at Fort Pitt, and sent a message to the President, complaining of the murder of these alleged friendly Indians. [Footnote:  American State Papers, iv., 145, Cornplanter and others to the President, March 17, 1791.] On the very day these Seneca chiefs started on their journey home another Delaware war party killed nine settlers, men, women, and children, within twenty miles of Fort Pitt; which so enraged the people of the neighborhood that the lives of the Senecas were jeopardized.  The United States authorities were particularly anxious to keep at peace with the Six Nations, and made repeated efforts to treat with them; but the Six Nations stood sullenly aloof, afraid to enter openly into the struggle, and yet reluctant to make a firm peace or cede any of their lands. [Footnote:  State Department MSS., Washington Papers, Knox to the President, April 10, 1791; American State Papers, iv., pp. 139-170, 225-233, 477-482, etc.]

    Intimate Relations of the British and Indians.

The intimate relations between the Indians and the British at the Lake Posts continued to perplex and anger the Americans.  While the frontiers were being mercilessly ravaged, the same Indians who were committing the ravages met in council with the British agent, Alexander McKee, at the Miami Rapids; the council being held in this neighborhood for the special benefit of the very towns which were most hostile to the Americans, and which had been partially destroyed by Harmar the preceding fall.  The Indian war was at its height, and the murderous forays never ceased throughout the spring and summer.  McKee came to Miami in April, and was forced to wait nearly three months, because of the absence of the Indian war parties, before the principal chiefs and headmen gathered to meet him.  At last, on July 1st, they were all assembled; not only the Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, Pottawatamies and others who had openly taken the hatchet against the Americans, but also representatives of the Six Nations, and tribes of savages from lands so remote that they carried no guns, but warred with bows, spears, and tomahawks, and were clad in buffalo-robes instead of blankets.  McKee in his speech to them did not incite them to war.  On the contrary, he advised them, in guarded language, to make peace with the United States; but only upon terms consistent with their “honor and interest.”  He assured them that, whatever they did, he wished to know what they desired; and that the sole purpose of the British was to promote the welfare of the confederated Indians.  Such very cautious advice was not of a kind to promote peace; and the goods furnished the savages at the council included not only cattle, corn, and tobacco, but also quantities of powder and balls. [Footnote:  Canadian Archives, McKee’s speech to the Indians, July 1, 1971; and Francis Lafontaine’s account of sundries to Indians.]

    The Fur Trade the Prime Object of the British.