"Fathers, both you and the English are white; we live in a country between; therefore the land belongs to neither one nor the other. But the Great Being above allowed it to be a place of residence for us; So, fathers, I desire you to withdraw, as I have done our brothers, the English; for I will keep you at arm's length. I lay this down as a trial for both, to see which will have the greatest regard to it, and that side we will stand by, and make equal sharers with us. Our brothers, the English, have heard this, and I come now to tell it to you, for I am not afraid to discharge you off this land."
This, he said, was the substance of what he spoke to the general, who made this reply:
"'Now, my child, I have heard your speech; you spoke first, but it is my time to speak now. Where is my wampum that you took away with the marks of towns on it? This wampum I do not know, which you have discharged me off the land with; but you need not put yourself to the trouble of speaking, for I will not hear you. I am not afraid of flies or mosquitoes, for Indians are such as those; I tell you down that river I will go, and build upon it, according to my command. If the river was blocked up, I have forces sufficient to burst it open, and tread under my feet all that stand in opposition, together with their alliances, for my force is as the sand upon the seashore; therefore, here is your wampum. I sling it at you. Child, you talk foolish; you say this land belongs to you, but there is not the black of my nail yours. I saw that land sooner than you did; before the Shannoahs and you were at war. Lead was the man who went down and took possession of that river. It is my land, and I will have it, let who will stand up for or say against it. I will buy and sell with the English (mockingly). If people will be ruled by me they may expect kindness, but not else.'
"The half-king told me he had inquired of the general after two Englishmen who were made prisoners, and received this answer:
"'Child, you think it a very great hardship that I made prisoners of those two people at Venango. Don't you concern yourself with it; we took and carried them to Canada, to get intelligence of what the English were doing in Virginia.'
"He informed me that they had built two forts; one on Lake Erie, and another on French Creek, near a small lake, about fifteen miles asunder, and a large wagon-road between. They are both built after the same model, but different in size, that on the lake the largest. He gave me a plan of them of his own drawing."
The Indians inquired very particularly after their brothers in Carolina jail.
They also asked what sort of a boy it was who was taken from the South Branch, for they were told by some Indians that a party of "French Indians had carried a white boy by Kuskheskia Town, towards the lakes."
The Indian Council which Washington convened, assembled at nine o'clock, on the twenty-sixth day of November, and he made the following speech to the rude children of the forest: