meeting you at this time, and have called upon you to do the same on your parts. They have brightened the chain of friendship, and have done every thing in their power to preserve that friendship, which was made between your forefathers and the first settlers of this province, who came over with your ancient brother Onas.

"Brethren: I now desire you will assemble all the wise men of your several tribes together, and call to mind your former treaties with the good people of Pennsylvania, and consider what has been said to you, and speak your mind freely and openly to the Governor's commissioners that every thing which gives you uneasiness or discontent, may be fully known to your brother Onas, as he has desired."

After the above speeches were interpreted to the different nations, one of the chiefs spoke and said they would take them into consideration, and let us know when they should be ready to answer them.

Then a deputy sent from the Six Nation country got up, and delivered the following message to the several nations present:

"Brethren: I am sent from the Six Nation council with this speech to inform you that they have considered well the past conduct of their warriors, in going through this country to and from war, who have made a practice of stealing horses, and behaving otherwise very ill to their brethren, the English, and have forbidden them their doing any mischief for the future; and do now desire you the Shawanese, Delawares and Wyandotts to do the same, and throw all evil thoughts out of your minds and hearts; and to think of nothing but promoting a lasting friendship with your brethren, the English, as we your older brothers, the Six Nations have determined to do." A belt.

After the Six Nation deputy had finished the foregoing speech, and it was interpreted to the Indians, Mr. Croghan informed them of the Congress Sir William Johnson held with the Six Nations, Canada Indians, and other northern tribes, of the business transacted with them, and the peace settled between those several nations and the Cherokees; and that the deputies of the latter with a number of the Six Nations were to return home by the way of fort Pitt, and recommended it to the different tribes present to behave in a friendly manner to them, and see that they passed safe through their country, on which Mr. Croghan gave them a belt.

Sunday, May 1st, 1768-Present, same as before. QUEQUEDAGAYTHO, speaker for the Delawares, rose up and made the following answer to the message from the Governor of Pennsylvania:

"Brother: We return you thanks for your kindness in sending commissioners to condole with us on account of the unhappy accidents which have happened between us; as also for the friendly messages they have delivered to us in your name, and you may be assured we shall pay due regard to every thing you have therein said to us."

He then requested the several nations present to attend to what he was about to say farther to their brother, the Governor of Pennsylvania, and proceeded:

"Brother: The grief and concern which you have expressed to us on account of the late mischiefs committed on our people, we believe to be very sincere, and that they were caused by the evil spirit. You have

also mentioned in a particular manner several losses which you have sustained in the Indian country. We are heartily sorry for them, but must acquaint you that as to the murder of the ten men in the batteaux down this river, we have heard of it as well as you, but it was commit ted by another nation, and not by any of the tribes here present, so that we have not had the least concern in this unhappy affair. It is too true that one of your people was killed by the Shawanese, and we are also very sorry for that accident. As to the man who you say was killed near fort Pitt, by a Delaware Indian, we tell you that the person who committed that act was half a white man and the other half an Indian; so you see brothers, that you are equally concerned with us in that breach of friendship; but I hope brother, all these misfortunes are now buried in oblivion, and that our children may never think of them more, and that we may continue in the strictest friendship." A belt.

"Brother: I shall in the next place speak to you concerning the friendship that subsists between us. I hope we shall always be firm in it; and we shall endeavor on our parts to keep the chain as bright and strong as our forefathers did at their first councils, which were held by wise men." A string.

He then repeated the same ceremonies that we had used in burying the bones, and said:

"Brother: I now gather all the bones of your deceased friends and bury them in the ground in the same place with ours so deep that none of our young people may ever know that misfortunes have happened between us; and it gives us great satisfaction that our brother Onas has not forgotten this ancient custom of condoling with our losses." A belt.

"Brother: By this belt I also wipe away the blood, as you have done from the earth, and make your bodies quite clean, that you may appear to have as good hearts as those of our wise forefathers; and we hope what passes in this council will never be forgotten." A belt.

After repeating what had been said to them relating to the chain of friendship, he concluded:

"Brethren: We are much obliged to the Governor for speaking so freely and openly to us from his heart, and as he has recommended to us to take fast hold of the chain of friendship, we assure him we shall take his advice, and will do it; and that we shall likewise speak to him from our hearts; for we look upon this as the only way to preserve our friendship; and we shall take care to guide and direct our young people, to behave as they ought to do, in promoting the peace and cultivating the strictest harmony between us. A belt.

The BEAVER, a chief of the Delawares, then rising up, desired all present to pay attention to what he should say to his brother, the Governor of Pennsylvania:

"Brother: We, the old men of the different nations present, are much rejoiced that the chain of friendship is now brightened by our brother, the Governor of Pennsylvania, and we return him thanks for putting it into our hands in the manner he has done, which convinces us of his good intentions. We, the Delawares, Shawanese, Munsies, Mohickons, Wyandotts and our uncles, the Six Nations, will keep fast hold of the chain of friendship, in the manner you desire us. We now desire the

Governor will also take hold of the end of this belt, which we stretch along the road between him and us, in order to clear it of the briars and brush that have grown up in it, that we may all travel it in peace and safety.

"Brethren: We make the road smooth and pleasant for your commissioners to travel home, and make a report to you at our ancient council fire in Philadelphia, of what they now hear from us; and when you consider our speeches, you will find that our hearts are good, and that we are determined to preserve the road of peace free from any interruption on our parts. We desire that you will take the same care on your parts; for if logs shall be laid across it by any of your people, it will be undoing every thing that is now agreed on between our several nations and you, at this meeting." A belt.

Then QUEQUEDAGATHO rose and said, that they had spoken every thing they had to say at this time, to their brother ONAS, and addressing himself to Mr. Croghan, spoke as follows:

"Brother: We have been long acquainted with you, and are well pleased with your behavior towards us; and at this time are the more obliged to you, for introducing to us the commissioners from the government of Pennsylvania; as it has given us a good opportunity of renewing our peace with the good people of that province, with whom our forefathers always lived in the most perfect friendship. You spoke to us the other day, and recommended to us to take into our most serious consideration, the several matters we have heard from the Governor of Pennsylvania by his commissioners; and to weigh them well in our minds, before we give our answers to them.

"Brother: We have taken your advice, and you may be convinced of this, by what we have just now said in behalf of the Delawares, Munsies and Mohickons." A belt.

The speaker of the Delawares then observed, that they had finished what they had to say at this time. Then the chief of the Six Nations rose up, and addressing himself to the commissioners of Pennsylvania, said:

"Brother: We have heard, with attention, what the Delawares have now said to you, and we shall speak to you to-morrow; and so will our younger brothers, the Shawanese."

Monday, May 2, 1768. Present-The same as before.

TOHONISSAHGARONA, a chief of the Six Nations, got up, and addressing himself to the several nations present, said:

"Brother: The Great Giver of life has brought us all together at this council fire, in order to premote the good work of peace; and we have heard what our brother ONAS has said to us by his commissioners; and you will now hearken attentively to what the Six Nations are about to say to him, in answer to his message." A string.

Then addressing himself to the commissioners of Pennsylvania, he said:

"Brothers: You have already heard what our nephews, the Delawares have said to you. They have spoken freely and openly to you from their hearts; and we hope it has made a proper impression on you. We are now, in like manner, going to open our hearts to you freely,

and we also hope, that what we shall deliver, will be received by you in a friendly manner. A string.

Brother ONAS: In your several speeches, you have desired us to open our minds freely, and to speak before you every thing that gives us uneasiness. We are obliged to you for this advice, which we shall follow, and are glad of an opportunity to speak to you in council.

"Brother: It is not without grief, that we see our country settled by you, without our knowledge or consent; and it is a long time since we first complained to you of this grievance, which we find has not yet been redressed; but settlements are still extending farther into our country. Some of them are made directly on our war path leading to our enemies country, and we don't like it.

"Brothers: You have laws amongst you to govern your people by; and it will be the strongest proof of the sincerity of your friendship, to let us see that you remove the people from our land; as we look upon it, it will be time enough for you, when you have purchased them, and the country becomes yours.' A belt.

99

"Brother: We have heard with pleasure what you have said to us; you have made our hearts easy with respect to the losses we have suffured by you; and therefore, we shall not take notice of any past misfortunes. We are glad to find our nephews, the Delawares, have taken fast hold of the chain of friendship with you; and by this belt, we join our hands with you and them, in holding it fast. We speak now in behalf of the Six Nations residing in this country, as there are some of every tribe present; and we wish, brethren, that you may be strong and well disposed to preserve that friendship, as we are." A belt.

"Brother: I have now done speaking, and have told you every thing that remains in our hearts, which gives us, and the several nations in this country, any uneasiness.”

Tuesday, May 3d, 1768. Present-The same as before.

NYмWHA, a speaker of the Shawanese, addressed himself to all the Indians, desired they would attend to what he was going to say to the commissioners of Pennsylvania, and all the English brethren present, and spoke as follows:

"Brethren: When you talked of peace to us at the time we were struggling in war, we did not hearken to you at first. You mentioned it a second time to us; we still refused to attend to you; but after repeating it to us several times, we consented to hear you. We then looked at you, and saw you holding instruments of war in your hands, which we took from you, and cast them into the air out of our sight.— We afterwards desired you to destroy your forts, as that would be the way to make all nations of Indians believe you were sincere in your friendship; and we now repeat the same argument to you again. We also desired you not to go down this river in the way of the warriors belonging to the foolish nations to the westward; and told you that the waters of this river, a great way below this, were colored with blood.— You did not pay any regard to this, but asked us to accompany you in going down, which we did, and we felt the smart of our rashness, and with difficulty returned to our friends. We see you now about making batteaux, and we make no doubt you intend going down the river again,

which we now tell you is disagreeable to all nations of Indians; and we now again desire you to sit still at this place. They are also uneasy to see that you think yourselves masters of this country, because you have taken it from the French, who, you know, had no right to it, as it is the property of us Indians. We often hear that you intend to fight with the French again. If you do, we desire you will remove your quarrel out of this country, and carry it over the great waters, where you used to fight, and where we shall neither see nor know anything of it. All we desire is to enjoy a quiet peace with you both, and that we should be strong in talking of peace. We have now spoken to you from our hearts, and hope we shall exert ourselves in promoting a lasting a friendship. All we have to say to you now is to be strong, and let us agree to what we desire of each other. When you first talked of peace to us, you desired of us to sit over the river quietly at our fires; but our women and children were frightened away by the noise you made in repairing your fort; but if you do as we desired you, they will return without fear." A belt.

"Brethren: You have heard what we have desired in our last speech, and we hope you will comply with our request, and not attempt to go down this river again, as the nations who live that way are surprised to see you make a practice of this at the same time you are making professions of friendship to us. We, therefore, desire you will put a stop to your people going down this river, till we have spoken to the nations living in that country, which we intend to do with the assistance of our brothers, the Six Nations, and our good fathers, the Delawares." A string.

"Brethren: The reason of our mentioning this matter at this time is, because we hope you will take pity on us, and do as we have desired you.

Then KISSONAUCHTHA, a chief of the Shawanese, rose up and said: "Brethren: We are glad to see you here, and that you are sent by the Governor of Pennsylvania, to confer with us at this council. It much rejoiced our hearts to take you by the had on your arrival, and we assure you that the several nations now present, are equally rejoiced with us on this account." A string.

"Brethren: You have informed us that you are sent by the Governor and wise men of Pennsylvania, to hear what may pass at this council. We are glad to hear you say you had made the road clear and smooth, as you came along, and that you had brought to us the chain of friendship in your hands, from our brethren, the wise men of Pennsylvania. This has dispersed the dark cloud of night which hung over our heads, on account of many late misfortunes which have happened, and brought to us the light of the clear day. You have no doubt heard of many bad reports of mischief, which may have made ill impressions on your minds against us; we now remove them quite away, and make your hearts easy on our parts, that when you set off you may travel it back with pleasure to your council house at Philadelphia, which I likewise sweep clean, that your wise men, when you return, may sit down in it with satisfaction and comfort, and look back upon us, their brethren, remembering that we have not forgotten our ancient friendship.