The Indian Wars, 1784-1787 125 



rendered a few white prisoners; and among the 

 Delawares and Wyandots there was also a strong 

 friendly party; but in all three tribes the turbulent 

 element was never under real control, and it grad 

 ually got the upper hand. Meanwhile the Geor 

 gians and Creeks in the South were having expe 

 riences of precisely the same kind treaties fraud 

 ulently procured by the whites, or fraudulently 

 entered into and violated by the Indians; encroach 

 ments by white settlers on Indian lands, and bloody 

 Indian forays among the peaceful settlements. 21 



The more far-sighted and resolute among all 

 the Indians, Northern and Southern, began to strive 

 for a general union against the Americans. 22 In 

 1786 the Northwestern Indians almost formed such 

 a union. Two thousand warriors gathered at the 

 Shawnee towns and agreed to take up the hatchet 

 against the Americans; British agents were present 

 at the council ; and even before the council was held, 

 war parties were bringing into the Shawnee towns 

 the scalps of American settlers, and prisoners, both 

 men and women, who were burned at the stake. 23 

 But the jealousy and irresolution of the tribes pre 

 vented the actual formation of a league. 



The Federal Government still feebly hoped for 

 peace; and in the vain endeavors to avoid irritating 

 the Indians forbade all hostile expeditions into the 



S1 Do., No. 73, pp. 7, 343. Gazette of the State of Georgia, 

 Aug. 5, 1784. May 25, June i, Nov. 2, Nov. 30, 1786. 



* Do., No. 20, pp. 321 and 459; No. 18, p. 140; No. 12, Vol. 

 II, June 30, 1786. 



93 Do., No. 60, p. 277, Sept. 13, 1786. 



