When he returned to Fort Johnson a fever seized him, and he lay helpless for a time; then rose from his sick bed to meet another congregation of Indians.  These were deputies of the Five Nations, with Mohegans from the Hudson, and Delawares and Shawanoes from the Susquehanna, whom he had persuaded to visit him in hope that he might induce them to cease from murdering the border settlers.  All their tribesmen were in arms against the English; but he prevailed at last, and they accepted the war-belt at his hands.  The Delawares complained that their old conquerors, the Five Nations, had forced them “to wear the petticoat,” that is, to be counted not as warriors but as women.  Johnson, in presence of all the Assembly, now took off the figurative garment, and pronounced them henceforth men.  A grand war-dance followed.  A hundred and fifty Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Delawares, Shawanoes, and Mohegans stamped, whooped, and yelled all night.[402] In spite of Piquet, the two Joncaires, and the rest of the French agents, Johnson had achieved a success.  But would the Indians keep their word?  It was more than doubtful.  While some of them treated with him on the Mohawk, others treated with Vaudreuil at Montreal.[403] A display of military vigor on the English side, crowned by some signal victory, would alone make their alliance sure.

[Footnote 402:  Minutes of Councils at Fort Johnson, 9 July to 12 July, in N.Y.  Col.  Docs., VII. 152-160.]

[Footnote 403:  Conferences between M. de Vaudreuil and the Five Nations, 28 July to 20 Aug., in N.Y.  Col.  Docs., X. 445-453.]

It was not the French only who thwarted the efforts of Johnson; for while he strove to make friends of the Delawares and Shawanoes, Governor Morris of Pennsylvania declared war against them, and Governor Belcher of New Jersey followed his example; though persuaded at last to hold his hand till the baronet had tried the virtue of pacific measures.[404]

[Footnote 404:  Johnson to Lords of Trade, 28 May, 1756.  Ibid., 17 July, 1756.  Johnson to Shirley, 24 April, 1756.  Colonial Records of Pa., VII. 75, 88, 194.]

What Shirley longed for was the collecting of a body of Five Nation warriors at Oswego to aid him in his cherished enterprise against Niagara and Frontenac.  The warriors had promised him to come; but there was small hope that they would do so.  Meanwhile he was at Albany pursuing his preparations, posting his scanty force in the forts newly built on the Mohawk and the Great Carrying Place, and sending forward stores and provisions.  Having no troops to spare for escorts, he invented a plan which, like everything he did, was bitterly criticised.  He took into pay two thousand boatmen, gathered from all parts of the country, including many whale-men from the eastern coasts of New England, divided them into companies of fifty, armed each with a gun and a hatchet, and placed them under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Bradstreet.[405] Thus organized, they would, he hoped, require no escort.  Bradstreet was a New England officer who had been a captain in the last war, somewhat dogged and self-opinioned, but brave, energetic, and well fitted for this kind of service.