HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROQUOIS 33 1 



Indian affairs, who was there, sent to Castesh, (Guastarax) chief 

 of the Senecas, to inform him of this. He came and desired 

 liquor-selling stopped for the time being, which was done. He 

 said the Senecas would hold to the English, but there were bad 

 belts everywhere, and he could not answer for all. His party 

 then went off and became drunk, returning in a few days. 



Aug. 24 Mac Clod was informed of bad belts passing and sent 

 to two Seneca chiefs to know about them. They said the belts 

 had not stopped at their village, but had gone to the Oneidas 

 and might return. There were two, but they seemed harmless. 

 They had been seen at Totieronno at the head of Cayuga lake. 

 The old women of the Senecas had stopped their young men 

 from going to war. Castesh was an old rogue and had the bad 

 belt when he was at the Niagara council. It was very large. 



Before he returned in October Johnson spent three weeks at 

 Oneida lake. There he met the Indians at Tuscarora creek, who 

 " were greatly affected at the death of a remarkable chief of the 

 Onondagas," and he " was obliged to perform all the ceremony 

 on that occasion.". 



The Cherokee deputies arrived at the end of 1767 and met 

 760 Iroquois at Johnson Hall Mar. 3, 1768. All the latter were 

 very discontented and had nearly turned back on account of some 

 cruel murders in Pennsylvania. A white man there had six 

 Indians in his house, who became drunk and troublesome, and he 

 killed them all. The next day he and his servant went to a cabin 

 14 miles away, killed four more and burned them and the house. 

 Being arrested, he was set free from jail by the riotous inhabi- 

 tants. The Assembly voted money to appease the Indians, but 

 Johnson at first had small hopes of doing this. 



The Cherokees went through the usual condolence and buried 

 the hatchet, but did not take it out of the heads of the English. 

 Johnson reproved them for this, and they apologized and repaired 

 the omission next day. Mar. 5 the Six Nations were long in 

 assembling; and because of this the Cherokees refused "to 

 open their embassy from a superstitious notion that, as it was 

 noon, the day was too far advanced for a work of peace, according 



