XV. lated to inspire the Indians with disgust. What was CHAP. wanted, said the Baronet, were men of piety, ability, and experience, who would be willing to remain among the 1767. Indians long enough to become perfect masters of their lauguage and disposition. Another measure recommended was, that interpreters should be provided at the different posts, with salaries sufficiently large to make it an object for them to acquire a thorough knowledge of the Indian tongue. As the Indians considered it a mark of respect, to be spoken with through an interpreter, this measure was deemed very essential. Good interpreters, however, it was very difficult to find, and he was, therefore, often under the necessity of delivering his speeches himself. As an illustration of the mistakes committed by ignorant interpreters, the writer alluded to an occurrence of recent date. It so happened that a Boston divine, having expressed a desire to preach to the Indians in the vicinity of Johnson Hall, chose for his text, "for God is no respecter of persons.' The interpreter in explaining this sentiment told the Indians, "that God had no love for such people as they." Sir William, immediately interfered, and not only corrected the error, but interpreted the remainder of the discourse, to prevent farther blunders. "Had I not been present," he writes, "the error must have passed, and many more might have been committed in the course of the sermon." One great cause, hitherto, of the difficulty which had been experienced in redressing Indian grievances, and bringing the offenders to justice, was the fact that no Indian was allowed to give testimony in court against that of a white. This injustice the Baronet proposed to remedy, by the passage of a law, providing that the testimony of all Indians who had embraced Christianity, should be admitted in civil and criminal actions; and farther, that the accusations of those, who did not profess the Christian faith, should be reduced to writing, to which juries might attach as much credit as their judgment should dictate. XV. CHAP. If these several suggestions, added Sir William in his summing up, were carried out, a marked improvement 1767. in the condition of the Indians would soon be apparent, and the expenses of his department materially diminished.' Although the Baronet was warmly attached to the church of England, he was by no means sectarian in his feelings; and at this time, he was in correspondence with Doctor Wheelock, in relation to the removal of the Moor Charity School into the valley of the Mohawk. Various reasons seemed to require a change in the location of the school, and Sir William was in hopes of having it permanently established in his vicinity. The jealousy, however, of the ecclesiastics of Albany, thwarted his wishes; and Governor Wentworth having, in the meantime, granted to the school a township on the eastern bank of the Connecticut river, it was removed thither in the fall of 1769, receiving a charter under the name of Dartmouth College, in honor of its chief patron, the earl of Dartmouth. In December, three Cherokee chieftains-Little Carpenter, Great Warrior, and Raven King-accompanied by six warriors and an interpreter, arrived in New York, on their way to Johnson Hall. They were kindly received by the commander-in-chief, and sent forward in a sloop to Albany. Thence, accompanied by Colonel Philip Schuyler as an escort, they rode up on horseback to Fort Johnson; and on the last day but one of the year they reached the hall,there to be domiciled, until the Confederacy, by belts and messages, should be notified of their arrival. 1"Review of the progressive state of the trade &c.," by Sir William Johnson. N. Y. Col. Doc. CHAPTER XVI. XVI. 1768. The prospect for a favorable reception of the belts sum- CHAP. moning the Six Nations to meet their ancient enemies, the Cherokees, was not flattering. The borderers, more savage than the she-wolf, still shot down from ambuscades every unoffending Indian that came in their path; and when, in January, the White Mingo with eleven others. was murdered, and his assassin rescued from justice by a mob of whites, the patience with which the Indians had borne taunts and insults for the past three years, began to give way. In defiance, moreover, of the king's proclamation in 1763, settlers, chiefly from Virginia, had, within the past year, crossed the Alleghanies, and begun settlements along the Monongahela, and Red Stone creek; and although General Gage, at the request of the Baronet, had ordered them to remove, yet the only notice taken of his commands had been the sowing of fresh crops, and the clearing of new fields. All the tribes, but especially the Six Nations, witnessed these proceedings with fear and anger. They had offered, they said, in the congress at the German Flats, in 1765, to give up all the land east of the Ohio to the English for a fair consideration, but their offer had never been accepted; notwithstanding which, the whites scrupled not to establish themselves upon their land. "I wish that boundary," wrote Croghan to the Baronet at this time, "had never been mentioned to them, or that his majesty had before now, ordered it confirmed. Indians cannot bear disappointments or delays, when they expect to get anything; and nothing now will, in my opinion, prevent a war, but taking a cession from them, and paying them for their lands." CHAP. The apprehensions of the deputy appeared well grounded. "Brethren," spoke the Senecas in January, with a 1768. large belt, to the Delawares and Shawanese, "those lands are yours as well as ours; God gave them to us to live upon, and before the white people shall have them for nothing, we will sprinkle the leaves with their blood, or die every man in the attempt." Secret belts and messages, borne by swift runners through the western tribes, summoned the Indians to a great congress to be held in the Shawanese country in March. In reply to Croghan's question, why the congress was called, the Delawares replied that they knew not; yet while they thus spoke, the fiery glances shot askance from their eyes, told a different story, and their preparations still went on. Several bateaux, loaded with goods for the Indian trade, were stopped on the Ohio and robbed of their ammunition; and tomahawks and scalping knives, that had long lain rusty and blunted, were now raked from among the rubbish of wigwams, and polished and sharpened with grim satisfaction. It was evident that the colonies were upon the very brink of another Indian war. Alarmed at length at these demonstrations, the meaning of which was clear to the dullest mind, the assembly of Pennsylvania, in February, voted twenty-five hundred pounds, to be placed in the Baronet's hands for distribution, at the approaching council, among those Indians who had lost kindred along the frontiers. But this attempt to patch up Indian grievances did not suit the ideas of the superintendent, who was fearful that presents, like a remedy too often applied, had lost their efficacy. Accordingly on the reception of the appropriation, while he thanked the assembly for it, he wrote, that good laws vigorously enforced, would be the best guaranty against Indian resentment.2 Notwithstanding these untoward circumstances, the 1 Manuscript letter; Croghan to Johnson 17th Feb., 1768. 2 Manuscript letter; Johnson to James Galloway [speaker of the assembly of Penn.] 29th Feb., 1768. XVI. third day of spring found the Six Nations and their allies, CHAP to the number of seven hundred and sixty, assembled at Johnson Hall. The Indians, however, came not as of old, 1768. with shouts of glee and cheerful looks, but dropped along one after another, with laggard steps and scowling brows. Previous to opening the council, the Baronet held several private conferences with the principal chiefs, all of whom, as he had feared, seemed so greatly incensed at the recent outrages perpetrated upon them, that he had, at first, but little hopes of mollifying their resentment. It is true that a few of the older sachems, who were warmly attached to his person, lamented the threatening rupture; but even they saw not how it could be avoided. All agreed that the late murder of the white Mingo, was a prelude to still farther hostile designs-which idea, the settlements west of the Alleghanies tended to confirm, especially as a few of those who could read, had lately seen in the newspapers discussions regarding the feasibility of settling the rich lands beyond the Ohio. "When our young men," said they, "wish to go hunting in our country, they find it covered with fences, so that they are weary crossing them; neither can they get venison to eat, or bark to make huts, for the beasts are run away, and the trees are cut down." Their resentment was, moreover, the more difficult to overcome inasmuch as it was just. It so happened, however, that Sir William had received in February, through Governor Moore, the news of the king's determination to have the boundary line at once settled. The intention of his majesty was, therefore, now communicated to the sachems, and with such good effect, that they soon relaxed into good humor; and laying aside their revengeful feelings, signified their willingness to enter at once upon the treaty with the Cherokees. Accordingly, the council was opened on the following morning, which, lasting for eight days, terminated in a joint treaty between the Six Nations, their allies, and the Cherokee deputies. Sir William then, with a belt, figurativly pulled up by the roots the largest pine tree he could find, under which the axe that |