] 737-1742.] THE WALKING PURCHASE. 85 



ans/ The land thus obtained lay in the Forks of 

 the Delaware, above Easton, and was then occupied 

 by a powerful branch of the Delawares, who, to 

 their amazement, now heard the summons to quit 

 for ever their populous village and fields of half- 

 grown maize. In rage and distress they refused 

 to obey, and the proprietors were in a perplexing 

 dilemma. Force was necessary ; but a Quaker 

 legislature would never consent to fight, and espe- 

 cially to fight against Indians. An expedient was 

 hit upon, at once safe and effectual. The Iro- 

 quois were sent for. A deputation of their chiefs 

 appeared at Philadelphia, and having been well 

 bribed, and deceived by false accounts of the 

 transaction, they consented to remove the refrac- 

 tory Delawares. The delinquents were summoned 

 before their conquerors, and the Iroquois orator, 

 Canassatego, a man of tall stature and imposing 

 presence,^ looking with a grim countenance on his 

 cowering auditors, addressed them in the follow- 

 ing words : — 



'' You ought to be taken by the hair of the head 

 and shaken soundly till you recover your senses. 

 You don't know what you are doing. Our brother 



1 Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawnoe Indians from the 

 British Interest, 33, 68, (Lond. 1759). This work is a pamphlet written by 

 Charles Thompson, afterwards secretary of Congress, and designed to 

 explain the causes of the rupture which took place at the outbreak of the 

 French war. The text is supported by copious references to treaties and 

 documents. I have seen a copy in the possession of Francis Fisher, Esq., 

 of Philadelphia, containing marginal notes in the handwriting of James 

 Hamilton, who was twice governor of the province under the proprietary 

 instructions. In these notes, though he cavils at several unimportant 

 points of the relation, he suffers the essential matter to pass unchallenged. 



2 Wifham Marshe's Journal, 



