But prominent above all others were the exertions of Thayendanegea, or
Brant, the famous war-chief, from whose leadership the inhabitants of our
frontier settlements had suffered so severely, during the war of the
Revolution. Very soon after the treaty at Fort Stanwix in 1784, from the
dissatisfaction growing out of that treaty, and other indications among
the Indians, he began to entertain the ambitious project of forming a
grand Indian confederacy, of which he would be chief, embracing not only
the Iroquois, but all of the Indian nations of the great North-west. He
had given the entire summer of 1785, to the business of visiting these
nations, and holding councils among them, with a view to the furtherance
of this object. [Footnote: See Stone's Life and Times of Brant, Vol. 2, p.
248.]
He visited England at the close of this year, "ostensibly for the purpose
of adjusting the claims of the loyal Mohawks upon the crown, for
indemnification of their losses and sacrifices in the contest, from which
they had recently emerged." [Footnote: See Stone's Life and Times of
Brant, Vol. 2, p. 248.]
... "Coupled with the special business of the Indian claims, was the
design of _sounding the British government, touching the degree of
countenance or the amount of assistance which he might expect from that
quarter, in the event of a general Indian war against the United
States_." [Footnote: Ibid.]
His arrival at Salisbury was thus noted in a letter from that place, dated
December 12, 1785, and published in London.
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