"Brother Cayenguirago!--I have truly told you the reasons which have induced us to offer peace to the French; we shall likewise, from the bottom of our hearts, inform you of the design we have in this treaty. When the Governor of Canada shall have accepted the nine belts, of which I have just now told you, then we shall have something more to say by two large belts, which lie still hid in our bosom. We shall lay down first one and say, 'we have a brother Cayenguirago, with whose people we have been united in one chain from the beginning. They must be included in this treaty; we cannot see them involved in bloody war, while we sit in easy peace.' If the Governor of Canada answer, that he has made a separate peace with us, and that he cannot make any peace with Cayenguirago, because the war is from over the great lake; then we shall lay down the second great broad belt, and tell the Governor of Canada, 'If you will not include Cayenguirago's people, the treaty will become thereby void, as if it had never been made;' and if he persists, we will absolutely leave him." While the conference was going on at Albany, Decanesora and his fellow deputies arrived at the castle of the Praying Indians, near the falls above Montreal. Thence they were conducted, by the Superior of the Jesuits, to Quebec. They had their audience of the Governor of Canada with great solemnity, in the presence of all the ecclesiastics and officers of distinction, and of the most considerable Indians then in the place. Every day, while they remained, they were entertained at the Governor's table, or at those of the principal citizens. On the other side, it is said of the veteran Decanesora, that shrewdly accommodating his coat to his company, he made himself still more personable than usual, by the aid of a splendid arrangement which might have done credit to a modern ambassador. He was clothed in scarlet, trimmed with gold; and his reverend locks were covered with a laced beaver-hat, which had been given him by Colonel Fletcher a few months before. Neither ceremony nor decoration, however, nor even good dinners, mitigated the old orator's firmness. "Father!" [FN] he said to the Governor, after mentioning the objects of the deputation,--"If we do not conclude a peace now, it will be your fault. We have already taken the hatchet out of the River Indians [Hudson's river] whom we incited to the war. But we must tell you, that you are a bad man. You are inconstant. You are not to be trusted. We have had war together a long time. Still, though you occasioned the war, we never hated the house of Ohguesse [the Montreal gentleman.] Let him undertake the toilsome journey to Onondaga. If _he_ will come, he shall be welcome." * * * * * [FN] "A term used in mere courtesy, and because the Governor chose to call the Indians his children." So a Sachem explained it to one of the New York Governors, that it "signified nothing."