At the opening of the Revolution, Stockbridge Indians strung anew their faithful bows, and, as minute-men, marched to join the camp on Cambridge Common and await orders from a great new chief--General Washington. On June 30, 1776, General Washington, speaking of the arrival of the Caughnawaga friends and other tribes, says, " They honored me with a talk to-day. " John Logan says:

"But just believe me, onst for all,
To them that treat him fair,
The lnjun mostly alluz, wuz,
And is and will be, square"

The County Congress[1] met in 1774 at Stockbridge Tavern under the sign of the shiny Red Lion,[2] with a green tail, to storm against all things, British. Captain Solomon Wahauwanwaumet or " King Solomon, " chief sachem at Stockbridge, journeyed to Boston by the old Bay Path to pledge the fealty of his tribe in an eloquent and rhythmic oration. In a moth-eaten hair trunk in a New York house, among certain other cherished papers of the color of the weather, belonging to the Andrews family of Farmington, Conn., is a document [3] which appears to be the proceedings of this remarkable conference at Boston. Its sentences vibrate with the passions and strange, picturesque customs of a unique seat of war, in wilds of the New World, wherein a hatchet expresses more than words. The white commissioners speak first:

" Uncles the Six Nations, attend.
" At our late interview with you at place you told us that you took the hatchet from our hands, that you pulled up a large pine-tree, which made a great hole in the ground, through which you ran a current of water, in which you told us you flung our hatchet, covered the hole with a rock, and set on it the tree again in the same place.
" Uncles, attend: possess your mind in peace. Let not our present declaration offend you. Uncles, we have taken up the hatchet to defend our rights and properties which are taken from us by the king, and cannot deliver it up and tamely see our property possessed by others. No, Uncles, we have taken up the hatchet with our Brothers and neighbors, the white people, and with them will fight in defence of our just possessions (etc.).
" Uncles, this is all we have to say."