On the thirteenth day of September, 1760, five days after the surrender of Montreal, Major Robert Rogers, the most energetic Indian fighter of the time, set out from Montreal with two hundred of his “Rangers,” whose exploits in war had made his name famous, for the lakes. He was to take possession of Detroit and the other lake forts for England. Reaching Niagara on the first day of October, they crossed by portage to the site of the modern Buffalo and skirted the southern shore of Lake Erie, encamping nightly on its margin and taking every precaution by day to keep the boats from losing sight of one another on the rough, stormy waters. One night on the Cuyahoga River, near where the present city of Cleveland now stands, a party of Indians entered the camp and announced themselves to be ambassadors from Pontiac, “the king and lord of that country,” who requested them to halt until he himself should arrive. In a few hours the great sachem stalked into camp. He was of medium height, with an active, muscular figure, and a stern face. His first words were an imperious demand as to Major Rogers’ business. “How dare you,” said he, “enter my country without my leave?” “I do not come with any design against you or your people,” replied Rogers, “but to remove out of your country the French, who have been an obstacle in our way to mutual peace and commerce.” The Indian who greeted Rogers so haughtily was the principal chief of the Ottawa and Ojibway tribes, a man to whom all the nations of the Illinois country deferred and whose name was held in respect even by the distant Algonquins of the St. Lawrence. Rogers told him of his present mission, taking occasion to dwell on the total defeat of the French in Canada, and gave him several belts of wampum in token of his friendly intent. These Pontiac accepted with dignity, but without any sign of unbending. He announced that he stood in the path the English travelled in until the next morning, and proffered a string of wampum to intimate that they must not march farther without his leave. He inquired whether the party was in need of anything he or his warriors could supply, and then withdrew. The English kept a double force on guard all night, but in the morning Pontiac came with his attendant chiefs and declared that he had made peace with Rogers and his detachment, and that they might therefore pass through his country unmolested and expel the French garrison from Detroit. He was inclined, he said, to live peaceably with the English while they used him as he deserved, but if they treated him with neglect, he should shut up the way and exclude them from his domains. The pipe of peace was passed around the council fire and smoked by officers and chiefs alike.