The most serious weakness
of the position was that the banks of the creek and the
lake rose in ridges to a considerable height, commanding
the blockhouse and affording a convenient shelter for an
attacking party within musket range.
Christie had twenty-four men, and believed that he had
nothing to fear, when, on June 15, some two hundred
Wyandots arrived in the vicinity. These Indians were soon
on the ridges, assailing the blockhouse. Arrows tipped
with burning tow and balls of blazing pitch rained upon
the roof, and the utmost exertions of the garrison were
needed to extinguish the fires. Soon the supply of water
began to fail. There was a well near by on the
parade-ground, but this open space was subject to such
a hot fire that no man would venture to cross it. A well
was dug in the blockhouse, and the resistance continued.
All day the attack was kept up, and during the night
there was intermittent firing from the ridges. Another
day passed, and at night came a lull in the siege. A
demand was made to surrender. An English soldier who had
been adopted by the savages, and was aiding them in the
attack, cried out that the destruction of the fort was
inevitable, that in the morning it would be fired at the
top and bottom, and that unless the garrison yielded they
would all be burnt to death.
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