agility and
endurance.

The Ojibwas and the Sacs, two rivals of long standing, were the
contestants and excitement ran high. Captain Etherington, with one
of his lieutenants, was lounging at the gate of the fort whooping
on the Ojibwas, for he had promised them that he would bet on their
side. Suddenly the ball arose in the air in a graceful curve and
fell within the walls of the fort. The players, an excited mob,
burst after it yelling. Suspecting nothing, Etherington stepped
aside with a laugh to let the howling mass sweep in the walls of
the citadel.

The Indians’ stratagem had been completely successful. Before
he knew what was being done, Etherington, with his lieutenant,
was seized and bound, while the Indians, reinforced by their
comrades amongst the spectators of the game, seized tomahawks
which the squaws had concealed beneath their blankets and fell on
the hapless members of the little garrison. There commenced one
of those familiar scenes of butchery with which border tradition
and the accounts of witnesses who escaped have made us familiar.
Men were stricken down and held between Indians’ knees while they
were scalped, still alive. Women and children were slaughtered.
Bodies of both sexes were mangled. Frenzied red warriors scooped
up handfuls of blood and drank it in gulps. Soon the chapter was
ended. Only a few of the little garrison--kept, like Etherington,
on account of rank or for some particular reasons--were left alive.

[Illustration:

  Copyright, Detroit Publishing Company

FORT MICHILLIMACKINAC AND STATE PARK, MACKINAC ISLAND, MICHIGAN]

From this day for four years Fort Michillimackinac was without a
garrison. Then, with the subjection of the red tribes, the English
came back to their border posts and Michillimackinac was once
more filled with soldiery. In the early days of the Revolution
the walls of the fort were strengthened and the garrison was
increased.

The strategic location of the fort had never been advantageous
for purposes of defence, however, so in November, 1779, Major de