[405] MS. Johnson Papers. MS. Minutes of Conference with the chiefs and warriors of the Ottawas and Menomonies at Fort Niagara, July 20, 1764. The extracts given above are copied verbatim from the original record.
[406] Henry, Travels, 183.
[407] Every article in a treaty must be confirmed by a belt of wampum; otherwise it is void. Mante, the historian of the French war, asserts that they brought four belts. But this is contradicted in contemporary letters, including several of General Gage and Sir William Johnson. Mante accompanied Bradstreet’s expedition with the rank of major; and he is a zealous advocate of his commander, whom he seeks to defend, at the expense both of Colonel Bouquet and General Gage.
[408] Preliminary Treaty between Colonel Bradstreet and the Deputies of the Delawares and Shawanoes, concluded at L’Ance aux Feuilles, on Lake Erie, August 12, 1764, MS.
[409] MS. Letter—Gage to Bradstreet, Sept. 2:—
Bradstreet’s instructions directed him to offer peace to such tribes as should make their submission. “To offer peace,” writes Gage, “I think can never be construed a power to conclude and dictate the articles of peace, and you certainly know that no such power could with propriety be lodged in any person but in Sir William Johnson, his majesty’s sole agent and superintendent for Indian affairs.”
[410] Extract from a MS. Letter—Gage to Bradstreet, Sept. 2:—
“I again repeat that I annul and disavow the peace you have made.”
The following extracts will express the opinions of Gage with respect to this affair.
MS. Letter—Gage to Bradstreet, Oct. 15:—