John Mason remained with the Delawares; was taken into the family of White Eyes and treated by the whole tribe, except Chieftain Pipe, as an honored guest. Colonel Morgan had advised that he remain, hoping his influence would keep the tribe from joining the British.
[pg 151] He had been with them less than two months, when White Eyes was taken with the smallpox. As the disease usually assumes a malignant form with Indians, he nursed the old chief and kept his people from the lodge.
When it was evident that White Eyes was near death, he called for Mason’s Bible and holding it in his hands asked to be placed upon a pallet without the lodge. There in the twilight of the day, and of his life, he talked to his assembled people.
“My friends, it is my dying wish that the Delawares should hear the word of God. I have therefore gathered together my young men and their children. I will kneel down before the Great Spirit who created them and me and I will pray unto Him that He will have mercy upon us and reveal His will to us. And as we cannot declare that will to those who are yet unborn, we will pray unto the Lord our God, to make it known unto our children’s children.”
White Eyes was succeeded by Chieftain Pipe, who hated all white men; but the promises and bounties of the British bought his allegiance. He sent Mason away and for several years willingly joined cause with the British.
The longer the war lasted, the less he relished it; noting that his people, as White Eyes had foretold, were the chief sufferers and fully aware that when peace was made between the whites a war of extermination would be waged against the Indian.
These reflections and disappointments made him moodily superstitious. He spoke of being visited and advised by the spirit of White Eyes to withdraw from the war and to become a Christian. He had always listened to Mason’s talks to his people. Towards the end of the war he exhibited much sympathy for the settlers; commanding [pg 152] his braves not to molest women and children and to disarm and capture, rather than kill their enemies. His people murmured because secretly he turned captives loose; and the belief prevailed among them that he had been converted to Christianity.
He attended a council between the British authorities and their Indian allies at Detroit; and, though an ally, could not disguise his growing hostile spirit.
Addressing the commanding officer, he said:
“Father—though I do not know why I should call you father; I have never known any father but the French; still as this name is imposed upon us I will use it.