The American legation replied, that they had instructions upon the first and third propositions, but not on the second, nor on the subject of the fisheries. They also were instructed to obtain a definition of blockade, and to consider claims for indemnity in certain cases of seizure. After some discussion, the American embassy inquired if the pacification and settlement of a boundary for the Indians was a _sine qua non_. The reply was, yes. It was then asked if it was intended to preclude the United States from purchasing lands of the Indians, whose possessions clearly lay within the limits of their territory. An affirmative answer was given. The native tribes were to be kept simply as a barrier between the possessions of the two countries. On being told that no instructions had been given on this point, the English embassy expressed great surprise, and declared that they could do nothing until farther advices from their government. A messenger was therefore despatched to England that night, and the two embassies, after meeting next day to arrange a protocol, adjourned till the decision of the English cabinet could be received. Nine days after, Lord Castlereagh, elated with his success as English minister to the headquarters of the allied armies, on their way to Paris,--exulting over the downfall of Napoleon, and representing in himself the intoxication of the English people at the overthrow of their rival--haughty, unscrupulous, and overbearing, swept into Ghent with a train of twenty carriages, on his way to the great Congress of Vienna, where European diplomacy, in all its monstrous deformity and rottenness, was to be exhibited to the world. The next day the embassies met, and the reply of the English government was rendered. In the first place, the Indian boundary question was declared a _sine qua non_. The question then arose, what would become of the hundreds of American citizens residing at that time within the limits thus to be drawn. The reply was, they must shift for themselves.