Wacousta | Page 8

promised
fair to rid them altogether of a race they so cordially detested. We will
not, however, mar the interest of our tale, by anticipating, at this early
stage, either the nature or the success of a stratagem which forms the
essential groundwork of our story.
While giving, for the information of the many, what, we trust, will not
be considered a too compendious outline of the Canadas, and the events
connected with them, we are led to remark, that, powerful as was the
feeling of hostility cherished by the French Canadians towards the
English when the yoke of early conquest yet hung heavily on them, this
feeling eventually died away under the mild influence of a government
that preserved to them the exercise of all their customary privileges,
and abolished all invidious distinctions between the descendants of
France and those of the mother-country. So universally, too, has this
system of conciliation been pursued, we believe we may with safety
aver, of all the numerous colonies that have succumbed to the genius
and power of England, there are none whose inhabitants entertain
stronger feelings of attachment and loyalty to her than those of Canada;
and whatever may be the transient differences,--differences growing
entirely out of circumstances and interests of a local character, and in
no way tending to impeach the acknowledged fidelity of the mass of
French Canadians,--whatever, we repeat, may be the ephemeral
differences that occasionally spring up between the governors of those
provinces and individual members of the Houses of Assembly, they

must, in no way, be construed into a general feeling of disaffection
towards the English crown.
In proportion also as the Canadians have felt and acknowledged the
beneficent effects arising from a change of rulers, so have the Indian
tribes been gradually weaned from their first fierce principle of hostility,
until they have subsequently become as much distinguished by their
attachment to, as they were three quarters of a century ago remarkable
for their untameable aversion for, every thing that bore the English
name, or assumed the English character. Indeed, the hatred which they
bore to the original colonists has been continued to their descendants,
the subjects of the United States; and the same spirit of union subsisted
between the natives and British troops, and people of Canada, during
the late American war, that at an earlier period of the history of that
country prevailed so powerfully to the disadvantage of England.
And now we have explained a course of events which were in some
measure necessary to the full understanding of the country by the
majority of our readers, we shall, in furtherance of the same object,
proceed to sketch a few of the most prominent scenes more
immediately before us.
The fort of Detroit, as it was originally constructed by the French,
stands in the middle of a common, or description of small prairie,
bounded by woods, which, though now partially thinned in their
outskirts, were at that period untouched by the hand of civilisation.
Erected at a distance of about half a mile from the banks of the river,
which at that particular point are high and precipitous, it stood then just
far enough from the woods that swept round it in a semicircular form to
be secure from the rifle of the Indian; while from its batteries it
commanded a range of country on every hand, which no enemy
unsupported by cannon could traverse with impunity. Immediately in
the rear, and on the skirt of the wood, the French had constructed a sort
of bomb-proof, possibly intended to serve as a cover to the workmen
originally employed in clearing the woods, but long since suffered to
fall into decay. Without the fortification rose a strong and triple line of
pickets, each of about two feet and a half in circumference, and so

fitted into each other as to leave no other interstices than those which
were perforated for the discharge of musketry. They were formed of the
hardest and most knotted pines that could be procured; the sharp points
of which were seasoned by fire until they acquired nearly the durability
and consistency of iron. Beyond these firmly imbedded pickets was a
ditch, encircling the fort, of about twenty feet in width, and of
proportionate depth, the only communication over which to and from
the garrison was by means of a drawbridge, protected by a strong
chevaux-de-frise. The only gate with which the fortress was provided
faced the river; on the more immediate banks of which, and to the left
of the fort, rose the yet infant and straggling village that bore the name
of both. Numerous farm-houses, however, almost joining each other,
contributed to form a continuity of many miles along the borders of the
river, both on the right and on the