[16] Philippe Thomas Joncaire (John Cœur), Sieur de Chabert, was a French officer resident among the Seneca Indians, to whose tribe his mother was said to belong. Born in 1707, on the death of his father (1740) he succeeded to the latter’s influence and authority among the Iroquois, and made constant efforts to neutralize the influence of Sir William Johnson, the English agent. Joncaire had a trading house at Niagara, and his profits from the portage of goods at that place were great. He accompanied Céloron’s expedition in 1749; and in 1753 met Washington at Venango. It was chiefly due to his influence that the Ohio Indians deserted the English at the outbreak of the French and Indian war. Joncaire led the Iroquois contingent in all the campaigns on the Allegheny and in Western New York; and when Prideaux and Johnson advanced against Niagara, he commanded an outpost at the upper end of the portage. He signed the capitulation of Fort Niagara (1759), but after that nothing further is known of him.—ED. [17] The town mentioned here was at the mouth of the Scioto River, and was known as “the lower Shawnee town.”—ED. [18] Detroit was considered an important station by La Salle; but no permanent post was established there until 1701, when De la Mothe Cadillac built a fort named Pontchartrain, and established the nucleus of a French colony. Bands of Indians were induced to settle at the strait; and here (1712) took place the battle of the Foxes with the Hurons and Ottawas. Detroit continued to be one of the most important French posts in the West until in 1760, when it was transferred to an English detachment under command of Major Rogers. See Croghan’s _Journal_, _post_. The siege of Detroit during Pontiac’s War is one of the best known incidents in its history. During the Revolution, the British officials here were accused of sending scalping parties against the frontier settlements; and in 1779 George Rogers Clark captured at Vincennes its “hair-buying” commandant, General Henry Hamilton. In 1780, an expedition against Detroit was projected by Clark, but failed of organization. Throughout the Indian wars of the Northwest, Detroit was regarded with suspicion by the Americans, and its surrender in 1796 secured a respite for the frontier. Its capitulation to the British by Hull (1812) was a blow to the American cause, which was not repaired until after Perry’s victory on Lake Erie, when Proctor evacuated Detroit, which was regained by an American force (September 29, 1813). Cass was then made governor. As American settlement came in, the importance of Detroit as a centre for the fur-trade declined, and its career as a Western commercial city began.—ED.