The British authorities at Detroit were by no means friendly to these Moravian towns; early in the year 1781 they applied to the Great Council of the Six Nations, assembled at Niagara, to remove them out of the country. A message was accordingly sent by the Iroquois to the Ottawas and Chippewas to this effect: "We herewith make you a present of the Christian Indians to make soup of;" a figurative Indian expression equivalent to saying--"We deliver these people to you to be killed." But neither the Ottawas nor Chippewas would receive the message, which was returned with the laconic reply--"We have no cause for doing this." The same message was next sent to the Wyandots, but they at that time were equally indisposed to make war upon their inoffensive brethren. [FN] But in the Autumn of the same year, under the influence of McKee and Elliott, who had now become captains in the ranks of the crown connected with the Indian service at Detroit, and by reason of the more immediate persuasions of Simon Girty, the bloodthirsty refugee associate of McKee and Elliott, who was living among the Wyandots, over whom he had acquired great influence, the poor Moravians, with their pious and self-denying ministers, were forcibly removed, or rather compelled, by the hostile Indians, at the instigation of those men, to remove to Sandusky. The leaders of the Wyandots compelling this emigration, were Girty, Half King, and the celebrated Captain Pipe. The sachem-convert, Glickhickan, was also carried to Sandusky; and a young female relation of his, by her courage and generosity, had well-nigh cost him his life. Apprehending that evil would befall her friends, she stole a fine horse belonging to Captain Pipe, and rode to Pittsburgh, to give the alarm in regard to the captive missionaries and their congregations. In revenge for this courageous action, Glickhickan was seized by a party of the Wyandot, or Huron warriors, who raised the death-song, and would have put him to death but for the interference of the Half King in his favor. Glickhickan was subsequently examined by his captors, and his innocence of all participation in the mission of the heroic squaw fully made to appear. * * * * * [FN] Heckewelder. It was at a great sacrifice of property and comfort that these Indians were torn thus from their homes. They had more than two hundred heads of black cattle, and upward of four hundred swine, of which they were deprived, together with large stores of corn, and three hundred acres more just ripening for the harvest. They arrived at Sandusky on the 11th of October--a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles from their homes. They were treated with great harshness on their march, especially by Girty, who, in the course of the Winter subsequent to their removal, caused their missionaries to be arrested by order of the commandant at Detroit, to which place they were transferred. [FN] * * * * *