.MTI5Mg.MTAzOTc4
15. Bretheren, some of you were in Philadelphia last fall & acquainted us that you had taken up the English Hatchet & that you had already made use of it against the French; that the Frenchmen had very hard heads, & your country afforded nothing but grass, & sticks which was not sufficient to break them, you desired your bretheren would assist you with some weapons sufficient to do it. your bretheren the President & Council promised you then to send something to you next spring by Tharachiawagon, but as some other affairs prevented his journey to Ohio, you received a supply by George Croghan sent to you by your said bretheren. But before George Croghan came back from Ohio, news came from over the great lake that the King of Great Britain & the French king had agreed upon a cessation of arms for 6 months, & that a peace was very likely to follow it. Your bretheren the President & Council were then in a manner at a loss what to do; it did not become them to act contrary to the command of the King, & war against the French,---but as your bretheren never missed in fulfilling of their promises, they have upon a second consideration thought proper to turn their intended supply into a civil & brotherly present & have accordingly sent me with it, & here are the goods before your eyes. I have by your bretherens order divided them into 5 shares & laid them in 5 different heaps, one heap your brother Assaryquoh sent to you to remember his friendship & unity with you, and as you are all of the same nation with whom we the English have been in league of friendship nothing need be said more than only this, that it is a present from your bretheren the President & Council and Assaryquoh & shall serve to strengthen the chain of friendship between us the English & the several nations of Indians to which you belong. A French peace is a very uncertain one--they keep it no longer than their interests permit, then they break it without provocation given them. The French Kings people have been most starved in Old France for want of provision, that made them wish & seek for peace.