1764, Nov.] REPLY OF BOUQUET. 227 



In this strain, the orator of each tribe, in turn, 

 expressed the purpose of his people to lay down 

 their arms, and live for the future in friendship 

 with the English. Every deputation received a 

 separate audience, and the successive conferences 

 were thus extended through several days. To 

 each and all. Bouquet made a similar reply, in 

 words to the following effect : — 



" By your full compliance with the conditions 

 which I imposed, you have satisfied me of your 

 sincerity, and I now receive you once more as 

 brethren. The King, my master, has commissioned 

 me, not to make treaties for him, but to fight his 

 battles ; and though I now ofi'er you peace, it is 

 not in my pow' er to settle its precise terms and con- 

 ditions. For this, I refer you to Sir William 

 Johnson, his Majesty's agent and superintendent 



An Indian orator is provided with a stock of metaphors, which he 

 always makes use of for the expression of certain ideas. Thus, to make 

 war is to raise the hatchet ; to make peace is to take hold of the chain of 

 friendship ; to deliberate is to kindle the council-fire ; to cover the bones 

 of the dead is to make reparation and gain forgiveness for the act of kill- 

 ing them. A state of war and disaster is typified by a black cloud ; a 

 state of peace, by bright sunshine, or by an open path between the two 

 nations. 



The orator seldom speaks without careful premeditation of what he is 

 about to say ; and his memory is refreshed by the belts of wampum, 

 which he delivers after every clause in his harangue, as a pledge of the 

 sincerity and truth of his words. These belts are carefully preserved by 

 the hearers, as a substitute for written records ; a use for which they are 

 'the better adapted, as they are often worked with hieroglyphics express- 

 ing the meaning they are designed to preserve. Thus, at a treaty of 

 peace, the principal belt often bears the figures of an Indian and a white 

 man holding a chain between them. 



For the nature and uses of wampum, see note, ante, p. 186, note. 



Though a good memory is an essential qualification of an Indian ora- 

 tor, it would be unjust not to observe that striking outbursts of spon- 

 taneous eloquence have sometimes proceeded from their lips. 



