1760-1763.] AMBASSADORS OF PONTIAC. 187 



importance of the message demanded, and the toma- 

 hawk stained red, in token of war, they went from 

 camp to camp, and village to village. Wherever 

 they appeared, the sachems and old men assembled, 

 to hear the words of the great Pontiac. Then the 

 chief of the embassy flung down the tomahawk on 

 the ground before them, and holding the war-belt 

 in his hand, delivered, with vehement gesture, word 

 for word, the speech with which he was charged. 

 It was heard everywhere with approval ; the belt 

 was accepted, the hatchet snatched up, and the 

 assembled chiefs stood pledged to take part in 

 the war. The blow was to be struck at a certain 

 time in the month of May following, to be indicated 

 by the changes of the moon. The tribes were to 

 rise together, each destroying the English garrison 

 in its neighborhood, and then, with a general rush, 

 the whole were to turn against the settlements 

 of the frontier. 



The tribes, thus banded together against the Eng- 

 lish, comprised, with a few unimportant exceptions, 

 the whole Algonquin stock, to whom were united 

 the Wyandots, the Senecas, and several tribes of 

 the lower Mississippi. The Senecas were the only 

 members of the Iroquois confederacy who joined 

 in the league, the rest being kept quiet by the 

 influence of Sir William Johnson, whose utmost 



sies. In ancient times it consisted of small shells, or fragments of shells, 

 rudely perforated, and strung together ; but more recently, it was manu- 

 factured by the white men, from the inner portions of certain marine and 

 fresh water shells. In shape, the grains or beads resembled small pieces of 

 broken pipe-stem, and were of various sizes and colors, black, purple, and 

 white. When used for ornament, they were arranged fancifully in neck- 



