With the delivery of Abraham's last-mentioned speech, however, the council was closed; and although Schuyler and Douw had been appointed to keep the council fire burning, yet the ashes were soon raked up—never to be opened again at Albany, for that was the last grand Indian council ever held in that city. [FN]
[FN] As mentioned in the Introduction to the present volume, the interesting proceedings of which a mere outline has been given in the text, have never before been published complete. Their importance—their intrinsic interest—and the fact that it was the last grand council of the confederacy ever holden in Albany, had induced the author originally to arrange the whole in the text. But their great length, it was thought, would too seriously obstruct the narrative. Hence they have been transferred to the Appendix. It was the first design of the author to abridge the speeches, but an attempt soon proved that their force and spirit would be lost in the process. See Appendix.
The result was highly satisfactory to the Commissioners, and apparently so to the Indians, who had been well provided for during the three weeks occupied at the German Flats and Albany. On their departure, moreover, they were handsomely supplied with presents, and they took their leave with manifestations of great good-will.
Most unfortunately, however, soon after their return from Albany, an epidemic disorder appeared among them, in the form of a highly malignant fever. It was a disease which they had never seen, and by it great numbers were swept away. The Schoharie canton of the Mohawks, in particular, suffered very severely. Indeed, they were almost exterminated.[FN-1] The small number who survived, imbibed the impression that the Great Spirit had sent the pestilence upon them in anger for not having taken sides with the King. They, therefore, followed their brethren from the Mohawk Valley, who had escaped to Canada with Guy Johnson. In the subsequent invasions of the Tryon County settlements, these Schoharie Indians, who thus deserted by an impulse of superstition, were among the most forward and cruel.[FN-2] It should also be borne in mind, that, after all, the council comprised but an inadequate and partial representation of the Six Nations, with the exception of the Oneidas and the lower clan of the Mohawks. The great body of the Mohawk warriors, headed by Thayendanegea, had left the country; and the most influential of the Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, had also accompanied Brant and Guy Johnson to Montreal; and events, at no very distant day, proved that the Albany treaty had been held to very little purpose. It is not consistent with the nature or habits of Indians to remain inactive in the midst of war.
[FN-1] Letter of John M. Brown, on the early history of Schoharie.
[FN-2] Idem.
Still, for the time being, those proceedings were not without benefit to the cause of the country. The people of Tryon County were relieved, by the stipulations of peace and neutrality, from apprehensions of immediate danger from without; and the Committee of Safety was consequently enabled to direct their attention, not only to the more efficient organization of the settlements for defence, but to the civil government of the county.
But, notwithstanding the fine spirit manifested thus far by a majority of the people in the interior, and that too under all the disadvantages we have been contemplating—notwithstanding the decisive tone of the language used in denouncing the oppressions of the Crown,—it was not yet exactly certain that the Colony of New-York would range itself against the royal authority. Governor Tryon, who was popular in the Colony, had recently been recalled from North Carolina, and again appointed Governor of New-York; and he was exerting his utmost powers to detach her from the cause of the Union—seconded by the Asia, man of war, then lying in the harbour, and commanding the city of New-York by her guns. The captain of the Asia had threatened to destroy the town should General Lee, who was then approaching with an army from the east, be allowed to enter it; and such were the prevalence of terror and the power of intrigue, that disaffection to the cause of the Union began to exhibit itself openly in the Provincial Congress. Indeed, avowals of a design to place themselves under the royal standard were unequivocally uttered. These untoward appearances were rendered the more threatening by the discovery of a secret correspondence, from which it was ascertained that the parent government was preparing to send a fleet into the Hudson, and to occupy both New-York and Albany with its armies. [FN] Of these designs Sir John Johnson was probably well aware, and the hope of their accomplishment may have induced him to linger behind, watching the signs of the times, after the departure of his brother-in-law and his army of followers. Sir John had also a numerous tenantry, who were mostly loyalists; and the Scotch colonists, settled in large numbers in Johnstown and its neighbourhood, of whom mention has formerly been made, being loyalists likewise, constituted for him a respectable force upon which he could rely in a case of emergency.