advised them, in guarded language, to make peace with the
United States; but only upon terms consistent with their "honor and
interest." He assured them that, whatever they did, he wished to know
what they desired; and that the sole purpose of the British was to
promote the welfare of the confederated Indians. Such very cautious
advice was not of a kind to promote peace; and the goods furnished the
savages at the council included not only cattle, corn, and tobacco, but
also quantities of powder and balls. [Footnote: Canadian Archives,
McKee's speech to the Indians, July 1, 1971; and Francis Lafontaine's
account of sundries to Indians.]

The Fur Trade the Prime Object of the British.

The chief interest of the British was to preserve the fur trade for
their merchants, and it was mainly for this reason that they clung so
tenaciously to the Lake Posts. For their purposes it was essential that
the Indians should remain lords of the soil. They preferred to see the
savages at peace with the Americans, provided that in this way they
could keep their lands; but, whether through peace or war, they wished
the lands to remain Indian, and the Americans to be barred from them.
While they did not at the moment advise war, their advice to make peace
was so faintly uttered, and so hedged round with conditions as to be of
no weight; and they furnished the Indians not only with provisions but
with munitions of war. While McKee, and other British officers, were at
the Miami Rapids, holding councils with the Indians, and issuing to them
goods and weapons, bands of braves were continually returning from
forays against the American frontier, bringing in scalps and prisoners;
and the wilder subjects of the British King, like the Girtys, and some
of the French from Detroit, went off with the war parties on their
forays. [Footnote: American State Papers, IV., 196. Narrative of Thomas
Rhea, July 2, 1791. This narrative was distrusted; but it is fully borne
out by McKee's letter, and the narrative of Brickell. He saw Brickell,
whom he calls "Brittle," at the Miami.] The authorities at the capital
of the new Republic were deceived by the warmth with which the British
insisted that they were striving to bring about a peace; but the
frontiersmen were not deceived, and they were right in their belief that
the British were really the mainstay and support of the Indians in their
warfare.

The Americans Draw the Sword.

Peace could only be