Timmendiquas still said nothing. He did not allow an eyelid to
flicker at this assumption of superiority for the Six Nations
over all other tribes. A great warrior he was, a great
politician also, and he wished to unite the Iroquois in a firm
league with the tribes of the Ohio valley. The coals from the
great fire glowed and threw out an intense heat. Thayendanegea
unbuttoned his military coat and threw it back, revealing a bare
bronze chest, upon which was painted the device of the Mohawks, a
flint and steel. The chests of the Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca
head chiefs were also bared to the glow. The device on the chest
of the Onondaga was a cabin on top of a hill, the Caytiga's was a
great pipe, and the figure of a mountain adorned the Seneca
bronze.

"We have had the messages that you have sent to us,
Timmendiquas," said Thayendanegea, "and they are good in the eyes
of our people, the Rotinonsionni (the Mohawks). They please,
too, the ancient tribe, the Kannoseone (the Onondagas), the
valiant Hotinonsionni (the Senecas), and all our brethren of the
Six Nations. All the land from the salt water to the setting sun
was given to the red men by Aieroski, but if we do not defend it
we cannot keep it."

"It is so," said Timmendiquas, speaking for the first time. "We
have fought them on the Ohio and in Kaintuck-ee, where they come
with their rifles and axes. The whole might of the Wyandots, the
Shawnees, the Miamis, the Illinois, the Delawares, and the
Ottawas has gone forth against them. We have slain many of them,
but we have failed to drive them back. Now we have come to ask
the Six Nations to press down upon them in the east with all your