Brothers, We once more turn our eyes to your representation of the warlike appearances in your country; and to give you complete satisfaction on this point, we now assure you, that as soon as our councils at this place are ended, we will send a messenger on horseback to the great chief of the United States, to desire him to renew and strongly repeat his orders to his head warrior, not only to abstain from all hostilities against you, but to remain quiet at his posts until the event of the treaty shall be known. Belt and Strings delivered by us. Brothers, the Bostonians, attend. We have heard your words. Our fathers, the English people, have also heard them. We thank God that you have been preserved in peace, and that we bring our pipes together. The people of all the different nations here salute you. They rejoice to hear your words. It gives us great satisfaction that our fathers the English have also heard them. We shall for the present take up our pipes and retire to our encampments, where we shall deliberately consider your speech, and return you an answer to-morrow. (This was from a Shawanese, called Cat's Eyes.) July 9. In council. Present as yesterday. Captain Brandt arose with the belt and strings in his hands, which were delivered by the Commissioners, and addressing himself to the English and Americans, said. Brothers, We are glad the Great Spirit has preserved us in meet together this day. Brothers of the United States, peace to Yesterday you made an answer to the message delivered by us from the great council at Miami in the two particulars we had stated to you. Brothers, You may depend on it that we fully understand your speech. We shall take with us your belt and strings and repeat it to the chiefs at the great council at Miami. (Then laying down the belt and strings, he took up a white belt and said,) Brothers, We have something farther to say, though not much. We are small, compared with our great chiefs at Miami; but though small, we have something to say. We think, brothers, from your speech, that there is a prospect of our coming together. We who are the nations at the westward, are of one mind; and if we agree with you, as there is a prospect. that we shall, it will be binding and lasting. Our prospects, brothers, are the fairer because all our minds are one. You have not spoken to us before unitedly. Formerly, because you did not speak to us unitedly, what was done was not binding. Now you have an opportunity to speak to us together; and we now take you by the hand to lead you to the place appointed for the meeting. A white Belt of Seven Rows. Brothers, this is all we have to say. Afterwards Captain Brandt arose again, recollecting that he had not answered our request respecting the nations and chiefs assembled at Miami, and said, Brothers, One thing more we have to say. Yesterday you expressed a wish to be informed of the names of the nations and number of chiefs assembled at the Miami. But as they were daily coming in, we cannot give you exact information. You will see for yourselves in a few days. When we left it, the following nations were there, viz. The principal men of all the above nations were there. Brothers, Our ears have been open to your speech; it is agreeable to us. We are ready to proceed with you to Sandusky, where, under the direction of the Great Spirit, we hope that we shall soon establish a peace on terms equally interesting and agreeable to all parties. The council-fire was then covered up. Lodged at Chippewa. July 11. Arrived on board, where we now are waiting for the return of the Indians and a fair wind. According to our promise, we wrote to the President on the complaints made that our army was approaching, and sent to the Secretary at War a copy of all our official transactions, which had a tendency to show the real state of matters respecting the treaty. In addition thereto I wrote him the following private letter. My Dear Sir, Niagara, 10th July, 1793. I wish you would cause the enclosed to Mrs. Lincoln, to be lodged in the post-office as soon as may be after it shall come to hand. Having my pen in my hand I cannot help making an observation or two relative to appearances here, which may not be so fully expressed in our public communications. At our several meetings with the delegates from the tribes assembled in council at the Rapids of the Miami, a great number of people attended the hearing; among which many were from the United States. Yesterday, after we covered up the council-fire, all classes of men seemed to unite in the idea that a peace would be established. Perhaps they are. too sanguine in their expectations; I hope they are not. However that may be, such a sentiment will spread; for many of our people are on their return, and will doubtless. give their opinion on the state of matters. It becomes therefore, if possible, of infinitely more importance than ever, that no movements of our army should intervene and destroy the present favorable appearance of things. For after the people are once flushed with the hope of peace, they will not be easily satisfied, if to any improper conduct on our part, they should be under the painful necessity of sacrificing the pleasing hope that the war will soon terminate. If the reports which circulate here from different quarters in any degree true, General Wayne must have violated the clearest principles of a truce. Certainly we expected that, from the nature of all the transactions of the United States, they considered themselves as bound by its laws, as established by the different nations. The Commissioners. could not have painted to themselves any hope of personal security but in such a belief. For if there is no truce existing, they are just throwing themselves into the hands of the savages at open and active war. The Commissioners are not so apprehensive for themselves, as for the honor of the United States, and the success of their mission. If the present treaty, in this stage of it, should be broken up by the movements of our army, by the advancement of stores, other than those necessary for the several garrisons, by cutting of roads, or by any military transaction against the laws of war, our country will be highly irritated, and the blame will fall somewhere; not on the President, you know. The eyes of our country, as well as the eyes of our neighbors, are upon you. Adieu. Believe me, &c. Secretary of War. While at Navy Hall, a deputation from the Seven Nations of Canada arrived; they amounted to two hundred and eighty. They appear in their color, manners and dress similar to those in this neighborhood. Indeed, all the tribes which have fallen under my notice, from Nova Scotia on the north, to the Creek nations on the south, are very similar in their dress and manners. The same mode of attending their children in lacing them on a board, &c. runs through the whole. I think it is very probable, that when the Levitical laws were promulgated, the dress of the priests, and perhaps all the tribes, was similar to the dress of the Indians. In those laws it is provided that they shall not ascend the altar by steps, lest their nakedness should be disclosed. Elijah's mantle was probably a kind of blanket. The word mantle, among some of the tribes, at this day denotes a blanket. Í think that the garment with which Noah was covered by his two sons was probably of this kind. July 14. We left Fort Erie early in the morning. As we sailed on our course, an extensive lake opened to our view, and a pleasing appearance of the lands on shore. The eye was carried on from those which were level, to those which gradually swelled, thence on to hills of easy ascent, which terminated our sight. This lake is about three hundred miles in length, and sixty broad; the depth of the waters is from seven to seventeen fathoms deep, and generally a clayey botThe waters in this lake are locked up by a body of rocks extending across the mouth of it; and from the appearance of the rocks on the shores there seems to be a petrifying tom. quality in these waters. If so, the wasting hand of time will hereby be in some measure, if not fully, counteracted, and the barrier remain unimpaired; which would not be the case without such a quality in the waters. This lake is connected by navigable waters for large vessels with the lakes of St. Clair, Huron, and Michigan. Besides, the waters from the Lake Superior and the lakes above empty into these, and between them there are communications by boats. From all these lakes the waters pass the great falls of Niagara into the Lake Ontario, thence down the St. Lawrence. In Lake Ontario there is a plenty of salmon; but in the lakes above the Falls there are no fish whose nature directs their annual return to the sea; for in this attempt they would be lost at the Falls, should they be carried up by art. In all the upper lakes there are various kinds of fish, which are taken in great numbers, at certain seasons of the year; and at all times they are to be had, but not in such plenty. On the borders of these waters, so far as I could see, and from all I heard, there are vast tracts of excellent lands, which are capable, under proper cultivation, of yielding not only the necessaries, but many of the luxuries, of life. These waters are a very important deposit, as they facilitate the passing from one part to the other; they give an opportunity to the inhabitants to correspond one. with the other, and to exchange articles, the natural production of one part, for those peculiar to another, by which the happiness of the whole is promoted. When I take a view of this extensive country, and contemplate the clemency of its seasons, the richness of its soil, see the saccharine, so grateful to our tastes, and necessary perhaps, from habit, to our happiness, flowing from the trees of the forest; and observe the fountains of salt water, and spots of earth impregnated with saline particles, called salt-licks, to which the beasts resort, from the former of which a full supply of salt can be drawn for all the inhabitants at a very moderate price, while their situation is so far inland as to make this article, important to the well-being of man and beast, too expensive to be obtained in any other way; when I farther consider the many natural advantages, if not peculiar to, yet possessed by this country, and that it is capable of giving support to an hundred times as many inhabitants as now occupy it, (for there is at present little more to be seen on the greatest proportion of the lands than here and there |