Travels through the states of North America, and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795, 1796, and 1797 [Vol. 2 of 2]Weld, Isaac
History
Travels through the states of North America, and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795, 1796, and 1797 [Vol. 2 of 2]
Weld, Isaac
Canada -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; United States -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
Brandt receives from government half pay as a captain, besides annual
presents, &c. which in all amount, it is said, to £.500 per annum. We
had no small curiosity, as you may well imagine, to see this Brandt, and
we procured letters of introduction to him from the governor’s
secretary, and from different officers and gentlemen of his
acquaintance, with an intention of proceeding from Newark to his
village. Most unluckily, however, on the day before that of our reaching
the town of Newark or Niagara, he had embarked on board a vessel for
Kingston, at the opposite end of the lake. You may judge of Brandt’s
consequence, when I tell you, that a lawyer of Niagara, who crossed Lake
Ontario in the same vessel with us, from Kingston, where he had been
detained for some time by contrary winds, informed us, the day after our
arrival at Niagara, that by his not having reached that place in time to
transact some law business for Brandt, and which had consequently been
given to another person, he should be a loser of one hundred pounds at
least.
Brandt’s sagacity led him, early in life, to discover that the Indians
had been made the dupe of every foreign power that had got footing in
America; and, indeed, could he have had any doubts on the subject, they
would have been removed when he saw the British, after having demanded
and received the assistance of the Indians in the American war, so
ungenerously and unjustly yield up the whole of the Indian territories,
east of the Mississippi and south of the lakes, to the people of the
United States; to the very enemies, in short, they had made to
themselves at the request of the British. He perceived with regret that
the Indians, by espousing the quarrels of the whites, and by espousing
different interests, were weakening themselves; whereas, if they
remained aloof, and were guided by the one policy, they would soon
become formidable, and be treated with more respect; he formed the bold
scheme, therefore, of uniting the Indians together in one grand
confederacy, and for this purpose sent messengers to different chiefs,
proposing that a general meeting should be held of the heads of every
tribe, to take the subject into consideration; but certain of the
tribes, suspicious of Brandt’s designs, and fearful that he was bent
upon acquiring power for himself by this measure, opposed it with all
their might. Brandt has in consequence become extremely obnoxious to
many of the most warlike, and with such a jealous eye do they now regard
him, that it would not be perfectly safe for him to venture to the upper
country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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