fortunate in their leader. Nothing interrupted their advance, until the 4th of August, when the advanced guard was suddenly attacked by the savages at Edge Hill, a mile east of the Bushy Run, and four days' march from Pittsburgh. The action continued two days, the enemy giving way before the bayonets of the Highlanders, but constantly renewing their treacherous ambuscades. As a last resort, Bouquet feigned a retreat; the Indians hurried to charge, when two companies, that had been purposely concealed, fell upon the flank of the savages, who were simultaneously attacked in front. This manoeuvre decided the conflict in favor of the Americans, although their loss was fifty killed and sixty wounded.

The battle of Bushy Run is memorable in our border history, as well for the valor exhibited on both sides as for the important consequences. The Delawares and Shawanese, who were the instigators and principal resource of the confederation of 1763, never renewed the contest with the desperate devotion which they exhibited at Bushy Run. At Edge Hill the valley of the Ohio was virtually subjugated.

The genius of Pontiac prolonged the contest before the walls of Detroit. Although his original design of taking the fort by stratagem, on the 7th of May, was baffled, still he hoped to reduce the position by a close and vigorous siege. Having been advised of the approach of Lieut. Cuyler with ninety-six men and twenty-three batteaux laden with stores, along the northern shore of Lake Erie, a band of Wyandots was sent to surprise him, which they succeeded in doing on the night of May 28th, near Point Pelee. Most of the detachment were captured, although Cuyler with thirty men escaped, and, rowing all night, arrived at a small island. Cuyler now made for Sandusky, (as he says in a report,) which, of course, he found burned to the ground, and thence

he returned to Niagara along the southern shore of Lake Erie.

However, in June, a schooner, with a reinforcement of sixty men, reached Detroit, and early on the morning of the 29th of July, the garrison were agreeably surprised by the arrival of Capt. Dalzell and his reinforcement of two hundred and sixty men. Dalzell immediately resolved to make a night sally against the besiegers. It proved unfortunate, the wily enemy being fully advised of the movement, and Dalzell's own life and the lives of twenty of his men were sacrificed in the inglorious retreat from the Indian ambuscade at Bloody Run. This victory encouraged the confederates, and Pontiac pressed the siege with a force increased to one thousand men.

Another month brought to the Ottawa chief the tidings of Bushy Run, and the occupation of Fort Pitt by Bouquet. Already it was apparent to Pontiac that the tide of success was turning against himself and the great purpose of the confederation, yet were his efforts unabated. Winter approached; the French commandant at Fort Chartres, on the Illinois, wrote to Pontiac that the Indians must expect no assistance from the French, and M. De Neyon went so far as to send belts, messages and peace pipes to the different western tribes, exhorting them to conclude a peace with the English. Finally, in the absence of any decisive success, the savages became disheartened, jealousies were revived, and Pontiac raised the siege of Detroit, repairing, with a number of his chiefs, to the Maumee, but still intent upon renewing hostilities in the spring.

On the 7th of October, 1763, a royal proclamation issued, which probably contributed to the pacification of the western border, by removing the causes of future outbreaks. It anticipated, in some degree, what has become the permanent

Indian policy of the United States. The colonial governments were prohibited, "for the present," and until the royal pleasure should be further known, "to grant warrants of survey or pass patents for any lands beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic ocean from the west or northwest." These western lands were declared to be under the sovereignty, protection and dominion of the crown for the use of the Indians, and individuals were warned not to settle them. Purchases from Indians of lands reserved to them within the colonies, where settlements had been permitted, were only to be conducted. by the authorities of the colonies, and in no case to be made by individuals, but trade with the Indians was to be free and open to all, on taking out a license for that purpose from the Governor or Commander-in-chief of any of the colonies.

The historical department of the London Annual Register for 1764, alludes significantly to the terms of the old colonial charters, which had no other bound to the westward than the South sea, and adds that "nothing could be more inconvenient, or attended with more absurd consequences, than to admit the execution of the powers in those grants and distributions of territories in all their extent." The writer concludes that "where the western boundary of each colony ought to be settled is a matter which must admit of great dispute, and can, to all appearance, only be finally adjusted by the interposition of Parliament."

The proclamation in question was claimed by Wash ington, Chancellor Livingston and others, to have been a measure of temporary expediency, with reference to the Indian hostilities, which were pending. Such was the favorite construction among the colonists, and Virginia was not restrained from the issue of patents, very soon afterwards,

for considerable tracts of land on the Ohio far beyond the Appalachian chain. If other and graver questions had not interposed, however, it cannot be doubted that this question of western lands would have led to serious difficulty with the mother country. As it was, the embarrassment was thrown upon the first epoch of our national independence, and threatened for a time to defeat the union of the States. At length, by a series of patriotic cessions, the wilderness of the west became the domain of the nation, and, as such, has been productive of more benefit to the citizens of the Atlantic States than if the untenable claims of their vague charters had been successfully asserted.

CHAPTER X.

THE EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE WESTERN TRIBES UNDER BRADSTREET AND BOUQUET.

IN the spring of 1764, the frontiers were again alarmed by savage incursions, and General Thomas Gage, who had succeeded Sir Jeffrey Amherst, in the command of the British forces in North America, resolved to send two expeditions into the heart of the enemy's country-one by the route of the lakes and another westward of Fort Pitt. The northern division was first upon the march under the command of Col. John Bradstreet. It consisted of eleven hundred men, chiefly provincial battalions from New Jersey, New York and Connecticut; that of Connecticut led by Col. Israel Putnam, and in July reached Niagara. There were gathered the representatives of twenty or more tribes, suppliants for peace, and a grand council was held by Bradstreet and Sir William Johnson, at which the powerful Senecas were the first to bring in their prisoners and accept the terms dictated by the English negotiators.

Bradstreet had been ordered by Gage to chastise the Indians whenever they appeared in arms, but all hostile indications ceased on his advance. On the 12th of August, when within two days' march of Presque Isle, he was met by ten savages, who were probably Mingoes, or representatives of the New York tribes settled in Ohio and near Presque Isle,

1) Albany was the rendezvous of the troops, and the route to Niagara was by the Mohawk, Oneida Lake, Oswego River and Lake Ontario.