ttended only by a lad as a travelling companion and aide, and
proceeded cautiously down the east side until within fifteen miles of
the Falls. Here he came upon traps newly set, and Indian footprints
not a day old; and heard the distant report of guns. The story of
Indian hunters then was true. Abandoning all idea, therefore, of
visiting the Falls, and contenting himself with the information
concerning them which he had received from others, he shaped his
course homeward.

While Gist had been making his painful way homeward, the two Ottawa
ambassadors had returned to Fort Sandusky, bringing word to the French
that their friendship had been rejected and their hostility defied by
the Miamis. They informed them also of the gathering of the western
tribes that was to take place at Logstown, to conclude a treaty with
the Virginians.

It was a great object with the French to prevent this treaty, and to
spirit up the Ohio Indians against the English. This they hoped to
effect through the agency of one Captain Joncaire, a veteran of the
wilderness, who had grown gray in Indian diplomacy, and was now sent
to maintain French sovereignty over the valley of the Ohio. He
appeared at Logstown accompanied by another Frenchman, and forty
Iroquois warriors. He found an assemblage of the western tribes,
feasting and rejoicing, and firing off guns, for George Croghan, and
Montour, the interpreter, were there, and had been distributing
presents on behalf of the governor of Pennsylvania.

Joncaire was said to have the wit of a Frenchman, and the eloquence of
an Iroquois. He made an animated speech to the chiefs in their own
tongue, the gist of which was that their father Onontio (that is to
say, the governor of Canada) desired his children of the Ohio to turn
away the Indian traders, and never to deal with them again on pain of
his displeasure; so saying, he laid down a wampum belt of uncommon
size, by way of emphasis to his message. For once his eloquence was of
no avail; a chief rose indignantly, shook his finger in his face, and
stamping on the ground, "This is our land," said he. "What right has
Onontio here? The English are our brothers. They shall live among us
as long as one of us is alive. We will trade with them, and not with
you;" and, so saying, he rejected the belt of wampum.

Joncaire returned to an advanced post recently established on the
upper part of the river, whence he wrote to the governor of
Pennsylvania: "The Marq