They were especially anxious for spirits, for they far
surpassed even the white borderers in their crazy thirst for strong
drink. "We have smelled your liquor and it is very good; we hope you
will give us some little kegs to carry home," said the spokesmen of a
party of Chippewas, who had come from the upper Great Lakes. [Footnote:
_Do._, Letters of H. Knox, No. 150, vol. i., p. 445.] These frank
savages, speaking thus in behalf of their far northern brethren, uttered
what was in the minds of most of the Indians who attended the councils
held by the United States Commissioners. They came to see what they
could get, by begging, or by promising what they had neither the will
nor the power to perform. Many of them, as in the case of the Chippewas,
were from lands so remote that they felt no anxiety about white
encroachments, and were lured into hostile encounter with the Americans
chiefly by their own overmastering love of plunder and bloodshed.
Nevertheless, there were a few chiefs and men of note in the tribes who
sincerely wished peace. One of these was Cornplanter, the Iroquois. The
power of the Six Nations had steadily dwindled; moreover, they did not,
like the more western tribes, lie directly athwart the path which the
white advance was at the moment taking.
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