History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

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Great Britain all of North America east of the Mississippi except
New Orleans and the island on which it is situated; and indeed,
France had the preceding autumn, by a secret convention, ceded to
Spain all the country west of that river.
In 1762, after Canada and its dependencies had been surrendered
to the English, Pontiac and his partisans secretly organized a powerful confederacy in order to crush at one blow all English power
in the West. This great scheme was skillfully projected and cautiously matured.
The principal act in the programme was to gain admittance into
the fort at Detroit, on pretense of a friendly visit, with shortened
muskets concealed under their blankets, and on a given signal suddenly break forth upon the garrison; but an inadvertent remark of
an Indian woman led to a discovery of the plot, which was consequently averted. Pontiac and his warriors afterward made many
attacks upon the English, some of which were successful, but the
Indians were finally defeated in the general war.
BRITISH POLICY.
In 1765 the total number of French families within the limits of
the Northwestern Territory did not probably exceed 600. These
were in settlements about Detroit, along the river Wabash and the
neighborhood of Fort Chartres on the Mississippi. Of these families, about 80 or 90 resided at Post Vincennes, 14 at Fort Ouiatenon, on the Wabash, and nine or ten at the confluence of the St.
Mary and St. Joseph rivers.
The colonial policy of the British government opposed any measures which might strengthen settlements in the interior of this
country, lest they become self-supporting and independent of the
mother country; hence the early and rapid settlement of the Northwestern Territory was still further retarded by the short-sighted
selfishness of England. That fatal policy consisted mainly in holding the land in the hands of the government and not allowing it to
be subdivided and sold to settlers. But in spite of all her efforts
in this direction, she constantly made just such efforts as provoked
the American people to rebel, and to rebel successfully, which was
within 15 years after the perfect close of the French and Indian
war.
AMERICAN POLICY.
Thomas Jefferson, the shrewd statesman and wise Governor of
Virginia, saw from the first that actual occupation of Western lands
was the only way to keep them out of the hands of foreigners and
Indians. Therefore, directly after the conquest of Vincennes by
Clark, he engaged a scientific corps to proceed under an escort to
s