Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (Vol 1 1904).djvu/165

1765] as it is now finished, we request you may open the barrel that your Children may drink & be merry.

August 29^{th}—A Deputation of several Nations sett out from Detroit for the Ilinois Country with several Messages from me & the Wyondats, Six Nations, Delawares, Shawanese & other Nations, in answer to theirs delivered me at Ouiatonon.

30th—The Chiefs of the several Nations who are settled on the Ouabache returned to Detroit from the River Roche, where they had been encamped, & informed Col^o Campbell & me, they were now going off for their own Country, & that nothing gave them greater pleasure, than to see that all the Western Nations & Tribes had agreed to a general Peace, & that they should be glad [to know] how soon their Fathers the English, would take possession of the Posts in their Country, formerly possessed by their late Fathers the French, to open a Trade for them, & if this could not be done this Fall, they desired that some Traders might be sent to their Villages to supply them for the Winter, or else they would be oblidged to go to the Ilinois and apply to their old Fathers the French for such necessarys as they might want.

They then spoke on a Belt & said Fathers, every thing is now settled, & we have agreed to your taking possession of the posts in our Country. we have been informed, that the English where ever they settle, make the Country their own, & you tell us that when you conquered the French they gave you this Country.—That no difference may happen hereafter, we tell you now the French never conquered us neither did they purchase a foot of our Country, nor have they a right to give it to you, we gave them liberty to settle for which they always rewarded us,