There is an allusion, in the closing sentences of this quotation, to certain "private griefs" of the writer, requiring an explanation. Captain Brant was no more exempt than other men from the ill-will and evil machinations of the envious and jealous. "Great honors are great burdens" as well among the red men as the white; and it was the fate of the noble Mohawk to encounter his full share of trials of this description. Difficulties had already sprung up in the administration of his affairs, not only with the Provincial Government, in regard to the nature of the title which the Mohawks were to receive of the lands granted them on the Ouise or Grand River, but also between the chief and some of the Indians themselves; not Mohawks, but stragglers from other tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy. During the protracted absence of the Captain to the councils of the preceding year, in the country of the great lakes, it appears that a council of disaffected Indians had been held at Montreal; the object of which was to denounce the conduct of Brant, but in what respects does not exactly appear. Strong complaints were preferred against him, however, at that council, "not only in the name of the Five Nations, but by some of his relations and intimate friends," under circumstances, and with an air so imposing, as to give serious alarm to his friends at the castle of St. Lewis.
On the 3d of January, 1789, Major Matthews addressed a long letter to his Mohawk friend, on the subject of that council, and the charges then and there preferred against him. This letter was written by Matthews with the knowledge and approbation of a distinguished personage, who, although his name is not given, must have been Lord Dorchester. Major Matthews did not specify the charges made against his friend, and they can only be vaguely surmised from the following extract: "The circumstances which have been alleged against you, you have no doubt been minutely informed of. It is therefore unnecessary, and would be painful to me, to recapitulate them. Your friend [FN] wishes you to reflect seriously upon the fatal consequences that must attend a misunderstanding and disunion of your nation, and of those Indians who might make the settlement upon the Grand River a happy retreat for themselves and their posterity, by a cordial and friendly union. How materially the contrary must weaken their interest, and yours in particular, in the great scale of the Indian Confederacy; and how heavy the blame must fall upon whoever shall be considered the promoter of so great a calamity. He therefore recommends to you, as the safest and surest road to consequence and fame, to effect, without loss of time, a perfect reconciliation with your friends and fellow-settlers; convincing them, by your mildness and generosity, and still more by a strict attention to justice, that you are worthy of their confidence; exert all your powers in establishing perfect union and friendship among your own nation, and you will convince those at a distance that you are capable and worthy of cementing a general union for good purposes."
[FN] Lord Dorchester doubtless, meaning.
"Having thus far given you the sentiments of a hearty well-wisher, I cannot conclude without adding from myself, in the language and with the heart of an old and sincere friend, that I feel more sensibly than I can find words to express, for the critical situation in which every person who was present at the Council must consider you to stand with your nation. For my own part I could scarce believe my own eyes and ears, when I saw and heard our old friends, whose hands and hearts have been so long joined together in one common cause, pour out complaints against you; and they did it at the same time with such reluctance and concern, that it was the more affecting. It is impossible that men who were born, brought up, who have so oft fought by each others' sides, and bled together, can seriously disagree. The whole must be a misunderstanding, and must be explained with reconciliation. It is noble and generous to acknowledge an error, and mutually to forgive injuries; and, my dear Joseph, listen to mine, and to the voice of your friends, who wish your happiness by seeing you so firmly re-united with your own flesh and blood as to resist any power on earth that would separate you from them." [FN]
[FN] Extracted from the original letter of Capt. Matthews, among the Brant papers.
It is from the reply of Captain Brant to this communication, that the brief reference to the proceedings of the western councils has been quoted. In regard to the proceedings at Montreal to which his attention had been so earnestly invited by his correspondent, the answer of Captain Brant was full and frank, manifesting on his own part, a feeling of dignified and conscious rectitude. The charges themselves were not specified by the chief in his defence, but the inference deduced from his language is, that his integrity had been impeached in regard to their lands, and his loyalty questioned to the King; and farther, that he had been censured for introducing a few white settlers upon the Indian lands—his object in so doing, being to benefit the Indians by the better examples of the whites in husbandry, and also by the introduction of some of the mechanic arts among them. He regrets that his enemies, few in number, as he says, had availed themselves of his absence to assail his character, at a moment, too, when in a distant country he was exerting all his energies for the benefit of his people; and regrets still more that his friends in Montreal had listened to the charges for a moment, until after he could have a hearing. If he had erred at all, he maintained that it could only have been in the warmth of his ardour in promoting the substantial interests of his nation. In the course of his letter, he pointed with modest exultation to the proceedings of a full Council of the Five Nations, held at Niagara, in presence of the agent and the commanding officer, subsequent to the denunciation at Montreal, by which his conduct had been approved. Should the proceedings of this council be insufficient to remove "the censure thrown upon him by a seditious and discontented few, and make the complainants appear in their proper light," the Captain suggested that he should make application to the agents at Detroit and Niagara for certificates of his conduct during the war and since the peace; and thus provided, he would repair to head-quarters with all the principal men, both sachems and warriors, [FN] of all the nations settled in that country, and let them speak freely. After which, he hoped to stand better with "the great men below" than he had reason to suppose he did at that time.
[FN] "Both Sachems and warriors." "A Sachem is considered a civil magistrate, who takes precedence of all war-chiefs in time of peace, and is hereditary. Not so the war-chiefs. They, as by all the rest of the world, are made by the voice of the nation for their gallantry in the field. In time of war, the war-chiefs take the commend, and direct all the movements,—what is called in civilized life,—martial law." Letters to the editor from Colonel William J. Kerr. The distinction is scarcely ever observed in writing of Indian affairs, since sachems, warriors, chiefs, are most usually written indiscriminately, as it happens.