what was done we utterly abhor as a thing done by the Evil Spirit himself; we never expected any of our People wou'd ever do so to our Brethren. We therefore remove our Hatchet which, by the influence of the Evil Spirit, was struck into your Body, and we desire that our Brethren the Govr. of New York & Onas[1] may use their utmost endeavours that the thing may be buried in the bottomless Pit, that it may never be seen again—that the Chain of Friendship which is of so long standing may be preserv'd bright & unhurt." Gave a Belt. The Speaker then took up a String of Wampum, mostly black, and said: "Brethren, as we have removed our Hatchet out of your Body, or properly speaking, out of our own, We now desire that the Air may be clear'd up again & the wound given may be healed, & every thing put in good understanding, as it was before, and we desire you will assist us to make up everything with the Govr. of Carolina; the Man that has been brought as a Prisoner we now deliver to You, he is yours" (lay'd down the String, and took the Prisoner by the Hand and delivered him to me).[2] By way of discourse, the Speaker said, "the Six Nation Warriors often meet Englishmen trading to the Catawbas, & often found that the Englishmen betrayed them to their Enemy, & some of the English Traders had been spoke to by the Indian Speaker last Year in the Cherrykees[3] Country & were told not to do
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- ↑ "Qnas" was the Indian term for the governor of Pennsylvania—first used for Penn in his treaty with the Delawares, in 1682.—Ed.
- ↑ Apparently this was a lad named William Brown, whom Croghan sent to the settlements, October 20, 1748.— Pennsylvania Archives, ii, p. 17.—Ed.
- ↑ The Catawbas were a powerful Indian tribe of South Carolina, thought by Powell—"Indian Linguistic Families of North America," in U. S. Bureau of Ethnology Report, 1885-86—to be of Siouan stock. They inhabited the western portion of the Carolinas, and were traditional enemies of the Iroquois. The Cherokees were a settled tribe in North Carolina and Tennessee, and at this time in the English interest.—Ed.
