Colonial Hostilities: Outagamis and Mascoutins
But the elements were now the best defenders of Canada, which Providence seemed to have taken under his special protection. During the night of August 22, a storm from the southwest arose, accompanied by a dense fog, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and the hostile fleet was put in imminent jeopardy for a time. The admiral's ship barely escaped wreck upon breakers. Eight of the transports were driven ashore on the Ile-aux-CEufs, one of the Seven Islands, and nine hundred out of seventeen hundred persons on board perished in the waves. Among the corpses strewed on the beach afterwards were found the bodies of a number of emigrants from Scotland, intended colonists for Anglicized Canada; and among other waifs found at the same time were copies of a proclamation to the Canadians, in Queen Anne's name, asserting the suzerainty of Britain, in right of the discovery of their country by Cabot.
Admiral Walker now altered his course, and rendezvoused with his scattered fleet, as soon as it could be collected, at Cape Breton, where he called a council of war, in which it was decided to renounce the enterprise. The British division of the fleet left for England, and the colonial vessels returned to Boston. But disasters ceased not to attend this ill-starred expedition; for the Feversham, an English frigate of thirty-six guns, and three transports, were lost when still in the Laurentian gulf; while the Edgar, of seventy guns, Walker's flag-ship, was blown up at Portsmouth, October 15, with four hundred men on board.
A strong Canadian force was now collected at Montreal, in preparation for Nicholson's advance. No advance was made, however, though the militia were kept under arms, on guard against a Canadian invasion. But the Canadians, just now, had work enough at home. The Outagamis, a warlike tribe from beyond Lake Michigan, had moved eastward to the locality of Detroit, under British instigation. It was their purpose to burn the settlement and kill all the French. In this they were joined by the Mascoutins. On the other hand, some six hundred warriors of friendly tribes were banded in defence of the French, and forced the hostiles to take a defensive attitude.
The Outagamis and Mascoutins took refuge in an intrenched camp they had formed near the French fort. M. Dubuisson, the governor, finding that they presented so imposing a front, was willing that they should retire peacefully to their villages on seeing that their hostile intents were anticipated and provided against; but his native allies would not allow of this, and proceeded to invest their fastness. This was so well defended, however, that the assailants became dispirited, and wished to retire from the contest; but Dubuisson, now encouraging them to remain, turned the siege into a blockade. In a short time provisions, even water, failed the besieged; and when any of them issued from the enclosure to procure the latter, they were set on by their foes, killed on the spot, or burnt alive to make a savage holiday.
The beleaguered tried, by every means, to detach the native auxiliaries present from the French interest; but all in vain. They then sent envoys to the governor to crave a truce of two days, to enable their foragers to procure food. This singular request was refused, but had better been accorded; for in revenge the Outagamis shot fire-arrows against the straw-roofed houses of the village, which were thereby entirely consumed. The cannon of the fort avenged this act of desperation. Already from three to four score of the besieged were dead of hunger and thirst, and the air was tainted with putrefaction. A third deputation came to implore quarter. Pemousa, a chief, who brought with him his wife and children as hostages, adjured the governor to "take pity on his flesh" and on the other women and children about to be put at French discretion. Some of the allied chiefs present at this piteous scene, instead of being moved by it, coolly proposed to Dubuisson to cut down four of the envoys, who, they alleged, were the chief defenders of the place. This much, at least, was refused.
The besieged, despairing of success, and hopeless of quarter if they surrendered, prepared to take advantage of any moment of relaxed vigilance in their besiegers, and try to escape. One stormy night they succeeded in this attempt, but, exhausted by the privations they had undergone, halted on peninsular ground near St. Clair, whither they were soon followed. They intrenched themselves again, stood a siege of four days more, and then gave in. Not one of the men escaped, and it is very doubtful whether any of the women were spared; but the contemporary reports of what passed at the time are in disaccord on this point.