land, one half of this sum was reserved as payment for a large
tract of land, or reservation, which should be their home, and on which
no white man would have any right to settle, whether he was willing to
buy the land or not. When this had been done, it was necessary to submit
the matter to the Indians; and a council was called at Burlington, at
which were present the governor of the Province, and some of the most
prominent Indian chiefs.

At this conference there was a notable exhibition of Indian etiquette.
The governor had called the Minisinks, a tribe of the Delawares, to meet
him; and they had informed the Mingoians, who, with some other northern
tribes, were then gathered together at the grand council fire at the
forks of the Delaware, where is now Easton. This was done, because at
that time the Mingoians considered themselves superior to the Delawares,
from whom proper respect was due.

One of the chiefs from the council fire was sent down to represent the
Mingoians. After some speeches were made, he told the white governor
that the Minisinks, being Delawares, were women, and were not able of
themselves to make treaties, therefore he had come down to look into the
matter. As his people were then holding a grand council fire at the
forks of the Delaware, they did not wish to put it out and build another
council fire on this side of the Delaware. The reason which he gave for
this was figurative and Indian-like.

He stated that the river roared and thundered, and made a great deal of
noise; and, if the council were held on this side, the distant Indian
nations who dwelt to the west of the Delaware could not hear what was
said at the council, and therefore it would be unfair to them to hold it
on this side of the river. He concluded with a cordial invitation to the
governor and his party to meet the Indians at their own council fire.

About a month afterward, the governor, with some members of the
Legislature, and other white people from New Jersey and Pennsylvania,
met over five hundred Indians at the forks of the Delaware in grand
council. Some of the speeches on this occasion were very interesting. A
chief of the United Nations, speaking for the Delawares, who, having
made themselves women by becoming peacemakers, had no right to speak
for themselves, addressed the council as follows:--

"Brethren, we now remove the hatchet out of your heads, that was struck
into it by our cousins the Delawares. It was a Fre