orm the escort were absent hunting, and the
half-king could not suffer the party to go without sufficient
protection. His own French speech-belt, also, was at his
hunting-lodge, whither he must go in quest of it. Moreover, the
Shannoah chiefs were yet absent and must be waited for. Washington
soon found that to urge a more speedy departure would be offensive to
Indian dignity and decorum so he was fain to await the gathering
together of the different chiefs with their speech-belts.

In fact there was some reason for all this caution. Tidings had
reached the sachems that Captain Joncaire had called a meeting at
Venango, of the Mingoes, Delawares, and other tribes, and made them a
speech, informing them that the French, for the present, had gone into
winter-quarters, but intended to descend the river in great force, and
fight the English in the spring. He had advised them, therefore, to
stand aloof, for should they interfere, the French and English would
join, cut them all off, and divide their land between them.

With these rumors preying on their minds, the half-king and three
other chiefs waited on Washington in his tent in the evening, and
after representing that they had complied with all the requisitions of
the governor of Virginia, endeavored to draw from the youthful
ambassador the true purport of his mission to the French commandant.
Washington had anticipated an inquiry of the kind, knowing how natural
it was that these poor people should regard with anxiety and distrust
every movement of two formidable powers thus pressing upon them from
opposite sides; he managed, however, to answer them in such a manner
as to allay their solicitude without transcending the bounds of
diplomatic secrecy.

After a day or two more of delay and further consultations in the
council-house, the chiefs determined that but three of their number
should accompany the mission, as a greater number might awaken the
suspicions of the French. Accordingly, on the 30th of November,
Washington set out for the French post, having his usual party
augmented by an Indian hunter, and being accompanied by the half-king,
an old Shannoah sachem named Jeskakake, and another chief, sometimes
called Belt of Wampum, from being the keeper of the speech-belts, but
generally bearing the sounding appellation of White Thunder.

Although the distance to Venango, by the route taken, was not above
seventy miles, yet such was the inclemency of the weather and th