(No 12) My Lord,

Governor Tryon to the Earl of Dartmouth.

[New-York, CLXVI., No. 12. ]

New York 7,h April 1774.

In Obedience to the King's Command to repair to England I shall embark this, Day with my Family on Board the Mercury Packet. 1 have delivered to Lieut Governor Colden the Great Seal of the Province with such publick Papers as remained in my Hands that were necessary for his conduct.

The General Assembly I prorogued the 19th of last Month to the 17th of May. By the printed Copies of the Acts and Journals of the House of Assembly herewith transmitted, Your Lordship will see the Provision that has been made for His Majesty's Forces, and the liberality extended to myself as a Compensation in part of my heavy losses by the late Fire at Fort George. I am, with all possible Respect and Esteem,

Earl Dartmouth.

My Lord,

Your Lordship's most Obedient Servant
Wm Tryon

Order in Council reinstating George Clarke in his office of Register of New-York.

[Book of Commissions (in Secretary's office, Albany,) VI., 128.]

At the Court at St James's the 13,h Day of April 1774.

Whereas there was this Day at the Board a Report from the Right Honorable the Lords of the Committee of Council for Plantation Affairs dated the 12,h of this Instant in the Words

following viz'

Your Majesty having been pleased by your Order in Council of the 15 January 1772 to refer unto this Committee, the humble Petition of George Clarke Esquire Secretary of your Majesty's Colony of New York in America, complaining of William Tryon Esquire the Governor of the said Colony, for having dispossessed the Petitioner and his Deputy of a Branch of his Office Viz That of Register to the Ordinary and Prerogative Court of the said Colony of New York,

for the granting Probates of Wills and Letters of Administration and other Business of that kind, and for his having disposed of the same in Favour of Edmund Fanning Esquire his private Secretary, and humbly praying that such appointment of the said Edmund Fanning may be declared Void, and that the Petitioner and his Deputy may be restored to the Exercise and Enjoyment of the said Branch of his Office, and that he may be also restored to the Fees he has lost by having been dispossessed thereof. The Lords of the Committee, in Obedience to your Majesty's said Order of Reference, did on the 21st of March 1772, take the said Petition into Consideration, and thought proper to Order a Copy thereof to be transmitted to the said Governor for his Answer thereto, and Governor Tryon having accordingly returned his Answer, and transmitted therewith Copies of several Papers in Support thereof- The Lords of the Committee did on the 21st February last proceed to take the same into Consideration, and directed the said Petition, Answer and Papers therewith transmitted to be referred to the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations who have thereupon Reported to this Committee "That having duly weighed and Examined what is set forth by the Parties concerned on each side the Question &c.

[Here follows the Report of the Lords of Trade, supra, p. 413.]

The Lords of the Committee upon Consideration of the whole Matter, do agree humbly to Report as their Opinion, that it may be adviseable for Your Majesty to Direct the Petitioner or his lawful Deputy or the Secretary of the said Colony for the Time being, or his lawful Deputy, to be forthwith reinstated in the said Office of Register to the Ordinary and Prerogative Court of the Province of New York, that he may hold and enjoy the same, as he and his predecessors have heretofore held and enjoyed the same before the late Innovation took place as incident to and always going with the Office of Secretary of New York and as an Appendage thereof, together with the Salary, Advantages and Emoluments to the said Office of Register to the Ordinary and Prerogative Court of the Province of New York belonging and appertaining.

His Majesty, taking the said Report into Consideration, is Pleased, with the Advice of His Privy Council to approve of what is therein proposed, and doth hereby accordingly Order require and Command, That the Petitioner or his lawful Deputy, or the Secretary of the said Colony for the time being, or his lawful Deputy be forthwith reinstated in the said Office of Register to the Ordinary and Prerogative Court of the said Province of New York, that he may hold and enjoy the same, as he and his Predecessors have heretofore held and enjoyed the same, before the late Innovation took place, as incident to, and always going with the Office of Secretary of New York, and as an Appendage thereof, together with the Salary, Advantages and Emoluments to the said Office of Register to the Ordinary and Prerogative Court of the Province of New York belonging and appertaining And the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, or Commander in Chief of the said Province of New York for the time being, and all others whom it may concern are to Yield due obedience to His Majesty's Pleasure hereby signified as they will answer to the contrary.

STEPHEN COTRELL

My Lord,

Sir William Johnson to the Earl of Dartmouth.

[ Plantations General, CCLX. ]

Johnson Hall 17th April 1774.

I should never have attempted to trouble your Lordship on a subject which is liable to misrepresentation or disregard, but that I look upon it to be my duty to lay before His Majesty the sentiments of the Indians on everry material occurrence, and that I only comply with their repeated desire, on the present occasion; for this reason I shall decline offering much in favor of my own judgment in this matter, but relying on your Lordships known character submit the matter to your Consideration, from a thorough conviction of my own disinterestedness and zeal for his Majesty's service.

The several duties & fatigues I formerly experienced for many years both in a Military and Civil capacity, having within these few years drawn upon me a train of Infirmities which have often threatned my life, & at best renders it verry precarious, the Northern Indians well acquainted with these circumstances have for some time expressed great anxiety about it, as well on my account as they express it, as on their own, for they observe, what I have experienced to be true, that personal regard & attachment has vast influence over their actions, and the more thinking part of their cheifs, from the knowledge they have of other Peoples conduct have been long & are strongly of opinion that my Death may produce events which I know it would be deemed vanity in me to enlarge upon, they have therefore upon many late occasions repeated (what I had by many former Instructions from His Majesty assured them) that all affairs with them should be conducted by an Agent belonging to His Majesty as the most regular & best channel, and that which was most agreable to them, at which they expressed infinite satisfaction, at the same time they observed that they had judgment enough to perceive that they were likely to be misrepresented both with regard to power, genius & disposition; and that they had reason to fear that in case of my Death their affairs might fall into some of those channells which gave them their first prejudice against the English, or into the hands of some Person unacquainted with the nature & politicks of the people, and the duties of my office, and as these reflections tended to render the Cheifs irresolute & to create much uneasiness, they earnestly sollicited that I would lay their request before His Majesty for the nomination of a Successor who should not only be acquainted with their affairs & the mode in which they had been hitherto conducted but personally known to & esteemed by their people, & proceeded to express their ardent desire that such nomination if agreable to His Majesty might be in favor of one of my Deputys Col. Guy Johnson. On this head I have often told them that they might rely with confidence on His Majesty's esteem, his love of Justice & repeated assurances of Himself & His Royal Predecessors to afford them protection and to guard their rights, and that therefore it was needless for them to concern themselves about what might possibly prove a more remote contingency than the state of my health promised, but this was in no wise satisfactory, I am so wearied out with their reiterated sollicitations that I find myself under the necessity of communicating them with such reflections as occurr upon the subject.—I flatter myself that it is unnecessary for me to point out either the importance these People are still of in America, their capacity to hurt us, the advantages resulting from their friendship, or the peculiar necessity there is (& likely will be for some time) to have their affairs conducted in one regular channel, by an Agent of the Crown,

without the difficulties & contrary interests that must result from Colony Management, as all these points were, & still are the sentiments of the wisest & most disinterested men, and should any doubt arise on any of these important points thro' the misrepresentation, partiality or ignorance of pretenders, 1 trust, nay I am confident, I can remove it, I must therefore take these principles for granted because I am thoroughly persuaded (not from casual or partial reflection) but from honest principles founded on long experience that the Trade & Settlement of this Country depends greatly on conduct flowing from such sentiments.—The reasonableness and expediency of such an affair being shewn, the propriety of such application at this time must remain with His Majesty, and it becomes not me to exceed the limits which my station & inclinations prescribe to myself of suggesting with all humility such thoughts only as are derived from my knowledge of the present state & inclinations of those committed to my superintendency, with whom I have been intimately acquainted more than thirty years, and who are so peculiarly situated and circumstanced that those only who possess thes advantages are judges of their affairs. If this then is the case (of which I hope there is no doubt) then it will naturally follow that this being a peculiar Department, to which no other is similar, the person nominated to it, must possess such Qualifications, without which, he must be doubtless inadequate to the trust, there are doubtless few officers in the State that a Gentleman of good abilities after some little application may not be able to discharge with at least tolerable success, but this, My Lord, is of a verry different and difficult nature, the most shining capacity must here be at a loss without a long series of application & knowledge which verry few of any capacity at all have inclination or opertunity of acquiring, to all which, the affections of the Indians should necessarily be added as an ascendency derived therefrom is so indispensably necessary, that I can affirm I have often carried the most important points neerly 'thro personal influence when all other sanction had failed, If therefore I have the least claim to indulgence in support of the application of the Indians, I cannot withhold my warmest recommendations in favor of the Gentleman they wish for, and whilst 1 assure your Lordship that I rate my present reputation & future fame too highly to prostitute it for interest or partiality, I would rather hazard the imputation of both than refuse my testimony towards a measure that may benifit the Public when I am no more.

The Gentleman I have mentioned is my son in law. He has served His Majesty from his earliest youth, throughout the whole war in America. He often attended me in the field by permission of the Commander in Cheif as my Secretary &c, and was when appointed my Deputy in Seventeen Hundred & Sixty two a Lieut, in His Majesty's service, since which, his corps being reduced, He has been constantly employed in the Duties of his Office, and in that of Secretary which he principally discharged, the Gentleman appointed proving either superannuated or disqualified for that Office, by these means he early acquired a knowledge of Indian affairs, their politicks, & the mode of conducting Transactions, in all which he has been of great use to me, & to which he has been fortunate enough to add their highest esteem, but, My Lord, I shall urge the matter no farther, I still believe that I possess that confidence which his Majesty has been pleased to honor my faithfull & long services, from which if I derive any judgement or value my own reputation I must have regard to the propriety of what is recommended, and I persuade myself that your Lordship will do me the justice to believe, that this application is owing to my disinterested convictions in it's favor. I beg to be

honored with your Lordship's answer with His Majesty's gracious determination, so as to enable me to satisfy the Indians that I have fullfilled their desire.

I have the honor to be with the most profound Respect My Lord,

I have the honor to transmit herewith a Copy of the principal transactions with Two Hundred and Sixty Cheifs and Warriors of the six Nations who brought here two Senecas concerned in a murder committed last Year on four Frenchmen on Lake Ontario as mentioned in my letter (N° 6) which persons contrary to antient customs I made a point of their delivering up to justice, & having at length prevailed, they are now committed to the County Jail, where they are to remain until I hear from General Haldimand, who some time since joyned me in opinion that on their making restitution for the goods they plundered at that time, it would at this juncture be good policy to discharge them, in consideration of the many murders committed on their people, for which no satisfaction could be obtained, & of the youth of the parties who were influenced thereto by a fellow who fled. Besides it being considered as an Act of clemency, there were no proofs to convict them, neither could restitution be expected if they suffered, wh would have proved very injurious to those Traders whose goods were taken. Indeed this is the first instance wherein the Senecas were ever prevailed on to sacrifice their antient customs to our laws, by delivering up offenders, & therefore I hope it will establish a good & wholesome precedent, without even carrying it to the utmost rigour of the Laws.

I come now to answer your Lordship's of the 1" of December (N° 6.) the effects that may derive from the unwarrantable establishments on the lands therein referred to, and of which your Lordship appears so sensible, are realy alarming, and your Lordship may be assured of my full cooperation with Genr1 Haldimand in everry wholesome measure for preventing an evil of so dangerous a tendency, tho' I must confess I have verry little hopes that settlements can be restrained by any ordinary measures, where the multitude have for so many years discovered such an ungovernable passion for these lands, and pay so little regard to a fair title, or the authority of the American Governments.—At the same time your Lordship's most judicious reflections on the present critical situation of Indian Affairs, arising from these causes combined with the endeavours of our natural enemies give me a full persuasion that Government will use everry consistent measure for applying a remedy to these growing evils.— Last Summer I received a long account of a Message said to be sent to the Indians by the French King 'thro the channel of Canada with many particulars not mentioned in the Copy I had the honor to receive from your Lordship tho corresponding generally, indeed 1 have met with the like so often since the reduction of Canada, & have so often transmitted accounts of such