The American agents who had gone to the Detroit River were forced to report that there was little hope of putting an end to hostilities.

[Footnote: _Do_., James Rinkin to Richard Butler, July 20, 1788.] The councils accomplished nothing towards averting a war; on the contrary, they tended to band all the northwestern Indians together in a loose confederacy, so that active hostilities against some were sure in the end to involve all.
Even the Far-Off Chippewas Make Forays.
While the councils were sitting and while the Americans were preparing for the treaties, outrages of the most flagrant kind occurred.

One, out of many; was noteworthy as showing both the treachery of the Indians, and the further fact that some tribes went to war, not because they had been in any way maltreated, but from mere lust of blood and plunder.

In July of this year 1788, Governor St.Clair was making ready for a treaty to which he had invited some of the tribes.

It was to be held on the Muskingum, and he sent to the appointed place provisions for the Indians with a guard of men.