they confirmed by several Belts and Strings of Wampum. The principal Man of the Ottawas said on a large Belt that he had not long to live & said pointing to two Men "those Men I have appointed to transact the Business of my Tribe, with them you confirmed the Peace last year when you came up to Pittsburg, I now recommend them to you, and I beg you may take notice of them and pity our women and Children as they are poor and naked, you are able to do it & by pitying their Necessitys you will win their Hearts." The Speaker then took up the Pipe of Peace belonging to the Nation and said Brother to Confirm what we have said to you I give you this Peace Pipe which is known to all the Nations living in this Country and when they see it they will know it to be the Pipe of Peace belonging to our Nation, then [he] delivered the Pipe.
The principal Man then requested some Powder & Lead for their young Men to stay there and hunt for the support of their familys as the Chiefs had agreed to go with us to D'Troit, and a little Flower which I applyed to Major Rogers for who chearfully ordered it to me as I informed him it was necessary & would be for the good of his Majestys Indian Interest.[1]
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- ↑ Rogers in his Journal places this meeting with the Ottawas on the seventh instead of the fifth of November, and locates it at "Chogage" River (formerly supposed to be Cuyahoga, but now thought to be Grand River). Croghan's account is more detailed, and probably written at the time; while Rogers's was written or revised later. "Wajea Sipery" is probably Ashtabula Creek, which is sufficiently crooked in its course to make this name appropriate. This is the traditional meeting for the first time, with Pontiac, the Ottawa chief. Parkman's well-known account of the haughty bearing and dignified demands of this great Indian contrast markedly with Croghan's simpler and more literal account. In truth, it may be doubted whether this chief was Pontiac at all, as he here speaks of himself as an old man. Rogers's Journal makes no mention of any chief, and alludes but incidentally to meeting the Ottawa band; but in his Concise Account of North America, published in
