Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/209

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SPEECH OF THE OJIBWAY CHIEF TO HENRY.
199

among us, in expectation that we should not molest you; you do not come armed with an intention to make war. You come in peace, to trade with us and supply us with necessaries of which we are much in want. We shall regard you therefore as a brother, and you may sleep tranquilly without fear of the Chippeways. As a token of our friendship, we present you with this pipe to smoke."

Mih-neh-weh-na, the name of the chieftain who delivered this noble speech, now gave his hand to the Englishman. His sixty warriors followed his example. The pipe, emblem of peace, went round in due order, and after being politely entertained by the anxious trader, from whose heart they had taken a heavy load, they all quietly took their leave.

So many more able writers than myself have given accurate accounts of the memorable events which occurred during this important era in American history, that I desist from entering into details of any occurrence, except in which the Ojibways were actually concerned.

For upwards of four years after the French had ceded the country to the British, the allied Algic tribes, after a short lull of quiet and comparative peace, under the masterly guidance of Pontiac, maintained the war against what they considered as the usurpation, by the British, of the hunting grounds which the Great Spirit had given their ancestors.

Such was the force and accuracy of the organization which this celebrated leader had effected among the northern tribes of his fellow red men, that, on the same day, which was the 4th of June, 1763, and the anniversary of the king's birth (which the Indians knew was a day set apart by the English as one of amusement and celebration), they attacked and besieged twelve of the wide-spread western stockaded forts, and succeeded in taking possession of nine. In this alliance, the Ojibways of Lake Huron and Michigan were most active parties, and into their