strategic value of various points on the frontier, possession of which
in the event of war he foresaw would be worth a king's ransom. Not least
were details respecting Michilimackinac, the Mackinaw already referred
to. Nearly half a century before, Henry, a native of New Jersey, of
English parents--his ambition fired by tales of the fabulous fortunes to
be made in the fur trade--obtained from the commandant at Montreal a
permit to proceed west as a trader. He outfitted at Albany, and the
following summer set out for Mackinaw.

Meanwhile the Indian allies, under control of the great Pontiac, were
fighting immigration and civilization. Between Fort Pitt--Pittsburgh--
and the Fox River, in Wisconsin, the home of the Sacs and Foxes, they
had captured nine out of thirteen military posts, and were secretly
planning the downfall of Fort Mackinaw. This was regarded as an
impregnable post and vulnerable only through strategy--in Indian
parlance another name for duplicity. Fort Mackinaw, as Brock well knew,
was the most important trading _entrepôt_ west of Montreal. It served a
territory extending from the Missouri in the west to the far
Kissaskatchewan in the north.

On Henry's arrival his friendship was sought by an Indian chief,
Wawatam. Between these two men a remarkable attachment developed. They
became brothers by mutual adoption. At this time the fort was garrisoned
by ninety British regulars. One day, outside the walls on the
surrounding plateau, several hundred savages were encamped, ostensibly
for purposes of trade, some of them killing time by playing the Indian
game of ball--the _baggatiway_ of the red-man, _la jeu de la crosse_ of
the voyageur. Henry, acting upon a veiled warning by Wawatam, suggested
to the officer in command extra precaution.