a good heart and be strong; to do as their father
advised." In the spring he would return with a large party of warriors
to fight, kill and pursue the Americans. He had always been successful
and victory was assured. McKee was active distributing clothing and
provisions. He made an especial appeal to the Shawnees who were known to
be the most hostile of all the tribes. In a private conference
afterwards held with Wayne, the Shawnee chief, Blue Jacket, told the
general that McKee had invited him to his house and had strongly urged
him to keep away from the council with the Americans. Seeing that his
entreaties were of no avail, he said: "The commission you received from
Johnson was not given you to carry to the Americans. I am grieved to
find that you have taken it to them. It was with much regret I learned
that you have deserted your friends, who have always caressed you, and
treated you as a great man. You have deranged, by your imprudent
conduct, all our plans for protecting the Indians, and keeping them with
us. They have always looked up to you for advice and direction in the
war, and you have now broke the strong ties which held them all
together, under your and our direction. You must now be viewed as the
enemy of your people, and the other Indians whom you are seducing into
the snares of the Americans have formed for their ruin, and the massacre
and destruction of their people by the Americans must be laid to your
charge." Massas, a Chippewa chieftain, told Wayne that when he returned
from the treaty of Muskingum (Fort Harmar), that McKee threatened to
kill him. "I have not now less cause to fear him, as he endeavored to
prevent my coming hither."

The importunities of the British agents, however, failed of their
object. The Indians had lost all confidence in British promises and
Wayne had filled them with a wholesome respect for the American arms.
Numbers of their leading chieftains, including Tarhe, of the Wyandots,
and Little Turtle of the Miamis, thought all further resistance useless.
No doubt many of them entertained the views that Brant long afterwards
openly expressed to Sir John Johnson. "In the first place," said the
great Mohawk, "the Indians were engaged in a war to assist the
English--then left in the lurch at the peace, to fight alone until they
could make peace for themselves. After repeatedly defeating the armies
of the United States, so that they sent Commissioners to endeavor to get
peace, the