A few Indians would come to one of the forts and make a treaty on behalf
of their tribe, at the very moment that the other members of the same
tribe were murdering and ravaging among the exposed settlements or were
harrying the boats that went down the Ohio. All the tribes that entered
into the treaties of peace were represented among the different parties
of marauders. Over the outlaw bands there was no pretence of control;
and their successes, and the numerous scalps and quantities of plunder
they obtained, made them very dangerous examples to the hot-blooded
young warriors everywhere. Perhaps the most serious of all obstacles to
peace was the fact that the British still kept the lake posts.
[Footnote: _Do._, Letters of H. Knox, No. 150, vol. i., pp. 107, 112,
115, 123, 149, 243, 269, etc.]
The Indians who did come in to treat were sullen, and at first always
insisted on impossible terms. They would finally agree to mutual
concessions, would promise to keep their young men from marauding, and
to allow surveys to be made, provided the settlers were driven off all
lands which the Indians had not yielded; and after receiving many gifts,
would depart. The representatives of the Federal Government would then
at once set about performing their share of the agreement, the most
important part of which was the removal of the settlers who had built
cabins on the Indian lands west of the Ohio.
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