of Lake Champlain have been granted to the English and French by their respective Governors, as will appear by the Map which I had the honor of transmitting to England & mentioned in my letter No 6. to the Earl of Shelburne dated 22a of February 1767, & in my letter to the Lords of Trade dated 4th April 1767. Your Lordship will see by those different claims what the difficulties are which we labour under at present, for no particular Boundary Line [was] fairly drawn between the Provinces, the English claim supported by that which was made before them by the Dutch extended as far as the forty fifth degree of Latitude, This Line was supposed by the French to be more to the Southward than we found it on observation, & several of their grants in those parts are covered by those since made by Mr Colden to the reduced Officers & Soldiers under His Majesty's Proclamation; This will of course open such a scene of litigation, as I am afraid will defeat the expectations of forwarding the settlements in that part of the Country to prevent which it is our humble request that His Majesty's pleasure might be known how far to the Southward of the 45th Degree any French grants are to be allowed, for they have no settlements to claim under which (which I am informed was an absolute condition of their Grant, as they paid no Quit Rent) & the quantity of Land in most of their Grants far exceeds that which His Majesty has been pleased to allow to those mentioned in the 2d Proviso which was not to exceed 20,000 Acres to each Person where an actual settlement had been made.

N° 4 My Lord

Sir William Johnson to the Earl of Hillsborough.

[Plantations General (8. P. O.) CCLIV., No. 4. ]

Fort Stanwix Oct 23. 1768

I was in hopes that about this time I should have been enabled to transmit your Lordship the Agreable Account of my having settled the Boundary Line between Us & the Indians, but a train of unforeseen Accidents, together with a variety of obstructions given to it by the Spaniards and French at the Mississipi and others lurking amongst the Indians have as yet denyed me that pleasure & rendered it a matter of difficulty sufficient to deter many from the prosecution of it.

Not expecting to have been detained here so long or to have occasion to write to your Lordship before my Return, I have neither your Lordships Letter, nor my own at this place, but I recollect that my long letter No 2 was of the 20 of July, and that I since wrote to your Lordship about the begining of last month.

On the 19 Ult I arrived at this place having Appointed the 20th for the Indians to meet me; the Commissioners from Virginia set out before me, the Governor of New Jersey Accompanied me, and I was followed by the L' Governor of Pensilvania the Governor of New York thought it uneccessary to send Comiss" as I was to transact the business-After waiting here several days, during which the Indians came & encamped, I heard that the Shawanese, Delawares, & Senecas with many others were still at a considerable distance & that several private Affairs & conferences which they held at the Towns they passed thro' would retard them for a much

longer time than could have been expected, by the beginning of this Month we had 805 Indians here, but the much greater part of those of the most consequence were still behind, I dispatched Messengers to hurry them, by whom I was informed of the sudden Death of a Seneca Chief and that the condolences usual on such occasions would detain them some days more in the Senecas Country which they had then reached. I was much concerned on this occasion by reason of the great consumption of provisions & the heavy Expences attending the Maintenance of those Indians on the spot whose numbers amounted by the 14 of this Ins to 930, each of whom consumes daily more than two ordinary Men amongst Us, and would be extremely dissatisfied if stinted when convened for business, but altho' this Circumstance alone was very disagreable from the difficulty of getting provisions there being none nearer than Albany, & very little there, except some Cattle at an extravagant price I had yet more cause to be uneasy from the certain discovery I had made of the minds of many of the Indians, of the private Belts & Messages passing from the one to the other, of the purport of their several Councils & of the false Reports & Missrepresentations circulating amongst them, As my last and former letters will shew their disappointment that no plan had been hitherto adopted (as they had been promised) with due regard to the peculiar Circumstances of their situation with proper power in the Department for the discharge of their Several Affairs, I need not to add more than that it has had a visible effect upon them all, and that their suggestions arising therefrom have a bad tendancy, when this is considered together with the errors misconduct & frauds which they must experience thro' the want of these powers and regulations the encouragement thereby given to our natural Enemys, and the success of their endeavours to withdraw the Indians from us, will appear rather a matter of concern than of surprize. That this is realy the case at present, I am too well satisfied I have for a considerable time past represented the Secret practices & endeavours of both the Spaniards and French in the names of their respective Sovereigns to render us Odious to the Indians to unite them against us, & to persuade them to renew hostilities under the prospect of Aid, which it is more than probable they would afford them the first occasion that offered to effect this they avail themselves of every circumstance in the Affairs of America, of every instance of our ill treatment & of every uneasiness manifested by the Indians, the reduction of Officers and the Retrenchment of Expences in the Indian Department has been already represented by their Agents as instances of Our parsimony neglect and contempt, and the want of any powers for their releif as marks of our injustice & disregard, the unrestrained conduct & cheats of the Traders have been given as characteristick proofs of our dishonesty & want of authority, the neglect of sending Missionaries of our Church amongst them, as an instance of our irreligion In short there is nothing within the compass of their knowledge of which they have not made use thro' the means of Agents of much influence, supported by gentle treatment, and confirmed by handsome presents, all this is carried on with a secrecy with renders it the more dangerous, The Public in general are ignorant hereof, & unguarded against them & thus American Affairs are represented as best suits the Views of party or the pursuits of Interests1 It has been admitted and is most certain that the Colonies can neither attend to these Matters or correspond in settlements so as to defeat these designs, All these Affairs are properly the task of a person under his Majesty's imediate direction, and is it possible my Lord, that such Person can oppose himself to an Enemy so powerfull without proper Support & some assistance, It may appear 'Interest. Johnson's MSS., XVI.

2

Sentiments. Ibid. - ED.

improbable that the French or Spaniards should act this part, and still more so that they should Act by Authority, whilst a peace is subsisting between the British Crown and them, but be this as it will, certain it is that not only several known Partizans, & many Traders, but also some Officers of their Troops (as the Indians affirm) have actually come into the Indian Country, where they have conducted themselves as is represented, and their Councils have not only greatly retarded the measures we are now taking but threaten this Country with farther Calamities. The Indians who seemed most desirous of a Boundary Line, are now either indifferent about it or are apprehensive that we have something thereby in View which may be dangerous to their libertys The French and Spaniards have given a formal invitation, and used every means in their power to draw them to a general Congress at the Mississipi and I have undoubted Authority for assuring Your Lordship that had not my Belts and Messages arrived when they did to the Southward the Chiefs would have complied with the invitation. Besides Indian Information In proof of this I have now before me several letters, & intelligences which I received since my arrival at this place. The accounts from all Quarters corroborate the Indians dissatisfied with Us for the reasons I have given & intoxicated with the Storys and promises of designing men, seem to wait the Event of this Congress, as of an Affair which is to determine their Conduct, and to expect at this time some final & certain assurances of an attention to be given to their Affairs, and a Redress to their Greivances to which the Boundary is foreign being a single object the advantages of which (if the Colonists should pay due regard to it) cannot be felt by any of the Indian Nations for some time, and are at best local, & confined to one Confederacy.

Notwithstanding this disagreable aspect of Affairs the difficulties I have to encounter, & the want of Authority for giving the Indians a satisfactory Assurance on many Subjects of their concern I am determined to persevere in the execution of my orders, as well as in every endeavour which shall appear to me necessary at this Juncture to the best of my Judgement, & the utmost extent of an influence which properly supported could I am fully persuaded do his Majesty & the Public good Service, & afford me better pretensions to your Lordships friendly regards, an honor in the highest estimation with my Lord

P. S. This letter having lain by till this day for want of a good opertunity, I have only to add that our proceedings appear loaded with fresh difficulties from the several Belts in the Indians Hands & I have only opened the Conference, and the Indians continue comeing in, their number here now, is little short of three thousand.

(N° 29.) My Lord,

Governor Moore to the Earl of Hillsborough.

[New York, CLX., A. 45. ] ·

Fort George November 7,h 1768.

I was under a necessity of adding a long Postscript to one of my letters by the last conveyance as the pacquet was to sail on the Evening of the same Day on which His Majesty's Council had met and of course I was so limited in point of time, as not to have it in my power to send to your Lordship the best authorities we had for the claim set up by this Province to their Northern Boundary. I have here inclos'd the Extract from the Grant given to the Duke of York by King Charles the 2d dated 12th of March 1664, and from the construction put upon this Grant here, we have allways thought that the Duke had a Title to all the Lands on both sides of Hudson's River to its source, between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers, and that it was the Intention of the Crown that those lands should be granted to him; and we likewise apprehend that upon this interpretation of the Duke of York's title, that the Crown so lately decided in our favor the Countroversy between this Province and New Hampshire. This Grant, The Possessions of the Dutch, and the Proclamation of 1763 with divers Acts of our own Assembly, are the authorities by which we ascertain the limits of this Province, and on which, our claims mentioned in that Postscript are founded; The Rivers of Hudson and Connecticut have never yet been trac'd to their sources, most Maps place the head of the last a great way further to the North than I apprehend it really is, and lay it down nearer to the 46,b than to the 45th Degree.

I have already had the honor of informing your Lordship that I had been endeavouring to procure an actual survey of that part of the Country, but was prevented by the orders I receiv'd to proceed no farther till His Majesty's pleasure should be known, I had at that time a return sent to me of a Survey made on the Ice upon the Connecticut River, which began at the East and West line which is the Boundary between this Province and the Massachusets Bay, and extended to the Northward a little beyond the 44th Degree. Whatever is laid down above that I cannot depend upon, but the Government of New Hampshire hath granted Townships full Seventy miles farther to the Northward both on the Connecticut River and the Lake Champlain as their Charts will shew, although I presume they were never actually measur'd, which was the case of so many others under the same Title; The Head of Hudson's River is suppos'd to be so far to the Northward that a line drawn from thence to the head of the Connecticut River, agreeable to the Duke of Yorks grant, would, it is imagin'd take away more of the French Grants notwithstanding its oblique course, than the Limits prescrib'd by His Majesty to this Province in fixing their Boundary to the 45,h Degree of Latitude. The claim therefore set up by New York of a right as far as the 45"1 Degree is only in support of the Grant to the Duke of York, and as such we hope it will be admitted. I have the honor to be with

the greatest Respect

My Lord,

Your Lordship's most

Earl of Hillsborough, Secretary of State.

Obedient and humble Servant
H. MOORE

(No. 23.)

Sir,

Earl of Hillsborough to Governor Moore.

[New-York, CLX.]

Whitehall. 15,h Novr 176S.

You have already been acquainted by a letter from Mr Pownall that your Dispatches to me from N° 22 to 25, had been received, since which they have been laid before the King; but as I have not any thing in Command from His Majesty upon the subject of those Dispatches, I have only to inform you, that the Queen was happily brought to bed of a Princess on Tuesday last, and that both Her Majesty & the young Princess are as well as can be desired; I most heartily congratulate you upon this increase of the Royal Family, an event that affords the greatest satisfaction to all His Majesty's Subjects.

Inclosed I have the honor to send you His Majesty's Speech to His Parliament at the opening of the Session on the Sb instant together with the Addresses to the King from both Houses, that of the House of Lords passed nemine contradicente, & that of the House of Commons without a Division. This happy Unanimity and the Resolution to preserve entire and inviolate the supreme authority of the Legislature of Great Britain over every part of the British Empire, so strongly expressed in these Addresses, will, I trust, have the happy effect to defeat and disappoint the wicked Views of those, who seek to create disunion & disaffection between Great Britain and Her Colonies, and that all His Majesty's subjects in America; who wish well to the peace and prosperity of the British Dominions, will give full credit to Parliament for that true affection towards the Colonies which appears in their Declaration that they will redress every real grievance of His Majesty's American Subjects, and give due attention to every complaint they shall make in a regular manner and not founded upon claims. and pretensions inconsistent with the Constitution.

The King having observed that the Assembly of New York has for some time past fallen into a very irregular method of appointing an Agent to solicit the affairs of the Colony in England, & His Majesty being apprehensive that this Deviation from the mode of appointing an Agent approved of in other Colonies, which has usually been by an act of Governor, Council & Assembly, specially passed for that purpose, may in future create difficulty, embarrassment and disappointment in transacting the Affairs of New York both in Office & in Parliament; I have His Majesty's commands to mention this to you, & to desire you will recommend it to the Assembly as a Matter in which their Interest is concerned, that for the future they would in the appointment of an Agent follow the Rule observed in the Islands in the West Indies & in Virginia, Carolina and Georgia, which His Majesty conceives to be the only proper and constitutional Mode & the King has the better hope of their compliance with this recommendation, as His Majesty finds it to have been the Method formerly practised in the Colony of New York itself, and is certainly the only one by which any person can be properly authorized to represent the Province and to act for it in all matters which concern its interest in general.

I would not be understood by what I have said concerning the appointment of an Agent to insinuate the most distant disapprobation of Mr Charles, who appears to have executed his Duty with the utmost regard to and zeal for the Interest of the Colony, and with every mark of proper respect and deference to Government.