102 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1756. 



power to the crown.-^ A council was also held with 

 the Iroquois, and though they were found but luke- 

 warm in their attachment to the English, a treaty 

 of friendship and alliance was concluded with their 

 deputies.^ It would have been well if the matter 

 had ended here ; but, with ill-timed rapacity, the 

 proprietary agents of Pennsylvania took advantage 

 of this great assemblage of sachems to procure 

 from them the grant of extensive tracts, including 

 the lands inhabited by the very tribes whom the 

 French were at that moment striving to seduce.^ 

 AVhen they heard that, without their consent, their 

 conquerors and tyrants, the Iroquois, had sold the 

 soil from beneath their feet, their indignation was 

 extreme ; and, convinced that there was no limit to 

 English encroachment, many of them from that 

 hour became fast allies of the French. 



The courts of London and Versailles still main- 

 tained a diplomatic intercourse, both protesting 

 their earnest wish that their conflicting claims might 

 be adjusted by friendly negotiation ; but while each 

 disclaimed the intention of hostility, both were 

 hastening to prepare for war. Early in 1755, an 

 English fleet sailed from Cork, having on board 

 two regiments destined for Virginia, and commanded 

 by General Braddock ; and soon after, a French 



1 Trumbull, Hkt. Conn. II. 355. Holmes, Annals, II. 201. 



2 At this council an Iroquois sachem upbraided tlie English, with great 

 boldness, for their neglect of the Indians, their invasion of their lands, and 

 their dilatory conduct with regard to the French, who, as the speaker 

 averred, had behaved like men and warriors. — Minutes of Conferences at 

 Albany, 1754. 



^ Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawanoe Indians from the 

 British Interest, 77. 



