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Presqu' Isle, now Erie, Pennsylvania, was founded about the same time as Vincennes. A French settler built his house in an inclosure of two or three acres. The unvarying model was one story high, with porches or galleries surrounding it. Wooden walls were filled and daubed with a solid mass of what was called cat-and-clay, a mixture of mortar and chopped straw or Spanish moss.
From Buffalo I proceeded in a steamer along lake Erie, to Portland in Ohio, now called Sandusky City; the distance 240 miles. After about an hour's sail, we entirely lost sight of the Canadian shores. The scenery on the American side is very fine, particularly from Presqu' Isle onward to the head of the lake, or rather from its magnitude, it might be termed an inland sea.
I do not feel disposed to describe Lyons particularly, although I have become intimately acquainted with every part of it, from Presqu' isle Perrache to Croix Rousse.
«§ 447. On peut, des environs de Siongy, observer la structure de la dernière montagne de cette chaine; elle est très remarquable. Les couches horizontales au sommet se courbent presqu'
"'Your parole, Monsieur! "'Peste! I forgot, said M. Benest, half to himself. "'Forgot? Forgot your parole? Mais ecoutez donc! Nous savons souffrir, nous autres franfaises . . . Et la petite qui meurt et et moi qui mourrai Presqu' a l'heure mais nous nous en tenons a' ne pas dishonorer la Patrie a la fin. Ca finira bien, sous-officier allez- vous allez-vous en. Mais allez!
This seasonable victory, and this determined conduct on the part of the United States, rescued them from a general war with all the nations north-west of the Ohio. The Six Nations had manifested resentments, which were only appeased for the moment, by the suspension of a settlement, which Pennsylvania was making at Presqu' Isle, within their alleged limits.
During the time we were at anchor at this place I was ordered, with four seamen and two marines, to take the command of a block-house on the Presqu’ Isle to watch the movements of the enemy, whose advanced post was about four miles on the other side the isthmus, as well as to make signals to the commodore whenever strange ships appeared near the land.
At Presqu' Isle the twenty-seven soldiers went into the blockhouse of the fort and prepared to hold it, lining and making it bullet-proof. A blockhouse was built of logs, or very thick timber, and had no windows, and but one door in the lower story. The upper story projected several feet all around, and had loopholes in the overhanging, floor, through which the men could shoot down.
With the door barred by iron or great beams of wood, and food and ammunition stored in the lower room, men could ascend a ladder to the second story of a blockhouse and hold it against great odds, if the besiegers did not succeed in burning them out. Presqu' Isle was at the edge of Lake Erie, and the soldiers brought in all the water they could store.
Next came tidings of the massacres at Fort Ouatanon on the Wabash River and at Fort Miamis, on the Maumee. Nor was the tale of fire and blood yet ended. A fugitive from the camp of Pontiac reached Detroit one afternoon. It proved to be Ensign Christie, the commanding officer at Presqu' Isle, near the eastern end of Lake Erie. His story was a thrilling one.
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