offered itself, and they were again on the war-path.

Amherst at New York had at last been aroused to the
danger; and Captain James Dalyell had set out from Fort
Schlosser with twenty-two barges, carrying nearly three
hundred men, with cannon and supplies, for the relief of
Detroit. The expedition skirted the southern shore of
Lake Erie until it reached Sandusky. The Wyandot villages
here were found deserted. After destroying them Dalyell
shaped his course for the Detroit river. Fortune favoured
the expedition. Pontiac was either ignorant of its approach
or unable to mature a plan to check its advance. Through
the darkness and fog of the night of July 28 the barges
cautiously crept up-stream, and when the morning sun of
the 29th lifted the mists from the river they were in
full view of the fort. Relief at last! The weary watching
of months was soon to end. The band of the fort was
assembled, and the martial airs of England floated on
the morning breeze. Now it was that the Wyandots and
Potawatomis, although so lately swearing friendship to
the British, thought the opportunity too good to be lost.
In passing their villages the barges were assailed by a
musketry fire, which killed two and wounded thirteen of
Dalyell's men. But the soldiers, with muskets and swivels,
replied to the attack, and put the Indians to flight.
Then the barges drew up before the fort to the welcome
of the anxious watchers of Detroit.

The reinforcement was composed of men of the 55th and
8th regiments, and of twenty Rangers under Major Robert