INDIAN PEACE. 215 
soon induced the Indians to sue for a peace. 
Commissioners were deputed by the govern¬ 
ment of the United States to meet their chiefs ; 
the preliminaries were soon arranged, and a 
treaty was concluded, by which the Indians re¬ 
linquished a very considerable part of their 
territory, bordering upon that of the United 
States. 
The last and principal ceremony observed 
by the Indians in concluding a peace, is that 
of burying the hatchet. When this ceremony 
came to be performed, one of the chiefs arose, 
and lamenting that the last peace concluded 
between them and the people of the States 
had remained unbroken for so short a time, 
and expressing his desire that this one should 
be more lasting, he proposed the tearing up of 
a large oak that grew before them, and the 
burying of the hatchet under it, where it would 
for ever remain at rest. Another chief said, 
that trees were liable to be levelled by the 
storms; that at any rate they wopld decay; 
and that as they were desirous that a perpe¬ 
tual peace should be established between them 
and their late enemies, he conceived it would be 
better to bury the hatchet under the tall moun¬ 
tain which arose behind the wood. A third 
chief in turn addressed the assembly: “ As 
“ for me,” said he, “ I am but, a man, and I 
have not the strength of the great spirit to 
