“Brother, you very well know that you have collected all your young men about the country, which makes a large body;[58] and now they are standing before our doors;[59] you come with good news and fine speeches. Brother, this is what makes us jealous, and we do not know what to think of it: if you had brought the news of peace before your army had begun to march, it would have caused a great deal more good. We do not so readily believe you, because a great many great men and traders have told us, long before the war, that you and the French intended to join and cut all the Indians off. These were people of your own colour, and your own countrymen; and some told us to join the French; for that they would be our fathers: besides, many runaways have told us the same story; and some we took prisoners told us how you would use us, if you caught us: therefore, brother, I say, we cannot conclude, at this time, but must see and hear you once more.” And further they said,
“Now, brother, you are here with us, you are our flesh and blood, speak from the bottom of your heart, will not the French and English join together to cut off the Indians? Speak, brother, from your heart, and tell us the truth, and let us know who were the beginners of the war.”
Then I delivered myself thus:
“Brothers, I love you from the bottom of my heart. I am extremely sorry to see the jealousy so deeply rooted in your hearts and minds. I have told you the truth; and yet, if I was to tell it you a hundred times, it seems you would not rightly believe me. My Indian brothers, I wish you would draw your hearts to God, that he may convince you of the truth.
“I do now declare, before God, that the English never did, nor never will, join with the French to destroy you. As far as I know, the French are the beginners of this war. Brothers, about twelve years ago, you may remember, they had war with the English, and they both agreed to articles of peace. The English gave up Cape Breton in Acadia, but the French never gave up the part of that country, which they had agreed to give up; and, in a very little time, made their Children strike the English. This was the first cause of the war. Now, brothers; if any body strike you three times, one after another, you still sit still and consider: they strike you again, then, my brothers, you say, it is time, and you will rise up to defend yourselves. Now, my brothers, this is exactly the case between the French and English. Consider farther, my brothers, what a great number of our poor back inhabitants have been killed since the French came to the Ohio. The French are the cause of their death, and if they were not there, the English would not trouble themselves to go there. They go no where to war, but where the French are. Those wicked people that set you at variance with the English, by telling you many wicked stories, are papists in French pay: besides, there are many among us, in the French service, who appear like gentlemen, and buy Irish papist servants, and promise them great rewards to run away to you and strengthen you against the English, by making them appear as black as devils.”
This day arrived here two hundred French and Indians, on their way to fort Duquesne. They staid all night. In the middle of the night king Beaver’s daughter died, on which a great many guns were fired in the town.
5th.—It made a general stop in my journey. The French said to their Children, they should catch me privately, or get my scalp. The commander wanted to examine me, as he was going to fort Duquesne. When they told me of it, I said, as he was going to fort Duquesne, he might enquire about me there: I had nothing at all to say, or do with the French: they would tell them every particular they wanted to know in the fort. They all came into the house where I was, as if they would see a new creature.
In the afternoon there came six Indians, and brought three German prisoners, and two scalps of the Catabaws.
As Daniel blamed the English, that they never paid him for his trouble, I asked him whether he was pleased with what I paid him. He said, no. I said, “Brother, you took as much as you pleased.” I asked you, whether you was satisfied; you said, yes. I told him, I was ashamed to hear him blame the country so. I told him, “You shall have for this journey whatever you desire, when I reach the inhabitants.”
6th.—Pisquetumen, Tom Hickman and Shingas told me,