chap. V.} 1753 |
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Mohawk warriors, that filled the air with their whoops
and halloos, presented to Johnson the belt of warning which should urge the English to protect the Ohio Indians and the Miamis.1 In May more than thirty canoes were counted as they passed Oswego; part of an army going to ‘the Beautiful River’ of the French.2 The Six Nations foamed with eagerness to take up the hatchet; for, said they, ‘Ohio is ours.’
On the report that a body of twelve hundred men had been detached from Montreal, by the brave Duquesne, the successor of La Jonquiere, to occupy the Ohio valley, the Indians on the banks of that river,—promiscuous bands of Delawares, Shawnees, and Mingoes, or emigrant Iroquois,—after a council at Logstown, resolved to stay the progress of the white men. Their envoy met the French, in April, at Niagara, and gave them the first warning to turn back.
As the message sent from the council-fires of the tribes was unheeded, Tanacharisson, the Half-King, himself repaired to them at the newly discovered harbor of Erie, and, undismayed by a rude reception, delivered his speech.
‘Fathers! you are disturbers in this land, by taking it away unknown to us and by force.
This is our land, and not yours.
Fathers! both you and the English are white; we live in a country between.
Therefore the land belongs to neither the one nor the other of you. But the Great Being above allowed it to be a dwelling-place for us; so, Fathers, I desire you to withdraw, as I have done our brothers, the English;’ and he gave the belt of wampum.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1859.
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