154


CAUSES  THAT   LED   TO   THE  WARS

cated  at  Lebanon  for  missionary  work  was  Joseph
Johnson.  In  1775  he  received  from  the  Provincial
Congress  a  message  directed  to  the  Oneidas,  and
about  the  same  time  the  General  Assembly  of  New
Hampshire  instructed  him  "  to  use  his  utmost  en-
deavors to  brighten  the  chain  of  friendship  which
has  for  many  years  subsisted  between  us  and  them."
With  a  letter  from  Dr.  Wheelock  he  went  to  Cam-
bridge in  February,  1776,  to  see  Washington,  who
wrote  him  a  letter  that  he  could  show  to  the  Six
Nations :

You  have  seen  a  part  of  our  strength,  and  can  inform
our  brothers  that  we  can  withstand  all  the  force  which  those
who  want  to  rob  us  of  our  lands  and  our  homes  can  send
against  us.  You  can  tell  our  friends  that  they  may  always
look  upon  me,  whom  the  whole  United  Colonies  have
chosen  to  be  their  Chief  Warrior,  as  their  brother.
Washington  further  said — and  this  is  important
in  the  light  of  the  steps  taken  by  the  British  Cabi-
net to  induce  the  Indians  to  fight  with  them —

Tell  them  that  we  don't  want  them  to  take  up  the
hatchet  for  us,  except  they  choose  it  ;  we  only  desire  that
they  will  not  fight  against  us  ;  we  want  that  the  chain  of
friendship  should  always  remain  bright  between  our  friends
of  the  nations  and  us.
