276 



Peter Tenet among the Oneida Indians. 



phy and these chiefly indicate the career of a speculator and 

 an adventurer, of great personal vanity, with a sharp 

 eye for profits, and a conscience unscrupulous in the 

 attainment of his objects. He appears to have won 

 over to his confidence the sachems of the Oneidas, but 

 never received the support of more than a part of the 

 tribe, and from the nature of his pretensions, at once 

 excited the opposition of the state government from the 

 moment that the character and tendency of his opera- 

 tions became known. 



Peter Penet, a merchant of Nantes, France, appears to 

 have first arrived in America, on the 10th of December 

 1775. He landed at Providence, P. I., in a vessel of Capt. 

 Rhodes, who had been sent to the West Indies for powder. 

 Penet and his partner De Plairne, came from Cape Fran- 

 cois, having letters and credentials of character, and pro- 

 posed to undertake to supply arms and munitioDs to the 

 colonies or to congress, through their business connec- 

 tions in France. 



Governor Cooke, of Rhode Island, received them favora- 

 bly, and gave a letter of introduction to General Washing- 

 ton, then at Cambridge. 1 They immediately repaired 

 to head quarters, and were very courteously received by 

 the commander-in-chief, who cautiously referred them 

 to congress, without committing himself to any endorse- 

 ment of their plans. Their reception was however quite 

 flattering, and they were sent at the public expense to 

 confer with congress then in session at Philadelphia. 

 General Washington also gave them letters to Governor 

 Trumbull of Connecticut, requesting that carriages might 

 be provided for forwarding them to their destination. 2 



Governor Trumbull examined their proposals, and 

 added his own approval. 3 They left New Haven on the 



1 American Archives, IV Series, iv, 235. 



2 76. 261,264. 

 3/6. 447. 



