St. Clair and Wayne 49 



The chief interest of the British was to preserve 

 the fur trade for their merchants, and it was mainly 

 for this reason that they clung so tenaciously to the 

 Lake Posts. For their purposes it was essential that 

 the Indians should remain lords of the soil. They 

 preferred to see the savages at peace with the Amer- 

 icans, provided that in this way they could keep 

 their lands ; but, whether through peace or war, they 

 wished the lands to remain Indian, and the Amer- 

 icans to be barred from them. While they did not 

 at the moment advise war, their advice to make 

 peace was so faintly uttered, and so hedged round 

 with conditions as to be of no weight ; and they fur- 

 nished the Indians not only with provisions but with 

 munitions of war. While McKee, and other Brit- 

 ish officers, were at the Miami Rapids, holding 

 councils with the Indians, and issuing to them goods 

 and weapons, bands of braves were continually re- 

 turning from forays against the American frontier, 

 bringing in scalps and prisoners; and the wilder 

 subjects of the British King, like the Girtys, and 

 some of the French from Detroit, went off with the 

 war parties on their forays. 20 The authorities at 

 the capital of the new Republic were, deceived by 

 the warmth with which the British insisted that 

 they were striving to bring about a peace; but the 

 frontiersmen were not deceived, and they were right 



20 American State Papers, IV, 196. Narrative of Thomas 

 Rhea, July 2, 1791. This narrative was distrusted; but it is 

 fully borne out by McKee's letter, and the narrative of 

 Brickell. He saw Brickell, whom he calls "Brittle," at the 

 Miami. 



VOL. VIII. 3 



