smoak out of it with him in Peace. Fathers we are oblidged to you for lighting up our old Council Fire for us, & desiring us to return to it, but we are now settled on the Miamis River, not far from hence, whenever you want us you will find us there ready to wait on you, the reason I choose to stay where we are now settled, is, that we love liquor, and did we live here as formerly, our People would be always drunk, which might occasion some quarrels between the Soldiers & them, this Father is all the reason I have for not returning to our old Settlements, & that we live so nigh this place, that when we want to drink, we can easily come for it.—Gave a large Pipe with a Belt of Wampum tied to it.
Father: Be strong and take pity on us your Children as our former Father did, 'tis just the Hunting Season of our children, our Fathers the French formerly used to credit his Children for powder & lead to hunt with, I request in behalf of all the Nations present that you will speak to the Traders now here to do the same, my Father, once more I request you will take pity on us & tell your Traders to give your Children credit for a little powder & lead, as the support of our Family's depend upon it, we have told you where we live, that whenever you want us & let us know it, we will come directly to you.—A Belt.
Father: You stoped up the Rum Barrel when we came here, 'till the Business of this Meeting[1] was over,
————
- ↑ There were present at this treaty about thirty chiefs and five hundred
warriors. A list of the tribes is given, and the names of the chiefs. This was
the last public transaction in which Pondiac was engaged with the English.
The year following, in a council with the Indians on the Illinois, this noted
chief was stabbed to the heart, by an Indian who had long followed him for that
purpose.—Hildreth.
Comment by Ed.—Hildreth is mistaken in calling this the last public transaction of Pontiac. He was at Oswego and treated with Johnson in the spring of 1766. See New York Colonial Documents, vii, pp. 854-867.
