means they had been despoiled of their former homes, they resolved to fight to the last in defense of their rights ; to revenge this last

the

well

bosoms

and crowning outrage, and to wipe away with blood remembered wrongs which had rankled in their

for years.

The chiefs of the east met those of the

west in council at Alleghany, rehearsed the wrongs which they had suffered, and declared that wherever the white man had settled within the territory which they claimed, there they would strike him as best they could with such

command

weapons as they could

and, that the blow might be effectually dealt, each warrior-chief was charged to scalp, kill and burn within the ;

precincts of his birthright, and

all

simultaneously, from the

OF HUDSON'S RIPER. frontiers,

down into

the heart of the settlements, until

the

English should sue for peace and promise redress. The summer was spent in hostile preparations and in establish

The Senecas gave them arms, removed from ing alliances. them the petticoat, and bade them take the hatchet the " six ;

.

different nations of French Indians

"2

plead their cause with the " to break the entreated them

" advised and Mohawks, and " have some consideration for those Albany sales, and to they 'called brothers;" the council at Onondaga repudiated the offensive

October came, and no sooner had the

contracts.

biting frost reddened the maple and hardened the yellow corn in the husk, than, with their allies, painted black for war, in bands