On the North Carolina side of Reedy River there are three or four Families settled, and even if the Indian Boundary be run a North Course these settlements will fall five or six miles above it. One William Turner, on Saludy, below Ninety six, has settled a Cow-pen & Plantation on the above Indian Lands, although he very well knew that Mr. Wilkinson, by Governor Bull's Orders, removed a settlement off the same Tract of Land last year. I have sent a Warning to remove without loss of Time, otherwise that I should take upon me to drive them off, and distribute part of their Cattle among the Indians as a Tax belonging to them. The Cherokees propose running the Line from where it terminated, a strait Course to Col. Chiswell's Mines, which I believe will be North as nigh as 1 could make it. They say it must be very evident that as they have given up all their Claims of Lands in Virginia below Chiswell's Mines, and in South Carolina below Dewiss's Corner, that a strait Line from Reedy River to the Mines must consequently cut off a great deal of their Land in North Carolina, that part of their hunting ground lies 40 miles Eastward of where they now nominate their Boundary; but that they do not love disputing with the white people concerning a trifle, therefore they made them a present of it. It would be very necessary that a Surveyor should first sight the Line from Reedy River a North Course, in order to know where it will terminate in Virginia, and whether or not it will take away any of the settlements. NORTH CAROLINA. Extract of a Letter from Wm. Tryon, Esq., Governor of North Carolina, to the The Line was begun and run from where the dividing Line between South Carolina and the Cherokee Hunting Grounds terminated on Reedy River, steering a North Course into the Mountains, computed to be Sixty Miles from the said River. Upon finding it impossible to proceed over the Mountains, it was agreed in the abovementioned Deed that a direct Line (from the Mountain they stopt at named Tryon Mountain) to Chiswell's Mines, should, with the Line they actually ran, be the Boundary between this Province and the Cherokee Nation. This Line it is supposed will run along the Ridge of the Blue Mountains its Course to the Eastward of North, and distant Sixty or Seventy Miles from the Mountain to the Mines. *SOUTHERN DISTRICT. Extract of a Letter from John Stuart, Esq., Superintend' of Indian Affairs for the I am now to inform you that I had a Meeting with the lower Creek Nations' Warriors at Picolata, near S'. Augustine; my talks with them were very good, and I have settled a Boundary Line between their and our Grounds all round the Two Floridat & Georgia. The Line between the Chactaws and us is also settled, so that henceforward we can never have any Dispute about Lands with any Nation of Red Men. [Here follows— "Extracts from Minutes of a Conference at Johnson Hall, May, 1765," tupra, VII., 725–730. Note. The Documents preceded by an Asterisk, are borrowed from Penntylvania Archive*, IV., 821-326, and are reproduced here in order to complete the Report of the Board of Trade, and for the thorough understanding of the Map annexed thereunto. Ed.] (N° 6) Earl of Hillsborough to Governor Moore. [New-York, CLX.] Sir, Whitehall 12th March 1768. Since my letter to you N° 4. I have received and laid before the King your Letters to Lord Shelburne N° 32 & 33. There is scarce any matter contained in these Letters upon which I have not already in my Letter N° 4. signified to you His Majesty's Commands, or expressed my own sentiments, I entirely agree with you that the Boundary Line between New York & Quebec as settled by you and Lieut. Governor Carleton ought to be confirmed by His Majesty, and I will take an early opportunity of considering in what manner such confirmation may be regularly notified. Since my last to you I have received another Letter from Mr Colden stating the Proceedings against him by the Assembly on account of a Pamphlet printed here in Justification of his conduct in the Case of the Disputes about Appeals and the Stamp Act, and representing that he has reason to believe that it is the Intention of his Enemies to persecute him to the ruin of his Fortune. If these Attacks upon and proceedings against this Gentleman are the effects of his dutifull attachment to the Crown during his Administration as Lieutenant Governor, I make no doubt but His Majesty will think Himself called upon to extend His Royal Protection to him, it is therefore His Majesty's pleasure that you should make the strictest enquiries into this matter, and transmit to me every information you can procure thereupon, together with the Proceedings of the Assembly, in order to be laid before His Majesty, and in the mean time it will become you to shew all the Countenance and Regard that is due to an old and faithfull servant of the Crown. I am desired by Major General Greeme1 and other Gentlemen concerned in carrying on Iron Works in New York under the direction of Mr Hassenclever to inform you that that Gentleman misbehaves towards them and refuses to come to account, for which reason it is their Intention to supersede him and to appoint another Person in his place, and as these Works are represented to me to be of great Publick Utility, I think it my duty to recommend to you to give all the support and protection you can to the Person they mean to appoint and to give any assistance in your Power towards bringing Mr Hassenclever to a due Performance of his Engagements. I am &c* Since the Earl of Shelburnes letter to you, dated the 5 of January last, your Letters to his Lordship N° 6, 7, 8 and 9 have been received and laid before the King. 'See note, VTL, 890. — ED. I herewith transmit to you a Copy of his Lordships letter N° 6, lest it should have miscarried it being of great importance that you should receive the Kings Commands signified to you in that letter by his Lordship, which you will not fail to carry into immediate Execution The fixing the Boundary line will I trust remove the first great Foundation of Jealousy and Discontent from the minds of the Indians and be a solid proof to them of the Sincerity of bis Majesty's Intentions; And I flatter myself I shall very soon be enabled to signify his Majesty's pleasure with regard to the conduct of the Indian Trade in general; the unjustifiable occupancy of their Lands; the Posts that are to be maintained; and the particular Duties of your Office; in such a manner as to give entire satisfaction to the Indians in all Points to relieve this Kingdom from the enormous expence She at present groans under, and to remove those doubts and difficulties which occasioned by the want of precise Instructions, frequently embarrass you, and impede the exertion of your abilities to that advantage for his Majestys Service which might otherwise be reaped from them. Chabert Joncaires treacherous Conduct, and the wicked & infamous behaviour of Rogers and his correspondence with Hopkins, which appears from a copy of a Letter from the latter1 which you inclosed in your letter No 7, are of such a nature as require the utmost Circumspection and Attention of his Majesty's Servants in America; as in the present State of some mens dispositions in that Country when one Correspondence of that dangerous tendency is discovered, there is reason to apprehend there may be more of the same kind. I have the honour to inclose to you a Map, whereon is delineated the Boundary Line proposed by the Board of Trade to be Settled with the Six Nations in conformity to what was agreed upon at the Congress in 1765, and also those lines settled with the Choctaws, Creeks and Cherokees, by the Superintendant for the Southern District. This Map may possibly be of some us as it will shew in what manner the several lines are meant to be united I am & ca HILLSBOROUGH N° 10. My Lord, Sir William Johnson to the Earl of Shelburne. [Plantations General (S. P. O,), CCIIV., No. 10.] Johnson Hall 14 March 1768. A few days since I was honored with your Lordships of the 19 of December last acknowledging the receipt of my letters N° 4 & 5 with the state of the Trade Politicks & of the Northern Indians, and conveying his Majesty's Royal approbation which yeilds me a most sensible pleasure, the letters I have wrote since that of N° 5 which are four in number, I judge by your Lordships silence were not any of them come to your hands. Since my last which was of December the 3rd, the delegates from the Cherokees arrived here to treat of Peace with the Six Nations, and their Allies, in consequence of which & in conformity to your Lords directions I dispatched Belts and Messengers to call the latter to a Congress, who after many delays on ace1 of inclemency of the Season, but more from the discontented state of their Minds, of which I before gave information, arrived here the 3d of this inst* to the amount of 760 after being at one time almost resolved to return home having by the way received the disagreable account of the murders lately committed in Pensilvania, the particulars of which are that an Inhabitant near the Frontiers of that Province having Six Indians drinking in his house who were become much disguised and troublesome he took an occasion to murder them all and the next day accompanied with a Servant went to a Cabin at 14 Miles distance where he murdered four more and afterwards throwing the bodies on a heap he set fire to the house and burnt them;l sufficient proofs of which having reached the L' Governors ears he caused a Warrant to be issued with a reward of £200 for apprehending him, and he was accordingly taken and committed to Goil from whence he was forcibly carried by some of the Riotous Frontier Inhabitants and has not as yet been retaken; The Governor has issued a Proclamation and the Assembly have voted a sum of money to be given them in a present as a condolance on the part of that Province. On the arrival of the Indians at this place I had as usual, several private discourses with the Chiefs previous to my opening the Congress, and found them all, so sensibly touched at this cruel Murder & ca that I had very slender hopes of altering their sentiments several of the Old Sachims whose inclinations led them to wish for tranquility, lamented the threatening appearance of a rupture, As the whole were of opinion that this additional stroke was but a prelude to greater designes against them and when we consider the encroachments made towards the Ohio, the greiviances complained of concerning unjust Grants in other parts of the Country yet un[re]dressed, the Robberies and murders committed on their people on the Frontiers of the several Provinces (to the Southward) yet unpunished and the irregularity with which the Trade is conducted thro the want of sufficient powers to regulate it, it is not at all surprising that the Indians who are the most suspicious people in the world should on such Grounds be actuated by Spirit of strong resentment. Being naturally inquisitive concerning all our operations they make frequent enquiry's amongst the Inhabitants who understand their Language and read the public papers from whom they have now a report of our intending plant Colonies in the heart of their Country, which notwithstanding all I have said to them contributes greatly to their discontent. 1 have given them notice to hold themselves in readiness to attend for the settling of a Boundary line, agreable to your Lordships last letter N° 5 this will be agreable to them, provided they receive a handsome recompence for such Cessions of Lands as they may be induced to make, and will if due regard is paid to it prove the best means of preventing Land disputes in future, at the same time that the hints & regulations I humbly offered last October if enforced by authority will make them easy, & thereby prove the best security to the infant Settlements, & Trade which depends on the pacific disposition of the Indians. The Six Nations &ca and the Cherokee Delagates have jointly Subscribed to a Treaty of Peace, the Counterpart of which I transmit to Mr Stuart the Southern Superintendant and upon the whole I am of opinion that from what I have said in private conferences as well as in ye Public transactions contained in the copy herewith transmitted, the Indians intend to pay regard to what they have agreed to, the continuing them in which disposition must depend upon the redress of greiviances and our future conduct towards them. Be persuaded, my Lord that the utmost of my abilities & influence shall be exerted to keep them steady to engagements on which the security of the Frontiers & Trade so essentially 'These murders were committed by one Frederick Stump, a German, on the 10th and 11th January, 1718. on Middle Creek (Union county, Pennsylvania), not far from the Island called the Mahoney, in the River Susquehanna, about seven or eight mile* from Bhamokin. Pennsylvania Colonial Record*, IX., 420. - Ed. depend relying on the Countenance & Support of Government for enabling me to discharge those duty's which without such aids must prove impracticable The encouragement I have hitherto received from his Majesty's Royal approbation has enabled me to support fatigues, troubles & hazards of which very few can have a reasonable conception permit me, My Lord to hope for the continuance of it and to assure your Lordship that I am with the greatest truth Your Lordship's Proceedings of a General Congress of the Six Nations & The Chiefs of The Cherokee Deputy's arrived the 29 Dec 1767, on which Sir William sent Belts and Messages to the Six Nations &0* who did not arrive until the 2d of March by reason of the Inclemency of the Weather and other Impediments. At a Congress with the above Mentioned Nations at Johnson Hall March 4. 1768 Being all Seated Sir William open'd the Congress as follows— Bretheren of the Six Nations & Canada Confederacy I give you all a most Cordial Welcome to this place where I wish our Mutual Proceedings may be conducted with the strictest Candour and Sincerity. It is with no small concern that I am to condole with you on account of the late Act of Cruelty exercised on some of your friends within the Province of Pensilvania Whatever |