the Six Nations, at a conference which he held with them at Johnson Hall, May the 2d, 1765.

"BRETHREN:

"The last, but the most important affair I have at this time to mention is, with regard to the settling a boundary between you and the English. I sent a message to some of your nation some time ago, to acquaint you that I should confer with you at this meeting upon it. The king, whose generosity and forgiveness you have already experienced, being very desirous to put a final end to disputes between his people and you concerning lands, and to do you strict justice, has fallen upon the plan of a boundary between our provinces and the Indians, which no white man shall dare to invade, as the best and surest method of ending such like disputes, and securing your property to you beyond a possibility of disturbance. This will, I hope, appear to you so reasonable, so just on the part of the king, and so advantageous to you and your posterity, that I can have no doubt of your cheerfully joining with me in settling such a division line, as will be best for the advantage of both white men and Indians, and as shall best agree with the extent and increase of each province, and the governors, whom I shall consult upon that occasion, so soon as I am fully empowered; but in the meantime I am desirous to know in what manner you would choose to extend it, and what you will agree heartily to, and abide by, in general terms. At the same time I am to acquaint you that whenever the whole is settled, and that it shall appear you have

so far consulted the increasing state of our people as to make any convenient cessions of ground where it is most wanted, then you will receive a considerable present in return for your friendship.”

To this speech the sachems and warriors of the Six Nations, after conferring some time among themselves, gave an answer to Sir William Johnson, and agreed to the proposition of the boundary line; which answer, and the other transactions of this conference, Sir William transmitted to the office of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations.

From a change of the administration, which formed the above system of obtaining an act of Parliament for regulating the Indian trade and establishing the boundary line, or from some other public cause, unknown to us, no measures were adopted, until the latter end of the year 1767, for completing the negotiations about this boundary line. But in the meantime, viz., between the years 1765 and 1768, the king's subjects removed in great numbers from Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and settled over the mountains; upon which account the Six Nations became so irritated that in the year 1766 they killed several persons, and denounced a general war against the middle colonies; and to appease them, and to avoid such a public calamity, a detachment from the forty-second regiment of foot was that year sent from the garrison of Fort Pitt, to remove such settlers as were seated at Red-Stone Creek, etc.; but the endeavors and threats of this detachment proved ineffectual, and they returned to the garrison

without being able to execute their orders. The complaints of the Six Nations, however, continuing and increasing, on account of the settling of their lands over the mountains, General Gage wrote to the governor of Pennsylvania on the 7th of December, 1767, and after mentioning these complaints, he observed: "You are a witness how little attention has been paid to the several proclamations that have been published, and that even the removing those people from the lands in question, which was attempted this summer by the garrison at Fort Pitt, has been only a temporary expedient. We learn they are returned again to the same encroachments, on Red-Stone Creek and Cheat River, in greater numbers than ever."

On the 5th of January, 1768, the governor of Pennsylvania sent a message to the General Assembly of the province, with the foregoing letter from General Gage; and on the 13th the Assembly, in the conclusion of a message to the governor on the subject of Indian complaints, observed:

"To obviate which cause of their discontent, and effectually to establish between them and his Majesty's subjects a durable peace, we are of opinion that a speedy confirmation of the boundary, and a just satisfaction made to them for their lands on this side of it, are absolutely necessary. By this means all their present complaints of encroachments will be removed, and the people on our frontiers will have a sufficient country to settle or hunt in, without interfering with them."

On the 19th of January, 1768, Mr. Galloway, the Speaker of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and the

committee of correspondence, wrote on the subject of the Indians' disquietude, by order of the House, to their agents, Richard Jackson and Benjamin Franklin in London, and therein they said:

"That the delay of the confirmation of the boundary the natives have warmly complained of, and that, although they have received no consideration for the lands agreed to be ceded to the crown on our side of the boundary, yet that its subjects are daily settling and occupying those very lands."

In April, 1768, the legislature of Pennsylvania finding that the expectations of an Indian war were hourly increasing, occasioned by the settlement of the lands over the mountains, not sold by the natives, and flattering themselves that orders would soon arrive from England for the perfection of the boundary line, they voted the sum of one thousand pounds, to be given as a present, in blankets, strouds, etc., to the Indians upon the Ohio, with a view of moderating their resentment until these orders should arrive. And the governor of Pennsylvania being informed that a treaty was soon to be held at Fort Pitt by George Croghan, deputy agent of Indian affairs, by order of General Gage and Sir William Johnson, he sent his secretary and another gentleman, as commissioners from the province, to deliver the above present to the Indians at Fort Pitt.

On the 2d of May, 1768, the Six Nations made the following speech at that conference:

BROTHER:

It is not without grief that we see our country

settled by you, without our knowledge or consent and it is a long time since we complained to you of this grievance, which we find has not as yet been redressed; but settlements are still extending farther into our country; some of them are made directly on our war-path, leading into our enemies' country, and we do not like it. Brother, you have laws among you to govern your people by; and it will be the strongest proof of the sincerity of your friendship, to let us see that you remove the people from our lands; as we look upon it, they will have time enough to settle them, when you have purchased them, and the country becomes yours.'

The Pennsylvania commissioners, in answer to this speech, informed the Six Nations that the governor of that province had sent four gentlemen with his proclamation and the act of assembly (making it felony of death without benefit of clergy, to continue on Indian lands) to such settlers over the mountains as were seated within the limits of Pennsylvania, requiring them to vacate their settlements, but all to no avail; that the governor of Virginia had likewise, to as little purpose, issued his proclamations and orders; and that General Gage had twice ineffectually sent parties of soldiers to remove the settlers from Red-Stone Creek and Monongahela.

As soon as Mr. Jackson and Dr. Franklin received the foregoing instructions from the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, they waited upon the American minister, and urged the expediency and necessity of the boundary line being speedily concluded; and, in