• In the year 1753, a number of persons principally inhabitants of Connecticut, formed themselves into a Company for the purpose of purcha sing the Susquehanna lands of the Indians, and of forming settlements at Wyoming. This associa tion was called the "Susquehanna Company," and during the same year they sent out Commissioners to explore the contemplated territory, and to establish a friendly intercourse with such Indian tribes as should be found in possession of it. A war having commenced between England and France, the English Government considered it. highly necessary that a good understanding should be established between the inhabitants of their American Colonies and the Indian tribes bordering on their northern and western frontier, for should those tribes enter into the service of the French who were in possession of the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, they might essentially contribute in extending the French arms over all the British Colonies in America. Orders were consequently received from England directing the Colonies to hold a general treaty with the Indians at Albany in 1754, and to form if possible such an alliance with them as would ensure their friendship and the safety of his Majesty's possessions in America. This treaty it was expected would form a favorable opportunity for purchasing lands of the Indians, and the Susquehanna Company appointed agents to attend at Albany for that pur pose. It may be proper here to observe that in those days the inhabitants of the Colonies gener

ally had very little knowledge of the extent and boundaries of the Royal grants. There was not perhaps, a printed copy of any of the Charters to be found in America, and even those persons who knew the terms in which the boundaries were described, had very little knowledge of their actual extent unless where a river or the sea formed the boundary. How far Pennsylvania extended north was not known, as no boundary line had ever been run, nor had the latitude of Wyoming Valley ever been ascertained. The Commissioners sent out by the Company to explore the country, found that it lay in a western direction from Connecti cut proper, and beyond the limits of New York, and would consequently come within the limits of the Connecticut Charter, and the intentions of the Company to form settlements at Wyoming and to purchase these lands of the Indians were publicly known as well to the people of Pennsylvania as to those of Connecticut. The Governor of Pennsyl vania however, and those best acquainted with the limits of the Province and the geography of the country, were well satisfied that Wyoming lay within the territory granted to William Penn.James Hamilton who was at that time Governor of Pennsylvania under the Proprietaries, having been fully informed of the intentions of the Susquehanna Company, considered it proper that immediate measures should be taken to defeat those intentions, and to purchase the land for the use of the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania. Accordingly in a letter to Sir William Johnson his Majesty's Indian

agent for the Colony, dated at Philadelphia, March 20th. 1754, after informing him that the Conneċticut people intended making a purchase of the Susquehanna lands at the treaty then soon to be held at Albany; he says: "As this Government has determined to send Commissioners to the "general interview at Albany, I shall direct some "of the Commissioners to wait on you in order to

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confer further with you of what may be necessary "to be done on this occasion, and in the mean time I shall be much obliged to you to use your • good offices in behalf of this Government so far as that nothing may be done with the Indians by the Connecticut agents or any others in their behalf, to the injury of the Proprietaries of this Province."*

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On the first day of the same month he wrote to the Governor of Connecticut, complaining of the intentions and measures of the Connecticut people who appeared to be preparing to form settlements within the Province of Pennsylvania, and reques ting his Excellency's interference to prevent it. This letter was sent express by Mr. John Armstrong, afterwards Secretary to the Government.

Governor Wolcott of Connecticut in his answer dated Windsor, March 13th. 1754, says: "Some "of our inhabitants hearing of this land at Sus66 quehanna and that it was north of the grant made to Mr. Penn, and that to Virginia, are

*See copy of the letter on file in the Secretary's office, Harrisburg.

E*

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'upon a design of making a purchase of the In "dians and hope to obtain a grant of it from the "Crown. This appearing a design to promote "his majesty's interests and render the country "more defensible we were all wishers to it. But "Mr. Armstrong informs me that this is certainly ❝ within Mr. Penn's grant. If so I dont suppose our people had any purpose to quarrel with "Pennsylvanians.”*

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It appears evidently to have been the intention of the Susquehanna Company to form a separate Colony of that part of the Chartered territory west of New York, as Connecticut itself had been formed from the Charter of New England; and to give the Colony authority to exercise a separate jurisdiction, a new Charter from the Crown would have been necessary.

It will have been observed that the modes of acquiring and possessing new lands under the Charters of Connecticut and Pennsylvania were essentially different from each other. In Pennsylvania the lands were all granted to one individual, and he had, therefore, and those claiming under him, the exclusive right of purchasing those lands of the Indians; but in the Connecticut Charter the lands were granted to the inhabitants of the Colony in their collective and corporate capacity, and until restrained by law, each individual possessed an equal right to purchase lands of the Indians and to

*See the original letter on file in the Secretary's office, Harrisburg.

occupy and enjoy them. In Pennsylvania William Penn and his Proprietary successors purchased the lands in large bodies from the Indians, and sold them out to individuals who made promiscuous settlements. In Connecticut, individuals or companies, and generally some religious congregation, took possession of any unoccupied lands, and having purchased the Indian title, or kept possession by force, commenced their settlements by town. ships or towns. Such was the mode pursued by the Susquehanna Company in relation to the lands at Wyoming.

When the commissioners from the different Colonies and plantations assembled at Albany, there appeared from Connecticut, William Pitkin, Ro ger Wolcott and Elisha Williams; and from Penn> sylvania, John Penn, Richard Penn, Isaac Nor ris and Benjamin Franklin.

The agents of the Susquehanna company also attended and concluded a purchase of the Wyoming lands from the Indians, on the 11th. of July, 1754. The boundaries of which are thus described in their Deed bearing that date:-" Beginning from the one and fortieth degree of North latitude at ten miles East of the Susquehanna river and from thence with a northward line ten miles East of the river to the end of the forty-second or beginning of the forty-third degree of North latitude and so to extend West two degrees of longitude one hundred and twenty miles, and from thence South to the beginning of the forty-second degree, and from thence East to the above mentioned boundary