" with the nothing to do," any more than they had " that which they foolish people" who talked to them about they had

"

themselves did not understand." 1 in general council at

Onondaga,

Thus urged, the Six Nations to resolved to have " nothing

do with the axe, but to support their engagements."

This action left the Johnsons with nothing but their personal influence and official relations, but these they believed, and not without reason, were sufficient to control to a great extent the action of the tribes. integrity

The well-founded suspicions of the

of the Johnsons,

which the

brought the issue to a culmination

The

colonists

entertained,

much sooner than they had

committee of safety of Tryon county, early intended. in 1775, set a strict watch upon their movements, and when, in May, Johnson received secret instructions from General

Guy

Colonial History, vin, 538, 557.

OF HUDSON'S RWER. Gage, requiring him

to report himself at

Montreal for instruc

he professed alarm for his personal safety and appealed to his retainers among the Indians to induce the Six Nations tions,

take upon themselves his protection. Gathering together a company of tories, among whom John and Walter N. Butler to

were prominent, and accompanied by Brant and a portion of the Mohawks, he fled to Oswego, where he held a conference with the tribes, and from thence pushed on to Montreal, where, in July, he met the Indians of the northren confederacy, seven Whether his fears were well teen hundred in number. 1 founded or not, the movement was an adroit one. Wherever he met the Indians he urged upon their consideration the attack