24 The Winning of the West 



excited, passed one another black, red or bloody, and 

 tomahawk belts, as tokens of the vengeance to be 

 taken on their white foes. One Delaware chief still 

 held out for neutrality, announcing that if he had 

 to side with either set of combatants it would be 

 with the "buckskins," or backwoodsmen, and not 

 with the red-coats ; but the bulk of the warriors sym- 

 pathized with the Half King of the Wyandots when 

 he said that the Long Knives had for years inter- 

 fered with the Indians' hunting, and that now at 

 last it was the Indians' turn to threaten revenge. 3 

 Hamilton was for the next two years the main- 

 spring of Indian hostility to the Americans in the 

 Northwest. From the beginning he had been anx- 

 ious to employ the savages against the settlers, and 

 when the home government bade him hire them he 

 soon proved himself very expert, as well as very 

 ruthless, in their use. 4 He rapidly acquired the ven- 

 omous hatred of the backwoodsmen, who held 

 him in peculiar abhorrence, and nicknamed him the 

 "hair-buyer" general, asserting that he put a price 

 on the scalps of the Americans. This allegation 

 may have been untrue as affecting Hamilton per- 



3 "Am. Archives," ist Series, Vol. II, p. 517. There were 

 several councils held at Detroit during this fall, and it is diffi- 

 cultand not very important to separate the incidents that 

 occurred at each. Some took place before Hamilton arrived, 

 which, according to his "brief account," was November gth. 

 He asserts that he did not send out war parties until the fol- 

 lowing June; but the testimony seems conclusive that he 

 was active in instigating hostility from the time of his 

 arrival. 



4 Haldimand MSS. Germaine to Carleton, March 26, 1777. 



