Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/451

Rh cil was called, and the head messenger with a belt of wampum said: "My friends and brothers! I am come with this belt, from our great Father, Sir William Johnson. He desired me to come to you, as his ambassador, and tell you that he is making a great feast, in common with your friends, the Six Nations, who have all made peace with the English. He advises you to seize this opportunity of doing the same, as you cannot otherwise fail of being destroyed; for the English are on their march, with a great army, which will be joined by different nations of Indians. In a word, before the fall of the leaf, they will be at Michillimackinac, and the Six Nations with them."

After a great medicine dance, the sacred men had, as they alleged, a communication from the Great Turtle, one of their mightiest spirits, who said that, "Sir William Johnson would fill their canoes with presents; with blankets, kettles, guns, gunpowder, and shot, and large barrels of rum, such as the stoutest of the Indians would not be able to lift; and that every man would return in safety to his family."

On the 10th of June, 1764, a deputation left Sault Ste. Marie, accompanied by the trader Alexander Henry, and by way of Lake Simcoe and Toronto, reached Niagara and attended the grand council. On the 6th of August, Henry and his Ojibway companions, accompanied General Bradstreet's army on the way to Detroit. At this point Bradstreet, on the 7th of September, made a treaty with the Ojibways and some other tribes. The principal speaker of the Indians was Wasson, an Ojibway chief, who said to Bradstreet, "My brother, last year God forsook us. God has now opened our eyes, and we desire to be heard. It is God's will, our hearts are altered. It was God's will you had such fine weather to come to us. It is God's will also there should be peace, and tranquillity, over the face of the earth, and the waters."