[Footnote C:  Journals, p. 217.]

Commander Rogers probably reached Michilimackinac in August, 1766.  He soon after demonstrated his entire unfitness for his position by clandestinely engaging in the Indian trade,[A] and by involving the government in unnecessary expenses, which he sought to meet by drafts upon the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, which that officer was obliged to dishonor.  To still further curtail his power, a Commissary was appointed to reside at the post and regulate the Indian trade.  To this Rogers sullenly submitted, but quarrelled with the officer.  As time went on matters grew worse.  He engaged in foolish speculations; got deeply into debt to the Indian traders; chafed under his limitations; grew first discontented, and then desperate; entered into treasonable correspondence with a French officer;[B] and finally conceived a plan of seeking of the home government an independent governorship of Michilimackinac, and in case of failure to rob his post and the traders thereabout, and then desert to the French on the lower Mississippi.[C]

[Footnote A:  Same, p. 242.]

[Footnote B:  Journals, pp. 234, 235, 236.]

[Footnote C:  Same, p. 231.]

His mismanagement and plottings having grown insufferable he was arrested and conveyed in irons to Montreal in September, 1768, to be there tried by court-martial for high treason.[A] On some ground, probably a technical one, he escaped conviction, and at some date between May, 1769, and February, 1770, he sailed for England.

[Footnote A:  Same, p. 231.]

And there, strange as it may seem, the stalwart, cheeky, fine-looking, wily ex-Commandant was lionized.  His acquittal had vindicated his innocence and established his claim to martyrdom.  His books had advertised him as a hero.  His creditors, to whom he owed considerable amounts, supported his claims in hopes thereby of getting their dues.  He was gazed at by the commonalty.  He was feted by the nobility.  He was received by the king and allowed to kiss his hand.  He claimed payment for arrears of salary and other expenses previously disallowed in England and at home, which was made.  Encouraged by his successes he pushed boldly on and asked to be made an English Baronet, with L600 a year, and in addition to that, a Major in the army.[A] One is in doubt which to wonder at the most, the audacity of the bold adventurer, or the stupidity of the British public.  But vaulting ambition had at length overleaped itself.  He failed of the coveted knighthood, and sank by degrees to his true level.

[Footnote A:  Benjamin Roberts in a letter to Sir William Johnson, dated February 19, 1770, says:  “Kingston has a most extraordinary letter from London, which says that Major Rogers was presented to His majesty and kissed his hand—­that he demanded redress and retaliation for his sufferings.  The minister asked what would content him.  He desired to be made a Baronet, with a pension of L600 sterling, and to be restored to his government at Michilimackinac, and have all his accounts paid.  Mr. Fitzherbert is his particular friend.”—­[Journals, p. 256.]