s now awaited the termination of the
preliminaries of a grand council of the northwestern tribes which was
being held at the Rapids on the Maumee. On the seventh of June, the
commissioners addressed a note to Simcoe, suggesting the importance of
the coming conference, their wish to counteract the deep-rooted
prejudices of the tribes, and their desire for a full co-operation on
the part of the English officers. Among other things, they called the
Colonel's attention to a report circulated by a Mohawk Indian to the
effect that "Governor Simcoe advised the Indians to make peace, but not
to give up any lands." The Colonel promptly replied, tendering his
services in the coming negotiations, appointing certain officers to
attend the treaty, and particularly denying the declaration of the
Mohawk. But in his reply he used these words: "But, as it has been, ever
since the conquest of Canada, the principle of the British government,
to unite the American Indians, that, all petty jealousies being
extinguished, the real wishes of the tribes may be fully expressed, and
in consequence all the treaties made with them, may have the most
complete ratification and universal concurrence, so, he feels it proper
to state to the commissioners, that a jealousy of a contrary conduct in
the agents of the United States, appears to him to have been deeply
impressed upon the minds of the confederacy." In view of the subsequent
results, the story of the Mohawk may not have been wholly without
foundation.

On the fifth day of July, Colonel John Butler, of the British Indian
department, Joseph Brant, and about fifty Indians from the council of
the tribes on the Maumee, arrived at Niagara. On the seventh, the
commissioners, and a number of the civil and military officers of the
crown being present, Brant addressed the American envoys and said in
substance that he was representing the Indian nations who owned all the
lands north of the Ohio "as their common property;" that the treaty had
been delayed on account of the presence of the American army north of
the Ohio; that the tribes wanted an explanation of these warlike
appearances, and desired to know whether the commissioners were
authorized "to run and establish a new boundary line between the lands
of the United States, and of the Indian nations." On the next day, the
commissioners gave full answer. They informed the Indian deputation that
the purposes of the United States were wholly peaceful; tha