Ottawas’ encampment at Parent’s Creek.  As the two officers crossed the bridge at the mouth of the creek, they were met by a savage crowd—­men, women, and children—­armed with sticks and clubs.  The mob rushed at them with yells and threatening gestures, and were about to fall on the officers when Pontiac appeared and restored order.  A council was held, but as Campbell could get no satisfaction he suggested returning to the fort.  Thereupon Pontiac remarked:  ’My father will sleep to-night in the lodges of his red children.’  Campbell and McDougall were given good quarters in the house of Jean Baptiste Meloche.  For nearly two months they were to be kept close prisoners.

So far only part of the Wyandots had joined Pontiac:  Father Potier had been trying to keep his flock neutral.  But on the 11th Pontiac crossed to the Wyandot village, and threatened it with destruction if the warriors did not take up the tomahawk.  On this compulsion they consented, no doubt glad of an excuse to be rid of the discipline of their priest.

Another attack on the fort was made, this time by about six hundred Indians; but it was as futile as the one of the earlier day.  Pontiac now tried negotiation.  He summoned Gladwyn to surrender, promising that the British should be allowed to depart unmolested on their vessels.  The officers, knowing that their communications with the east were cut, that food was scarce, that a vigorous assault could not fail to carry the fort, urged Gladwyn to accept the offer, but he sternly refused.  He would not abandon Detroit while one pound of food and one pound of powder were left in the fort.  Moreover, the treacherous conduct of Pontiac convinced him that the troops and traders as they left the fort would be plundered and slaughtered.  He rejected Pontiac’s demands, and advised him to disperse his people and save his ammunition for hunting.

At this critical moment Detroit was undoubtedly saved by a French Canadian.  But for Jacques Baby, the grim spectre Starvation would have stalked through the little fortress.  Baby was a prosperous trader and merchant who, with his wife Susanne Reaume, lived on the east shore of the river, almost opposite the fort.  He had a farm of one thousand acres, two hundred of which were under cultivation.  His trading establishment was a low-built log structure eighty feet long by twenty wide.  He owned thirty slaves—­twenty men and ten women.  He seems to have treated them kindly; at any rate, they loyally did his will.  Baby agreed to get provisions into the fort by stealth; and on a dark night, about a week after the siege commenced, Gladwyn had a lantern displayed on a plank fixed at the water’s edge.  Baby had six canoes in readiness; in each were stowed two quarters of beef, three hogs, and six bags of meal.  All night long these canoes plied across the half-mile stretch of water and by daylight sufficient food to last the garrison for several weeks had been delivered.