For though inured to war, and apt to enter with
avidity into the excitement of a conflict, their forces had been reduced
by recent encounters with the Indians at the west, and south, and also
with the French; and the few intervening years of peace served to convince
them of its value, and caused them to receive with favor this proposition
from our government.
At a council held with the Iroquois at German Flats, in June, 1776, by
Gen. Schuyler, who had been appointed for this purpose, these assurances
of neutrality were renewed.
Great Britain also was not indifferent about the course these Indian
tribes would pursue. Wishing to prevent an alliance of the Indians with
the colonists, willing to secure forces already on the ground, and with a
view possibly, of striking terror into the minds of her rebellious
subjects, her agents in this country spared no pains to enlist the
sympathies of the Iroquois on her side.
In this they were but too successful. Through their agents, Britain had
been in correspondence with these tribes for more than a hundred years,
had supplied them with implements of war, articles of clothing, and with
many of the comforts and conveniences of life. The Indians had learned to
be dependent upon her, and they called her king their "_great father_
over the water." Her agents spent their lives among them. Through them
their communications were made to the crown, and they regarded them as
essential to their happiness.
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