nto the
conversation, he was soon the centre of attraction.

Though Captain Brant was able to pass his later years in
comparative ease, his life was marred by the occurrence
of two untoward events. His eldest son, Isaac, was a
reprobate over whom the father exercised little influence.
Isaac had been guilty of acts of violence and had begun
to threaten Joseph Brant himself. He was jealous of the
numerous children of Catherine Brant and took occasion
to offer her various insults. In 1795 both father and
son were at Burlington Heights, at a time when the Indians
were receiving supplies from the provincial government.
Isaac, crazed with liquor, tried to assault his father
in one of the lower rooms of an inn, but he was held in
check by several of his youthful companions.

Captain Brant drew a dirk which he usually carried with
him, and in the excitement of the moment inflicted a
slight wound on Isaac's hand. The cut was not serious,
but Isaac would not allow it to be properly treated, and
subsequently died from an attack of brain fever. The War
Chief was sorely grieved at the result of his hasty
action, and fretted about it until the end of his days.
He is said to have hung the dirk up in his room and to
have often wept as he gazed upon it. The other source of
trouble to Brant was the revolt against his rule of a
small minority among the tribes. This movement was led
by Brant's old adversary, Red Jacket, and another chief,
the Farmer's Brother. A council was held by the dissenters
at Buffalo Creek in 1803, and Joseph Brant was formally
deposed as head of the confederacy of the Six Nations.
But as this meeting had not been legally convoked, its
decisions were of no validity among the Nations. The
following year, at another council, legitimately assembled,
the tribesmen openly declared their confidence in the
War Chief's rule.

Because of Brant's many services to the crown, the British
government gave him a fine stretch of land on the north-west
shore of Lake Ontario, near the entrance to Burlington
Bay. On his estate, known as Wellington Square, he erected
a large two-storey house, in which he might spend the
remaining years of his life. A number of black slaves
whom he had captured in the war were his servants and
gave him every attention. Brant is said to have subjected
these negroes to a rigid discipline and to have been more
or less of a taskmaster in his treatment of them. In his
declining years he was wont t