neutrality. De Lévis and the Marquis de Vaudreuil reluctantly signed the Articles of Capitulation of Montreal on September 8 which effectively completed the British conquest of New France. Sporadic engagements, 1760–1763 Most of the fighting ended in America in 1760, although it continued in Europe between France and Britain. The notable exception was the French seizure of St. John's, Newfoundland. General Amherst heard of this surprise action and immediately dispatched troops under his nephew William Amherst, who regained control of Newfoundland after the Battle of Signal Hill in September 1762. Many of the British troops who were stationed in America were reassigned to participate in further British actions in the West Indies, including the capture of Spanish Havana when Spain belatedly entered the conflict on the side of France, and a British expedition against French Martinique in 1762 led by Major General Robert Monckton. Peace Governor Vaudreuil in Montreal negotiated a capitulation with General Amherst in September 1760. Amherst granted his requests that any French residents who chose to remain in the colony would be given freedom to continue worshiping in their Roman Catholic tradition, to own property, and to remain undisturbed in their homes. The British provided medical treatment for the sick and wounded French soldiers, and French regular troops were returned to France aboard British ships with an agreement that they were not to serve again in the present war. General Amherst also oversaw the transfer of French fortifications to British control on the western frontier. The policies which he introduced in those lands disturbed large numbers of Indians and contributed to the outbreak of Pontiac's War in 1763. A series of Indian attacks on frontier forts and settlements required the continued deployment of British forces, and the conflict was not fully concluded until 1766. Beginning from the 1750's and lasting until the 1760's, a smallpox outbreak devastated several Indian communities throughout the American Midwest. The outbreak was brought on in part by victorious Indian warriors who had fought on the side of the French bringing home prizes of war which had been infected with the disease; the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi peoples were most affected by the outbreak. An oral account from Odawa tribal leader and historian Andrew Blackbird claimed that the outbreak had "entirely depopulated and laid waste" to Waganagisi, a large Odawa settlement. The war in North America, along with the global Seven Years' War,