"Brothers of the United States: Yesterday you made an answer to the message delivered by us, from the great council at the Miami, in the two particulars we had stated to you.
"Brothers: You may depend on it that we fully understand your speech. We shall take with us your belt and strings, and repeat it to the chiefs at the great council at Miami."
[Laying down the belt and strings, the Captain took up a white belt, and proceeded:]
"Brothers: We have something farther to say, though not much. We are small, compared with our great chiefs at Miami; but, though small, we have something to say. We think, brothers, from your speech, that there is a prospect of our coming together. We, who are the nations at the westward, are of one mind; and if we agree with you, as there is a prospect that we shall, it will be binding and lasting.
"Brothers: Our prospects are the fairer, because all our minds are one. You have not spoken to us before unitedly. Formerly, because you did not speak to us unitedly, what was done was not binding. Now you have an opportunity to speak to us together; and we now take you by the hand to lead you to the place appointed for the meeting.
"Brothers: One thing more we have to say. Yesterday you expressed a wish to be informed of the names of the nations and number of chiefs assembled at the Miami. But as they were daily coming in, we cannot give you exact information. You will see for yourselves in a few days. When we left it, the following nations were there, viz: Five Nations, Wyandots, Shawanese, Delawares, Munsees, Miamis, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawattamies, Mingoes, Cherokees, Nantikokes. The principal men of all these nations were there.
"A white belt of seven rows."
The Commissioners then replied:—
"Brothers: Our ears have been open to your speech. It Is agreeable to us. We are ready to proceed with you to Sandusky, where, under the direction of the Great Spirit, we hope that we shall soon establish a peace on terms equally interesting and agreeable to all parties."
While these deliberations were in progress, a deputation from the Seven Nations of Canada arrived at Niagara, to the number of two hundred and eighty. The proceedings were terminated with a confident expectation on all hands that the result of the mission would be a pacific arrangement. With the public dispatches transmitted to the Secretary of War from this place, however, General Lincoln addressed a private letter to that officer, advising him that if the reports in circulation were in any degree true, General Wayne must have violated the clearest principles of a truce, and expressing great solicitude for the result—less, however, on account of the personal safety of the Commissioners, whose lives would be thereby jeoparded, than for the apprehensions felt for the honor of the country. Captain Brant had given information as to the movements of Wayne, of the certainty of which there could be but little doubt; and those movements caused the Commissioners as much uneasiness as they did the Indians; being moreover viewed by the British officers at Niagara as unfair and unwarrantable.