In order therefore to balance the danger arising from this more immediate Union and Co-operation of the French with the Indians it became necessary to provide a more Systematical as well as more extensive plan of defence for the Colonies than had before been requisite; a plan which might bear some Proportion to the extent of the efforts then made by their Enemies, and which having for its object the preservation of all your Majesty's Colonies from the common Danger, could no otherwise be administred with safety, or with effect, than under the immediate controul of their common Sovereign & Protector: and the utility of sucha plan under those circumstances was soon manifested by its consequences, and by the share it had in contributing to that Success, which ever after attended the British Arms in America. From the slight view of the original Causes of the institution of Superintendants, and of the consequence it produced, it cannot but appear evident, that every objection both to the expense and difficulty in execution was answered by the necessity of the Case, and importance of the object; but should it appear to your Majesty that the alteration in the state of America, since the Peace, has rendered the measure less necessary at least in its full extent, every consideration both of expence, and of difficulty in the execution, must now be carefully attended to, before a right Judgement can be formed, as to the expediency of continuing either the whole or any part of it.

To maintain a good Correspondence with the Indians is undoubtedly an object of great importance and upon a carefull examination into the state of Indian Affairs after the conclusion of Peace, it appears that the two principall Causes of the discontent, that still rankled in the minds of the Indians and influenced their Conduct, were the encroachments made upon Lands which they claimed as their Property, & the Abuses committed by Indian Traders and their Servants: The necessity which appeared in the then state of Our Interest with the Indians of making some immediate provision against these two causes of their discontent induced the Proclamation of October 1763; which very prudently restrained all persons from Trading with the Indians without licence; and forbid by the strongest prohibitions, all Settlement beyond the limits therein described as the boundary of the Indian hunting Ground, putting both their commerce and property under the protection of Officers acting under your Majesty's immediate Authority and making their intervention necessary in every transaction with those Indians. These however being as we have before observed, mere provisional arrangements adapted to the exigence of the time; it is become now necessary to consider what may be more permanently requisite in both the Cases to which they apply.

The giving all possible redress to the complaints of the Indians in respect to encroachments on their Lands, and a steady and uniform Attention to a faithful execution of whatever shall be agreed upon for that salutary purpose, is a consideration of very great importance; It is a Service of a general nature, in which your Majesty's Interest as Lord of the Soil of all ungranted Lands which the Indians may be inclined to give up, is deeply and immediately concerned, and with which the general security of your Majesty's possessions there is in some measure connected; it is an object comprehensive of a variety of Cases, to which the separate authority and Jurisdiction of the respective Colonies is not competent, and it depends upon negotiation, which has always been carried on between Indians and Officers acting under your Majesty's immediate authority, and has reference to matters which the Indians would not submit to the discussion of particular Colonies.

For these reasons we are of opinion, that the execution of all measures and circumstances respecting the complaints of the Indians touching their Lands should be continued to be

entrusted to the Superintendants at present acting under Commission from your Majesty, reserving to the Governor and Council of every particular Colony, which may be interested in any measure that has reference to this general Service, a right to interpose their Advice, and making their concurrence necessary to the Ratification of ever compact, that shall be provisionally made, until your Majesty's pleasure shall be known upon it.

In a plan for the management of Indian Affairs prepared by this Board in 1764, the fixing a Boundary between the Settlements of your Majesty's Subjects and the Indian Country was proposed to be established by compact with the Indians, as essentially necessary to the gaining their good will and affection, and to preserving the tranquility of the Colonies.

This Plan having been communicated to the Superintendants they have in the consequence thereof, made the proposition of such a boundary line an object of their particular attention, & of negotiation and discussion with the several Tribes of Indians interested therein.

In the Southern district a Boundary line has not only been established by actual Treaties with the Creeks, Cherokees and Chactaws, but as also, as far as relates to the Provinces of North and South Carolina, been marked out by, actual Surveys, and has had the happy effect to restore Peace and Quiet to those Colonies.

In the Northern District the proposition appears to have been received by the Indians with the strongest marks of approbation and satisfaction, and a line of separation was in 1765 suggested by them, in which Sir William Johnson acquiesced, declaring at the same time, that he could not finally ratify it without your Majesty's further directions.

The paper (Appendix A) contains a description of the several Lines as agreed upon in the negotiation to which we refer, and to the end Your Majesty may have a more perfect view of them, we have annexed to such description a Map, in which we have endeavoured to trace those lines with as much accuracy as the general Maps of America will admit of.

Your Majesty will be pleased to observe that altho on the one hand the Settlements in the new established Colonies to the South are confined to very narrow limits; yet on the other hand the middle Colonies (whose state of population requires a greater extent) have room to spread much beyond what they have hitherto been allow'd and that upon the whole one uniform and complete line will be formed between the Indians and those antient Colonies, whose Limits not being confined to the Westward has occasioned that extensive settlement which being made without the consent of the Indians, and before any line was settled, produced the evil complained of.

In comparing the Map with the description in writing as taken from the Treaties with the Indians, your Majesty will observe, that the boundary line with the Six Nations and their allies is made upon the Map to terminate at that part of the Ohio, where it receives the Connahway River, instead of continuing it down the Ohio to the Cherokee River, and up that River to its source, as described in the Treaty; the reason for which is, that although the six Nations may have pretensions to the Dominion of the Country on the South side of the Ohio lower down than the Connahway River yet in fact it is more occupied by the Cherokees and other independant Tribes, as their hunting Ground; and therefore the making any Settlements beyond the Connahway River, or at least beyond a line drawn from the Mouth of it, to where the Cherokee line now terminates as marked on the Map would be altogether inconsistent with what has been settled and agreed upon with that Nation for which reason we think, that the line settled with the Southern Indians, and that which remains to be settled with the Six Nations, ought to be united in the manner we have described.

Upon the whole it does appear to us, that it will be greatly for your Majesty's Interest as well as for the Peace, Security and Advantage of the Colonies that this boundary line shoud as speedily as possible be ratified by your Majesty's Authority and that the Superintendants should be instructed and impowered to make Treaties in your Majestys name with the Indians for that purpose, and enabled to make such presents to the Indians as the Nature and extent of the Concessions on their part shall appear to require, care however should be taken in the Settlement of this bussiness, that the agreement for a boundary line be left open to such alterations as, by the Common consent, and for The mutual Interest of both parties may hereafter be found necessary & expedient.

If your Majesty should be graciously pleased to approve what we have here recommended, we humbly submit whether it may not be further necessary that the Colonies should be required to give every sanction to the measure in their power and to provide by proper laws for the punishment of all persons, who shall endanger the publick peace of the Community, by extending Settlements or occupying lands beyond such line.

What we have above stated in respect to the expediency of continuing the Office of Superintendants is confined merely to Negotiation with the Indians concerning the boundary line; But we humbly submit, that there are other Branches of Duty and Service, which though they be of less urgency yet do both from their Nature and importance require the intervention of Officers acting under your Majesty's immediate Authority and which as they have reference to the general interests of the Indians, independent of their connection with any particular Colony, cannot be provided for by the Provincial Laws, such are the renewal of antient Compacts or Covenant-Chains made between the Crown and the principal Tribes of Savages in that Country; the reconciling Differences and disputes between one body of Indians and another; the agreeing with them for the sale or surrender of Lands for public purposes not lying within the limits of any particular Colony; and the holding interviews with them for these and a variety of other general purposes which are merely objects of Negotiation between your Majesty and the Indians.

These may it please your Majesty, are in our Judgement Services of great importance, and to which it is essentially necessary for the preservation of the British interest with those Indians, and for the preventing all foreign influence and Connection, that strict attention should be paid..

Antecedent to the Establishment of the present Plan of Superintendants the management of these Interests was entrusted to the Governors of the Colonies, which were principally connected with the Indians but when we consider the dependent State of such Governors; that the other duties of their Station must interfere with this very important one; how greatly the objects of this Service are increased by alliances with those numerous Nations heretofore under the Dominion of France and how necessary it is that a constant watch should be kept upon their Motions and designs and that your Majesty's Servants should be constantly and regularly informed of the true State of Affairs; and of all transactions in the Indian Country; We cannot but be of Opinion that these are reasons joyned to what We have already stated which do make it essentially necessary that the Office of Superintendants should for the present be continued for these purposes; and that they should be enabled by stated annual Establishment co[n]fined to a certain Sum, to make such Presents as have been usual & and customary; therefore are become absolutely necessary upon all occasions of Treaties held with the Indians for public purposes the expence of which including Salaries to the two

Superintendants need not according to the calculations and estimates made by them, exceed Eight Thousand pounds annually.

Having thus fully stated to your Majesty the nature & extent of those Services which relate to the Management of Indian Affairs; independent of the Trade with them, we shall in the next place submit what has occured to us upon the latter subject.

It must be admitted that a proper Plan of Trade with the Indians is an object deserving great attention not only from the Commercial benefit resulting from it, but also from the effect that its being ill or well governed must have upon the temper & disposition of the Savages and as it must consist of Regulations that depend upon local situation and circumstances, and which require the authority of law to carry them into execution it cannot be conducted with the same facility, or be properly and effectually controlled by Officers having no other authority, than what they derive from your Majestys Commission. Upon the fullest examination into the effect and operation of the several propositions respecting the Indian Trade, suggested by this Board in 1764, and adopted by the Superintendants, it does appear to us that many of them have, in particular cases, and with respect to particular bodies of Indians been attended with salutary effect; We are convinced however upon the whole of this consideration,

First. That no one general Plan of Commerce & Policy is or can be applicable to all the different Nations of Indians of different interests and in different situations.

Secondly, That the confining Trade to certain Posts and Places, which is the Spirit and principal of the present System, however expedient and effectual with respect to the Southern Indians, is of doubtfull Policy with respect to those Indians more particularly connected with New York & Pensylvania; and that it is evidently disadvantageous inconvenient and even dangerous with respect to the much larger body of Indians, who possess the Country to the Westward, and with whom Your Majesty's Subjects in Quebec in particular do carry on so extensive a Commerce.

Thirdly, That independent of this objection, and of any doubt that might attend the practicabillyty of its execution in its full extent, the whole Plan does consist of such a variety of establishments, and necessarily leads to such extensive operations, as to bring on an increasing expence which in point of Commerce, may exceed the value of the object to which it applies, and being greater than the Trade can bear must if the present Plan should be permanent either fall upon the Colonies, in which Case it will be impracticable to settle the proportion each Colony should bear, or become a burthen upon this Country, which we humbly conceive, would be both unreasonable and highly inconvenient.

For these reasons therefore and under these circumstances, we are humbly of opinion that the laying a side that part of the present Plan which relates to the Indian Trade, and intrusting the entire Management of that Trade to the Colonies themselves will be of great advantage to your Majesty's Service, as a means of avoiding much difficulty, and saving much expense both at present and in future.

It is certainly true, that while the management of this Trade was in the hands of the Colonies antecedent to the establishment of Superintendants many abuses were committed by the Traders, little care was taken to subject them to proper regulations and the misconduct of the Colonies in this particular contributed not a little to involve us in the enormous expences of an Indian War.

If therefore it were probable that the like neglect or mismanagement would again take place, in such a degree as to expose us to the same consequences We should not hesitate in declaring our Opinion against the propriety of suffering the management of this concern ever to revert into the hands of the Colonies.

But we trust, that the experience which the old Colonies have had of the ill effects of such inattention and neglect, will induce all of them to use more caution and better management for the future; and particularly to adopt such of the Regulations established by the present Superintendants; as have evidently operated to the benefitt of the Trade, and to the giving that satisfaction and content to the Indians from which alone the Colonies can hope to derive either immediate profit or lasting Peace and Security.

With respect to the Question, how far the present expense regarding the disposition of Troops for Indian purposes, may with propriety and safety be lessened by reducing most of the Posts now subsisting and intrusting others of them to the Provinces themselves, we beg leave in the first place in general to represent it to your Majesty, as our humble opinion, that it will be in the highest Degree expedient to reduce all such Posts in the interior Country, as are not immediately subservient to the protection of the Indian Commerce and to the defeating of French and Spanish Machinations among the Indians, or which, although in some degree useful for these purposes cannot be maintained but at an expence disproportioned to the degree of their utility. But before we apply this observation to the particular Posts now subsisting it may be proper to take a cursory view of the Interests and Situations of the several Tribes or Bodies of Indians whose commerce and connections are the objects of whatever Establishments it may be thought necessary to continue.

The Indians included in the Southern District consist principally of the Chactaws, Creeks and Cherokees the Chickasaws being reduced to a very inconsiderable number and the Catawbas in great measure domiciliated within the Settlements of, North Carolina; the commerce and connection with the Creeks and Cherokees have been from the Situation of their Country principally confined to the British Colonies of Georgia North and South Carolina, and Virginia whilst the commerce and connection with the Chactaws whose Country extends from the Albama River to the Mississippi, were for that reason altogether confined to the French Colony of Louisiana.

By the Treaty of Paris, France has renounced all pretensions to dominion in the Chactaw Country which is thereby become in respect to that stipulation a part of the British Empire, and consequently all Trade and intercourse between the Subjects of France or Spain in Louisiana and those Indians is in fact illicit and contraband; and yet it is evident from the reports made by the Superintendant of the Southern District, that such Trade and intercourse is still continued to be kept up to a very great degree.

Such may it please your Majesty is the state of commerce and connection with the principal Tribes of Indians in the Southern District; and as their Commerce both from Louisiana and the British Colonies is carried on through a great variety of paths and routs, and does not depend upon Rivers and Lakes, forming as in the Northern District the only passes into the Indian Country, it is evident that both the Security and extension of it must depend upon the effect and operation of those regulations, under which it shall be carried on; and that neither the Trade of your Majesty's Subjects can be protected nor the connection and intercourse between Louisiana and the Indians prevented by Forts or Military Establishments.