Father! You have said that we are in your hand, and that by closing it you could crush us to nothing. Are you determined to crush us? If you are, tell us so; that those of our nation who have become your children, and have determined to die so, may know what to do. In this case, one Chief has said he would ask you to put him out of pain. Another, who will not think of dying by the hand of his father or his brother, has said he will retire to the Chatauque, eat of the fatal root, and sleep with his fathers in peace. Before you determine on a measure so unjust, look up to God, who has made _us_ as well as _you_. We hope he will not permit you to destroy the whole of our nations. Father! Hear our case; many nations inhabited this country, but they had no wisdom, and therefore they warred together. The Six Nations were powerful, and compelled them to peace; the lands, for a great extent, were given up to them, but the nations which were not destroyed, all continued on those lands, and claimed the protection of the Six Nations, as the brothers of their fathers. They were men, and when at peace, had a right to live on the earth. The French came among us and built Niagara; they became our fathers, and took care of us. Sir WILLIAM JOHNSON came and took that Fort from the French; he became our father, and promised to take care of us, and did so, until you were too strong for his King. To him we gave four miles around Niagara, as a place of trade. We have already said how we came to join against you; we saw that we were wrong; we wished for peace; you demanded a great country to be given up to you; it was surrendered to you, as the price of peace, and we ought to have peace, and possession of the little land which you then left us. Father! When that great country was given up, there were but few Chiefs present, and they were compelled to give it up, and it is not the Six Nations, only, that reproach these Chiefs with having given up that county, the Chippewas, and all the nations who lived on those lands westward, call to us, and ask us "Brothers of our fathers, where is the place you have reserved for us to lie down upon?" Father! You have compelled us to do that which has made us ashamed. We have nothing to answer to the children of the brothers of our fathers. When, last spring, they called upon us to go to war to secure them a bed to lie upon, the Senecas entreated them to be quiet, till we had spoken to you. But on our way down, we heard that your army had gone toward the country which those nations inhabit, and if they meet together, the best blood on both sides will stain the ground.