George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

[80] council, and desired a renewal of friendship with their

chap. III.} 1751.

fathers, the French.¹ The king of the Piankeshaws, setting up the English colors in the council, as well as the French, rose and replied: ‘The path to the French is bloody, and was made so by them. We have cleared a road for our brothers, the English, and your fathers have made it foul, and have taken some of our brothers prisoners.’ They had taken three at the Huron village, near Detroit, and one on the Wabash. ‘This,’ added the king, ‘we look upon as done to us;’ and turning suddenly from them, he strode out of the council. At this, the representative of the French, an Ottawa, wept and howled, predicting sorrow for the Miamis.

To the English the Weas and Piankeshaws, after deliberation, sent a speech by the great orator of the Weas. ‘You have taken us by the hand,’ were his words, ‘into the great chain of friendship. Therefore we present you with these two bundles of skins, to make shoes for your people, and this pipe to smoke in, to assure you our hearts are good towards you, our brothers.’

In the presence of the Ottawa ambassadors, the great war-chief of Picqua stood up, and summoning in imagination the French to be present, he spoke:

Fathers! you have desired we should go home to you, but I tell you it is not our home; for we have made a path to the sun-rising, and have been taken by the hand by our brothers, the English, the Six Nations, the Delawares, the Shawnees, and the Wyandots; and we assure you, in that road we will go. ²