ot assist at this treaty, though
some steps had been taken towards an alliance with that people. The
conferences were managed by the governors of Pennsylvania and new
Jersey, accompanied by sir William Johnston's deputy for Indian
affairs, four members of the council of Pennsylvania, six members of the
assembly, two agents for the province of New Jersey, a great number of
planters and citizens of Philadelphia, chiefly Quakers. They were met by
the deputies and chiefs of the Mohawks, Oneidoes, Onondagoes, Cayugas,
Senecas, Tuscaroras, Nanticoques, and Conoys; the Tuteloes, Chugnues,
Delawares, and Unamies; the Minisinks, Mohicans, and Wappingers; the
whole number, including their women and children, amounting to five
hundred. Some of the Six Nations, thinking themselves aggrieved by
the British colonists, who had imprisoned certain individuals of their
nation, and had killed a few, and treated others with contempt, did not
fail to express their resentment, which had been artfully fomented by
the French emissaries, even into an open rapture. The Delewares and
Minisinks, in particular, complained that the English had encroached
upon their lands, and on that account were provoked to hostilities:
but their chief, Teedyuscung, had made overtures of peace; and in
the character of ambassador from all the Ten Nations, had been very
instrumental in forming this assembly. The chiefs of the Six Nations,
though very well disposed to peace, took umbrage at the importance
assumed by one of the Delawares, over whom, as their descendants, they
exercise a kind of parental authority; and on this occasion they made
no scruple to disclose their dissatisfaction. The business, therefore, of
the English governors at this congress, was to ascertain the limits of
the lands in dispute, reconcile the Six Nations with their nephews the
Delawares, remove every cause of misunderstanding between the English
and the Indians, detach these savages entirely from the French interest,
establish a firm peace, and induce them to exert their influence in
persuading the Twightwees to accede to this treaty. Those Indians,
though possessed of few ideas, circumscribed in their mental faculties,
stupid, brutal, and ferocious, conducting themselves nevertheless, in
matters of importance to the community, by the general maxims of reason
and justice; and their treaties are always founded upon good sense,
conveyed in a very ridiculous manner. Their language is guttural,