“Thank God I ain’t got the land-grabber’s point of view! Nor the canting hypocrite’s point of view! Nor a thick-headed forest-runner’s point of view!” he loudly stormed, rising to end the discussion.
But I was not to be balked, and I reminded him:
“I called to pay my respects to Mistress Dale. I hope I may have the pleasure.”
“She’s in the field back of the house. I’ll call her,” he grumbled. “I have a man in my kitchen, a white man, who has lived with the Indians ever since he was a boy. He knows more about them than all you border-folks could learn in a million years. He’s the most sensible white man I ever met. He agrees with me perfectly that trade is what the Indian wants; not settlers nor Bibles.”
“Your guest would be John Ward!” I exclaimed, remembering the governor’s errand. “I was asked by Colonel Lewis to find him and send him to Richfield. The colonel and Governor Dunmore wish to talk with him.”
“Ho! Ho! That’s the way the cat jumps, eh? Want to milk him for military information, eh? Well, I reckon I’ll go along with him and see they don’t play no tricks on him. I’ve taken a strong liking to Ward. He’s the one white man that’s got my point of view.”
“He lived with the Indians so long he may have the Indians’ point of view,” I warned.
“The sooner white men learn the Indians’ point of view the better it’ll be for both white and red. Ward knows the Indians well enough to know I’m their friend. He knows I’m more’n welcome in any of their towns. I’m going to carry a talk to Cornstalk and Black Hoof. If I can’t stop this war I can fix it so’s there’ll never be any doubt who’s to blame for it.”
“I tell you, Dale, that no white men, except it be Ward or Tavenor Ross and others like them, are safe for a minute with Logan’s Cayugas, Cornstalk’s Shawnees, Red Hawk’s Delawares, or Chiyawee’s Wyandots.”
“Three years ain’t even made a tomahawk improvement on you,” he sneered. “You mean to tell me that after all my years of friendship with the Indians I won’t be safe among them, or that any friends I take along won’t be safe among them? You talk worse’n a fool! I can send my girl alone into the Scioto villages, and once she gives belts from me she will be as safe as she would be in Williamsburg or Norfolk.”