Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/39

 Robert Rogers, the Ranger.

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��river, were shot in their canoes. The women and children were not molested.

When light came it revealed to the Rangers lines of scalps, mostly Enghsh, to the number of six hundred, strung upon poles above the door- ways. There- upon, every house except three contain- ing supplies was fired, and their destruc- tion brought death to a few who had before escaped it by concealing them- selves in the cellars. Ere noon two hun- dred Indian braves had perished and their accursed village had been obliterated.

The operations of the next year (1760) ended this long and fierce struggle. The attempted re-capture of Quebec by the French was their final effort. The army of the Lakes em- barked from Crown Point for Montreal on the sixteenth day of August. " Six hundred Rangers and seventy Indians in whale-boats, commanded by Major Rogers, all in a line abreast, formed the advance guard." He and his men en- countered some fighting on the way from Isle a Mot to Montreal, but no serious obstacle retarded their progress. The day of their arrival Monsieur de Vaudveuil proposed to Major General Amherst a capitulation, which soon after terminated the French dominion in North America.

The English troops, as will be remem- bered, entered Montreal on the evening of the eighth of September. On the morn- ing of the twelfth Major Rogers was or- dered by General Amherst to proceed westward with two companies of Rang- ers and take possession of the western forts, still held by the French, which, by the terms of the capitulation, were to be surrendered.

He embarked about noon the next day with some two hundred Rangers in fifteen whale-boats, and advanced to the west by the St. La\\Tence and the Lakes. On the seventh of Novembei

��they reached the mouth of the Cuyahoga, where the beautiful city of Cleveland now stands. The cross of St. George had never penetrated the wilderness so far before. Here they encamped and were soon after waited upon by messen- gers from the great chieftain Pontiac, asking by what right they entered upon his territory and the object of their visit. Rogers informed them of the down- fall of the French in America, and that he had been sent to take possession of the French forts surrendered to the English by the terms of the capitulation. Pontiac recieved his message remark- ing that he should stand in his path un- till morning, when he would return to him his answer.

The next morning Pontiac came to the camp and the great chief of the Ottawas, haughty, shrewd, politic, ambit- ious, met face to face the bold, self- possessed, clear-headed Major of the British Rangers. It is interesting to note how calmly the astute ally of the French accepted the new order of things and prepared for an alliance with his former enemies. He and Rogers had several interviews and in the end smoked the pipe of peace. With dignified courtesy the pohtic Indian gave to his new friend free transit through his terri- tory, provisions for his journey and an escort of Indian braves. Rogers broke camp on the twelfth and pushed onward towards Detroit. By messenger sent forward in advance he apprized Mon- sieur Belletre, Commandant of the fort, of his near approach and the object of it. The astonished officer received him cautiously. Soon satisfied, however, of the truth of the unwelcome news thus brought, he surrendered his garrison. On the twenty-ninth of November the British flag floated from the staff which ever before had borne only the lillies or France.

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