St. Clair and Wayne 79 



they found they could do nothing. Brant and the 

 Iroquois urged the Northwestern tribes not to yield 

 any point, and promised them help, telling the Brit- 

 ish agent, McKee, evidently to his satisfaction, "we 

 came here not only to assist with our advice, but 

 other ways, . . . we came here with arms in our 

 hands" ; and they insisted that the country belonged 

 to the confederated tribes in common, and so could 

 not be surrendered save by all. 4 Brant was the 

 inveterate foe of the Americans and the pensioner 

 of the British; and his advice to the tribes was 

 sound, and was adopted by them though he mis- 

 led them by his never-fulfilled promise of support. 

 They refused to consider any proposition which 

 did not acknowledge the Ohio as the boundary be- 

 tween them and the United States; and so, toward 

 the end of August, the commissioners returned to 

 report their failure. 5 The final solution of the prob- 

 lem was thus left to the sword of Wayne. 



The attitude of the British gradually changed 

 from passive to active hostility. In 1792 and 1793 

 they still wished the Indians to make peace with the 

 Americans, provided always there were no such con- 

 cessions made to the latter as would endanger the 

 British control of the fur trade. But by the begin- 

 ning of 1794 the relations between Great Britain 

 and the United States had become so strained that 

 open war was threatened; for the advisers of the 

 King, relying on the weakness of the young Fed- 



* Draper MSS., Brant to McKee, Aug. 4, 1793. 

 5 American State Papers, IV, 340-360. 



