seated, a long silence ensued. At length, one of them, taking up a belt of wampum, addressed himself thus to the assembly:—
'"My friends and brothers, I am come with this belt from our great father, Sir William Johnson. He desired me to come to you as his embassador, and tell you that he is making a great feast at Fort Niagara: that his kettles are all ready and his fires lit. He invites you to partake of this feast, in common with your friends, the Six Nations, who have all made peace with the English. He advises you to seize this opportunity of doing the same, as you cannot otherwise fail of being destroyed; for the English are on their march with a great army, which will be joined by different nations of Indians. In a word, before the fall of the leaf, they will be at Michilimackinac, and the Six Nations with them.'"
The tenor of this speech greatly alarmed the Indians throughout the Northwest, and those who fortunately had not embrued their hands too deeply in British blood, were glad to send delegates to the Great Council at Niagara. Among the rest, the Sault Ste. Marie Ojibways sent twenty deputies, with whom Mr. Henry, after one year of captivity and trouble, returned once more to his friends. These deputies, though they went in fear and trembling, were well received at the hands of Sir William Johnson, and they now experienced the good consequences of having listened to the advice of their trader.
During the summer of the same year, 1764, in which the council was held at Niagara, where it is said that twenty-two different tribes were represented, a British force of three thousand men under Gen. Bradstreet proceeded up the lakes as far as Detroit. Under the command of this officer, Alexander Henry had a battalion of Indian allies, among whom were "ninety-six Ojibways of Sault
