o form.

In November 1786 a great council of Indian tribes was
held at Huron Village, on the Detroit river. This was
well attended, and its deliberations were very grave. An
address, probably written by Brant, was sent by order of
the assembled Indians to the Congress of the United
States. Peace was desired, but it would be necessary for
the Congressional representatives to treat with the
redskins as a whole; difficulties had been engendered
because the United States had entered into negotiations
with separate tribes--'kindled council-fires wherever it
saw fit'--without ever deigning to consult the Indians
as a whole; this, affirmed the address, must happen no
longer.

During the next few years the War Chief was unsparing in
his efforts to come to some solution of the problem which
the attitude of the United States had presented. He was
quite aware that there was not enough concerted action
among the various tribes. In his efforts to unite them
he was aided and supported in all that he did by the
English officials. But, try as Brant might, it seemed
impossible to arrive at that wide union among the tribes
at which he was aiming. On every hand were differences
of opinion and petty jealousies. In 1789 General St Clair,
indeed, was able to make two separate treaties with the
Indians, much to the delight of the government at
Philadelphia. 'I am persuaded,' St Clair wrote confidently,
'[that] their general confederacy is entirely broken.
Indeed it would not be very difficult, if circumstances
required it, to set them at deadly variance.'

But though unwilling to unite, it was with jealous and
angry eyes that they watched the white men cross the
Ohio. The year 1790 found the western tribes ablaze with
passion and again on the war-path against the United
States. The Shawnees, Potawatomis, and Miamis were the
leaders of the revolt. An expedition under General Harmar
marched against them, but it was defeated with great
loss. The Six Nations were the next in arms, and fell
without mercy on the settlements by the Alleghany river.

The horizon was now dark and it seemed as though a
widespread struggle with the Indians was certain to occur.
While the British authorities trusted implicitly in Joseph
Brant, the executive of the United States was also trying
to win his confidence. Both sides clearly recognized that
the future of the red men depended largely on the policy
that Brant should adopt. To have two great nations ea