Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 8).djvu/185

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FALLEN TIMBER
181

Indians. The Shawanese repeated the story of St. Clair's disaster of the year before and asserted that the Indians claimed certain lands east of the Ohio and all lands west of that river. Those to the eastward would be given up for proper compensation. In reply to the Seneca's desire to bring about a treaty with the hostile nations, the Shawanese replied: "Inform General Washington we will treat with him, at the Rapids of Miami, next spring, or at the time when the leaves are fully out. . . We will lay the bloody tomahawk aside, until we hear from the President of the United States. . ."[1] Cornplanter returned eastward with his delegation and the reports of the convention were hurried on to Philadelphia with the ominous hint that no boundary would ever be consented to by the northwestern Indians save only the Ohio River. The message as it spread across the Alleghenies brought dark days and anxious nights to cabins on the thin fringe of pioneer settlements from the Muskingum to the Miami.

  1. American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), pp. 323–324.