appeared in the woods, and probably reported to Pontiac's warriors the small number of the crew. The vessel stood up the river until nightfall, when, the wind falling, she was compelled to anchor about nine miles below the fort. The men on board

JOHN M. ARNOLD, one of the most widely known ministers of the Methodist Episcopal church in this State, was born in Durham, Greene county, New York, on the 15th of October, 1824. He began life as a farmer, and early attained a fair education. During his boyhood, he acquired an insatiable desire for knowledge, and soon became a constant reader, which laid the foundation of that general information and literary discrimination which has since characterized him and been the occasion of directing him to the peculiar sphere of activity that he now occupies. Mr. Arnold came to Detroit in 1861, as pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal church, and at the close of his term with that church he com

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watched with anxious vigilance. The night set in with darkness so complete, that, at the distance of a few rods, nothing could be discerned. Meantime, three hundred and fifty Indians, in their birch canoes, glided silently down the current, and were close upon the vessel before they were seen. There was only time to fire a single cannon shot among them before they were beneath her bows, and clambering up her sides, holding their knives clenched fast between their teeth. The crew gave them a close fire of musketry, without any effect; then, flinging down their guns, they seized the spears and hatchets, with which they were all provided, and met the assailants with such furious energy and courage, that, in the space of two or three minutes, they had killed and wounded more than twice their own number. But the Indians were only checked for a moment. The master of the vessel was killed, several of the crew were disabled, and the assailants were leaping over the bulwarks, when Jacobs, the mate, called out to blow up the schooner.

This desperate command saved her and her crew. Some Wyandots, who had gained the deck, caught the meaning of his words, and gave the alarm to their companions. Instantly, every Indian leaped overboard in a panic, and the whole were seen diving and

menced the organization of the Detroit Book Depository, under the auspices of his denomination, which has since grown into a large and flourishing business institution, and is now conducted under the name of J. M. Arnold & Co. Mr. Arnold is widely known as an enthusiastic and penetrating book dealer, buying and selling, under protest only, any publication that does not tend to improve the head or heart, and has built up his present business without pandering in the least to that class of literature which tends to demoralize the younger portion of our population.

Aside from attending to his business, Mr. Arnold continues to fill some one of the various pulpits of his own and other denominations, throughout the State, during the majority of the Sabbaths in the year, in a highly acceptable manner. For a number of years, he has held from his conference the appointment of Sabbath school agent. In performing the duties of this position, he travels extensively, lecturing and preaching in all portions of the State, and is a man of wide personal influence in his own and other denominations.

swimming off in all directions, to escape the threatened explosion. The schooner was cleared of her assailants, who did not dare to renew the attack; and, on the following morning, she sailed for the fort, which she reached without molestation. Six of her crew escaped unhurt. Of the remainder, two were killed, and four seriously wounded; while the Indians had seven men killed upon the spot, and nearly twenty wounded, of whom eight were known to have died within a few days after. As the action was very brief, the fierceness of the struggle is sufficiently apparent from the loss on both sides.

The appearance of the men, says an eye-witness who saw them on their arrival, was enough to convince every one of their bravery, they being as bloody as butchers, and their bayonets, spears and cutlasses bloody to the hilt. The survivors of the crew were afterwards rewarded as their courage deserved. The schooner, so boldly defended by her crew against a force of more than twenty times their number, brought to the fort a much needed supply of provisions. It was not, however, adequate to the wants of the garrison, and the whole were put upon the shortest possible allow

ance.

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CHAPTER XXI.

CONCLUSION OF PONTIAC'S WAR-THE SIEGE OF DETROIT RAISEDBRADSTREET IN THE WEST-THE ENGLISH AT PEACE-THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR-INSTIGATING SAVAGES TO TAKE AMERICAN SCALPS—— CAPTAIN BYRD'S EXPEDITION-HAMILTON'S EXPEDITION-HIS CAPTURE-DE PEYSTER COMMANDS AT DETROIT-AMERICAN LIBERTY TRIUMPHANT-PEACE RESTORED.

Ir was now the end of September. The Indians had pressed the siege with a determination unknown to their race, since the beginning of May; but at length their constancy began to wane. The tidings that Major Wilkins was approaching with a strong detachment reached their camp, and they began to fear the consequences of an attack, especially as their ammunition was nearly expended. By this time, most of the tribes around Detroit were disposed to sue for peace. They wished to retire unmolested to their wintering grounds, and renew the war in the spring. Accordingly, on the twelfth of October, Wapocomoguth, great chief of the Mississaugas, visited the fort with a pipe of peace. He made a speech to Major Gladwyn, asking for peace, to which the commandant replied, telling him that he could not himself grant peace, but would consent to a truce. This was accepted, and Gladwyn availed himself of the opportunity to collect provisions from the Canadians, and succeeded so well that the fort was soon furnished for the winter. After overtures of peace, Pontiac withdrew, with his chiefs, to the Maumee, to stir up the Indians in that quarter, with a view of resuming the war in the spring.

About the middle of November, after quiet had been restored around the fort at Detroit, two friendly Indians visited the fort, and one of them took a closely folded letter from his powderhorn and handed it to Gladwyn. The note was from Major Wilkins, and contained the disastrous news that the detachment

under his command had been overtaken by a storm; that many of the boats had been wrecked; that seventy men had perished; that all its stores and ammunition had been destroyed, and the detachment forced to return to Niagara. This intelligence had

HON. R. P. ELDRIDGE.

ROBERT P. ELDRIDGE, a prominent lawyer of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit, was born on the banks of the Hudson, in the township of Greenwich, Washington county, New York, in 1808.

The winter after he was six years of age, his father moved to Lebanon, Madison county, and from there to the township of Hamilton, on the east side of the west branch of the Chenango river, in the same county. The spring after he reached his fourteenth year, he was sent to the academy at the village of Hamilton to prepare for a collegiate education, but his