Proceedings of Sir William Johnson with the Indians.

[New-York Papers (State Paper Office) COLYII.]

Extract from the Proceedings of a Congress with the Six Nations held at Johnson
Hall in July 1771.

At a Congress held on Tuesday July 16lh 1771

The Indians being assembled to answer Sir William's speech of the day before Tyorhansera Cheif Speaker arose, and after repeating all that had past during the whole Congress on tho sev1 Belts &c proceeded as follows

Brother Warraghyagey

We are now assembled to answer you, agreable to what you said on your first Belt and in the first place assure you that as it has given us much concern to hear of any suspicion entertained of our Fidelity, we have given it that serious consideration which an affair of such importance required, and we shall give you as full and true an answer, as we are able thereupon. A Belt of 8 Rows

Brother,

We have for your satisfaction made a very strict enquiry amongst our several nations concerning the Intelligence that you received but after the closest examination amongst the principal nations here we could not find one single person acquainted therewith, Yet still further to convince you of our sincerity, and sensible that if any of our People harbored any evil thoughts they were not propagated on this side of the Upper Seneca Villages, Sayenquarraghta has last night examined those of the farthest Castle, who are here, who have declared that any evil yet remaining proceeds from Gaustarax the Cheif of Chenussio, who is now under the ground, and was always a busy man, that privately and wickedly concerned himself in mischief in the name but without the Privity of the Six Nations. This troublesome man sent, at the late Indian war, a Belt hatchet with many bad speeches to the Shawanese, and to all the people living that way, but kept it very secret from Sayenquaraghta knowing he was a friend to the English. By this Belt he acquainted all these Nations that he would remove the door of the six Nations which was formerly at his village at Chenussio, down to Scioto plains, and that he expected their assistance to enable him to fight his way there. This was not discovered for a considerable time afterwards, as Guastarax was well known to be a very artful designing man, always employed in mischief. We both dis-regarded him and

disavowed his acts, with which we presumed you had been well acquainted, but that you did not particularly notice it, from your reliance on our fidelity. But, Brothers, the disposition of those people who appear to accuse us is well known, and that they are but too ready to quarrell with the English, and as Guastarax's cunning was well known both to you and us, we should not be surprised, if he had at several times since, sent Belts to the Ohio, and particularly when he met so many Indians from thence, at the Treaty at Fort Stanwix, we having now discovered from an Indian now here, who received it some time ago from a Shawanese at the Big Island, that Guastarax had then sent Belts, recommending it to those living at that place, to retire to the great plains, that their young men should apply themselves to hunting for three years, to purchase necessarys for war, and that when they were ready he would assist them. This Circumstance was known to the person who mentioned it Yesterday for some time, but considered by him as a project totally laid aside, and we can truely assure you that we knew nothing even of this, till he told it us, after you had delivered your speech, and that we have never sent any such belts, or messages, to those people, neither have we ever heard of any such being sent by any of the Six Nations, but what we just now mention. We have often observed that the Chenussios are neglectful, we must acknowledge they are very liable to suspicion, they have very often differed from us in Sentiments, and Conduct, and as it is known to you, that Gaustarax was capable of doing any bad thing, we suppose he may have left such Belts with these people, and that they still remain there, of which they now take an advantage, but we again affirm that none of us had any knowledge of them, or concern therein, and we think it extremely hard to be constantly charged with the Acts of particular bad men who neither regard our advice, or divulge their schemes to us, though they may make use of our names as a cover to their badness of heart. A Black and White Belt. 7 Rows.

Brother,

Now having truely and fairly related to you all we are acquainted with touching this disagreeable news, we declare that in case any such secret hatchet should be still amongst the Indians about the Ohio, we are ready and willing to use our utmost authority to take it away and bury it forever, but as Thomas King with our other Deputies are now gone to that Country with the most ample powers for restoring peace & effectually checking all those who would disturb you, or us, we are confident he will bring it away with him at his return, if any such there is; however, should it be concealed from him, & still remain in their hands, we engage as a farther proof of our friendship, and pacific disposition to fetch it from thence, and to prevent as far as lies in my power any such private dealings in future. These are the Words of truth, and our sincere resolutions. A large Belt, 12 Rows. RICH SHUCK BURGH

Extracted from the Minutes of Ind" Affairs & Examd by

Secry for Ind" Affairs.

No 5. My Lord,

Governor Tryon to the Earl of Hillsborough.

[New-York Papers (State Paper Office) CLXIII.l .

Fort George, New York, Sept 2d, 1771

As doubts have arrisen respecting the appointment of Surrogate and Register of the Prerogative Court within this Government, I beg leave to submit the equity and Propriety of

the claims to his Majesty: The one claiming the appointment of the Officer of the said Court, under the King's Commission as Commander in Chief in and over the province, the latter under the patent of Secretary of the Province.

Mr Banyar's Memorial, in behalf of Mr George Clark Secretary, with a Copy he delivered me of an Order of his late Majesty in Council at the Court of Kensington the S,h of May 1758, I have the honor to transmit to your Lordship, together with my letter in answer to Mr Banyar's Memorial, wherein I required the Prerogative Seal to be delivered up to me; The rights of this Court, My Lord, I was in the exercise of in North Carolina; with this Difference that the Crown of the Great Seal was used to all instruments as the prerogative Seal, and that Wills were by the Direction of a particular Act of Assembly recorded in the County Courts. Finding therefore on my arrival here that the principal perquisites which were appropriated in North Carolina to the support of the Governor's private Secretary, were received by the Surrogate and Registry in Question, and also finding the Earl of Dunmore had actually given to Mr Banyar the Deputy Secretary, the Commission of Surrogate and Registry, and after receiving opinions, both in England and in this town, from gentlemen of the first eminence of the Bar, that such appointment was vested in the Governor, 1 gave the Commission in question to Mr Fanning,1 my private Secretary, as an honorable testimony of his public and distinguished services in the late rebellion in North Carolina, where he commanded the Orange Detachment of 200 men, and in recompence for the loss he sustained by his house and furniture being destroyed in the Riot at Hillsborough Superior Court in September last. I shall not trouble Your Lordship with any law points, but rest my conduct in this instance on the Equity of the case. I am, with real esteem and regard My Lord, Your Lordships

I take the first opportunity after my return to London to congratulate you upon your arrival at New York & to acquaint you that it hath given his Majesty much satisfaction to find that

1 Edmund Fanning, who afterwards became so notorious in the war of the Revolution, was originally an attorney of North Carolina, and represented in the Assembly there the county of Orange, of which he was the Recorder of Deeds and Colonel of the militia. He married Governor Tryon's daughter, and rendered himself so odious to his neighbors that he accompanied his father-in-law to New-York in the capacity of Private Secretary. In 1776 he received authority to enlist a corps of Loyalists, afterwards called the Associated Refugees, or King's American Regiment of Foot; it was raised with funds subscribed io Stalen Island, King's County, town of Jamaica, and city of New-York. This regiment was disbanded in 1783. In September of that year Col. Fanning was sworn in Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. He was subsequently appointed LieutenantGovernor of Prince Edward's Island, the affairs of which Province he administered for nearly nineteen years. Sabine. He became Major-General in the army in 1793; Lieutenant-General in 1799; General 25 April, 180S, and died at an advanced age, in his house in Upper Seymour Street, London, on the 28th February 1818. His widow and three daughters survived him. Gentleman t Magazine, LXXXVIII., 469. — ED.

you have met with so favourable & affectionate a Reception from all ranks of his Majesty's Subjects in that Colony.

I have long lamented the disorders which have prevailed on the lands heretofore considered as part of the province of New Hampshire, but which were annexed to the Government of New York by his Majesty's Order in Council of the 20,b July 1764.

By this order however all Contests between the two Governments in respect to territorial jurisdiction were finally decided, & therefore if Acts of Violence have been committed with impunity & the authority of Government insulted, it is not to be attributed to any want of Decision of Government here.

It is true indeed that his Majesty hath thought fit to suspend any final determination with regard to the different claims of Property in those Lands until the State of each claim could be fully examined, and it might reasonably have been expected, that in a case where so many different rights & Interests were in question, the servants of the Crown in the several Departments would not proceed without due caution & circumspection, and would avoid hastily deciding upon a matter of so much difficulty & importance, I have the satisfaction however to acquaint you that the Board of Trade did some time since make a full Report to the Privy Council upon this subject, and I doubt not but that 1 shall soon be enabled to send you the necessary instructions in consequence thereof.

The King approves of your conduct in having demanded Reparation of the Governor of St. Domingo for the losses which Capt. Frisby of the Hawke sustained by the Seizure of his vessel and the unjustifiable treatment he met with from the Spaniards in that Government, but the King's servants are inclined to think that you went rather farther than belonged to your Situation in demanding the punishment of the Officers who made the Seizure.

It was very natural in a matter of that consequence for you to think of taking the advice of your Council, I beleive however upon reconsideration of the subject you will be Opinion that it is not proper to lay before a provincial Council for their consideration any matters of a general public nature which have no immediate relation to the affairs of that Colony, & I am to signify to you his Majesty's pleasure that you do for the future avoid taking that step in any instance of a like nature.

I have read with attention the Report of the Committee of Council upon the Extract of my letter N° 2 which you thought fit to communicate to them, on which I have only to observe that as the Minutes of the Council to which they refer for their justification were not received at the Plantation Office till more than a month after my letter was wrote, I had nothing to form my opinion upon but Lord Dunmore's Representation of the Case, in which he neither states the ground for drawing into question the Right of the Patentees of 1706, nor makes any mention of other persons being associated with Col. Bradstreet.

As the mode however of granting lands in New York and the Council's proceeding thereupon are matters of very great importance, as well in respect to the Interests of the Crown as to the Rights of the Subject, and will most probably be the subject of serious consideration at a proper opportunity, I must desire you will, as soon as may be, report to me for his Majesty's information a full state of the method of proceeding upon application for grants of lands, in order that his Majesty may be informed whether such Method does or does not correspond with the letter and spirit of the Royal Instructions given for that purpose; for if it should turn out that Grants are made to persons by name who never personally appear at the Council Board, or are examined as to their ability to cultivate and improve the Land they petition lor,

and that the insertion of Names in a Patent under pretence of their being associates or co-partners is only a Colour for giving to any one person more than he is allowed by the King's Instructions; it is an abuse of so gross and fraudulent a nature as deserves the severest Reprehension, and it is highly necessary, both for the interest of the Crown and for the dignity of his Majesty's Government that some effectual measure should be taken to put a stop to it.

As the Report of the Committee of the Council will I trust lead to a discussion that has become so highly necessary I am not on this account sorry that my Letter to you which produced that Report was communicated to the Council, but as it contained no directions from the King that it should be made that use of, His Majesty observes that you have not attended to his order signified in my circular letter of the 2d of Sepf 1768 of which, lest it should be mislaid, I enclose you a Copy.

I am happy to be able to confirm to you the Recovery of his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester from the disorder that put his life in so much danger at Leghorn, an event that I am persuaded will give general satisfaction and joy to all his Majesty's faithful Subjects. I am, &c*

HlLLSBOKOUGH.

Sir.

(N° 17.)

Earl of Hillsborough to Sir William Johnson.

[New-York Papera (State Paper Office) COLVII. ]

Whitehall, Dec 4.th 1771.

I have received and laid before the King your Dispatch No 16. The Detention of the author of the false Reports spread amongst the Indians upon the Ohio, with a view to engage them in a general plan of hostility, is a very happy event, and leaves no room to doubt of the propriety of that measure which led to so important a discovery.

I am satisfied from what passed at the Congress at Johnson Hall that the fidelity of the Six Nations is not to be doubted, & whilst they continue firm we have little to fear from the Machinations of the Senecas at Chenussio, who seem, for private purposes of their own, to have separated themselves from the rest of their tribe, and whose intrigues appear to be founded in views inconsistent with the interests of, and disapproved by, the Confederacy in general. Their Motions however ought to be watched, and there seems nothing wanting to defeat their designs but their knowing we are not ignorant of them.

I am happy to find that my sentiments with regard to the advantages to be gained from the jealousies subsisting between one tribe of the Indians and another correspond with your own Ideas on that subject: I agree with you however that the operation of those jealousies to defeat any dangerous plan that may be proposed is not always to be relied on, and I am now satisfied as well from what you state respecting the Congress at Scioto as from what appeared at the Congress at Johnson Hall, that our Intervention in the Business to be proposed at the first of those meetings was necessary, and that the sending Deputies thither from the Six Nations was a proper step.