"Friends!—Listen to what I say to you! You see a great and powerful nation divided! You see the father fighting against the son, and the son against the father!—The father has called on his Indian children, to assist him in punishing his children, the Americans, who have become refractory!—I took time to consider what I should do—whether or not I should receive the hatchet of my father, to assist him!—At first I looked upon it as a family quarrel, in which I was not interested—However, at length it appeared to me, that the father was in the right; and his children deserved to be punished a little!—That this must be the case, I concluded from the many cruel acts his off-spring had committed from time to time, on his Indian children; in encroaching on their land, stealing their property, shooting at, and murdering without cause, men, women and children—Yes! even murdering those, who at all times had been friendly to them, and were placed for protection under the roof of their father's house—The father himself standing centry at the door, at the time."
The writer here referred to a number of Pennsylvanian Indians, murdered in a jail, where they were placed for security against the whites. The sentry was the jailer. He continued thus:
"Friends! Often has the father been obliged to settle, and make amends for the wrongs and mischiefs done to us, by his refractory children, yet these do not grow better! No! they remain the same, and will continue to be so, as long as we have any land left us! Look back at the murders committed by the Long-Knives on many of our relations, who lived peaceable neighbors to them on the Ohio! Did they not kill them without the least provocation?—Are they, do you think, better now than they were then?—No, indeed not; and many days are not elapsed since you had a number of these very men at your doors, who panted to kill you, but fortunately were prevented from so doing by the Great Sun, [FN] who, at that time, had been ordained by the Great Spirit to protect you!"
[FN] The name the Indians had given to Col. Daniel Broadhead.
"Friends and relatives!—Now listen to me, and hear what I have to say to you.—I am myself come to bid you rise and go with me to a secure place! Do not, my friends, covet the land you now hold under cultivation. I will conduct you to a country [FN] equally good, where your fields shall yield you abundant crops, and where your cattle shall find sufficient pasture; where there is plenty of game; where your women and children, together with yourselves, will live in peace and safety; where no Long Knife shall ever molest you!—Nay! I will live between you and them, and not even suffer them to frighten you!—There, you can worship your God without fear!—Here, where you are, you cannot do this!—Think on what I have now said to you, and believe, that if you stay where you now are, one day or another the Long-Knives will, in their usual way, speak fine words to you, and at the same time murder you!"
[FN] The Miami country.
To this speech the Brethren replied by civilly declining the proposition of the Orator; and he then offered a new one,—that they should permit all who wished to leave them, to do so. Thus the matter was settled. Buckongahelas then proceeded to another village of the Christian Delawares, Salem, before entering which place he cautioned his warriors to leave their arms behind them, "lest the women and children should be frightened." "And destroy nothing," he added, "which belongs to our friends; no, not even one of their chickens." The conference which ensued with the Salem authorities is thus stated by Mr. Heckewelder, who was present.
"The Christian Indians," said the Chieftain, "were a happy people; and he would never trouble them on account of their not joining in the war.—Indeed, they could not with propriety join in wars, without first renouncing praying, [meaning Christianity].—And every Indian, or body of Indians, had a right to choose for themselves, whom they would serve!—For him, he had hired himself to his father, the king of England, for the purpose of fighting against his refractory children, the Long-Knives; whilst his friends and relations, the Christian Indians, had hired themselves to the Great Spirit, solely for the purpose of performing prayers!" [meaning, attending to religion]—"He added, that both were right in their way, though both employments could not be connected together. And only yesterday they were told, whilst at Gnadenhutten, that God had instructed all Christian people to love their enemies—and even to pray for them!—These words, he said, were written in the large book that contained the words and commandments of God!—Now, how would it appear, were we to compel our friends, who love and pray for their enemies, to fight against them!—compel them to act contrary to what they believe to be right!—force them to do that by which they would incur the displeasure of the Great Spirit, and bring his wrath upon them!—That it would be as wrong in him to compel the Christian Indians to quit praying and turn out to fight and kill people, as it would be in them to compel him to lay fighting aside, and turn to praying only!—He had often heard it stated, that the believing Indians were slaves to their teachers, and what these commanded them to do, they must do, however disagreeable to them!—Now, (said he) how can this be true, when every Indian is a free man, and can go where he pleases!—Can the teacher stop him from going away?—No! he cannot!—well! how can he then be made a slave by the teacher!—When we come here among our friends, we see how much they love their teachers.—This looks Well!—Continue, my friends, (said he to the national assistants) in loving your teachers, and in doing all good things; and when your friends and relations come to see you, satisfy their hunger as you have done to us this day!" [FN]