176 BRADSTREKT'S ARMY OX THE LAKES. [17(;4, Aco. 



from him, in consequence, a reproof so harsh and ill 

 judged, that most of them went home in distrust ; 

 and Henry found his Indian hattalion suddenly 

 dwindled to four or five vagabond hunters.^ A 

 large number of Iroquois still followed the army, 

 the strength of which, farther increased by a re-en- 

 forcement of Highlanders, wns now very consid- 

 erable. 



The troops k'ft Fort Schlosser on the eighth. 

 Their boats and bateaux pushed out into the Niag- 

 ara, whose expanded waters reposed in a serenity 

 soon to be exchanged for the wild roar and tumult- 

 uous struggle of the rapids and the cataract. They 

 coasted along the southern shore of Lake Erie 

 until the twelfth, when, in the neighborhood of 

 Pres(pr Isle, they were overtaken l)y a storm of rain, 

 which forced tliem to drag their boats on shore, 

 and pitch tluir tents in the dripping forest. Before 

 the day closed, word was brought that strange 

 Indians were near the camp. They soon made 

 their appearance, proclaiming themselves to be 

 chiefs and deputies of the Delawares and Shaw- 

 anoes, empowered to beg for peace in the name of 

 their respective tribes. Various opinions were 

 entertained of the visitors. The Indian allies 

 wished to kill them, and many of the officers be- 

 lieved them to be spies. There was no proof of 

 their pretended character of deputies ; and, for all 

 that appeared to the contrary, they might be a 

 mere straggling party of warriors. Their profes- 

 sions of an earnest desire for ])eace were contra- 



1 Henry, Travels, 183. 



