HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROQUOIS 327 



cheeks, not disgusted at all with the remains of the paint and 

 grease with which they had lately been besmeared. He gave 

 me many blessings while he held me by the hand, 



Kirkland had a formal reception by the Senecas and was 

 adopted by the head chief. While among them, he visited 

 Niagara. In some places they treated him " with no more 

 respect than they would shew to a dog." 



Johnson had a council with 900 Delawares, Iroquois etc. in 

 April 1765. The Delawares leveled the graves of the English 

 slain, gathering up the scattered bones, burying them under a 

 large pine tree and covering them with a great rock. Johnson 

 replied to them May 2. They had gone through the ceremony 

 of condolence and taken the ax out of the head of the English, 

 but they were women, and he never before knew that women car- 

 ried an ax; their business being to pound corn. He talked 

 severely to them, but afterward made an amicable arrangement; 

 then for the first time he took them by the hand, and the Six 

 Nations also shook hands with them. At this time partial 

 arrangements were made for a definite boundary line. 



Pontiac was still busy; but Johnson thought an interview 

 would set matters right and held a council in July with the Ohio 

 Indians, who signed a peace treaty. The Shawnees also gave up 

 four prisoners who had been adopted into families, a thing very 

 unusual, and would do so with the rest. That summer Col. 

 George Croghan set out for the Illinois. As he was descending 

 the Ohio June 8, some Kickapoos and Maskoutins captured his 

 party, taking him to a village on the Wabash, where he was 

 released with apologies and escorted thence to the Illinois. Near 

 there he met Pontiac, who agreed to yield the French posts, 

 [reserving the land, and to go with him to Detroit, where Croghan 

 held a council with the western Indians and dissolved their 

 'league with the French. Pontiac and the other chiefs agreed to 

 |visit Johnson the following year. In these councils all things 

 |ivere confirmed by pipes and belts. That year Illinois was in 

 j.he possession of the English, and they had a garrison in Fort 

 iChartres. 



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