INDIAN COUNCIL. In Council Detroit 1st December 1782. PRESENT. Major At S. De Peyster Commandant, Captn. W. Caldwell, Corps of Rangers Messrs. D. Baby & W. Tucker, Interpreters a band of Senecas from the Shawanese Country Ay, ou, wi, ainsh, Seneca Chief speaks on three strings. Father! I must remind you of your promises, at the time you first engaged us to espouse the King's cause you told us that not only the wants of the Warriours but those of our families should be supplied in great profusion. Delivers three Strings Father! We have received a message last summer, through you, from, the Commander in Chief, forbidding us to treat our Prisoners with cruelty, assuring us that it was contrary to the laws of God and custom of nations-which speech I have accepted and shall preserve. You will however recollect that we have injuries to revenge and altho' you protect the Enemy from the stake, you shall not from their Death, for the Warriours are determined not to spare them in battle, therefore Father be not surprized at seeing in future more Scalps than Prisoners Father! After having remined you of your promises and done your will I must inform you, that we and the other nations were much surprized to see people return from you to our Village unprovided, owing to the want of wherewith to supply them, as you told them you had not the things which they wanted. I beg of you Father not to use the same discourse to us, that you want certain things, but that you will provide not only for those who have accompanied me hither, but for those also who we have left behind to guard our village. Father! I, and my people expect that you will give us necessaries in abundance, as also, such ornaments which is acceptable and pleasing to young men, if otherwise we shall imagine, you do not speak from the Heart. Father! You cannot be ignorant that we are always engaged with an Enemy, or, on the watch at our Villages he then speaks on two Strings Father! You may recollect that the last time I was here, I lost a Prisoner, which you promised to see returned as he was adopted among us, I am therefore surprised that you have not yet satisfied me on that subject, as it does not correspond with your promise, I find by experience from my knowledge of mankind that from the late alteration you only speak from the mouth. Father! I pray of you to consider that my loss is great with respect to the prisoner, if ever you have been in my situation judge from your feelings if I have not reason to regret his loss Father! Before I finish my discourse I must repeat to you again to use our Warriours well, in supplying them with such things as they require, if not, what effect will my advice have upon them to enforce what you may direct Father! You ordered two Barrals of Powder to be given out to us at St. Dooskey of which we have received but a small part, we therefore hope that you will order it to be delivered to us at present exclusive of our proportion which we are to have Major De Peyster then answered Children of the Six Nations who Inhabit the Shawanese Country. Listen to the answer which I shall make to your speech-When the Governor of this Place first engaged you to take the part of your English Father he looked upon it as best for your mutual interest, on my arrival here I saw the necessity of your continuing to act on the side you where engaged, without which you must have been overpowered before now-you cannot deny but that I have ever fulfilled his promises as far as circumstances would admit-You that have so great a knowledge of humankind must also be capable to make allowances for accidents-the ship which was loaded with the Goods for Indian presents was taken at sea and as often re-taken by us, she at length arrived at Quebec but it was so late in the year, that the goods could not get up the country in time they are arrived at Niagara and I look for them every day, as soon as I get them you may expect to receive a proportion of such articles as the Commander in Chief has thought proper to send for his Indian Children but should you grow impatient before the things reach me and wish to go home, you must be content with such things only as I have to give you-with respect to the two Barrals of Gun Powder which you desire to have over and above, I must observe to you that I do not mean the Powder as a reward for your services but to enable you to defend your selves against the Enemy and to hunt, the time which that Powder should have been expended is past, since which I have repeatedly send powder in great quantitys and make no doubt but that you have received your share thereof Children! Consider that we are to act for our mutual interest, if you push me beyond my abilities we shall both fall—if you find yourselves disappointed in not receiving your necessaries immediately depend upon it I am more so, particularly so, from the recommendation Captain Caldwell has given me of your conduct in the last Campaigne Children! With regard to the message which I forwarded to you, desiring you to treat all Prisoners with humanity, you must recollect that it's a language I have upon all occasions held out to you, and let me repeat that it is greatly your Interest to do so. If Captain Pipe had not put that Colonel to death after he had made him Prisoner, the Enemy would not have made an attack upon the Indian Country this year, for from every Intelligence which I receive they intimate it was only to revenge his Death. Children! I have another Message from the Commander in Chief to you which is "that you will not push the War into the Enemies Country but defend your own, in which he is ready to give you every assistance in his power (Delivers several Strings) Children! You tell me that I only speak from my mouth and not from the heart as I did not return the adopted Prisoner agreeable to promise-believe me Child'n that I speak so much from the heart that I remember well what I said to you, which was "if I could find the Prisoner that I should return him to you, I repeat the same to you still and I have so much feeling that I shall provide for the person to whom he was related. I have nothing more to say, but to desire Mr Baby to treat you as well as he can at present with such things as is in store (Copied from the Minutes) J. SCHIEFFELIN Secry. Endorsed:-Substance of a Council held by Majr At. S. De Peyster, Commanding Detroit &c with a Band of Senecces from the Shawanese Country-Detroit Decr 1st 1782 No 27 Substance of an Indian Council held at Detroit the 1st Decr 1782 with some of the Senecas-Recd inclosed in Majr. DePeysters Letter the 7th March 83. [B 123 p 345] MEMORIAL. To His Excellency Frederic Haldimand Captain Genl. & Governor in Chief in & over the Province of Quebec, General & Commander in Cnief of His Majesty's Forces in said Province & the Frontiers Thereof &c & Vice Admiral of the same &c. &c. &c. The Memorial of Samuel Robertson late of Michilimackinac. Humbly Sheweth. That your Memorialist did in the month of August 1780 in his arrival from Michilimackinac (from whence he was sent by Lieut Governor Sinclair, after being confined 42 days in the Common Guard House there, and then obliged to give the Excessive Bail of Ten Thousand Pounds Currency for his appearance before the Commander in Chief in Quebec) present a Petition to Your Excellency, setting forth the very Arbitary & unjust treatment he had received at Michilimackinac from the Lt. Governor there & the very severe losses occasioned thereby, Your Excellency was thereupon pleased to express a desire of remedying the Grievances I then laboured under & for what purpose would transmit a Copy of the Case stated by me to Lieut. Govr. Sinclair. That your Memorialist then did, & since has suffered greatly in his Commercial affairs at Michilimackinac by the unmerited resentment of the Lieut. Governor That the return of Lt Govr Sinclair to Quebec affords your memorialist an opportunity of remedying himself in some degree by having recourse to the Laws of the Country, ever open to the suffering Individual under Your Excellency's Protection, A Duty he owes to himself & Family, and unless such remedy be had your Memorialist finds himself reduced from an easy situation in Life, for which he has been industriously toiling these many years Past to extreme Indigence. That Your Memorialist notwithstanding placing his Confidence in Your Excellency's known Humanity & Protection has again taken the Liberty of reiterating his complaint in the firm Hope that Your Excellency will be good enough to order Lt Governor Sinclair to reimburse Your Memorialist for the immense losses he has suffered in his Property (a true & just account of which is hereunto annexed, & he is ready to support with very respectable evidence (thereby preventing any other more disagreeable and expensive mode of application for redress. And your memorialist will ever pray SAMUEL ROBERTSON Quebec 2d Decr. 1782 [B 98 p 176] Dr. Lieut Governor Sinclair to Samuel Robertson For loss sustained by me in consequence of Lt Gov'r Sinclair's having seized my property, stopt my Trade & confined my Person for 42 days in the Guard House at Michilimackinac vizt. 1780 April To loss sustained by the Lieut Governor seizing my Property at the Post of St. Mary's and conveying it from thence which amounted per invoice to... Which I was afterwards during my confinement obliged to fill as follows, vizt. £2658.8.8 To Mr. Macnamara & Co.... To C. Burgy 1140 2032.6.4 626.2.4 To a Clerks Wages, which I was constrained to pay notwithstanding he was ordered in from St. Mary's the 18th April, before the Trade for that season was opened with the Indians... To the wages of Four men in like manner. To provisions to the Clerk and men during the time of their engagement with 160.0.0 160.0.0 100.0.0 To Debts due by Indians at St. Mary's which owing to the removal of my To the Sloop Archangel of 26 Tons, with the apparel & furniture left on the To a large Batteau in like manner. To sundry debts due by soldiers & artificers on the Island of Michilimackinac, which are still unpaid.... To amount of that part of the Goods that was brought in from St. Marys and which I was under the necessity of selling to Christian Burgy payable in Sept. 1781, but at his decease some time after I was sent from Michilimackinac the goods I sold him were seized to pay Debts contracted many years before.. To cash paid the Notary Public for drawing out the Bail Bonds which in order to my enlargement I was obliged to get signed by my Friends for the enormous sum of £10,000. To Expense of a Canoe & 8 men to convey myself & Family to Montreal........ Errors Excepted New York Currency.. Quebec 2d Dec'r 1782 [B 98 p 178] 566.12.0 200. 0.0 50.0.0 15. 0.0 145.14.8 892. 6.4 66.13.4 £3118 8.8 SAMUEL ROBERTSON |