INDIAN CHIEFS IN NEW YORK
dinner, he wrote, “Mrs. Washington, myself, and children removed and lodged in our new habitation.”
The Indians about this time appeared determined to prevent through barbarous depredations the existence of towns beyond the Ohio River. A New England company, formed in 1787, had purchased a large territory from the general government, and commenced settlements the following year, of which Marietta was the first. But the savages harassed the settlers so perpetually that Congress directed Knox to investigate the whole subject, who, in his able report, stated that over fifteen hundred persons had either been murdered or carried into captivity during the two years since 1788, and an immense amount of property destroyed. Vigorous steps to check the mischief were at once taken. Washington had hoped to give security to the pioneers of Ohio by pacific arrangements, but found it necessary to institute offensive operations in that direction, which, beginning in the summer of 1790, were not terminated until after the signal victory of General Wayne in 1794.
In the Carolinas and Georgia the Indians quarreled with their white neighbors; and the Spaniards tampered with the Creeks of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, furnishing them with fire-arms and clothing. Several attempts had been made hitherto by the government, without success, to treat with these latter tribes. An ingenious plan was devised in February to lure their great chief, Alexander McGillivray, an educated half-breed, to New York City, for the purpose of convincing him of the propriety of a treaty to avert the calamities of war, about to be precipitated by the disorderly and disreputable people of both nations. On the 10th of March Washington held a long conversation with Colonel Marinus Willett, who had agreed to undertake a mission to the Creeks which must necessarily be conducted in the most delicate manner, and who shortly started for their country at the South. On the 1st of July official information reached the President that Willett was on his return, accompanied by McGillivray and twenty-eight of his principal chiefs and warriors, and had advanced as far as Hopewell, in South Carolina. Messages were at once sent to the governors of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, requesting them to show every possible respect to the travelers, at the public expense.
Their arrival in New York created a sensation. The members of the Tammany Society, arrayed in Indian costume, went out to meet them, with the; military, and escorted them, to the house of Secretary Knox where they were received with great ceremony. They were then taken and introduced to the President, and from thence to Governor Clinton; after which they dined at the city tavern, Knox and a great number
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