by stratagem, of Michilimakinack,[77] Presqu’ile, and several smaller posts; but there still remained three fortresses formidable alike by their strength and position, which it was necessary the Indians should subdue before they could reap any permanent advantage from their successes.  These were Detroit, Niagara, and Pittsburg; and the first and last, although so remote from each other, were invested almost at the same moment.  The consummate address, which the Indians displayed in this alarming war, was supported by a proportionate degree of courage, determination, and perseverance; nor ever did they approve themselves a more stubborn and formidable enemy than in this final stand against the encroachments of European dominion and civilization in North America.  General Amherst, sensible of the danger, sent immediate succours to those two western garrisons, and thus prevented their fall.  Captain Dalzell, after conducting, in July, a strong reinforcement to Detroit, was induced to think that he could surprise the Indian force encamped about three miles from the fort, and he sat out at night with 270 men, adopting the most judicious precautions for the secrecy and good order of his march.  But the Indians, apprized of his design, were prepared to defeat it, and every step from the fort only conducted the English troops further into the jaws of destruction.  Their advance was suddenly arrested by a sharp fire on their front, which was presently followed by a similar discharge on their rear, and then succeeded by destructive vollies from every side.  In the darkness neither the position nor the numbers of the Indians could be ascertained.  Dalzell was slain early, and his whole detachment was on the brink of irretrievable confusion and ruin when Captain Grant, the next in command, perceiving that a retreat, now the only resource, could only be accomplished by a resolute attack, promptly rallied the survivors, who, steadily obeying his orders, charged the Indians with so much spirit and success as to repulse them on all sides to some distance.  Having thus extricated themselves from immediate peril, the British hastily regained the shelter of the fort, with the loss of 70 killed and 40 wounded; and the Indians, unable to reduce the fort by a regular siege, and pausing long enough to ascertain that the garrison was completely on its guard against stratagem and surprise, broke up their camp and abandoned the vicinity of Detroit.

The Indians, thus grievously disappointed in their designs on Detroit and Pittsburg, now closely beleaguered Niagara, which they justly considered as not less important.  They hoped to reduce it by famine, and on the 14th of September, surrounding a convoy of provisions which had nearly reached its destination, they succeeded in making it their prey by a sudden attack, in which 70 of the British soldiers were slain.  Shortly after, as a schooner was crossing Lake Erie with supplies for Detroit, she was attacked by a numerous