Brothers, we are thankful to the Great Spirit for
opening the way for us to meet here to-day. Our
hearts are made glad when we remember the Great
Spirit has put it into the hearts of our brothers to
take notice of us; for we are a poor, destitute people,
our lands being almost all gone, and we hope you will
excuse, or not think hard of us, when we open our
helpless situation to you. We have sent for Jacob
Taylor

to give us some advice about our saw-mill, it
being out of order. Now we are convinced the Good
Spirit approves of our request, and has a mind to do
us good, because he has so ordered it that our
brothers, some of the Quaker chiefs, have come along
with him.

Brothers, we have been made glad when we
heard from our brothers, the Quakers, that they were
willing to take three or four of our boys and instruct
them in farming and other useful training and occu-
pations. Brothers, we are very thankful to you for
your kind offer, and we have been counselling among
ourselves and trying to get some boys about the age
of fifteen, that will be of good dispositions and in-
genious in learning; for we think if we could get
some of them instructed as you are, they might be
very useful to our nation, not only in teaching others,
but in keeping our accounts, so that we may not be
cheated. Brothers, we find this is a very hard thing
to come at. We have a good many boys that would
do, but their relations think so much of them they
cannot bear to part with them; but here is one, a
nephew of mine, fifteen years old, who is willing to
go, and is a fine boy. His father and mother are
also willing; but his grandfather and his uncle refuse
to let him go, and say they cannot part with him, so
we must give him out for the present, for it is of the
utmost importance to us to maintain harmony in our
nation. There is one about nine years old that I
would be glad you would take; he is a fine boy.

Then the chief warrior, Wau-un-de-guh-ta

,ad-
dressed us; although they were not in a very florid
style, yet his remarks appeared, and we fully believed
them, to be the product of an honest and sincere
heart; to this effect:

Brothers, I hope you will not think hard of us
when we open our hearts to you, for we are a poor,
destitute people, and our land is now so nearly all
sold that we have but a little left for every family;
and the deer is become very scarce, so that we often
may hunt all day and have nothing at night. Broth-
ers, our hearts rejoiced when we heard the Quakers
were taking pity on us, although we could scarcely
think there was any people who would do so much
as you are doing for us, without being paid. But
now we are convinced that the Quakers have the
good of our nation at heart, for we see you have sent
some of your young men to the Allegheny River to
teach the Indians to farm, without asking any pay
for it; and we see that many of our people are
learning. They live much better than formerly, and
we have seen so much of the conduct of your young
men that we can rely upon them; and we have found
Jacob Taylor

to be a true man. Brothers, we are
ashamed to ask what we are now going to ask of you,
but our necessity makes us willing. We cannot ex-
pect you to do so much as to send any of your young
men to live among us; but we think if you would
send us a set of smith's tools, we have a young man
that has learned at Genesinguhta, that can do our
smith work. Now we have to go above thirty miles
to get it done and often have to wait near a week be-
fore we can get it done. And we are determined to
get to farming, working our land, and to raising wheat
to support our families. Brothers, you have done a
great deal for us in sending us saw-mill irons which
have been of great use to us; but our saw-mill is out
of order, and that is the reason we sent for Jacob
Taylor to show us how to mend it, as he is a man we
can confide in. But, brothers, do not think hard of
us if we should ask one thing more, for the Great
Spirit has blessed you with wise hearts and you are
become rich; and that is we have but one plow and
many of us are desirous of becoming farmers and
sow wheat, but cannot get a plow. If you would send
us another set of plow-irons, we have two good yoke
of oxen and a number of horses, then we think we
could do pretty well.

Brothers, we have heard your advice or counsel
to us in time past to refrain from drinking whiskey.
We thank you for it, for we see if we do not, we shall
come to nothing; and, brothers, you sent us a letter
four years ago wherein you told us that if we did not
leave off drinking whiskey you would be discouraged
from trying to help us, but if we would leave off and
become sober men, you would be encouraged to as-
sist us as you could. That letter we have yet. [They
then produced the letter to us and we found it was
written by Thos. Stewardson

and myself, and our
names were signed to it]. Now, brothers, we are
often counselling together about it, and are determ-
ined to refrain from the use of it, and although some
few of our young men sometimes break over our res-
olution, we think we are gaining ground or strength
in the good undertaking; and of all the chiefs and
warriors that are now present, we believe not one has
been drunk for more than two years past, and some
for a longer time than that, and divers of us have not
drunk any; so we are encouraged to be strong in full
hope that we shall banish it altogether.

In the evening the chief warrior's daughter, who
is an amiable young woman, came home from a visit
at Buffalo,

accompanied by a young man her rela-
tion. On their way they discovered a young deer
about half-grown, in the edge of Lake Erie, which
they chased with their canoe and killed with their
setting poles and brought it home. Some of the
meat added to the satisfaction of our supper. After
their arrival, Wau-un-de-guh-ta introduced his daugh-
ter to us all, one by one, holding her by the hand;
and she without any appearance of unbecoming shy-
ness shook hands with us all, in a modest manner,
which altogether appeared so becomingly polite that
we could not help noticing it with peculiar pleasure.
On taking leave of him in the morning, he in a
weighty and feeling manner expressed: "We are
glad you have stayed two nights with us, and I hope
the Great Spirit will look down upon you and pre-
serve you in your long journey, and favor you with a
clear sky, so that you may get home in good health
and find your wives and children so."