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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Colonel Johnson became discouraged at the lack of means and 

 energ}^ offered his resignation, and sent a belt to all the nations 

 that he was no longer their agent. At the council in July they 

 asked that he might be reinstated. Receiving no definite answer, 

 the IMohawks repeated the request the next year. He was quite 

 a trader, and the Albany people were jealous, for it was said that 

 they had then '' no other view^ in life than that of making money." 



All this time Johnson was active among the Indians, and in 

 1766 told of a curious transaction of this year. The French were 

 again scheming for a fort at Onondaga, and he interfered for 

 the public good. Holding a conference with the Onondagas, he 

 asked them to grant him Onondaga lake, with the land for 2 miles 

 around, and he would make them a handsome present. They 

 signed a deed and he paid them £350 before witnesses. The 

 Assembly refused to reimburse him, but granted him the tract, 

 and he took no farther steps. He bequeathed this to his son, 

 but it was a dead loss. 



Both Massachusetts and Pennsylvania tried to have the Mo- 

 hawks settle on their frontier as a means of defense. '' The 

 Bunt" came to Oswego in 1751, bringing an account of the 

 French forts farther west. A large French force had gone to 

 Niagara, and another had crossed from Lake Erie to the Ohio, 

 by way of Chautauqua, meaning to drive the English from that 

 river. He was an influential Onondaga, a great friend of John- 

 son, and did much for the English. 



George Croghan and Andrew Montour held several confer- 

 ences at Logstown, early in 1751, with chiefs of the Six Nations 

 living on the Ohio, on French aggressions there. A Dunkard 

 tried to buy land on a branch of the Ohio, but " the Indians made 

 answer that it was not in their Power to dispose of Lands ; that 

 he must apply to the Council at Onondago." Weiser was sent 

 there in June, but met the Indians at Albany, delivered his mes- 

 sage and returned. 



Governor de la Jonquiere held a council with some Onondagas 

 July II, 1751. They claimed the Ohio lands by conquest, and l| 

 he said no settlements should be made without their consent. 



