t the ground they occupied was
not theirs; that the Delawares had answered that they were great fools
to fight for others' lands, and that they would war no longer against
the Americans, but would remove to the Spanish territory beyond the
Mississippi. These facts Hay must report in writing to Alexander McKee,
the British Indian agent. On the second of January, 1790, it was
reported that Antoine Laselle, a French trader who had resided at
Miamitown for nineteen years, was a prisoner in the hands of the Weas.
The crime charged against him was that he had written a letter to the
Americans at Vincennes apprising them of an Indian attack, and that as a
consequence of that letter the attacking party had been captured. One of
them was the son of a Wea who had burned an American prisoner at
Ouiatenon the preceding summer, and the Weas now charged that this son
would be burned by his American captors. Laselle was supposed to be in
imminent peril, and all the French and English traders at Miamitown
called on LeGris. LeGris said that he had always warned the traders
about penetrating the lower Indian country, but that numbers of the
French had gone to trade there without his knowledge. He had cautioned
Laselle, but Laselle had gone without letting him know. If Laselle had
told him of his intended trip, he would have sent along one of his
chiefs with him, or given him a belt as a passport. LeGris said that no
time must be lost, and that he would at once send forward three of his
faithful warriors to put a stop to the business. On the fifth day of
January, one Tramblai arrived from Ouiatenon, and said that all the
reports concerning Laselle were false and that he was having a good
trade. On the thirteenth, Laselle himself arrived with Blue Jacket and a
Frenchman. He bore a letter from the Indians and the French-Canadians at
Tippecanoe to LeGris, certifying that "the bearer Antoine Laselle is a
good loyalist and is always for supporting the King," That was a
satisfactory certificate of character along the Wabash in 1790.

On the thirteenth of February, 1790, the Shawnees who live near
Miamitown, arrive at that village with the prisoner McMullen. His face
is painted black, as one who approaches death. In his hands he holds the
"Shishequia" made of deer hoofs. He constantly rattles this device, and
sings, "Oh Kentuck!" He thinks that the day of doom is at hand and that
he will be burned at the stake. Some Indian chief, however, has los