Molly Brant by Peggy Dymond Leavey

Author:Peggy Dymond Leavey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2015-03-31T16:00:00+00:00

10

Broken Promises

Joseph Brant arrived in Montreal on Friday, May 16, 1783. After conferring with Sir John Johnson and Daniel Claus, he carried on to Quebec, taking with him Captain John Deserontyon, leader of Claus’s Fort Hunter Mohawks.

On May 23, John and Joseph met with Governor Haldimand. Joseph was determined to learn the whole truth behind the terms of the peace treaty. He reminded Haldimand of the repeated promises both he and Governor Carleton had made to the Iroquois. Now that the Six Nations were no longer needed to fight Britain’s war, were they to be forgotten?

“We helped you conquer Canada and joined you in war against the rebels. You promised to defend us and our country.”

Joseph reminded the governor how the Iroquois had been allies of Britain from the beginning, of all the land the Iroquois had ceded in 1768, and of how they’d protected the Superintendent of Indian Affairs and other Loyalists, helping them to reach Canada safely.

Deeply ashamed, Haldimand admitted that everything the man said was true. But he was at a loss over how best to reply. He was sure an official answer would be coming from London, but what to do in the meantime? The governor worried about the possibility of a Native uprising, sure that the end result could only mean more losses for the Natives. The fact that Joseph provoked Haldimand by telling him that the Natives were expecting to hear some proposals from the Americans any day now may have pushed Haldimand to take matters into his own hands.

Earlier, while they’d been talking to Sir John Johnson in Montreal, both Joseph Brant and John Deserontyon had admitted they might be willing to accept land on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario for any Natives who wanted to relocate. On May 26, 1783, without waiting for word from London and eager to appease Joseph Brant, Haldimand sent the provincial surveyor, Major Samuel Holland, to Cataraqui to look at land between there and Niagara as a possible site for the settlement of both white and Native Loyalists. At the same time, he set up the annual pension of one hundred pounds for Joseph’s sister Molly and gave Joseph a testimonial, written affirmation of his appreciation of Joseph’s “Services to the Royal Cause.”

The plan had been for Joseph Brant to accompany the surveyor and then to continue on home to Niagara. But Joseph fell ill before he left Montreal and his departure was delayed. He and Deserontyon would catch up with Holland at Cataraqui Falls when they could.

The two men, together with some of Claus’s Mohawks, later inspected the woods in the Cataraqui area and agreed to let the surveyor know their decision, after they’d had a chance to check out the entire north shore of Lake Ontario. Their final choice would be land about forty miles west of Cataraqui, on the Bay of Quinte.

Subsequently, Haldimand arranged for the purchase from the Mississauga. Joseph advised Sir John that it wasn’t necessary to buy the land from the Mississauga because its real owners were the Mohawk.

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