future, that they don't again fall into these sins, of which they have repented, and give them such instructions as appear necessary, as they are liable to bear them. Yet there may be some among them here who insist upon it that I shall Baptize Children, without conversing with the parents respecting their knowledge in these important matters; in short, they would have me Baptize those that come for Baptizm, be their life, and conduct what it will.—And old Isaac lately told, that a certain Man living near the Mohawk River, who has great influeuce among the Indians told him to drive away their Minister, if he would not Baptize Capt Jacob's child in that manner in which he desires; but I don't credit the report, for I can't believe that Gentlemen of such superior wisdom as those Gentlemen are said to be endowed with, could be guilty of acting such a part so unbecoming their character. The old Man Isaac and Capt Jacob have publicly ordered me to leave the place, but the rest of the Headmen, and all the Tuscaroras with united voice, desire me to continue with them, which request I am in duty bound to comply with; for there are 290 souls of those who desire my assistance. I understand that Isaac expects to leave it to your honor to determine the affair, but the others understand so much of the nature of the affair, that they would not willingly impose upon your honor in such a manner as to ask him to decide matters which they ought to do themselves, and which they have done already—Thus much from Your most obedient and humble servant. Aaron Crosby.

P. S. I determine by leave of Providence to wait upon your honor in my journey to or from New England. Your's as above

A: Crosby.

* This letter being read, Thomas said, that he had heard the dissenting Minister at Canawaroghere was accused by the Indians of interfering in worldly matters and of many other things; that as to his burning a letter, he could not tell whether it was done by the Minister, or not, as he was abroad when it happened, but he believed the Minister never meant to concern himself in any thing, but Religion; that indeed they all found that the New England Trader there, was a bad Man, and they had accordingly ordered him away, and concluded with a request that Col: Johnson would rely on their sincerity and assurance of following his advice.— Then adjourned.

Monday February 13.

The Indians assembled to receive Col: Johnson's answer, which he delivered as follows: Brothers. I have heard, and considered attentively the several subjects on which you spoke, and am now going to answer the same, desiring you will hearken to my words.

Brothers. What you tell me on your first Belt concerning the Shawanese, having doubled the Belt, and invited you to meet them the next spring to the Southward, is very extraordinary. I have lately given the Chiefs of your Confederacy my full sentiments respecting these people, and their motives for drawing them to a meeting, that they may appear interested in their quarrel, of all which the Chiefs appeared so sensible, that I looked upon it as a thing concluded upon, that they should disregard their invitation. The News I have from my

Mr. BUTLER the Interpreter, considering himself as alluded to in this letter, said that he had not told the Indns to banish their Minister for refusing Baptism, but that he said, he looked upon it as very uncharitable, to refuse it to children for the faults of parents, and that he still thought so

Deputy, and others to the Southward does by no means justify their apprehensions respecting the persons in confinement, who are not kept, as I hear for any other purpose, than as Hostages, till their friends about the Scioto shall lay down their arms and join in the peace made by the Virginians with the Shawanese, and as these who are confined, are long alienated and estranged from you, I think you should not interest yourselves in their fate, but regard them as a people, who have been doing wrong, and who endeavour to draw down reflections on the Confederacy; if therefore they act contrary to their first resolutions they will find the ill consequences of it very soon, and therefore I expect they will persevere in what they agreed to, in which case I shall lay the matter before his Excellcy the General, & Lord Dunmore, who will take the case of these persons into consideration and act agreable to Justice.

Brothers. The strings which you have delivered that were forwarded from Canawagon have been occasioned by mistaken notions of the Chiefs, who are interested for those in confinement, whose cause you should not espouse, & therefore I can neither approve of their desire, or of your paying any regard to it, and I am fully persuaded, that the persons said to be in confinement, are by this time either released, or that they will be soon so, being only detained until they made the same concessions, as parties in the war, which the Shawanese have done, & with which you have nothing to do; for altho' you may pity their folly, you cannot interest yourselves in their fate, without appearing to favour a War you publicly disapproved; some of these complied with your desires, though often signified, and therefore their temporary confinement for crimes, in which the name of your Confederacy was brought in question, should not disturb you.

Then Col: Johnson returned them thanks for the concern they had expressed for the Death of Sir William Johnson and for their congratulations on his succeeding, and assured them of the continuance of his regard and attention to the duties of his Office.

Returned their Belt of 6. Rows. Then told them that he was glad they received so much satisfaction from the Establishment of the King's Council fire, and that they should still find it a place of peace and shelter for those who acted discreetly. Returned their Belt of 10. Rows. Next he said, he was pleased to find, they remembered their many obligations to Sir William Johnson, and his good advice, and that as they had always profited by it, he expected they would still follow it. Returned their Belt.

After which he told them, that he recollected the Belt, with the initials of Sir William's name, which was to keep them steadfast in obeying the King, and following the advice of those his Maj' appointed to take care of them, by which, whenever they were disturbed, they should be entitled to his powerful protection; that they had hitherto lived happily by keeping that in remembrance, and that so long as they did so, they might be assured Col: Johnsons Ear would be open to them in like manner, and his endeavours directed to their interest and advantage. Returned the Belt.

Then told them, he was glad to hear them declare their strict observance of past advice; that he knew they had in general acted agreable thereto, and that it was their interest to do so. That no doubt the office he held was very troublesome, but if they acted wisely and steadily in their engagements, endeavoured to promote peace, and hearken to wholesome advice, he did not doubt with the divine assistance he should acquit himself of its duties, as he should not have been recommended, neither would he have taken the office upon him, if he had been unacquainted with it. Returned their Belt.

Then observed that they might be assured the Government had no intention to violate the Treaty at Fort Stanwix, or break thro' the Boundary line, that their apprehensions were therefore ill founded; that some of themselves had given rather too much encouragement to individuals to harbour in their neighbourhood, who once established, could not be easily removed, and therefore, they must blame themselves in such cases; that if any persons intruded it, or passed the line, they should warn them to retire, and they would certainly do so, or on notice, would be compelled to do it, and that thro' the want of an actual survey of the Susquehanna at the Fort Stanwix Treaty in 1768, the boundary line, though run strictly corresponding therewith, did on measurement appear to come very close to them; that however, he was persuaded the Governments concerned, would not take any immediate advantage of distressing them; that he would lay the matter before them according to desire, advising them to rest satisfied with their good intentions. Returned the strings.

He next answered the Oughqugoes, observing that their old promises of land to individuals, gave no title to such persons to force themselves upon them, that they might tell Mr Schuyler, or any one else claiming under the same, & who had neglected the conditions, that the settlement of the Boundary line precluded them from any title there, and that they could not be expected to make good any old conditional promises that defeated the purposes of it, and that in all these matters, they should endeavour to be unanimous, otherwise their application to Govern' would be defective.—As to their differences about the New England Missionary at Onoghquagey, he heard of them with concern.—That Sir William Johnson shortly before his death wrote to them about it, remarked, that they had hitherto lived happily under the direction of Old Isaac, a pious Chief who had read the service to them, and gave them many wise exhortations, which he thought might answer their purpose, till a fitting settlement could be made there.—That Sir William Johnson's advice was good and wholesome, and that Col Johnson was sorry to find, that notwithstanding the residence of Missionarys at two of their villages, discord and quarrels appeared to have increased which had occasioned one of their people to be dangerously wounded; that the letter this Missionary had now wrote, set forth his disinclination to Baptise the children of those parents, whose lives were not agreable to him, and gave an account of a large party, equal in number to the whole settlement who had entered into fixed resolutions in his favour, and particularly mentioned the Tuscaroras. That Col Johnson could not take upon him to interfere about religious tenets, and presumed that the Tuscaroras, who were a people lately received from principles of humanity by the rest, would not dictate to them in matters of Religion, that they might determine for themselves, and if the Missionary was disagreable to them, or, endeavoured to force the consciences of those educated in a different persuasion, he should certainly be prevented, adding, that the Christian Religion was a Religion of peace & moderation, that those persons were wrong, and bad Men, who endeavoured to pervert them, or lead away those who were educated in different sentiments from theirs; and that they should come to some terms of accommodation amongst themselves, in which case they would meet with the protection of Govern'; that although he was no Enemy to any religious people, he could not help remarking that the complaints against some of their Missionaries were too many and various to be destitute of some foundation, and that the charges against the Clergyman among the Oneidas, demanded a particular enquiry, and that he was glad to find they had discovered the faults of the Trader there, and would remove him—adding, that any persons who interfered in matters foreign to their duty, should be discountenanced and removed; and concluding with desiring them to remember his

repeated advice, to pay no regard to those who were not authorized by the Crown to transact affairs with them, as it was to the Crown they owed their happiness and security, and all the favour they received, the continuance of which depended on their following the King's advice and those in authority under him. After which adjourned.

The Indians assembled again to answer Col: Johnson.

Present—

as before.

February the 14th

The Chief arose, and on behalf of the rest, returned Col: Johnson many thanks for his speech which gave them great satisfaction.

Then proceeded to observe, that they were so fully satisfied of the artifices of the Shawanese, and the little they had to do themselves in their affairs, that they would not only disregard their summons, but send three faithful Messengers to Kayashota and Adonquat to explain their sentiments and resolutions to them, to advise those who had their friends in confinement, to a reliance on the clemency of government, and not give themselves any trouble about the fate of these foolish people. That they would use all their influence to dispose the whole Confederacy to continue to look upon the Crown as their true protector, whence they expect redress in all matters, & in the interim to avoid hearkening to ill advisers.—The Oughquageys said, that their Minister was mistaken in saying they had determined on matters before they left home, for that they had really come to Col: Johnson for his advice and direction, and that what he had said was so convincing to them that they should return, and in order to restore peace in their Town, enter into a general resolution to abide by the Lithurgy printed in the Indian Language; that they had reason to believe the Missionary would conform to it in which case, they would let him stay, otherwise they would use the Lithurgy themselves till a proper person could be provided.

Then they retired to make choice of proper persons to send thro' the Confederacy, on which Col: Johnson charged them to choose only Men of character and fidelity.

Wednesday February the 15th

The Indians assembled and repeated to Colonel Johnson the Message they had agreed on as before mentioned, and acquainted him, that agreable to his advice, the Mohawks would send Capt: Daniel, The Oneidas Thomas alias Adiaghquonoron, and that they would be directed to apply to the Bunt at Onondaga to send two persons of his own family with them.—Col: Johnson approved of their choice, and told them he would send a Belt with a particular message from himself to the Onondaga fire place, and that he expected it would be faithfully delivered; that its purport, would be to strengthen the late advice he had given to direct them to rely on the crown for redress, and on account of the people in confinement to be in readiness to attend his next summons.—Then gave particular advice and instruction to the Messengers who retired with the rest to prepare for their departure.

Thursday the 16th of February.

In the morning Col: Johnson delivered his Belt to the Messengers, after repeating its purport, and then after recommending it to them to be firm and steady in their conduct, he clothed the Messengers and several of the principal Men, and they all departed.

Examd

JOSEPH CHEW Secrty

Proceedings of Colonel Guy Johnson with Cayuga and Susquehanna Indians.

[Plantations General (S. P. O. ) CCLXI. ]

Proceedings of a Congress with the Chiefs and Warriors of the Cayugas and several Chiefs of the Six Nations Confederacy held at Guy Park Febr 28th 1775.

Present—Col: Guy Johnson Superintend' for Indian affairs

Col: Daniel Claus agent for Canada.

Several Officers of the Departm' & other Gentlemen.

The Cayuga Chief, began with the usual salutation of the Warriors, who being, as he observed, a plain people, would use but few words. He then recounted briefly the proceedings and resolutions at the General Congress at Onondaga, and that in consequence thereof, the Chiefs of the Cayugas on their return to their Towns recommended it to their Warriors to live peaceably have nothing to do with the Axe but to support their engagements. The Chief women joined in promoting the same; to all which, the warriors paid strict regard. That at first, they were uneasy on account of the absence of seven of their people, least they might have been misled by the Shawanese, but they fortunately returned, without hearkning to bad advice, and the warriors after a meeting on the occasion, resolved that a deputation of their Chiefs should come down to acquaint the Superintendant with the news they had brought, and with their firm resolutions to abide by his advice, and have nothing to do with the Shawanese or their Councils. Gave a Belt of Seven Rows.

then proceeded as follows:

Brother. The seven Cayugas who returned from the great plains, at their Departure received three strings from Decarohogas Brother and a young Mohawk, who have both lived there for several years, setting forth that the Six Nations have not appeared to be attentive for some years to the news that passed through that Country or to the Messages.-they therefore ordered these strings to be delivered to the Chiefs of the Senecas at the Western door of the Confederacy desiring them to forward the same to exhort them to be more attentive to these interresting matters and to all public messages assuring them, that they would return and see them early in the spring. Gave 4. white strings.

Brother. These strings came from another warrior from Canundageh, on this side of the great plains on behalf of three Nations, recommending it to the warriours of the Six Nations to be for the future in all things unanimous, to mind the true interests of the confederacy, and to follow strictly the advice & councils of their Chiefs, and desired these strings to be forwarded thro' all the Nations. Gave 4. short strings black Wampum.

Brother, These strings were delivered to our people at the same place on behalf of Aghetaghcrcge the head of the Hurons and their eight Confederate Nations whereon they remarked the good advice they received formerly from Sir William Johnson the Message they received from Colonel Johnson and their adherence to peace and their engagements.—in the midst of which they heard of an unlucky quarrel between the people of Virginia and the Shawanese, which gave them great uneasiness, but shortly after, they received a message from Col: Johnson and the Six Nations assuring them that the latter would not engage in any quarrel against the English but would promote peace, which Message settled all their minds