to give up the attempt to garrison the posts on Lakes
Huron and Michigan. Leaving everything in peace at Detroit,
Rogers went to Fort Pitt, and for nine months the forts
in the country of the Ottawa Confederacy were to be left
to their own resources.

Meanwhile the Indians were getting into a state of unrest.
The presents, on which they depended so much for existence,
were not forthcoming, and rumours of trouble were in the
air. Senecas, Shawnees, and Delawares were sending
war-belts east and west and north and south. A plot was
on foot to seize Pitt, Niagara, and Detroit. Seneca
ambassadors had visited the Wyandots in the vicinity of
Detroit, urging them to fall on the garrison. After an
investigation, Captain Campbell reported to Amherst that
an Indian rising was imminent, and revealed a plot,
originated by the Senecas, which was identical with that
afterwards matured in 1763 and attributed to Pontiac's
initiative. Campbell warned the commandants of the other
forts of the danger; and the Indians, seeing that their
plans were discovered, assumed a peaceful attitude.

Still, the situation was critical; and, to allay the
hostility of the natives and gain their confidence,
Amherst dispatched Sir William Johnson to Detroit with
instructions 'to settle and establish a firm and lasting
treaty' between the British and the Ottawa Confederacy
and other nations inhabiting the Indian territory, to
regulate the fur trade at the posts, and to settle the
price of clothes and provisions. He was likewise to