St. Clair and Wayne 117 



feat. 47 The destruction of their crops, homes, and 

 stores of provisions was complete, and they were 

 put to sore shifts to live through the winter. Their 

 few cattle, and many even of their dogs, died; they 

 could not get much food from the British; and as 

 winter wore on they sent envoy after envoy to the 

 Americans, exchanged prisoners, and agreed to 

 make a permanent peace in the spring. They were 

 exasperated with the British, who, they said, had 

 not fulfilled a single promise they had made. 48 



The anger of the Indians against the British was 

 as just as it was general. They had been lured and 

 goaded into war by direct material aid, and by in- 

 direct promises of armed assistance ; and they were 

 abandoned as soon as the fortune of war went 

 against them. Brant, the Iroquois chief, was sorely 

 angered by the action of the British in deserting the 

 Indians whom they had encouraged by such delu- 

 sive hopes; 49 and in his letter to the British 

 officials he reminded them of the fact that but 

 for their interference the Indians would have con- 

 cluded "an equitable and honorable peace in June, 

 1793" thus offering conclusive proof that the 

 American commissioners, in their efforts to make 

 peace with the Indians in that year, had been foiled 

 by the secret machinations of the British agents, as 

 Wayne had always thought. Brant blamed the 



41 Canadian Archives, William Johnson Chew to Joseph 

 Chew, December 7, 1794. 



48 Brickell's Narrative. 



49 Canadian Archives, Joseph Brant to Joseph Chew, Oct. 

 22, 1794; William J. Chew to J. Chew, Oct. 24, 1794. 



