The Robert Navarre Journal of the Pontiac Conspiracy (146 pages) is a manuscript transcription of the original French manuscript held at the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library, created by James Valentine Campbell of Detroit.
Entitled Journal ou Dictation d'une Conspiration faite par les Sauvages Contre les Anglais, et du Siège du fort du Detroix par quatre nations différentes. Le 7 May, 1763, the account was likely written by a Detroit official named Robert Navarre. The author described, in great detail, affairs on both sides of the siege, providing an eyewitness account from within the fort, as well as intelligence, news, and rumors of Pontiac's activities. The journal, which spans May 7 to July 31, 1763, is one of the most thorough and important accounts of the conflict.
Robert Navarre (1709-1791) was born in France, educated in Paris, and traveled to Canada sometime before 1729. In 1736, he became tax collector for the Domaine d’Occident at Detroit. In 1743, the French regime at Detroit appointed Navarre sub-intendant, a judicial position responsible for settling legal disputes concerning land and property. He held the post until 1759. Navarre continued to work as a notary after the British took control of Detroit. Being fluent in several Native American languages, he also acted as a translator between the British and local Indian tribes. Later in life, Navarre retired to his farm in southwest Detroit and died in 1791.
Navarre is the attributed author of the Journal of the Pontiac Conspiracy, an account of the Ottawa chief's 1763 siege of Detroit, in which a force of Ottawa, Ojibwa, Potawatomi, and Huron Indians attempted, unsuccessfully, to drive the British from the area. Pontiac finally abandoned the siege on October 31, 1763.
