Factors, who if they can be expected to concurr in so doing will doubtless by degrees acquire the esteem of the Indians, and give them favourable prepossessions of the English, to which the adding some small presents occasionally, or making it in some measure their interest would greatly contribute, but this must be as yet meerly matter of speculation & uncertainty.—On the other hand, the neighbouring nations who are not interested in any advantages which those of Lake Superior may be supposed to enjoy will probably prejudice them as much as possible against it, & use endeavours from time to time to distress the Company in which they may be sometimes successfull, for it is most certain that the jealousy of the Indians augments as we encrease, and however they may outwardly appear reconciled to such settlements, they consider everry Beginning of ours in a verry dangerous light, & are thereby led to commit. acts of violence before they allow us sufficient time to manifest by a series of good treatment the purity of our intentions.—I judge it my duty to remark what may happen, At the same time I am of opinion that provided the object is worthy attention, and that the distance from the sea, with ye other obstructions & expences attending it do not render the plan unprofitable a circumstance on which I cannot positively decide, The Indians may be reconciled to the opening & working those mines, and that if strict care be taken to do them justice in the manner I have already proposed without any attempts to private settlements or insisting upon Charter Rights as conveying property of soil, there is a prospect of it's being enjoyed in security; and that to obtain their consents, the Cheifs of those Nations interested should be assembled when the whole should be laid before them without disguise, or making any promises but such as could & would be fully performed, and that on giving them a present, & obtaining their consent some persons of interest amongst them should accompany those who are to prosecute the design, and carrying1 the plan into execution, the future success of which must depend upon the manner in which it is conducted, and upon the temper of the Indians. I could have wished it were in my power to have more diligently enquired & to have offerred more particular remarks regarding this proposal, but when it is known that I have scarcely had a moments leisure from the number & importunity of Indians since my return last month from the Treaty at Fort Stanwix, I persuade myself I shall be in some measure excusable, should it appear that I have not been able to give it all the attention that was necessary, and as I was desireous of complying as soon as possible with His Majesty's orders by offering my thoughts upon the matter, which with the hopes of your Lordship's favourable indulgence I now humbly submit to [His Majesty's] consideration.

My Lord.

Governor Moore to the Earl of Hillsborough.

[New-York Papers (S. P. O.) CLXI.]

New York. 4. January 1769.

I am very sorry to inform your Lord that I have been under a necessity of puting an end to the late Assembly by a dissolution. My duty would not permit me to pass over unregarded the extraordinary resolves the house of Assembly had entered on their Journals, and I have here inclosed a copy of them together with a speech I made to them on the occasion. I did once flatter myself that moderate measures would have been pursued throughout the whole session, but a small Faction has found means to intimidate the rest of the members, & brought on this dissolution contrary to the General opinion or intention of the greater part of the Members.

In order to explain this, I must inform your Lord that the remains of that licentious Rabble who during our late disorders, called themselves the Sons of Liberty, had formed a design soon. after, the meeting of the Assembly to disturb the tranquility of the City by carrying the effigies of certain persons thro' the Town in procession, and afterwards burning them publicly; the Magistrates of the City exerted themselves so much on this occasion, that it could not for some time be carried into execution, but their vigilance was at length eluded, & while they were assembled in one quarter of the Town expressly for this purpose, the project was executed in a hasty manner in another, and the contrivers made their escape with so much precipitation, that the Constables could not be informed of their design time enough to secure any of the persons concerned in it. A pompous account of this was printed in one of our weekly papers, and any one would suppose by the relation there given, that the greatest part of the City was concerned in it, but this proceeding having been disavowed by the Inhabitants, the Mayor published a true relation of the transaction, which shew'd that it was done by a few of the lowest people, & by surprize. I immediately upon this attempt being made, issued a proclamation offering a Reward for the discovery of the Authors of this project; and on my acquainting the Assembly of it by a Message received their thanks for what I had done, and an Address which is set forth in the 30lh page of the printed Journals which accompany this letter. Your Lord will see in the preceeding page of these Journals how few advocates this Riot, had, by the division of the house on the Address, & I make no doubt be surprised that five Members of any Assembly whatsoever could be found in any part of the King's Dominions, who should be so weak, to declare against the support of Government and good order in the Town where they lived. When this design had so evidently failed, a sett of Instructious to the Citty Members were drawn up, and carried about the Town to be signed. Most of the Inhabitants of any consideration, refused to set their names to it, but a number of the lower sort were procured who did, and your Lord may easily imagine, what the tenor of such Instruct and dictated by such heads must be; however, these were constantly held up to view, and as the greatest part of the Assembly is composed of plain well meaning Men, whose notions from their education, are extremely confined, their fears of being exposed to the contempt of their Countrymen for not joining in what were called constitutional measure, and their apprehensions of being particularly pointed out as Enemies to their Country, engaged them in measures which they never wished to see adopted, but had not resolution enough to

oppose, for the reasons I have just mentioned, notwithstanding they had a considerable majority in the house. The same Faction was particularly instrumental in keeping up a heat in the House which would not otherwise have prevailed, and upon entring the resolves on their Journals proposed to make them still stronger by an addition to the third Resolve, as if they were apprehensive that there was not sufficient offence already given in the former part of it, but this was rejected by the house and the division on the question may be seen at the bottom of the 74lh page of the Journals. Towards the conclusion of the Session they shewed plainly what their real intentions were, by opposing the support Bill, without any cause being assigned for such a proceeding, as will appear by the Divison on the 69th page of their Journals, and I am very clear in my own opinion, that the present misconduct of the Assembly is intirely attributed to their violent measures.

On Saturday the 31st of December, on my sending for the house to pass some Bills, the inclosed resolves were put on their Journals. On my receiving them from their Clerk on Sunday morning, I immediately sent out orders for summoning His Majy'* Council to meet, before whom I laid the resolves on the morning of the next day; the minutes of that day are likewise here inclosed, and about six o'clock in the same evening I dissolved the Assembly. I could have wished that I had been better supported on this occasion by the Council, for your Lord will see, that of the eight Members, whch were present that day, the voices were equally divided, and could I have had. their concurrence for the dissolution, I am perswaded that it would have given such a blow to the Faction, as would have been attended with the most favourable consequences to the Colony. Being disappointed of that aid which I required & expected from them, I took the matter upon myself, and as I had spared no pains during the course of the Session to point out to the Assembly the Rock they would split on, and laid the Acts of Parliament before them as soon as I saw on their Journals, that a Committee was appointed to draw up Constitutional resolves, I cannot charge myself with having omitted the least circumstance which could give them information of the danger into which they were running; I therefore thought, I was called upon by the duty of my Commission to Act in the manner I have done, and shall be extremely happy if my conduct on this occasion meets with His Majesty's approbation. I have the honor to be with the greatest respect

I have received your Dispatches N° 4 & 5 and have laid them before the King. His Majesty has observed with great satisfaction the judgement and zeal you have in general testified in his service, and particularly the activity you have shewn in the important business of the Boundary line.

The King wishes however that you had not allowed the Six Nations to discover that we entertained any doubt of their right to the country South of the Kanaway River, as it appears from your letter that to this circumstance & to this alone, it was owing that you was induced to depart from the Boundary line, directed by the Report of the Lords Commissioners for Trade & Plantations, which upon the whole, after much consideration, had been determined upon political and commercial principles to be the most desireable one, and to which by His Majesty's commands you was instructed to adhere; for besides that the deviation from that line is contrary to the opinion of His Majesty's Servants on this side, and the obtaining so large an additional tract of land in that part of the continent is considered by them as productive only of disadvantage and embarrassment, the worst of it is, that it will not only probably produce jealousy and disatisfaction amongst the Cherokees, but will also tend to undo and throw into confusion those settlements and agreements for the other part of the Boundary Line, which the Superintendent for the Southern Department has concluded so ably & so precisely according to his Instructions

I have received His Majesty's commands to lay your letters, the proceedings at the Congress, and the Deed which was the result of them, and also the Dispatches received from the Superintendent of the Southern Department relative to the Boundary line, before the Board of Trade, in order that their Lordships may take the whole into their consideration & report to His Majesty their opinion what measures it may be now proper to take. In the mean time I can venture to assure you that if you can fall upon any method still to settle the Line according to your Instructions, it would be very satisfactory to His Majesty; and it appears to me that this might be done in such a manner, with regard to the Six Nations as to make them understand that His Majesty declines to accept of the large additional cession they wish to make to Him out of His paternal tenderness and affection to them and their posterity and not from any doubt he entertains of their right to the lands.

The unwarrantable conduct of the French and Spaniards, with regard to His Majesty's Indians, deserves the most serious attention and will receive the fullest consideration, and I doubt not that you will continue to exert the most watchfull vigilance to discover all further attempts of that nature, as well as to prevent their pernicious effects, and give me the earliest intelligence of any such discoveries, in order to be laid before His Majesty.

I do entirely agree with you in opinion as to the Advantages that would have resulted from adopting the more extensive plan of Superintendency proposed in the year 1765; but having fully explained to you, in my letter of the 12,b of October last, the necessity there was of conforming ourselves to a more limited plan, it is unnecessery either for you or me to say any more upon that subject; but I am commanded by the King to assure you, that you shall have every support and protection in the execution of your office, as far as its present authority extends, not doubting but that, under your direction, it will have the happy effect to produce benefits of very great national Importance.

Sir Wm Johnson Bart

I am &c.

HILLSBOROUGH

Lieutenant-Governor Colden to the Earl of Hillsborough.

[New-York Papers (8. P. O.) CLXI. ]

New York. 7 January 1769.

My Lord,

I should have acknowledged, by the preceeding Packet, the honour you did me in your letter of the 9th of July to Sir Henry Moore, of which he sent me an extract of what relates to me; had he not delayed to inform me so long, that I did not receive the extract till the day after the Mail was closed; tho' from the date of your Lord's letter he must have received it four or five weeks before that time.

I have never given Sir Henry the least personal offence since his arrival in his Govern', and yet his conduct with respect to my obtaining a recompence for my losses, from the Assembly, has been such that I cannot imagine from whence should arise that part of your Lordp's letter, wherein you direct him persevere in his recommendation of my case to the Assembly. He has been entirely influenced by the popular party which I thought it my duty to oppose. He refused formerly to send in my account of Losses to the Assembly, tho' I informed him that it had been always customary for the Gow to send in by Message from himself such accounts, as he recommended to be paid, and that the Assembly expected he should do so.

On the 24,h of last Month, he sent in my ace' of arrears of salary, and losses by the Mob in 1765., with a Message, recommending the payment, but without the least mention of his having received any directions for that purpose. At their next meeting after Xmas, the Assembly agreed to pay my full arrears of Salary, but made no resolution as to the payment of my losses. The reason I am told was, that, some objected, that I had put the Province to a great expence in having the Cannon on the Batteries unspiked, which I had ordered to be spiked up. All the Artillery of the Army which had not been brought into the Fort, were spiked up at the same time. Your Lord knows, I could give no direction for that purpose. The Cannon on the Batteries would have been unspiked, in the same manner that the Artillery of the Army was, whenever it should be thought prudent, without any expence to the Province; but the Assembly took the direction of the Cannon on the Batteries on themselves and ordered them to be unspiked.

Your Lord' can judge whether it be for the interest of Great Brittain that the Officers of the Crown in the Colonies, depend on the Assemblies for every recompence and Reward of their services. I have the satisfaction in mind, that I had during my Administration, my duty in obeying the King's instructions and the welfare of the Province, only at heart; and I am confident, no instance can be given of my acting otherwise. The sentiments which by your Lordp'* letter to Sir H. Moore, his Maj" entertains of my past conduct, does me the greatest honour, and gives me the greatest pleasure I am capable of receiving.

As the Gov has dissolved the Assembly, no doubt you will receive from him an account of their conduct. It may however be proper to inform your Lord, that the City of New York is now divided into two parties, which violently oppose each other. One consisting of the new Members chosen into the last Assembly, and the other supposed to be favoured by the Govr; both sides had the preserving their popularity in view. It is supposed this opposition will continue at the ensuing election.