brought three large belts and two bundles of strings;[1] there came with them a French captain, and fifteen men. The two messengers insisted that I should go with them to fort Duquesne; that there were Indians of eight nations, who wanted to hear me; that if I brought good news, they inclined to leave off war, and live in friendship with the English. The above messengers being Indian captains, were very surly. When I went to shake hands with one of them, he gave me his little finger; the other withdrew his hand entirely; upon which I appeared as stout as either, and withdrew my hand as quick as I could. Their rudeness to me was taken very ill by the other captains, who treated them in the same manner in their turn.
I told them my order was to go to the Indian towns, kings and captains, and not to the French; that the English were at war with the French, but not with those Indians, who withdrew from the French, and would be at peace with the English.
King Beaver invited me to his house to dinner, and afterwards he invited the French captain, and said before the Frenchman, that the Indians were very proud to see one of their brothers, the English, among them; at which the French captain appeared low spirited, and seemed to eat his dinner with very little appetite.
In the afternoon the Indian kings and captains called me aside, and desired me to read them the writings that I had. First I read part of the Easton treaty to them;
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- ↑ These belts and strings are made of shell-beads, called wampum. The wampum serves, among the Indians, as money; of it they also make their necklaces bracelets, and other ornaments. Belts and strings of it are used in all public negotiations; to each belt or ſtring there is connected a message, speech, or part of a speech, to be delivered with a belt by the messenger, or speaker. These belts also serve for records, being worked with figures, compofed of beads of different colours, to affist the memory.—[C. T.?]
