The Natchez nation, mentioned in the letter to Pondiac, which he shewed me, and who were blamed by the rest of the Indian army for having fired too soon on the English who were sent to take possession of Fort Chartres by way of the Mississippi river, no doubt did it by design, that the troops might have an opportunity of retreating; for the French had formerly endeavoured to extirpate that nation, and had nearly succeeded in the undertaking, a small number only having escaped the massacre.[22] It is not probable such an action could ever be forgiven; especially by savages. This nation have a perpetual fire; and two men are appointed to watch it. It has been conjectured that their ancestors were deserters from the Mexicans who worship the sun. The Miamis nation, of whom I have spoken so much, and into whose hands I fell after leaving Pondiac’s army at the Uttawaw villages, are the very people who have lately defeated the Americans in three different battles; and when the last accounts from that country reached us, they were encamped on the banks of the Ohio, near the falls or cataracts of that river.[23] It may not be improper to mention, that if I could have completed the tour intended, viz. from Detroit to New Orleans, thence to New York, and thence to Detroit again, whence I set out, it would have been a circuit little short of five thousand miles. DETROIT, September 25, 1764. FOOTNOTES [1] Simms, _Frontiersmen of New York_ (Albany, 1882), i, pp. 438, 439. [2] Parkman, _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, ii, p. 195. [3] _Monthly Review_, March, 1797, p. 381. [4] Jacques Godefroy was a prominent habitant of Detroit, who had been employed by Major Gladwin to seek an interview with Pontiac on behalf of the English cause. From this mission he had returned unsuccessful. Later, dispatched to the Illinois with four other Canadians, they had not only pillaged an English trader, but aided the Indians to capture Fort Miami. As Godefroy had taken the oath of allegiance to the British crown in 1760, he was arrested and sentenced to be hanged on the charge of treason. After this journey with Morris he continued to live at Detroit, much respected and esteemed, and one of the richest of the French colony. His son leaned toward the American side in the Revolution, and assisted George Rogers Clark.—ED. [5] This was Pontiac’s village on the Maumee. See Croghan’s Journal of 1765, _ante_.—ED. [6] Cedar Point was near the entrance to the Maumee River.—ED. [7] See note on Maumee Rapids, Croghan’s _Journals_, _ante_.—ED. [8] On Indian slavery, see “The Panis; Canadian Indian Slavery,” in Canadian Institute _Proceedings_, 1897.—ED.