over, St. Vincent changed his note, and told me that if
I could ensure to him his pardon, he would go to Detroit.
I answered him, "that it was not in my power to promise
it." However, as I found that I could not well do without
him, I contrived to make him my friend. Pondiac
said to my chief: "If you have made peace with the
English, we have no business to make war on them.
The war-belts came from you." He afterwards said
to Godefroi: "I will lead the nations to war no more;
let 'em be at peace, if they chuse it: but I myself will never
be a friend to the English. I shall now become a wanderer
in the woods; and if they come to seek me there,
while I have an arrow left, I will shoot at them." This I
imagined he said in despair, and gave it as my opinion,
that he might easily be won to our interest; and it afterwards
proved so. He made a speech to the chiefs, who
wanted to put me to death, which does him honour;
and shews that he was acquainted with the law of nations:
"We must not," said he, "kill ambassadors: do we not
send them to the Flat-heads, our greatest enemies,[1] and
they to us? Yet these are always treated with hospitality."
The following day (29th) the Mohawk, who commanded
the Indians in the provision-boat, stole away, without
taking my letter to General Bradstreet, as he had been
ordered, having, the night before, robbed us of almost
every thing, and sold my rum (two barrels) to the Uttawaws.
The greater part of the warriors got drunk; and
a young Indian drew his knife, and made a stroke at me;
but Godefroi seized his arm, threw him down, and took
the knife from him. He certainly saved my life, for I
————
- ↑ The Northern tribes, especially the Iroquois, termed the Cherokees, Chickasaws, etc., "Têtes plattes" (Flat-heads). The enmity between the Northern and the Southern Indians was traditional.—Ed.
