forty four Degs. easterly eighty two perches to the old Road which courses are desired to be Confirmed.

March 8th, 1722.

The Governour read a Letter from James Mitchell Justice of the Peace in Chester County directed to the Governour & Council, Dated at Donnegal April 25th 1723, containing an Address from Ocowellos King of the upper Shawanese &c. To which the Board agreed to make Answer as follows.

In Answer to the message from the upper Shawanese on Susquehannah, mentioning their past visits, and another shortly intended to the Governour of Canada whom they think fit to call their Father. The Governour & Council say, That William Penn's people in this Countrey, are by Treaties united to all the Indians as in one Body; But the ffrench & English are two distinct People, as the long Wars that have been between the English & them fully shew. Now no Indians that are united to us can be joyned to them, because that would divide the same Body into two Parts and utterly destroy it.

The Govr. & Council therefore, cannot agree that any of our Brethren should be joyned in League to any other Nation or People than to the Subjects of our Great King George who is the Head of all the English and of their Brethren. If these Indians are united to us, we shall desire their Company and that they may live with us as Brethren in Peace & Love as all our other Brethren have hitherto done and ever must do with us.

The Governr. at their request sends them five Gallons of Rum to chear their Hearts at hearing of these his Words, and one Strowd Match Coat to Confirm them.

The Board agreed to meet the Indians at the Court House the same Afternoon & accordingly,

P. M: PRESENT:

The Honble the Governour, and same members as in the afternoon, sundry Gentlemen & many other People.

Whiwhinjac, Civility, sundry Chiefs & other Indians.
Ezekiel Harlan & Indian Smith, Interpreters.

The Governr. answered Whiwhinjac's Speech of the 18th instant, as follows.

Brethren. You Know that I came from William Penn to fulfill his kind words to the Indians, and to be as a Father to them now, since He is gone.

It is also the Orders & Command of the Great King George my Master, That the English & the Indians should live together as Brethren in one Family.

If any of us therefore happen to be sick or in want of food the other should help him, and when any Loss or Misfortune befalls either the English or the Indians, the other is sorry & in grief for it.

You say William Penn Knew you to be a discerning People that could see and hear afar off, and I say you Know the English to be a faithful good People who always keep their Treaties & Leagues punctually with the Indians, and you also know that our Laws make no distinction between our people and

yours.

We being thus linked together in one Family, we ought always to have but one Council and so be of one mind, and therefore we cannot suffer one half to go to War while the other remains at home in Peace.

When any People are divided in their Councils & opinions they grow weak & soon become a prey to their Enemies.

In such cases you know it is the constant practice amongst your People to consult together in Council until the old & wise men overcome & convince the weaker heads of the young & foolish.

Just so ought you to do with us, because we are altogether one people, and then the Family become strong in Love Peace & Friendship to each other.

Remember that this is the bright Chain of Love and Friendship wherewith William Penn bound your People and his together, never more to be separated. By this Chain Philadelphia is joined to Conestogoe, and all the Indian Towns upon Susquehannah.

By laying our hands as it were on this Chain, We can safely travel by night or by day through all your Towns, and into the woods, and in like manner your people are thereby conducted safely through all our Settlements back again to us at Philadelphia.

You must know & remember that it is my proper Office & Business, as Governor of the whole Country to keep this Chain perfectly clean and free from the least Speck of Rust.

You therefore Whiwhinjac, King of the Ganawese who have now spoke to me in the name and on the behalf of the four Nations of Indians upon Susquehannah must remember what I am now going to say and tell the other Chiefs of these Nations That I expect you and they being frequently in Council together with your old & wise men will be exceedingly careful to keep that End of the Chain towards your own Settlements always bright & Clear, and you may assure all your People that as often as any them have occasion to come down to visit their Brethren the English here, they shall not find the least spot on this End of the Chain fastned here, which is always in my view and shall be my particular Care.

The dead Body of our Indian Brother whom you mention was covered by me at Albany in the sight of all the Chiefs of the Five Nations and to the Satisfaction of his Kindred; Nevertheless I take it very kindly that you now desire that Blood may be washed away under the Ground never more to be seen or heard of. This shews that you are truly our Brethren, and hereupon I embrace and as it were take into my arms you and all your People.

I will take care that no English Settlements shall hereafter be made too near your Towns to disturb you, so that the Shawanoes & Ganawese may remain in Peace where they now are, for we are well pleased with them as Neighbours, and do not desire to see them remove further from us. But as I have always been ready to hear

your Complaints and take care of you as my own Children, so I must also do by the English; Wherefore I desire you will be mindfull to treat them like Brethren of the same family and do not suffer your young People with their Dogs & Arrows to Hunt & Kill their Creatures.

I gave you these things here before you to confirm what I have said, viz: the presents before mentd.

I have also ordered some Provisions and Gallons of Rum to help you back to your Families, and I heartily wish you a good Journey home, which done.

Civility, the Interpreter, told the Governour he had something to say, which was,

The Indians well approve of all the Govr. had said except where he told them that the English Law made no difference between the English and the Indians, for they should not like, upon an Indians committing a fault, that he should be imprisoned as they had seen some Englishmen were.

To which the Governour answered,

That they misapprehended his meaning, which was, That if any Englishman did injury to an Indian he should suffer the same punishment as if he had done it to an Englishman. But if an Indian committed Robbery or such like Crime agst. the English, he would acquaint their Chief with it and from him expect Satisfaction.

Then Civility told the Govrnr. that they looked upon it as a great Hardship for them to be confined from Hunting on the other side Patowmeck, for that in their neighbouring Woods was but little Game.

To which the Govr. answered,

That the ffive Nations by their Treaty with the Governr. of Virginia had agreed not only to forbear themselves, but also to restrain the Susquehanna Indians from Hunting there, for that He (Civility) knew that some of the ffive Nations under pretence of hunting had gone there formerly and murdered & plundered some of the English, which was the cause of making that severe article in the Treaty.

Then Civility said, That Whiwhinjac and the rest purposed to proceed to Annapolis, to renew their League of Friendship with the Governour there as the has done here, and they thought proper to acquaint him thereof.

To wch the Govr. answered,

That the people of Maryland & Pensilvania were very good Friends, and he was contented they should go, but that ye Indians should consider that as they were Inhabitants of Pensilvania, they were immediately subjects of that Governmt., & none other.

At a Council held at Philadelphia, Aug. 3d, 1723.

PRESENT:

The Honble Sir WILLIAM KEITH, Bart., Governour.

Richard Hill,

Samuel Preston,

VOL. III.-10

James Logan,
Richard Assheton,

} Esq'rs.

The Governour inform'd the Board that he had the preceding Night received a Letter from the Governour of Maryland, by an Express, which was read and is as follows:

ANNAPOLIS, July 29th, 1723. SIR: Having received Instructions from the Rigt. Honble Charles Lord Baltemore, absolute Lord & Proprietary of the Province of Maryland, forthwith to return to him the true Limits & Boundaries of the said Province, in pursuance of a Letter from the Right Honble the Lords Commissioners for Trade & Plantations. I, in obedience to his Lordships Commands, send this to acquaint you, that I intend on the 10th, 11th & 12th days of Septr. next on the west side of the Susquehannah, to take the fortieth Degree of northerly Latitude from the Equinoctial, the better towards enabling me to answer the Ends of his Majesties Service express'd in their said Lordships LetAnd the Lord Baltemore hath thought proper thus to make known the same unto you, lest you or some of the Pensilvanians our Neighbours might take Umbrage or misconster these our Transactions.

ter.

I am, Sir, with great Esteem,

Your most humble Servant,

CHA. CALVERT.

Address'd To his Excellency Sir William Keith, Bart., Governour of Pensilvania, Philadelphia.

Then the Govr. produced a Letter which he had received from the Right Honble the Lords Commissioners for Trade & Plantations, dated Aug. 7th, 1719, which was read, and is as follows:

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And after some reasoning upon the subject of Colo. Calverts Letter, the Board agreed with the Governour in his Sentiments, and recommended it to Him to return a proper & full Answer thereto.

At a Council held at Philada., Septr. 4, 1723.

PRESENT:

The Honourable Sir WILLIAM KEITH, Bart., Governour.

Richard Hill,

Anthony Palmer,

James Logan,
Robert Assheton,

Esq'rs.

The Governour acquainted the Board that he had answered Colo. Calverts Letter of July 29th last as follows:

SIR: I have the Honr. of yours dated the 29th ult., by your Express, wherein you acquaint me that you have received Instructions from my Lord Baltemore, forthwith to Return to him the true Limits & Bounderies of the Province of Maryland, pursuant to a Letter from the Right Honble the Lords Commissioners for Trade & Plantations directed, as I suppose, to His Lordship for that purpose. You also in obedience to his Lordships Commands are therein pleased to give me notice that you intend on the 10th, 11th & 12th days of Sept. next, upon the west side of the Susquehanna River to take the 40th Degree of northern Latitude from the Equinoctial, the better

to enable you to answer the Ends of his Majesties Service expressed in their Lordships said Letter; and your further add, that my Lord Baltemore has thought proper thus to make known the same unto me, least I, or any Inhabitants of Pensilvania should take umbrage at or misconstrue your Transactions.

In Answer, I beg leave to think that my Carriage & Behaviour since I have been Governour of this Province, has whenever an occasion offered, been truely respectful to my Lord Baltemore, for whose Person and noble Character I do profess a very great & most sincere Esteem, so that I cannot imagine how His Lordship or any of his Friends can conceive that I should concern myself with, and much less take umbrage at any orders which his Ldship is pleased to give to his officers in Maryland, or the Transactions to be done in pursuance of such his Lordships Orders, within the just or reputed known Limits of his Province of Maryland. But, if under the pretence of executing any orders from my Lord Baltimore, or from the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantatations, which have not been communicated to the Proprietor or Governour of this Province for the time being, it is intended or designed to take any Observation or Run out any Line whereby the Proprietor of Pensilvania may be hereafter excluded from, or in the least prejudiced in what will on a fair Enquiry appear to be his just Right, or if under any pretence whatsoever it be proposed that the officers of Maryland by themselves, and without the concurrence of the Proprietor of this Province, or of such as are lawfully impowered by him, shall take upon them, to extend by any Observation or Survey, the northern Boundary of Maryland beyond the Octoraroe Line, established (as I am ready to prove by incontestible Evidence) above forty years ago by Charles then Lord Baltemore, and Second Proprietor of that Province, who certainly was well acquainted with the meaning & construction of his own Patent or Grant from the Crown, in either of those cases. I beg leave to say, that my Duty indispensably obliges me strenuously to oppose all Observations or Surveys made with any such unequitable & partial Intent.

In the year 1719, I received a Letter from the Right Honble The Lords Commissioners of Trade & Plantations of which I herewith send you a Copy, because I believe it to be in Course much the same with what you mention to have been received on the part of Maryland, and if so, you may easily observe that there is not any thing there which will direct or countenance you to discover the Bounds of Maryland by Astronomical Rules and uncertain Observations, So that propably it must be some other Service than that of His Majesty, or the Proprietor of Maryland which now gives Rise to such a Conceit. But if Mr. Secretary Lloyd, whom I know to be a very ingenious & inquisitive Gentleman, must needs improve his skill in Observations of that nature, it is my humble opinion, he will do it to better purpose and more safely, by consulting my Lord Baltemore's original Patent or Grant, which confines the Province of Maryland on this side, in these words: "To that part of Delaware "Bay which lyeth under the fortieth Degree or Northerly Latitude,'