the French, thrown off the vassalage of the Six Nations, and become an independent, as well as a belligerent power, they now met the pale faces, and a deputation of the Six Nations who were present, with the port and bearing of men.

On being requested by the Governor to state the causes of their uneasiness and subsequent hostilities, Teedyuscung enumerated several. Among them were the abuses committed upon the Indians in the prosecution of their trade; being unjustly deprived of portions of their lands; and the execution, long before, in New-Jersey, of a Delaware chief, named Wekahelah, for, as the Indians alleged, accidentally killing a white man- a transaction which they said they could not forget.*

finally acceded to. Teedyuscung therefore appointed Charles Thompson, Master of the Free Quaker School in Philadelphia, as the Secretary for the Indians. This was the same Charles Thompson who was afterward Secretary to the Old Congress of the revolution-who was so long continued in that station- and who died in the year 1824, aged 94 years - full of years and honours. The Indians adopted him and gave him a name signifying — "The Man of Truth."

* Weekweela, Wek ahela, or Weekquehela, was an Indian of great consideration, both among the Christian and Pagan Indians. He resided, with his clan, upon South river, near Shrewsbury, in East Jersey, and lived in a style corresponding with that of affluent white men. He had a large farm, which was well cultivated and stocked with cattle and horses; his house was large, and furnished after the English manner, with chairs, feather beds, curtains, &c., &c. He had also servants, and was the owner of slaves. He likewise mingled with good society, and was the guest of governors and other distinguished men. Unfortunately, about the year 1728, Captain John Leonard purchased a cedar swamp of some other Indians, which Week quehela claimed as belonging to him. Leonard disregarded his claim, and persisted in occupying the land. A quarrel ensued, and Week quehela shot him dead as a trespasser -not, however, upon the disputed territory, but while he was walking one day in his garden. The chief was arrested by the civil authorities, and tried and executed for murder at Amboy. Such is substantially the story as related in Smith's History of New-Jersey. The Indians claimed that Week

When the Governor desired specifications of the alleged wrongs in regard to their lands, Teedyuscung replied:-"I have not far to go for an instance. This very ground that is under me, (striking it with his foot,) was my land and inheritance; and is taken from me by fraud. When I say this ground, I mean all the land lying between Tohiccon Creek and Wyoming, on the river Susquehanna. I have not only been served so in this government, but the same thing has been done to me as to several tracts in New-Jersey, over the river." When asked what he meant by fraud, Teedyuscung gave him instances of forged deeds, under which lands were claimed which the Indians had never sold. "This," said he, "is fraud." "Also, when one chief has land beyond the river, and another chief has land on this side, both bounded by rivers, mountains, and springs, which cannot be moved, and the Proprietaries, ready to purchase lands, buy of one chief what belongs to another. This likewise is fraud." He said the Delawares had never been satisfied with the conduct of the latter since the treaties of 1737, when their fathers sold them the lands on the Delaware. He said that although the land sold was to have gone only "as far as a man could go in a day and a half from Nashamony Creek," yet the

quehela's gun went off by accident; and the Six Nations, in a speech delivered at Lancaster in the year 1757, not only affirmed this, but maintained that the Indian went himself and with great grief communicated the circumstance to the widow surrendering himself up voluntarily to the civil authorities.

person who measured the ground, did not walk, but ran. He was, moreover, as they supposed, to follow the winding bank of the river, whereas he went in a straight line. And because the Indians had been unwilling to give up the land as far as the walk extended, the Governor then having the command of the English sent for their cousins the Six Nations, who had always been hard masters to them, to come down and drive them from their land. When the Six Nations came down, the Delawares met them at a great treaty held at the Governor's house in Philadelphia, for the purpose of explaining why they did not give up the land ; but the English made so many presents to the Six Nations, that their ears were stopped. They would listen to no explanation; and Canassateego had moreover abused them, and called them women. The Six Nations had, however, given to them and the Shawanese, the lands upon the Susquehanna and the Juniata for hunting grounds, and had so informed the Governor; but notwithstanding this, the whites were allowed to go and settle upon those lands.*

Two years ago, moreover, the Gov

In a speech delivered by one of the chiefs of the Six Nations, at a council held with them at Lancaster, in 1757, this assertion of Teedyuscung was confirmed, as follows:-"Brothers: You desired us to open our hearts, and inform you of every thing we know, that might give rise to the quarrel between you and our nephews and brothers :-That, in former times our forefathers conquered the Delawares, and put petticoats on them; a long time after that they lived among you, our brothers; but upon some difference between you and them, we thought proper to remove them, giving them lands plant and to hunt on, at Wyoming and Juniata, on the Susquehanna; but you, covetous of land, made plantations there, and spoiled their hunting grounds;

ernor had been to Albany to buy some land of the Six Nations, and had described their purchase by points of compass, which the Indians did not understand, including lands both upon the Juniata and the Susquehanna, which they did not intend to sell. When all these things were known to the Indians, they declared they would no longer be friends to the English, who were trying to get all their country away from them. He however assured the council that they were nevertheless glad to meet their old friends the English again, and to smoke the pipe of peace with them. He also hoped that justice would be done to them for all the injuries they had received."*

The council continued nine days, and Governor Denny appears to have conducted himself with so much tact and judgment, as greatly to conciliate the good will of the Indians. By his candid and ingenuous treatment of them, as some of the Mohawks afterwards expressed it, "he put his hand into Teedyuscung's bosom, and was so successful as to draw out the secret, which neither Sir William Johnson nor the Six Nations could do." The result was a reconciliation of the Delawares of the Susquehanna with the English, and

they then complained to us, and we looked over those lands, and found their complaints to be true."

* In the outline of this speech, I have quoted Proud, but chiefly followed Chapman, who has given the most particular account of this council with which I have met. He, however, mistook in supposing it to be a general council, and that the Ohio Indians were included in the peace.

† Memorial of the Quakers to Governor Denny.

a treaty of peace, upon the basis that Teedyuscung and his people were to be allowed to remain upon the Wyoming lands, and that houses were to be built for them by the Proprietaries.* There were, however, several matters left unadjusted, although the Governor desired that every difficulty should then be discussed, and every cause of complaint, as far as he possessed the power, be removed. But Teedyuscung replied that he was not empowered, at the present time, to adjust several of the questions of grievance that had been raised, nor were all the parties interested properly represented in the council. He therefore proposed the holding of another council in the following spring, at Lancaster. This proposition was acceded to; and many Indians collected at the time and place appointed. Sir William Johnson despatched a deputation of the Six Nations thither, under the charge of Colonel Croghan, the Deputy Superintendent of the Indians; but for some reason unexplained, neither Teedyuscung nor the Delawares from Wyoming attended the council, though of his own appointment. Col. Croghan wrote to Sir William, however, that the meeting was productive of great good in checking the war upon the frontier; and in a speech to Sir William, delivered by the Senecas in June following, they claimed the credit, by their mediation, of the partial peace that had been obtained. The conduct of Teedyuscung on that occasion was

* Journal of Christian Frederick Post-note by Proud.