the associations of the Muskingum Mission. It is interesting to observe, that the fourth article of the treaty secures in perpetuity to the Society of United Brethren, free from any condition or limitation whatever, "ten acres of ground, including the church called Beersheba, and the grave yard on the Gnadenhutten tract; also the church lot, parsonage house and grave yard in the town of Gnadenhutten,

and also the missionary house and grave yard at Goshen." These still constitute links between the period, when the message of the cross was announced in the depth of a wilderness and amid the horrors of border warfare, and the passing era of material development and spiritual privileges:12

12) See Appendix No. X, for this final negotiation with the remnant of the Moravian congregation.

CHAPTER XXIV.

EMBASSIES AND NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE OHIO TRIBES

THE student of diplomacy, either as an art or in its relation to the events of history, will find no more suggestive field of inquiry, than is presented by the negotiations of the Indian tribes of North America. At the council fire, the loftiest qualities of their character have been conspicuous— self-control, courtesy, dignity, eloquence, and that instinctive sagacity, which is the first requisite of statesmanship. Of this, Jefferson seemed conscious, when he triumphantly rested his defence of the native race of the American continent, against Buffon's imputation of inferiority, upon the terse and touching speech of the desolate Cayuga warrior, Logan.

The present chapter will relate to the negotiations with the Ohio Indians, between 1768 and the Territorial epoch.

The American Revolution interrupted the dreams of power and wealth, in which the leading spirits of the Middle Colonies had indulged at the consummation of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, on the 24th of October, 1768. Sir William Johnson, who conducted that negotiation, hoped to found a colony south of the Ohio; the envoys of Pennsylvania exulted at the extinction of the Indian title between the Alleghanies and the Ohio River, as far north as Kittaning; while Virginia was no less gratified by a still more westward extension of

1) The northwest corner of Cambria county, Pennsylvania.

her territorial occupation. Land speculation was the mania of that age, and the disbanded soldiery of the long wars with France, desired the widest possible range of selection in the location of their bounties.

The conference of Fort Stanwix only transferred the claim of the Six Nations of New York. The Delawares, who were seated upon the Upper Ohio, and the Shawanese, who had formerly occupied Kentucky, and now shared its range as a hunting ground with the Cherokees and other Southern Indians, were no parties to the treaty. As has been shown, a prominent cause of the hostilities, which were terminated by Dunmore's expedition of 1774, was the dissatisfaction of the Shawanese with the settlement of Kentucky. The Delawares were more willing to transfer their villages to the west bank of the Ohio, for their name implies former removals westward, and experience had convinced them of the futility of any other than a passive policy.

There is but little doubt, that a condition of the treaty between the Shawanese of the Scioto and Lord Dunmore, besides the surrender of prisoners and plunder, made the Ohio River the boundary between themselves and the whites. But this agreement to abandon the lands south of the Ohio, did not probably include the Shawanese warriors and hunters of the Miami villages; and it was only after many bloody campaigns, that the whole tribe acquiesced in a partition, which was more a trophy of conquest by the bold Kentuckians, than a treaty stipulation on the part of the Indians.

When Lord Dunmore concluded the treaty of Camp Charlotte, he required the delivery of four hostages by the Shawanese, and also detained twelve Mingo prisoners. The latter were still imprisoned on the 9th of February, 1775, as, on that date, Dr. John Connolly wrote to Col. George Washing

ton, asking what should be done with them.2 The Shawanese hostages seem to have been released in the summer, and would have been previously, if their tribe had more promptly surrendered the white captives which they held. A Williamsburg publication of Feb. 10, 1775, mentions that a few days before, Cornstalk, the chief of the Scioto Shawanese, arrived at the mouth of the Great Kenawha, where a Capt. Russell was then in command, and delivered to him "several of the old white prisoners, and a number of horses."

On the 12th of July, 1775, Congress organized an administration of Indian Affairs. Almost simultaneously, an envoy of Virginia, Capt. James Wood, afterwards Governor of that State, was traversing Ohio, having been deputized by the General Assembly of Virginia to invite the Indian tribes to a council at Fort Pitt, on the 10th of September. While thus employed, he ascertained that the British commandant at Detroit, and one Mons. Baubee, a Canadian Frenchman, had distributed belts and wampum among seventeen Western tribes, with a message, that the Virginians were about to invade their country and attack them from two directions-by the Ohio and by the Lakes. Hamilton's only object in making such a statement, was to provoke a border war.

Capt. Wood, on the 22d and 23d of July, had a satisfactory interview with Newcomer,3 and other Delaware chiefs, at Coshocton; and on the 25th, arrived at a "Seneca Town," where he found Logan, with some of the Mingoes who had been prisoners at Fort Pitt. They appeared very desirous to know his errand. He called them together, and made the

2) American Archives, fourth series, vol. i., p. 1222.

3) Netawatwes. The details of Wood's journey are compiled from American Archives, fourth series, vol. iii., p. 76—an account dated August 15, 1775-without change in the names of persons and places.

same speech to them as to the Delawares; but their only answer was, that they would acquaint the rest of the tribe with what he had said. These Indians, Wood remarks, appeared very angry, and behaved with great insolence.

On the 27th of July, Capt. Wood had a hearing at the Wyandot Town. A chief, War Post, postponed a reply until the next day, when they would meet him in the Council House. Meanwhile, War Post and six others came privately to the Virginian, "to talk with him as friends," they said. They had always understood the English had but one king, who lived over the Great River; they were much surprised lately to hear that there was a war, and several engagements at Boston, where a great many men were killed on both sides; and as they had heard many different stories, they would be glad to know the truth. Capt. Wood then explained to them the nature of the dispute, and the general union of the colonies removing an error into which the Wyandots had been led, that the Virginians were a distinct people from the other colonies. On the following day, War Post replied publicly, that they had fully considered the message, and thought it good, but they would be ruled in the matter by their chiefs beyond Lake Erie.

Wood reached the Shawanese towns on the 31st. Here he found much excitement from the alarming reports brought by one Chennsan, or the Judge, who had just escaped from Williamsburg, where he had been detained as a hostage. He said that all the people of Virginia, except the Governor, were determined on war with the Indians; that he had barely escaped with his life, but there was no doubt that his fellowhostages, Cuttenwa and Newa, were killed. Capt. Wood was soon confronted with the fugitive, denied his whole story, and assured the Shawanese present that Cuttenwa and Newa