The Council was opened by the Commandant's signifying to Captain Pipe, that he might make his report, when the latter rose from his seat, holding a stick in his left hand: "Father!"--he began; and here he paused, turned round to the audience with a most sarcastic look, and then proceeded in a lower tone, as addressing them,--"I have said _father,_ though indeed I do not know why I should call _him_ so--I have never known any father but the French--I have considered the English only as brothers. But as this name is imposed upon us, I shall make use of it and say-- "Father"--fixing his eyes again on the Commandant--"Some time ago you put a war-hatchet into my hands, saying, 'take this weapon and try it on the heads of my enemies, the Long-Knives, and let me know afterwards if it was sharp and good.' "Father!--At the time when you gave me this weapon, I had neither cause nor wish to go to war against a foe who had done me no injury. But you say you are my father--and call me your child--and in obedience to you I received the hatchet. I knew that if I did not obey you, you would withhold from me [FN] the necessaries of life, which I could procure nowhere but here." * * * * * [FN] Meaning his tribe. "Father! You may perhaps think me a fool, for risking my life at your bidding--and that in a cause in which I have no prospect of gaining any thing. For it is your cause, and not mine--you have raised a quarrel among yourselves--and you ought to fight it out--It is your concern to fight the Long-Knives--You should not compel your children, the Indians, to expose themselves to danger for your sake. "Father!--Many lives have already been lost on _your account_--The tribes have suffered, and been weakened--Children have lost parents and brothers--Wives have lost husbands--It is not known how many more may perish before _your war_ will be at an end. "Father!--I have said, you may perhaps think me a fool, for thus thoughtlessly rushing on your enemy! Do not believe this, Father. Think not that I want sense to convince me, that although you now pretend to keep up a perpetual enmity to the Long-Knives, you may, before long, conclude a peace with them. "Father! You say you love your children, the Indians.--This you have often told them; and indeed it is your interest to say so to them, that you may have them at your service. "But, Father! Who of us can believe that you can love a people of a different colour from your own, better than those who have a white skin, like yourselves?