play the dupe. In November and December, 1786, he was back
in America, and a great council of the northwestern tribes was convened
at the Huron village, near the mouth of the Detroit river. Present were
the Five Nations, the Hurons or Wyandots, the Delawares, Shawnees,
Ottawas, Potawatomi, Miamis, and some scattering bands of the Cherokees.
A letter was here formulated and addressed to the congress of the United
States, which at once marks Joseph Brant and the British agents back of
him as the originators of the idea that all the Indian lands were held
in common by all the tribes, and that no single tribe had the right to
alienate. In answer to the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Fort McIntosh,
they alleged that congress had hitherto managed everything in their own
way, and had kindled council fires where they thought proper; that they
had insisted on holding separate treaties with distinct tribes, and had
entirely neglected the Indian plan of a general conference. They held it
to be "indispensably necessary" that any cession of Indian lands should
be made in the most public manner, "and by the united voice of the
confederacy;" all partial treaties were void and of no effect. They
urged a full meeting and treaty with all the tribes; warned the United
States to keep their surveyors and other people from crossing the Ohio,
and closed with these words: "Brothers: It shall not be our fault if the
plans which we have suggested to you should not be carried into
execution. In that case the event will be very precarious, and if
farther ruptures ensue, we hope to be able to exculpate ourselves and
shall most assuredly, with our united force, be obliged to defend those
rights and privileges which have been transmitted to us by our
ancestors; and if we should be thereby reduced to misfortune, the world
will pity us when they think of the amicable proposals which we now make
to prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood. These are our thoughts
and firm resolves, and we earnestly desire that you transmit to us, as
soon as possible, your answer, be it what it may."

Brant's whole scheme of a confederacy among savage tribes was, of
course, wild and chimerical. The same savage hate and jealousy which was
now directed toward the Americans, would, at the first favorable moment,
break out in fiery strifes and dissensions in the Indian camp, and
consume any alliance that might be formed. To imagine that the Miami and
the Cherokee, the Shawnee a