This very afternoon a council was held in the Long House with the messengers from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Captain Montour said, for Croghan and Gist:
“Brothers the Twightwees, we give you two strings of wampum to remove the trouble from your hearts and to clear your eyes to the sunshine. Your brothers the Wyandot and Delaware and Shawnee in the south send you these four strings of wampum and ask you to take care of us.”
“Yo ho!” the Miamis grunted, in approval.
“Your brother the Governor of Pennsylvania has heard you speak to him, and he sees that his traders are safe among you,” said Captain Montour. “We come with news of great importance, and we hope that you have among you somebody who knows the Mingo tongue, so that we are being understood.”
“Yo ho!” the Miamis grunted.
“You see this man Gist, from the Long Knives of the country of Virginia,” said Captain Montour. “Tanacharison who is Half-King of the Mingo upon the Ohio, your brothers to the east, out of love has given his son to him, to travel with him and sit beside him. This man also has news for you from your brother the Governor of Virginia.”
“Yo ho!” the Miamis grunted.
But not all the Miami tribes were here. The principal men of the Weas and the Piankashaws who lived farther west in Indiana and Illinois had to be sent for.
So another council was set. Gist and Croghan dealt out paint and colored shirts, that the chiefs and councillors might dress for the great event. Robert the Hunter, from Logstown of the Mingo, roaming about Pickawillanee with its bark houses and swarm of Miamis, never before had seen so many Indians together.