HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROQUOIS 373 



cil was held on Detroit river, at which the western Indians and 

 Six Nations were represented. An address sent to Congress may 

 have been written by Brant, encouraged by Sir John Johnson. 

 At the head of this were the signatures of the Six Nations. The 

 British now strengthened the forts, and the Indians became more 

 hostile to the Americans. 



In January 1788 the Hurons sent the Six Nations word that 

 they had no answer from the United States, and wished them to 

 attend the next general council, as promised. This met in 

 October, when Brant's views were more pacific, as the Mohawks 

 alone might adhere to the British side. In July he had also made 

 a bargain with the " Lessee Company," leasing lands in western 

 New York, and prospective profit cooled his military ardor. 

 This long lease was afterward abrogated by New York as illegal. 



In January 1789 General St Clair made separate treaties with 



some of the western Indians, which destroyed the plan of a great 



confederacy. One took in all the Iroquois but the Mohawks, 



and another, six other nations. In his journal of Feb. 4, 1789, 



David Zeisberger said • 



Brant had for some years secretly labored to extirpate the 

 Delawares, and on this account had urged the Chippewas, Tawas, 

 etc., to begin war with them. This plan, secretly formed, became 

 manifest last summer, and at the same time found its end, for 

 it came to nought. He then worked for this, that the nations 



' should begin war afresh with the States, with the hope that in 

 this the Delawares would be extirpated. 

 He also opposed the Moravian Indians, saying, " it were better 



i they were blotted from the surface of the earth ; they caused only 

 unrest among the other Indians." Afterward he favored them. 

 In 1790 the Senecas aided the western tribes who defeated 



.General Harmar, but these were personal acts. 



t| The Seneca chiefs, Cornplanter, Half Town and Great Tree, 

 were with Washington in Philadelphia in December 1790, stay- 

 ing several weeks. Great Tree may have remembered their 

 unceremonious departure in 1778, when they said at this time: 



; Father: No Seneca ever goes from the fire of his friend, until 

 jhe has said to him, "I am going." We therefore tell you that 

 iiwe are now setting out for our own country. 



