Miami Indians Burn the French Fort in Present Day Ft. Wayne, Indiana
The earlier movements of Nicolas, under the direction of the English, were openly displayed in the massacre of five Frenchmen who were returning to Detroit from their trading posts on the White river, in the present Indiana. As soon as the emissaries of Nicolas reached the site of Fort Wayne, they deceived the Miamis into the belief that the post at Detroit, with its garrison, had fallen into the hands of the conspirators and that there remained no reason why the lives of the men
at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) should be spared. The Miamis believed the report but were reluctant to massacre the Frenchmen at their post. They did, however, surround the fort, set it on fire, and take captive the eight men who happened to be within the stockade at the time
.2 Two of the men escaped and made their way to Detroit where the news of the affair caused alarm and put under way a general preparation to check the spreading disaffection of the savages. The stockade and buildings on the site of Fort Wayne were but partially destroyed. At the time of the attack, Ensign Douville was absent from the past over which he held temporary command. He had been sent from Detroit to the Miamis for the special purpose of inviting them to attend a conference in Montreal," and two of their chiefs, Cold Foot and Pore Epic (Hedgehog) had accompanied him as far as Detroit, at which place the news of the outbreak overtook him. He proceeded to Montreal alone, while the two friendly chiefs returned to their people. Sieur Dubuisson, leaving his post at Detroit, then hastened to the post on the site of Fort Wayne in response to penitent protestations from the Miamis that they had been deceived into a participation in the outbreak, and pleading for mercy because they had spared the lives of the men. The petition of the savages had been addressed directly to Longueuil, urging him to "send back some Frenchmen to them, and not to deprive them of their indispensable supplies, promising him that order would be restored in a short time. That officer yielded to their solicitation, with a view to deprive the enemy [the British] of the liberty of seizing a post of considerable importance."* Dubuisson was instructed, however, to form but a small establishment for the winter. He was supplied with thirty Frenchmen to garrison the post, as well as a like number to pass onward to the post at Oouiatanon, on the Wabash. The latter was instructed to rejoin Dubuisson in the spring and return with him and his force to Detroit. It appears that the few Miamis who remained in the region kept their promise of loyalty, but an overt act of characteristic savage cruelty occurred at Post Miami soon after the arrival of Dubuisson and his men. One of the latter, captured by a lurking Iroquois, was scalped and the bloody trophy was carried in triumph to the camp of Nicolas.
