“Friends, listen! A great nation is divided. The sons, the Long Knives, fight their father, the British. The father has called on his Indian children to help him punish his white children. We should do what Lord Dunmore asks. He stood between us and destruction after the battle of Point Pleasant, when the Long Knives wished to burn our villages and murder our women and children.
[pg 149] “I took time to consider whether I should receive the hatchet of my father to assist him. At first I thought it a family quarrel in which I was not interested. At length it appeared to me that the father was right and his white sons should be punished.
“The father has promised to arm and provision us and to treat us as his children, so we shall never want. But we have a greater cause for war. The Long Knives have broken their treaty with us. They steal our property; they murder without provocation; even those of us who would be their friends, who when they seek the shelter of their forts in peace and for council and to do them a service are set upon and murdered. Look at the murders committed by them upon the kindred of our friend and their friend also; who were living in peace on the banks of the Ohio. Did they not kill them without provocation and in cold blood? Will they be any better? No. Even Logan, who so many times has spoken for them, is forced to remain silent; he cannot plead their cause.
“There is no course but war, as they will continue to rob and murder so long as we have a foot of land remaining.
“We respect Colonel Morgan, but are unfriendly to his cause. He must return to Pittsburgh. John Mason, who has been our friend so long and who comes to teach us about the white man’s God, may remain.”
Of all the council but one chief dissented, White Eyes, a Delaware; and he alone of all his tribe desired to remain neutral. When he spoke for neutrality, believing that the war would bring only disaster and suffering to the Indians, Chieftain Pipe, a rival chief of his own nation, rose and said: “I declare that every man should be [pg 150] called an enemy to his nation, who opposes war with the Long Knives.”
To which White Eyes replied:
“If this council declares for war, you shall not go without me. I have been for peace that I might save my tribe from destruction; but all think me wrong. I hope you are right. I am a warrior and a Delaware. If you insist on fighting the Americans, go! and I will go with you. And I will not go like the bear hunter who sets his dogs upon the animal to be beaten about by his paws while he keeps himself at a distance. No! I will lead my people. I will be in the front. I will fall with the first of you. I will not live to bewail the destruction of a brave people who deserve a better fate.
“I ask that John Mason, who has fed my people when they were hungry and who has proved himself our friend, lodge with my tribe, many of whom believe in the white man’s God, having been instructed by Mr. Heckewelder. My tribe wished to drive him away; but I would not allow it, believing that something is to be learned from everyone. I am an old man and know not how long I shall live. I now rejoice that I have been able to induce my people to hear of this God. Our children and grandchildren will reap the benefit. Now I am ready to die whenever God pleases.”
A guard of Indians in three war canoes, escorted Colonel Morgan to his friends near Pittsburgh, but declined his invitation to land fearing they might be massacred.