slashing, shouldering each other, and shouting in their
excitement as command of the ball passed with the fortunes
of the game from Chippewa to Sac and from Sac to Chippewa.
Etherington and Lieutenant Leslie were standing near the
gate, interested spectators of the game; and all about,
and scattered throughout the fort, were squaws with
stoical faces, each holding tight about her a gaudily
coloured blanket. The game was at its height, when a
player threw the ball to a spot near the gate of the
fort. There was a wild rush for it; and, as the gate was
reached, lacrosse sticks were cast aside, the squaws
threw open their blankets, and the players seized the
tomahawks and knives held out in readiness to them. The
shouts of play were changed to war-whoops. Instantly
Etherington and Leslie were seized and hurried to a
near-by wood. Into the fort the horde dashed. Here stood
more squaws with weapons; and before the garrison had
time to seize their arms, Lieutenant Jamette and fifteen
soldiers were slain and scalped, and the rest made
prisoners, while the French inhabitants stood by, viewing
the tragedy with apparent indifference.

Etherington, Leslie, and the soldiers were held close
prisoners. A day or two after the capture of the fort a
Chippewa chief, _Le Grand Sable_, who had not been present
at the massacre, returned from his wintering-ground. He
entered a hut where a number of British soldiers were
bound hand and foot, and brutally murdered five of them.
The Ottawas, it will be noted, had taken no part in the
capture of Michilimackinac. In fact, owing to the good