No. XV.
[Reference from Page 423.]
COUNCIL HELD AT NIAGARA.
[This speech was made by Capt. Brant at Niagara to Col. William Claus, Deputy Superintendent General of Indian affairs—after John Norton, alias Teyoninhokáráwen, had returned from England, who had been sent there by Capt. Brant.]
[W. J. Kerr.]
Brother,—We have now come to this place, the Council-fire of our Great Father the King, to explain, in a public manner, the foundation of our claim to the lands we now possess, the attempts made in this country to curtail and invalidate our title to them, and latterly the means taken to obstruct the just decision of his Majesty's Right Honorable Privy Council on the subject.
Brother,—In the year 1775, when hostilities had commenced, the Mohawks, always faithful to the royal interest, brought off the Indian Department, in company with the Oghkwagas, from the Mohawk River to Canada. Upon our arrival there, this conduct was approved of by Sir Guy Carleton, who, in a public Council, desired us to take up the hatchet and defend our country, and that any losses we might sustain by the war, he promised should be replaced.
When the support given the Americans by the various European powers gave us reason to apprehend, that the war might take such an unfavorable conclusion as to deprive us of the happiness of return to our homes, and to the re-enjoyment of our forsaken lands, we applied to Sir Frederick Haldimand, then Governor and Commander-in-Chief, for a confirmation of General Carleton's promise; this he readily granted us, and we have it now in our possession.
When the line drawn at the peace, and the manner in which that was concluded, left us no hopes of regaining our former possessions, we applied to His Excellency Sir Frederick Haldimand for a grant in the Bay of Quinte.