1764, July.] TREATY OF PEACE WITH THE SENEGAS. 171 



pity for their sufferings, they were wilHng to treat 

 of peace. To this insolent missive Johnson made 

 no answer ; and, indeed, those who sent it were, at 

 this very time, renewing the bloody work of the 

 preceding year along the borders of Pennsylvania 

 and Virginia. The Senecas, that numerous and 

 warlike people, to whose savage enmity were to be 

 ascribed the massacre at the Devil's Hole, and 

 other disasters of the last summer, had recently 

 made a preliminary treaty with Sir William John- 

 son, and at the same time pledged themselves to 

 appear at Niagara to ratify and complete it. They 

 broke their promise ; and it soon became known 

 that they had leagued themselves with a large band 

 of hostile Delawares, who had visited their country. 

 Upon this, a messenger was sent to them, threaten- 

 ing that, unless they instantly came to Niagara, the 

 English would march upon them and burn their 

 villages. The menace had full effect; and a large 

 body of these formidable warriors appeared at the 

 English camp, bringing fourteen prisoners, besides 

 several deserters and runaway slaves. A peace 

 was concluded, on condition that they should never 

 again attack the English, and that they should cede 

 to the British crown a strip of land, between the 

 Lakes Erie and Ontario, four miles in width, on 

 both sides of the Eiver, or Strait, of Niagara.^ A 

 treaty was next made with a deputation of Wyan- 

 dots from Detroit, on condition of the delivery of 



1 Articles of Peace concluded with the Senecas, at Fort Niagara, July 18, 

 1764, MS. 



