[FN-2] Speech of the united Indian nations at a confederate council, holden at the month of the Detroit River, November and December, 1786.
[FN-3] Drake, who translates from Levasseur's Lafayette in America. The Marquis de Lafayette was present at the treaty, and, when visited by Red Jacket at Buffalo, during his tour through the United States in 1824-25, the General was reminded by the venerable chief of the circumstance of their former meeting at Fort Stanwix. This is the earliest account given of the eloquence of the man of the woods who afterward became so renowned for his oratory.
[FN-4] Vide the treaty itself, American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. i. Originally the Five Nations claimed "all the land not sold to the English, from the mouth of Sorel River, on the south side of Lakes Erie and Ontario, on both sides of the Ohio until it falls into the Mississippi; and on the north side of those lakes, that whole territory between the Ottawa river and Lake Huron, and even beyond the straights between that and Lake Erie."—Smith's History.
[FN-5] Speech of Big Tree, Corn-planter, and Half-Town, to President Washington, in 1790.
The result of this negotiation gave great dissatisfaction to the Indians generally; and the crafty Red Jacket afterward availed himself of the advantages of his position, in stealing the hearts of the Senecas from the Corn-planter to himself. The Mohawk chief, Thayendanegea, was likewise highly displeased with the conditions of the treaty, the more so, doubtless, from the circumstance that Captain Aaron Hill, a subordinate chief of the Mohawk nation, was detained as one of the hostages under the treaty. When he heard of the proceedings, the old chief was at Quebec. He had completed his business with Sir Frederick Haldimand, and was on the point of embarking for England, to adjust the claims of his nation upon the crown for their sacrifices during the war. The design of going abroad was immediately relinquished for that season, and Captain Brant hastened back to his own country, to look after the welfare of his own people at home. He arrived at Cataraqui on the 27th of November, and two days afterward addressed a long letter to Colonel James Monroe, [FN] in which, after expressing a wish that the letter may find the Colonel in health, and thanking him for some recent personal civilities, he says—
[FN] Whether the Colonel Monroe, to whom this letter was addressed, was the late President of the United States, the author has not ascertained; and if so, it does not appear how he was connected with the Fort Stanwix treaty.
"I was at Quebec, getting ready to set off from thence for England (you know my business there perfectly well.) About the same time I received an account that our chief, Capt Aaron Hill, [FN] was detained, and kept as a prisoner at Fort Stanwix by the commissioners of Congress, and understood that he was to be kept until all the American prisoners returned to their own places, from the different nations of Indians, who are still remaining amongst them. When I received, this disagreeable news, I immediately declined going any farther from there. It did alarm me very much of hearing this, because it was me that encouraged that chief to come and attend that meeting at Fort Stanwix."
[FN] This chief was connected with the family of Thayendanegea. Aaron Henry Hill married one of his daughters, and is spoken of by Captain Brant, fifteen years afterward, in his correspondence with Thomas Morris, Esq.