That week a detachment of English troops arrived from the lower lakes, and the trader’s protection was ensured. Henry fitted out expeditions to go into the interior to buy furs of the more remote Indian tribes, and prepared to spend the winter at the fort. During these months at Mackinac and the succeeding winter which he spent at Sault Ste. Marie he was much interested in the fisheries. In both these straits the whitefish were very abundant. At Sault Ste. Marie in the late autumn there was such a run of fish that two men would go out in a canoe, one paddling and the other handling a scoop-net on the end of a ten-foot pole, and would return in two hours with a catch of five hundred whitefish, each weighing from six to fifteen pounds. The steersman would guide the canoe in and out between the sharp rocks and rushing rapids; the fisherman would dip his net and throw in a pile of fish; and before long the canoe would be loaded down to the water’s edge. During the winter the fish were cured by drying them in smoke, and packed for transportation to the nearest frontier posts, and even for the markets of the St. Lawrence. In May, 1763, when Henry returned to Mackinac, he found that the traders, who were gathering there, brought rumors of Indian hostility. These reports were disregarded by the officers of the garrison, who with their force of soldiers and their fort could not believe there was any cause for alarm. Henry himself received a warning. The year before, he had won the friendship of one of the Chippewa Indians, named Wawatam, who had surprised him one day by bringing his whole family to the trader’s house, offering a present of skins, sugar, and dried meat, and declaring his wish of adopting him into his family as a brother. Henry had accepted the honor and thought no more of the incident until now, in the spring of 1763, his Indian brother came to his house in a very sober mood, and begged him to go back to the Sault the next morning with himself and his family. He further inquired whether the commandant of the fort had not heard bad news, saying that he himself had been frequently disturbed by “the noise of evil birds.” He hinted that there were many more Indians about the fort than the English had seen. Henry paid little attention to the Indian’s words, but the next morning he returned with his wife and once more entreated the trader to go with him. Henry was not sufficiently familiar with the Chippewa language to follow all his figurative and elaborate speech, and unfortunately turned a deaf ear to his plea. After long effort the chief went sadly away. He had warned Henry that all the Indians were coming in a body one day soon to demand liquor of the commandant, and that before they became intoxicated he had better be gone. Henry kept careful watch, but except that a great many Indians came in the next day to purchase tomahawks, he saw nothing unusual. The next day, the