ernor as Persons well qualified for that Office, and two Separate Commissions of the Peace were ordered to be made for them accordingly. At a Council held at Philadelphia, Sa urday the 24th of August, 1751. PRESENT: The Honourable JAMES HAMILTON, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor. Thomas Lawrence, Robert Strettell, William Logan, Joseph Turner, The Minutes of the preceding Council were read and approved. The following Letter from Governor Clinton, with Coll. Johnson's Letter to him enclosed, were laid before the Assembly, read in Council, and order'd to be enter'd: "ST.: A Letter from Governor Clinton to Governer Hamilton. "FLAT BUSH, on Long Island, 13th August, 1751. "Being at present with my Family out in the Country for the Benefit of the Air, After a very severe Fit of the Gout, and receiving the enclosed Account yesterday evening, I sent this to Town to be forwarded by the very first opportunity, thinking it a Matter of Importance to your Province, which I hope will come time enough for your Honour to make use of proper Precautions. "You may depend on the earliest Communication of what further News I may receive relating to the Schemes of the French. I am with the greatest Truth, "Your Honour's most obedient and very humble Servant, "G. CLINTON. A Letter to Governor Clinton from Coll. Johnson. "MOUNT JOHNSON, July 27th, 1751. "May it please your Excellency: "I enclose an account of what the French are about now at Cadaraghgin, given to Capt. Lindesay by Attrawaney, Cajuga Sachim, who begg'd of him to let me know it as soon as possible. I thought proper also to let your Excellency know that there has a Body of French to the number of twelve hundred, and two hundred Orondakees, &c., passed by Oswego about a fortnight ago, with a design to cut off (as I understand) some of the Nations of Indians to the Westward who are strongly attached to the British Interest; also to stop the Philadelphians building at or near Ohio or any where else thereabout. Having this Account confirmed by a French Deserter now at my House who saw this Body of Men set off from Cadaraghqui, I immediately (in your Excellency's Name) took upon me to send an Express through all the Nations (with a large Belt of Wampum), acquainting them of the French's March that way, and desiring they might be on their Guard, which has been so kindly taken by the Five Nations that it is not to be expressed. I am with all due Respect imaginable, "Your Excellency's most obedient humble Servant, "WM. JOHNSON." Atterwaney's Account sent to Coll. Johnson of the French building a Ship at Cadaraghqui, sent him from Lt. Lindesay, July, 1751. This 10th Day July Atterwaney came here from the Messesagues, where he had been negotiating an Alliance with said Nation. He told all their old Sachims were dead and young ones put in their Places, who confirmed their old Alliance and promised to keep it firm and Strong, altho' they were sollicited by the French not to make an agreement with the Five Nations. "He told he was at Cadaraghqui, where they were building a large Ship which was to have three Masts, and that some there told him when fitted was designed to come and take this Place. That he saw there six Cannon designed for said Purpose three Yards long with a wide Bore. He brought with him eight Messesagas, young Fighters, who were to go out with him against the Flatheads. I have done what I can to stop them, but yet cannot tell if I have prevailed or not. "Dear Sr.: "OSWEGO, July 19th, 1751. "As I did not know of this Battoes going off till just now, have but just time to acquaint you that there passed by here a few days ago some canoes of French Traders who say there was an army gone up the other side the Lake, with which was two hundred of the Onondack Indians under the Command of Monsieur Belletre and the Chevalier Longville, and that their Design was against a village of the Twightwees where the English are building a Trading House of Stone, and that they were to give the English warning to move off in a peaceable manner, which if they refused they were to act with Force; And that they intend to build a Fort there and garrison it with three hundred men. The Governor's Son of Montreal is hourly expected to pass by here with fourteen Canoes of Soldiers, which are then designed to be stationed at the above Place. H "This is the Village where George Croghan generally trades, all the Indians of which are firmly attached to the English, for which reason the French call them Rebels, and are going to bring them in Subjection. Two of the chiefs are to have no Mercy; the others, if they submit, are to be pardoned. "BENJAMIN STODDERT. Two Members of Assembly waited upon the Governor and acquainted him that the House having read and considered the Letters he was pleased to lay before them concerning Indian Affairs, and thank'd him for the early communication of such Intelligence, and requested the Governor's Care to do what may be proper in Consequence thereof. And further, that the House were inclined to adjourn this Day to the thirtieth of September, to whom the Governor was pleased to say he had no Objection to the proposed Time of Adjournment. The House having agreed to the Amendments of the Bill Entituled "A Supplement to the Act entituled 'An Act for imposing a Duty on Persons convicted of Heinous Crimes, and to prevent poor and impotent Persons being imported into this Province,'" signified the same in a Message by two of their Members to the Governor; and a Member of Council having compared the Engrossed Bill with the amended one, the Speaker at the head of the House presented it to the Governor, who enacted it into a Law, and sign'd à Warrant to affix the Great Seal thereto. After which the Speaker delivered to the Governor an Order on the Provincial Treasurer for Four Hundred Pounds. At a Council held at Philadelphia, Thursday the 3d of October, 1751. PRESENT: The Honourable JAMES HAMILTON, Esqr., Lieutenant Gov ernor. William Till, Thomas Lawrence, The Minutes of the preceding Council were read and approved. The Returns of Sheriffs and Coroners for the several' Counties were read, and the following Persons were appointed and Commissions accordingly executed: Sheriff. Isaac Griffitts, Joseph Hart, Philadelphia County, Bucks County, Chester County, Coroner. Thomas James, Joshua Thomson, The Governor laid before the Board a Letter from the Honourable Proprietaries which came by Cap' Reeves, who arrived Yesterday from London, ordering and directing Mr. Taylor to be struck out of the Council, and to supersede any Commission he may have for the Office of Magistrate within the Province, which was read * * * * * * * ** * and the Council having given their Sentiments unanimously that Mr. Taylor's Treatment of the Proprietaries as set forth in the Letter, was extremely unjust and indecent, his Name was ordered to be left out, and that he shou'd not hereafter be summoned to Council: "Sir: A Letter of the Proprietaries to Governor Hamilton. "Mr. Abraham Taylor, a Member of our Council, in the month of October last represented to us by Letter, that 'Among the Writings belonging to a right which he had in America there were some ancient Papers relating to a certain Boundary as it was understood before the Grant of Pennsylvania; that he always thought it wou'd be of use for us to know this, and therefore resolved to communicate it; that he was then treating about the sale of this right, but as it had some connection with the aforesaid Papers he had concluded to take no further Steps in the Affair till he had acquainted us with it,' alledging that if after those Papers were out of his Hands they should get into the possession of any Adversary, very probably some Arguments of a disagreeable Nature might be drawn from them.' up for "On Receit of this Letter one of us went to Town to give him an opportunity of shewing these old Papers that related to his Right, when we found the Right was a Pretence of Ralph Fretwell, who was sent over by some Friends in Barbadoes to take himself and them a large Tract of Land where they intended to settle together, but his Scheme having interfered with other surveys the Purchase was not made nor the Lands surveyed; and instead of old Papers which had Connection with such a Right he read a Manuscript in his own Hand writing containing many sheets of large Paper, and to which was added one or two Maps made by himself; in it no mention was made of this or any other private Right, but it contained a long Series of Arguments to prove that the Boundary of Pennsylvania to the south should not be more Southward than the Parellel of forty Degrees of Northern Latitude as it is now discovered to lye, and that Virginia and Maryland had an undoubted Right to all to the Southward of such a Boundary; in Support of his argument he cited Proofs from the Virginia Records and a number of other Papers; and this Composition, which from the Length and Variety of Matter must have taken much time to compose it, was undertaken as he himself said out of pique or resentment to us, because we had ordered our Secretary to refuse to grant him about twenty thousand Acres of Land he asked for in that Right, which Pretence was so trifling that we are informed the Heirs of Fretwell took £50 Currency for it, and which we acquainted him Ralph Fretwell himself, in a Letter to our Father now in our hands, relinquished all claim to at the same time declaring he had not a foot of Land in the Province but Tennicum, purchased of Christopher Taylor. "Upon this Declaration and finding the Paper had not the least connection with the Right, tho' he pretended it had, and he must give it to the Purchaser, we could form no other Judgment of the matter than that by threatning to deliver these arguments to the Purchaser, which perhaps he had intended shou'd be Lord Baltimore had he arrived in time, he expected to force us to grant him the Land. "This attempt we looked on to be very Dishonorable, and a man that is in Possession of Places of Honour and Trust by our appointment, and an Alderman of the City by the choice of the Corporation, that can cooly sit down for many days together to injure his Country and the Persons he accepted his Places from, in particular the City of Philadelphia, which, could his argument take Place, must be thrown into Maryland and depend on that Government for such Powers of a Corporation as the Governor shall think proper, as well as subject his Fellow Citizens to Disputes about Lots which by their own Industry they had rendered of very great value, very unfit to execute any office in a Government; for these Reasons we do hereby order and direct that at the first Council after you receive this Letter you cause it to be read at the Board and entered on the Council Books, that you strike the said Abraham Taylor out of the List of our Council, that you supersede every Commission now granted to him, and that you do not during the rest of your Government insert his Name in any other Commission without our order for the same, and that you acquaint the Mayor of the City of Philadelphia with the contents of this Letter. We are "Your affectionate Friends. "London, July 27th 1751." "THO. PENN, A Letter from Governor Clinton enclosing a copy of his Letter to be sent to the Governor General of Canada upon Infractions of |