, and the wal
was over. Canada, with all its de
Tendencies, was surrendered to the
British crown. By the treaty of peace
subsequently concluded at Paris the
right of the English was confirm
ed to all that magnificent empire be-
tween the Mississippi and the ALE
ghanies. The great, prolific wilder
ness, then hunting-ground and bat
tle-field for hordes of savages but now
a vast amphitheatre for all the arts Of
civilization, was saved to the British
flag to become ultimately a part OF
the great and powerful republic.
The western Indians had beer
hastily summoned to the defence OF
FortNiagara and after their repulse at
that point they had returned in scat
tered bands to their own villages bear
ing the dismal tidings of French de-
feat, which was confirmed by the ru-
mors of the fall of Quebec that strag.
gled into the interior from the forts.
The Indians were very angry at the
threatened transfer of sovereignty
and the French, bent on struggling to
the last and determined to leave an
uncomfortable heritage to their con-
querors. told the Indians that the
French king had only gone to sleep
and would some day wake up and
drive the arrogant Englishmen into
the sea. Meantime, the red allies
were encouraged to assemble at De-
troit where, they were led to under
stand. a final stand would be made
against the hated enemy, and the
family by which Angus was enslaved
went on this errand, taking him with
the squaws and children.
The journey was made hurriedly,
by way of the Maumee river route,
and was completed in September,
1850. In their canoes the Indians,
now quite company, padded slowly
upwards along the low western bank
of the Detroit until they had passed
the little estuary or bayou at the
mouth of the Red River and then they
landed on a piece of high ground by
the side of creek and partly sur
rounded by marsh where consider
able village of Indian lodges was al
ready established, Small cottages,
each with its little garden and orchard
surrounded by neat picket fence, ex-
tended down the margin of the river
to this point and beyond them the
flag of France could be seen floating
i'm the breeze, almost for the last time.
On the opposite side of the broad
stream the Canadian houses reached
still further to the south and for eight
miles or so both sides of the river
were lined with the comfortable little
dwellings of the French habitanS, who
delighted in their fruits, vegetables
and flowers. The central part of this
isolated settlement, on the west bank,
was given over to the bark-roOfed log
buildings within the stained and
weather-beaten stOckade of the forti-
fication proper, around which the town
was clustered, further protected by
another palisade of more recent con-
struction. Within the outer circle OF
the palisade there were closely packed
about hundred houses, some of them
stores but mostly dwellings.
Here, aloof from the great outer
world, the French Canadians led a
joyous life, filled with social pleasures
during the long winters and exuber-
ant with feasting and dancing, gam
ing and carousing during the more ex-
citing months of the warm season,
and care sat but lightly upon them.
Adventures all of them, else would not
they have been at this distant outpost
of civilization: with little to fear from
their fierce neighbors and with forest,
marsh and stream teeming with game,
wild fowl and fish, the colonists laugh
ed at their hardships and readily for
got their sorrows.
The fortified portion of Detroit was
nearly square and the stockade sur
rounding it was about twenty-five feet
high, at each corner there was sub
stantial wooden bastion and over each
of the gateways a frowning block
house, pierced for rifles, guarded the
approach. The. streets were narrow
and neither straight nor level and
surrounding the town just inside the
paliSade there was a broad cleared way
known as the Chemin du Ronde.
There was quaint little church be-
sides the military and private build
ings, most of them built of logs and
rooted with straw thatch or sheets of