There were outbreaks of hostilities in the Indian country,
but in none of these did he take part. His name never
appears in the records of those three years. His days of
conspiracy were at an end. By many of the French and
Indians he was distrusted as a pensioner of the British,
and by the British traders and settlers he was hated for
his past deeds. In 1769 he visited the Mississippi, and
while at Cahokia he attended a drunken frolic held by
some Indians. When he left the feast, stupid from the
effects of rum, he was followed into the forest by a
Kaskaskia Indian, probably bribed by a British trader.
And as Pontiac lurched among the black shadows of the
trees, his pursuer crept up behind him, and with a swift
stroke of the tomahawk cleft his skull. Thus by a
treacherous blow ended the career of a warrior whose
chief weapon had been treachery.
For twelve years England, by means of military officers,
ruled the great hinterland east of the Mississippi--a
region vast and rich, which now teems with a population
immensely greater than that of the whole broad Dominion
of Canada--a region which is to-day dotted with such
magnificent cities as Chicago, Detroit, and Indianapolis.
Unhappily, England made no effort to colonize this
wilderness empire.
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