322 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



small weight. Some complained that Johnson gave them too 

 little powder. He said : 



The Indians are remarkably the very worst managers of pow- 

 der on every occasion, and whilst they have any ammunition 

 are continually discharging their pieces at every little object, 

 be their necessities ever so great. Every hunter consumes about 

 8 lbs. of powder, and 20 lbs. of lead at his two hunting seasons 

 in the year, and without that quantity a good hunter seldom 

 chooses to go out. 



The council met Sep. 14, with 326 Iroquois present, and that 

 day 246 more came from the Susquehanna as low as Owego, to 

 say they would remain friends. Some Senecas also came from 

 the friendly towns east of Geneseo. They wished to be recon- 

 ciled to the English, not having struck the Virginia people. It 

 was more likely the Shawnees. Messengers had not returned 

 from the two towns near the Genesee river. The Caughnawagas 

 sent a belt to the Senecas, saying that, if they forgot the old 

 covenant, they and the Canada Indians would quarrel with them. 

 The friendly Ottawas near Michilimackinac restored some Eng- 

 lish prisoners. 



Teyawarunte, the Onondaga speaker, took the large covenant 

 belt of 1754, repeated the old engagements made thereon, and on 

 behalf of 18 nations brightened and renewed them. After the 

 Canadian conquest Johnson had buried the hatchet under a large 

 pine tree, in a stream of water, that it might no more be found. 

 He now gave them a good English ax to cut off all bad links 

 from the covenant chain. 



Sep. 25 he had an express, reporting the tragedy at the Devil's 

 Hole, Niagara, where the Senecas destroyed one party and 

 defeated two companies sent to its relief. The surprise was com- 

 plete, five officers and 60 privates being killed. Many were 

 thrown over the precipice. 



In October Johnson thus set forth the Iroquois land claims to 

 the Lords of Trade: 



As Original proprietors, this Confederacy claim the Country of 

 their residence, south of Lake Ontario to the great Ridge of the 

 Blew Mountains, with all the Western part of the province of 



