to the big mountain (here the interpreter said, they mean the Onondaga country), and there we tied it very fast, and rolled wampum about it, and to make it still more secure, we stood upon the wampum, and sat down upon it to defend it, and to prevent any hurt coming to it, and did our best endeavours that it might remain for ever. During all this time the Dutch acknowledged our right to the lands, and solicited us from time to time, to grant them parts of our country. When the English governor came to Albany, and we were told the Dutch and English were become one people, the governor looked at the rope which tied the ship to the big mountain, and seeing that it was only of wampum and liable to rot, break, and perish in a course of years, he gave us a silver chain, which he told us would be much stronger, and would last for ever. “We had then,” said they pathetically, “room enough and plenty of deer, which was easily caught; and though we had not knives, hatchets, or guns, we had knives of stone, and hatchets of stone, and bows and arrows, which answered our purpose as well as the English ones do now, for we are now straitened; we are often in want of deer; we have to go far to seek it, and are besides liable to many other inconveniences, and particularly from that _pen-and-ink work that is going on at the table_!” pointing to the secretary. “You know,” they continued, “when the white people came here they were poor—they have got our lands, and now _they_ are become rich, and _we_ are poor. _What little we get for the land soon goes away, but the land lasts for ever!_” It was necessary to soothe them—the governor had raised a spirit which told him startling truths. It shewed that the Indians were not blind to the miserable fee for which they were compelled to sell their country. “Your great king,” said they, “might send you over to conquer the Indians; but it looks to us that God did not send you—if he had, he would not have placed the sea where he has, to keep you and us asunder.” The governor addressed them in flattering terms, and added, “We have a chest of new goods, and the key is in our pockets. You are our brethren: the Great King is our common Father, and we will live with you as children ought to do—in peace and love.”