Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (Vol 1 1904).djvu/168

162 been the occasion of what has past, I need not say much on this head, I am now convinced, that I have been wrong for some years past, but there are people who have behaved worse than I & my people, they were pardoned last year at this place, I hope we may meet with the same, that our Women & Children may enjoy the blessings of peace as the rest of our Bretheren the red people, & you shall be convinced by our future conduct that we will behave as well as any Tribe of Ind^s in this Country.—A Belt.

He then said that the St. Joseph Indians would have come along with him, but the English Prisoner which their Fathers want from them, was some distance off a hunting, & as soon as they could get him in, they would deliver him up and desire forgiveness.

14th—I had a private meeting with the grand Sautois when he told me he was well disposed for peace last Fall, but was then sent for to the Ilinois, where he met with Pondiac, & that then their Fathers the French told them, if they would be strong to keep the English out of possession of that Country but this Summer, That the King of France would send over an Army next Spring, to assist his Children the Indians, and that the King of Spain would likewise send troops to help them to keep the English out of their Country, that the English were a bad people, & had a design to cut off all the Indian Nations in this Country, & to bring the Southern Indians to live & settle there, this account made all the Indians very uneasy in their minds, & after holding a Council amongst themselves, they all determined to oppose the English, & not to suffer them to take Possession of the Ilinois, that for his part he behaved as ill as the rest to the English Officers that came there in the Spring, but