1766.] PONTIAC AT OSWEGO. 301 



The chiefs passed the portage, and, 'once more 

 embarking, pushed out upon Lake Ontario. Soon 

 their goal was reached, and the cannon boomed 

 hollow salutation from the batteries of Oswego. 



Here they found Sir William Johnson waiting to 

 receive them, attended by the chief sachems of the 

 Iroquois, whom he had invited to the spot, that 

 their presence might give additional weight and 

 solemnity to the meeting. As there was no build- 

 ins: laro^e enon^h to receive so numerous a con- 

 course, a canopy of green boughs was erected to 

 shade the assembly from the sun ; and thither, on 

 the twenty-third of July, repaired the chiefs and 

 warriors of the several nations. Here stood the 

 tall figure of Sir William Johnson, surrounded by 

 civil and military officers, clerks, and interpreters ; 

 while before him reclined the painted sachems of 

 the Iroquois, and the great Ottawa war-chief, with 

 his dejected followers. 



Johnson opened the meeting with the usual for- 

 maHties, presenting his auditors with a belt of wam- 

 pum to wipe the tears from their eyes, with another 

 to cover the bones of their relatives, another to open 

 their ears that they might hear, and another to 

 clear their throats that they might speak with ease. 

 Then, amid solemn silence, Pontiac's great peace- 

 pipe was lighted and passed round the assembly, 

 each man present inhaling a whiff of the sacred 

 smoke. These tedious forms, together with a few 

 speeches of compliment, consumed the whole 

 morning ; for this savage people, on whose sup- 

 posed simplicity poets and rhetoricians have lav- 



