atenon. He found everything hostile. As a Frenchman he
was welcome, but was plainly told that nothing could be done without the
consent of the Miamis; that it was useless to ask them (the Indians) to
restrain their young men, for they were "being constantly encouraged by
the British." One of the chiefs said: "Know ye that the village of
Ouiatenon is the sepulcher of all our ancestors. The chief of America
invites us to go to him, if we are at peace. He has not his leg broke,
having been able to go as far as the Illinois. He might come here
himself; and we should be glad to see him at our village. We confess
that we accepted the axe, but it is by the reproach we continually
receive from the English and other nations, which received the axe
first, calling us women; at the present time they invite our young men
to war."

On the eighteenth of April, Gamelin arrived at Kenapacomaqua or
L'Anguille. The head chief was absent, and the tribesmen would give no
answer. However, they sent some of their men along to hear what the
Miamis at Kekionga would say. On the twenty-third of April, Gamelin
arrived at the head of the Maumee. The next day he got the Miamis, the
Shawnees and a few Delawares in council. He presented each tribe with
two branches of wampum, and began his friendly speeches before the
French and English traders who had been invited to be present. After his
speeches were delivered he displayed the treaty of Fort Harmar. This
greatly displeased them.

Nothing can better display the treachery of the Miamis on this occasion
than the statements of the principal chieftain, LeGris, made to Gamelin
in a private conversation. After telling the Frenchman not to pay any
attention to the Shawnees, as they were the "perturbators of all the
nations," he said that he knew that the Miamis had a bad name on account
of mischief done on the Ohio, but that this mischief was not occasioned
by his young men, but by the Shawnees; that his young men had only gone
out to hunt. This glaring falsehood was told in the face of the fact
that the Little Turtle himself had been out on the warpath only the
winter before, returning with captives and plunder.

On the twenty-fifth of April, Gamelin held a conference with the famous
Shawnee chief, Blue Jacket. The chief was implacable. He informed
Gamelin that no answer could be given to the American peace messenger
without hearing from the British at Detroit. That the Shawnees had
determined to give