It was another stormy talk. Shingis and Blackhoof were still for war; they would drive off the French and the English both, and many of the Mingos were for wiping out these French anyway. But the French were strong and well guarded in their camp, and Captain Joncaire had friends who would tell him what was being planned. So although the town was in a hubbub through most of the night, nothing was done, and in the morning the council with the French captain, whose name was Céleron, sat to hear what he would say.
Captain Joncaire translated. The French captain, standing up in his best uniform, said:
“Onontio your father speaks to you with these words: Through the love I bear you, my children, I send to you Captain de Céleron to open your eyes to the schemes of the English against your lands. What they mean to do will ruin you. They work in secret, but they plan to build houses upon your lands and settle here and drive you away, if I let them. As a good father who loves his children and far away keeps them always in his heart I warn you of the danger that threatens you. The English plan to rob you of your country, and first they rob you of your minds. They mean to seize the Ohio which belongs to me; so I have ordered Captain de Céleron to tell them to go out, and leave Shenango and all other villages of my children of the Ohio.”
Then Tanacharison answered:
“Our brother from Onontio sees us poor. We are a long way from Onontio. The goods he sends us are many moons getting here. That our wives and children may not go cold and hungry we trade with the English, who are always with us. We ask Onontio to let us trade a little while yet with the English who have come. They are our guests and it is not right to put them out. We understand that you are burying lead plates and nailing up signs to claim this land. We do not know why this is French land. The English say that it is English land. Where is the Indian land? We are made poor; and if we do not get goods from the English we will starve.”
This was a clever speech, which promised nothing. Then the French captain stood again, and said:
“By the gifts that your father sends you he promises to take care of his children. Stand firm against the English, and soon your father will raise a barrier against them and the sky will always be calm over your heads. This shall be your land to enjoy as you please, if you remain true children. As for these English now here, I myself will order them to go back to their own country.”
That he did, after the council. The ten traders agreed to leave, and the French went on down the Beautiful River, to talk with the Wyandots, the Shawnees and the Miamis in the west. But the English traders stayed.