“Brethren—I now speak at the request of Tedyuskung and our cousins the Delawares, living at Wyoming and on the waters of the River Susquehanna. We now remove the hatchet out of your heads that was struck into them by our cousins, the Delawares. It was a French hatchet that they unfortunately made use of, by the instigation of the French. We take it out of your heads and bury it under the ground, where it shall always rest and never be taken up again. Our cousins, the Delawares, have assured us they will never think of war against their brethren, the English, any more, but will employ their thoughts about peace and cultivating friendship with them, and never suffer enmity against them to enter their minds again.”
Two days later, Nikes, the Mohawk, stood up and, addressing himself to Governors Denny and Bernard, said:
“We thought proper to meet you here to have some discourse about our nephew, Tedyuskung. You all know that he gives out that he is a great man and chief of ten nations. This is his constant discourse. Now I, on behalf of the Mohawks, say that we do not know he is such a great man, if he is such a great man, we desire to know who made him so. Perhaps you have; and if this be the case, tell us so. It may be the French have made him so. We want to inquire and know whence the greatness arose.”
Takeghsatu, on behalf of the Seneca, said his nation “say the same as Nikes has done.”
Then Assarandongnas spoke on behalf of the Onondaga and said: “I am here to represent the Onondagas, and I say for them that I never heard before now that Tedyuskung was such a great man, and much less can I tell who made him so. No such thing was ever said in our town as that Tedyuskung was such a great man.”
Then followed, in the same strain, Thomas King, chief of Oneida, in behalf of the Oneida, Cayuga, Tuscarora, Nanticoke, Conoy and Tutelo.
Under this concerted attack upon his kingly pretensions Tedyuskung sat like a stoic and never said a word in reply; but Governor Denny arose and denied that he had made Tedyuskung “a great man,” but said in explanation that he had represented the Delaware at appointed places and had acted for the other Six Nations only as a messenger, who were his uncles and superiors. The Governor of New Jersey indorsed Governor Denny’s speech.
Five days after this discussion Tedyuskung arose in the public conference and addressing himself to the deputies of the Six Nations, said:
“Uncles, you may remember that you have placed us at Wyoming and Shamokin—places where Indians have lived before. Now I hear that you have since sold that land to our brethren, the English. Let the matter now be cleared up in the presence of our brethren the English. I sit here as a bird on a bough. I look about and do not know where to go. Let me, therefore, come down upon the ground and make that my own by a good deed, and I shall have a home forever. For if you, my uncles, or I, die, our brethren, the English, will say they have bought it from you, and so wrong my posterity out of it.”
Thomas King, speaking for the Six Nations the following day, addressed himself to the Delaware in these words: