Indian policy of the United States. The colonial governments were prohibited, "for the present," and until the royal pleasure should be further known, "to grant warrants of survey or pass patents for any lands beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic ocean from the west or northwest." These western lands were declared to be under the sovereignty, protection and dominion of the crown for the use of the Indians, and individuals were warned not to settle them. Purchases from Indians of lands reserved to them within the colonies, where settlements had been permitted, were only to be conducted by the authorities of the colonies, and in no case to be made by individuals, but trade with the Indians was to be free and open to all, on taking out a license for that purpose from the Governor or Commander-in-chief of any of the colonies.

The historical department of the London Annual Register for 1764, alludes significantly to the terms of the old colonial charters, which had no other bound to the westward than the South sea, and adds that "nothing could be more inconvenient, or attended with more absurd consequences, than to admit the execution of the powers in those grants and distributions of territories in all their extent." The writer concludes that "where the western boundary of each colony ought to be settled is a matter which must admit of great dispute, and can, to all appearance, only be finally adjusted by the interposition of Parliament."

The proclamation in question was claimed by Wash ington, Chancellor Livingston and others, to have been a measure of temporary expediency, with reference to the Indian hostilities, which were pending. Such was the favorite construction among the colonists, and Virginia was not restrained from the issue of patents, very soon afterwards,

for considerable tracts of land on the Ohio far beyond the Appalachian chain. If other and graver questions had not interposed, however, it cannot be doubted that this question of western lands would have led to serious difficulty with the mother country. As it was, the embarrassment was thrown upon the first epoch of our national independence, and threatened for a time to defeat the union of the States. At length, by a series of patriotic cessions, the wilderness of the west became the domain of the nation, and, as such, has been productive of more benefit to the citizens of the Atlantic States than if the untenable claims of their vague charters had been successfully asserted.

CHAPTER X.

THE EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE WESTERN TRIBES UNDER BRADSTREET AND BOUQUET.

IN the spring of 1764, the frontiers were again alarmed by savage incursions, and General Thomas Gage, who had succeeded Sir Jeffrey Amherst, in the command of the British forces in North America, resolved to send two expeditions into the heart of the enemy's country-one by the route of the lakes and another westward of Fort Pitt. The northern division was first upon the march under the command of Col. John Bradstreet. It consisted of eleven hundred men, chiefly provincial battalions from New Jersey, New York and Connecticut; that of Connecticut led by Col. Israel Putnam, and in July reached Niagara.1 There were gathered the representatives of twenty or more tribes, suppliants for peace, and a grand council was held by Bradstreet and Sir William Johnson, at which the powerful Senecas were the first to bring in their prisoners and accept the terms dictated by the English negotiators.

Bradstreet had been ordered by Gage to chastise the Indians whenever they appeared in arms, but all hostile indications ceased on his advance. On the 12th of August, when within two days' march of Presque Isle, he was met by ten savages, who were probably Mingoes, or representatives of the New York tribes settled in Ohio and near Presque Isle,

1) Albany was the rendezvous of the troops, and the route to Niagara was by the Mohawk, Oneida Lake, Oswego River and Lake Ontario,

but who also assumed to speak for the Hurons of Sandusky, the Shawanese and the Delawares. They agreed that all prisoners should be delivered at Sandusky within twenty-five days; that six of the deputation should be retained as hostages, and the remaining four, accompanied by an English officer and a friendly Indian, should inform the chiefs of what they were required to do; that all claims to the forts and posts of the English in the west were to be abandoned, and leave given to erect as many forts and trading houses as might be necessary for the security of the traders, with a grant of as much land around each post as a cannon could throw a shot over; that if any Indian killed an Englishman he was to be delivered at Fort Pitt and there tried by English law, except that half of the jury were to be Indians of the same nation as the offender; and that if one tribe violated the peace the others would unite in punishing them.

There is reason to believe that the Delawares, Shawanese and Wyandots, had never authorized these Indians to stipulate for them, since the first two tribes continued their ravages after the treaty, and we find the Wyandots, when Bradstreet reached Sandusky, making their separate submission, and agreeing to follow him to Detroit for the purpose of concluding a treaty there. Parkman insists that the Indians. who thus represented the Ohio tribes were only spies, and that Bradstreet was duped. We notice among them the name of Cuyashota, which we suppose to have been that of the distinguished Seneca Chief, Guyasootha or Kayashuta, who was almost as prominent as Pontiac himself in organizing the conspiracy of the year before. The seat of his power and influence was on the upper Alleghany or near Presque Isle, and his concurrence gives a high sanction to

2

2) Conspiracy of Pontiac, 461.

Bradstreet's treaty of August 12, 1764. We shall afterwards find Kayashuta active in the surrender of prisoners to Col. Bouquet on the Muskingum, and the same chief, at a conference held in Pittsburgh, by George Croghan, four years afterwards, (May 4, 1768,) produced a copy of the treaty with Col. Bradstreet, and avowed its validity, and his constant adherence to its provisions.3

Bradstreet was so sanguine, not only that a binding treaty with the Ohio tribes had been concluded by him, but also of a ready compliance on their part with all the stipulations, that, on the 14th of August he wrote to Col. Bouquet, who was preparing to leave the Pennsylvania frontier on the southern expedition to the Ohio, requesting him to withdraw his troops. The latter, perceiving that the Delawares and Shawanese continued their depredations, declined to comply, and determined to prosecute his plan without remission, till he should receive further instructions from head quarters. Gen. Gage applauded his determination, "annulling and disavowing" the treaty at Presque Isle.

Bradstreet continued his route to Detroit, sparing the Sandusky villages, on a pledge that the Wyandots would make their submission at Detroit, where his army arrived safely on the 26th of August. A detachment was sent to take possession of Michillimacinac, and on the 7th of September a council was held at Detroit, which effectually pacified the northwestern tribes. Towards the head waters of the Maumee, however, were gathered many of the Ottawas and other immediate adherents of Pontiac, who were insolent and turbulent. An envoy of Bradstreet, Capt. Morris, as he approached the camp of the Indian leader, was confronted by

3) Craig's Olden Time, i. 344-67.