While Winslow pursued his preparations, tried to settle disputes of rank among the colonels of the several colonies, and strove to bring order out of the little chaos of his command, Sir William Johnson was engaged in a work for which he was admirably fitted.  This was the attaching of the Five Nations to the English interest.  Along with his patent of baronetcy, which reached him about this time, he received, direct from the Crown, the commission of “Colonel, Agent, and Sole Superintendent of the Six Nations and other Northern Tribes."[399] Henceforth he was independent of governors and generals, and responsible to the Court alone.  His task was a difficult one.  The Five Nations would fain have remained neutral, and let the European rivals fight it out; but, on account of their local position, they could not.  The exactions and lies of the Albany traders, the frauds of land-speculators, the contradictory action of the different provincial governments, joined to English weakness and mismanagement in the last war, all conspired to alienate them and to aid the efforts of the French agents, who cajoled and threatened them by turns.  But for Johnson these intrigues would have prevailed.  He had held a series of councils with them at Fort Johnson during the winter, and not only drew from them a promise to stand by the English, but persuaded all the confederated tribes, except the Cayugas, to consent that the English should build forts near their chief towns, under the pretext of protecting them from the French.[400]

[Footnote 399:  Fox to Johnson, 13 March, 1756.  Papers of Sir William Johnson.]

[Footnote 400:  Conferences between Sir William Johnson and the Indians, Dec. 1755, to Feb. 1756, in N.Y.  Col.  Docs., VII. 44-74. Account of Conferences held and Treaties made between Sir William Johnson, Bart., and the Indian Nations of North America (London, 1756).]

In June he went to Onondaga, well escorted, for the way was dangerous.  This capital of the Confederacy was under a cloud.  It had just lost one Red Head, its chief sachem; and first of all it behooved the baronet to condole their affliction.  The ceremony was long, with compliments, lugubrious speeches, wampum-belts, the scalp of an enemy to replace the departed, and a final glass of rum for each of the assembled mourners.  The conferences lasted a fortnight; and when Johnson took his leave, the tribes stood pledged to lift the hatchet for the English.[401]

[Footnote 401:  Minutes of Councils of Onondaga, 19 June to 3 July, 1756, in N.Y.  Col.  Docs., VII. 134-150.]