and twelve men. Holmes knew that his position was critical.
In 1762 he had reported that the Senecas, Shawnees, and
Delawares were plotting to exterminate the British in
the Indian country, and he was not surprised when, towards
the end of May 1763, he was told by a French trader that
Detroit was besieged by the Ottawa Confederacy. But though
Holmes was on the alert, and kept his men under arms, he
was nevertheless to meet death and his fort was to be
captured by treachery. In his desolate wilderness home
the young ensign seems to have lost his heart to a handsome
young squaw living in the vicinity of the fort. On May
27 she visited him and begged him to accompany her on a
mission of mercy--to help to save the life of a sick
Indian woman. Having acted as physician to the Indians
on former occasions, Holmes thought the request a natural
one. The young squaw led him to the Indian village,
pointed out the wigwam where the woman was supposed to
be, and then left him. As he was about to enter the wigwam
two musket-shots rang out, and he fell dead. Three
soldiers, who were outside the fort, rushed for the gate,
but they were tomahawked before they could reach it. The
gate was immediately closed, and the nine soldiers within
the fort made ready for resistance. With the Indians were
two Frenchmen, Jacques Godfroy, whom we have met before
as the ambassador to Pontiac in the opening days of the
siege of Detroit, and one Miny Chesne; [Footnote: This
is the only recorded instance, except at Detroit, in
which any French took part with the Indians in the capture
of a fort. And both Godfroy and Miny Chesne had married
Indian women.] and they had an English prisoner, a trader