184 BRADSTREET'S ARMY ON THE LAKES. [1764, Sept. 



his language has no words to express them. Most 

 of the western tribes, it is true, had been accus- 

 tomed to call themselves children of the King of 

 France ; but the words were a mere compliment, 

 conveying no sense of any political relation what- 

 ever. Yet it was solely by means of this harmless 

 metaphor that the condition in question could be 

 explained to the assembled chiefs. Thus inter- 

 preted, it met with a ready assent ; since, in their 

 eyes, it involved no concession beyond a mere 

 unmeaning change of forms and words. They 

 promised, in future, to call the English king 

 father, instead of brother ; unconscious of any obli- 

 gation which so trifling a change could impose, and 

 mentally reserving a full right to make war on 

 him or his people, whenever it should suit their 

 convenience. When Bradstreet returned from his 

 expedition, he boasted that he had reduced the 

 tribes of Detroit to terms of more complete submis- 

 sion than any other Indians had ever before yielded; 

 but the truth was soon detected and exposed by 

 those conversant with Indian affairs.^ 



At^his council, Bradstreet was guilty of the bad 

 policy and bad taste of speaking through the 

 medium of a French interpreter ; so that most of 

 his own officers, as well as the Iroquois allies, who 

 were strangers to the Algonquin language, remained 

 in ignorance of all that passed. The latter were 

 highly indignant, and refused to become parties to 

 the treaty, or go through the usual ceremony of 

 shaking hands with the chiefs of Detroit, insisting 



1 MS. J^etter — Johnson to the Board of Trade, Oct. 30. 



