Michilimakinac. By this movement the Indians found themselves
surrounded, on two sides, by a cordon of forts, and were threatened
with an extension of them into the very heart of their country. They
had now to choose whether they would remove to the north and west,
negociate with the British government for the possession of their own
land, or take up arms for its defence. They chose the last alternative;
and, a war of extermination against the English residents in the
western country, and even those on the Susquehanna, was agreed upon and
speedily commenced. Many of the British traders living among the
Indians were murdered; the forts of Presque Isle, St. Joseph and
Mackinac, were taken, with a general slaughter of their garrisons;
while the forts of Bedford, Ligonier, Niagara, Detroit and Pitt, were
barely preserved from falling into their hands. The contest was
continued with resolute and daring spirit, and with much destruction of
life and property, until December, 1764, when the war was brought to a
close by a treaty at the German Flats, made between Sir William
Johnston and the hostile Indians. Soon after the conclusion of this
peace the Shawanoes became involved in a war with the Cherokees, which
continued until 1768, when, pressed hard by the united force of the
former tribe and the Delawares, the southern Indians solicited and
obtained a peace.[A] For the ensuing six years, the Shawanoes remained
quiet, living on amicable terms with the whites on the frontiers: in
April, 1774, however, hostilities between these parties were renewed.

[Footnote A: Thatcher's Indian Biography.]

It is not our purpose in the present sketch of this tribe, to present a
detail of all their conflicts with the whites; but the "Dunmore war,"
(as it is generally called,) of 1774, having been mainly prosecuted by
Shawanoes, one of their distinguished chiefs having commanded in the