they had no means of defence in case they should be attacked, and found themselves exposed to the cold winds of autumn without sufficient raiment. With these melancholy recollections and cheerless prospects did the fugitives commence a journey of two hundred and fifty miles on foot.

The report of this circumstance having reached Governor Hamilton of Pennsylvania, a detachment of militia from that Province under the command of Colonel James Boyd was ordered to march from Harrisburg to Wyoming and disperse the savages. Col. Boyd was also nominated a commissioner on the part of Pennsylvania to act in conjunction with such person as might be appointed on the part of Connecticut (agrecably to his majesty's order in such cases,) to put a stop to all disorders and establish tranquillity in the Colony. On the arrival of the detachment at Wyoming they found the Valley abandoned by the Indians who had scalped those whom they had killed and carried away their captives and plunder. The bodies of the slain lay strewed upon the field, and Col. Boyd having caused them to be decently interred, withdrew with his detachment down the river. The hostile Indians had fled to Sheshequanní or Sheshequinunk, an Indian Town on the Bank of the Susquehanna a little below Tioga Point or Tyogo; but those who continued friendly to the English and had embraced the christian religion, removed to Gnaddenhutten on the Lehigh near the English settlement, where they were taken under the protection of the Moravian Church. A definitive treaty

of peace being concluded between England and France in 1763, hostilities between their Amerioan Colonies consequently ceased and the different Indian tribes resumed their friendly traffic with the English settlements. The christian Indians afterwards removed in a body to Wyalusing on the Susquehanna, where, in the year 1765, they built a regular town on the bank of the river near the mouth of Wyalusing creek, and erected a spacious church. Here they attended strictly to their religious duties and employed themselves principally in agricultural pursuits.

Peace having been established between the English Colonies and the different tribes of Indians bordering upon their frontier settlements, the British ministry considered it a favorable time to cultivate a friendly intercourse with the Indians and to fix and establish a permanent and certain boundary line between the Indian territories and the lands which had been at different times purchased by the Colonies, and accordingly gave orders for effecting these objects to the different Colonial and Provincial Governments. In pursuance of these orders a general treaty was held with the Indians at Fort Stanwix near the Oneida lake, in October 1768, where various purchases of lands were made, and such agreements entered into with the Indian tribes as were well calculated to preserve a good understanding between them and the English Colonies. At this treaty the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania procured a Deed from a number of the chiefs of the Six Nations, dated on the 5th. day of November,

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1768, for all the lands not previously sold to the Proprietaries lying within the Province of Pennsylvania. This purchase included Wyoming and all the lands previously sold by the chiefs of the same Nations to the Susquehanna company. The reader perhaps, is aware that an Indian gift and an Indian bargain are proverbial. The Indians would probably have sold the land as often as they could have received pay for it. After the conclusion of the treaty the Susquehanna company held a general meeting at Hartford, and entered into particular resolutions relative to the settlement of Wyoming. In these resolutions they say that in 1763, having been advised that his majesty had inhibited all settlements of lands adjoining the Indian territory until precautions should be taken by his majesty's orders for preventing troubles with the Indians, and as those precautions have been made at the treaty at Fort Stanwix, they resolve that forty persons, being proprietors, shall proceed to Wyoming to commence settlements by the first of February; that two hundred more shall follow them early in the spring, and that £200 shall be immediately appropriated to provide implements of husbandry and provisions for the forty. Their resolutions appointed a committee consisting of Isaac Tripp, Benjamin Follet, John Jenkins, William Buck and Benjamin Shoemaker, being part of the forty, who were to have the government and superintendence of the new Colony. This committee were to be increased to the number of nine persons on the arrival of the 200 men, and they were

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authorised to exercise legislative, executive and judicial powers for the order and good government of the settlement; but there was an appeal reserved from this tribunal to a general meeting of the whole company, which, as in the system of Lycurgus, possessed the only real sovereign authority. The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania having effected a purchase of the Wyoming lands, and being informed of the intentions of the Susquehanna company to resume their settlements, took immediate measures to get possession of the territory, in order to defeat the intentions of the company. For this purpose a lease was drawn by John Penn on the part of the Proprietaries to Charles Stewart, Amos Ogden and John Jennings, for one hundred acres of land at Wyoming for the term of seven years. They were to establish a house there for the purpose of trading with the Indians, and were to defend themselves and those who might go on under them, as well as their possessions, against all enemies whatsoever. * Stewart was a surveyor, and in compliance with the directions of the Proprietaries he surveyed and laid out the Valley into two extensive manors for their use: one on the East side of the river extending from Nanticoke Falls to Manokony Island, and from the river nearly to the foot of the mountain including the old Wyoming Town, was called the " Manor of Stoke ;" and the other on the West side nearly of the same extent was called the "Manor of Sunbury." These

*See lease on file in Secretary's office.

lessees with several other adventurers removed to Wyoming in January 1769, and took possession of the improvements made by the Connecticut people from which they had been driven by the Indians in 1763. On the 8th. of February 1769, the forty persons selected by the Susquehanna company arrived at Wyoming, and found Stewart and Ogden with their party in possession of their former improvements and well secured in a fortified block house at the mouth of Mill creek. They accordingly took possession of another piece of ground and built temporary huts for their protection during the remainder of the winter. Having soon afterwards ascertained that the Ogden party claimed the land under grants from the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, and that their garrison was small, they adopted such measures as cut off the communication between the block-house and the surrounding country, and entirely invested the Pennsylvania garrison. Ogden and Stewart having been apprized of the approach of the Connecticut party by express from Mr. Vancampen on the Delaware, despatched a messenger on the 6th. to Gov. Penn with the ́intelligence, informing him that their garrison consisted of only ten persons at that time, and that reinforcements with provisions would be immediately necessary. Having waited several days with a hope of receiving reinforcements, and finding that hope likely to fail, Ogden had recourse to stratagem to effect what he had not power to execute by force. He accordingly, after exhibiting his little garrison to the best advantage, addressed a note to