Points necessary to be known in this Matter, and I crave Leave to recommend him to your Honour as a Gentleman whose Relations may be received with the utmost Confidence in whatever he be desired to give an Account of. "I am persuaded your Honour will perceive the dangerous Consequences that must needs attend the Settlement of the Sasquehannah Lands by your People in the manner they propose, under the present Circumstances of Affairs, that it cannot fail to exasperate the Indians, raise a Civil War in the Province, and distract the Government at a Time when all the Attention I am Master of may be wanted to conduct the momentous Concerns of the Publick, execute his Majestie's Commands, and preserve the Colonies from falling a Prey to our Enemies. Suffer me, then, to repeat my Request that you would please to detain your People at home, and prevail with them to hearken to sober and moderate Counsels, which in the End will prove more to their advantage. "I am, with sincere Esteem, "Your Honour's most obedient humble Servant, "PHILADELPHIA, 4th March, 175-1. "The Honourable ROGER WOLCOTT, Esquire." Governor Hamilton's Letter to the Deputy Governor of Connecticut. "Sir: "Hearing that a Number of the Inhabitants of Connecticut are preparing to come and settle some Lands in this Province in a forcible manner, and being apprehensive that it may be of bad Consequence at a Time when we may probably be engaged in a War to repel the hostile Attempts of the French, I have wrote a Letter to Governor Wolcott on this Subject, and take the Freedom to enclose You a Copy of it, and request you will be pleased to give your Assistance in this Affair. "I have not the Honour of a personal Acquaintance with You, yet I am told that the People have a great Esteem for You and Dependence on your Judgment, which I flatter myself will be favourable to this Application. "I should not doubt of Success if You would be pleased to join your Influence with his Honour's in setting this matter in its true Light. "I beg Leave to recommend the Gentleman who delivers this Letter to your Notice and Civilities, who is well acquainted with our Constitution and the Quality of the vacant Lands within this Province, and well qualified to give your People Satisfaction in any Points they may want to know. I am with perfect Esteem and Regard, "Your Honour's most obedient humble Servant, Philadelphia, 4th March, 1754. "JAMES HAMILTON. "The Honourable THOMAS FITCHE, Esquire." At a Council held at Philadelphia, Wednesday the 20th March, 1754. The Minutes of the preceding Council were read and approved. A Letter from the Governor and Deputy Governor of Connecticut by Mr. Armstrong, who returned last night, were read as follows: "Sir: A Letter from Governor Wolcott to Governor Hamilton. "WINDSOR, March 13th, 1754. "Yours of the fourth Instant is read, and I hope that by your Letter and my Discourse with Mr. Armstrong I am now better informed than before of the State of the Sasquehanah Lands. "It is with Concern that We in these Parts of the Country hear continually News that the French are blocking up the Avenues of the Country North and West, and encroaching upon the Lands belonging to the Crown of Great Britain. We fear that this is very much from a backwardness in the Western Governments in promoting New Settlements; and there being now no unapropriated Lands with us, some of our Inhabitants hearing of this Land at Sasquehanah and that it was North of the Grant made to Mr. Penn, and That Virginia are upon a Design of making a Purchase of the Indians and hope to obtain a Grant of it from the Crown. This appearing to be a Design to promote his Majestie's Interest and render the Country more defencible, we were all well Wishers to it. "But Mr. Armstrong informs me that this Land is certainly within Mr. Penn's Grant; if so I dont suppose our People had any Purpose to quarrel with Pennsylvania; indeed I dont know the Mind of every private Man, but I never heard our Leading Men express themselves so inclined. "Your Proposal to move Mr. Penn and the Government of Virginia to promote New Settlements in the easiest manner, if effected may turn the Eyes of our People that Way; and it is but reasonable that the Lands so far from the Sea and on the Frontiers should have the Setlers on it encouraged in my Opinion. You may serve your King, your Proprietaries, and your Country, in promoting this Scheme, and this may probably draw many of our People to settle in those Parts, which I hope will prove orderly and industrious Inhabitants, and being used to War may be of good Service on that Account. "This seems to be the time if ever to promote so good a Work, and if omitted may prove our last Opportunity. "We in New England from our Beginning have often had hard Wars with the French and Indians, and have hitherto made our Part good with them; it is probable the War will enkindle in the Western Parts, and You must come to a Push with the French which shall be the Masters of the Country, in which Case every man will be serviceable according to his Strength of Body and Resolution of Mind; the Resolution of the Soldier will be very much in Fighting for his Country according to his Interest in it, and if I must go out let me have an Army of Freeholders or Freeholders' Sons. "I have seen an Instance of this in the Siege of Louisburg. We had but about 3,700 Men, and before We had done about 700 of these were lost or Invalids. With these We beat the French at our Landing and beset the City. The Walls were 34 30, and at some Places 20 Feet high from the Bottom of the Trench, and built so regular that one or more Cannon swept every Face of it. The Trench was 11 Feet deep and ten Rods wide; without is a Picket and Glacis; on the Walls were mounted 101 Cannon and 78 Swivels; in the Town were Five Mortars and all Warlike Stores; besides this We had the Grand Battery and Island Battery to subdue; in the Town were 2,100 Men and Lads able to bear Arms. Before these Walls We lay 49 Days, hourly expecting an Army the Enemy had raised to take Annapolis would be upon our Backs. We advanced our Battery within Forty Rods of their Walls, and as We accounted received from them 9,000 great Shot and Bombs. The Ground about our Battery was plowed like a Corn Field, yet I never heard a Man in this Time (excepting those in the Hospital) move to go home till We had taken the City, and We took it, but how God gave Us the victory, but humanly speaking it was because our Soldiers were Freeholders and Freeholders' Sons and had a Sense of Interest in the Country and Liberty, and the Men within the Walls were mercenary Troops. "Whenever the War commences with You I think a small Army of such Men well appointed and disciplined will soon convince the French of their Error in provoking and insulting of You. I think a Few of them will be more than a Match for a Multitude of their Plebes brought up in Slavery and have nothing to fight for of their own. "This brings to mind a Story a Gentleman told me that he went in to see his Negroe Man then dying, and seeing him just gone said to him, Cuffee, You are just going, are you not sorry?" "No,' says the Fellow, 'Master, the Loss won't be mine.' "Pardon the Length of this Letter, and be assured that I am "Your Honour's most obedient very humble Servant, "R. WOLCOTT. "The IIonourable JAMES HAMILTON, Esquire." "Sir: A Letter from Governor Fitch to Governor Hamilton. "As I am favoured with the Honour of Your's of the Fourth Instant by Mr. Armstrong, at a Time I am obliged to attend Publick Business from Home, I can only just signify that I have perused Your's to Governor Wolcott as well as that to me, do well approve of the Notice you take of the attempt some of the People of this Colony are making, and the Concern You manifest for the general Peace of the British Interest and his Majestie's Service, which so much depend on a regular Proceeding in such Affairs. I know nothing of anything done by the Government to countenance such a Procedure as You intimate, and I conclude is going on among some of our People. I shall in all proper Ways use my Interest to prevent every thing that may tend any way to prejudice the general Good of these Governments, and am enclined to believe this wild Scheme of our People will come to nothing, tho' I can't certainly say. I heartily desire a good Harmony may subsist between your Government and others, and this in particular; I need not, if I had time, enlarge, seeing the worthy Bearer of your's (with whose Conversation and account concerning those affairs I was well satisfied and delighted) has, I suppose, received from Governor Wolcott a more full and satisfactory Answer to your Honour. You'll please to command me further in this or in any other affair You shall thiuk proper; all which shall be duly honoured by him, may it please your Honour, who is "Your Honour's obedient humble Servant, "Governor HAMILTON." "THOS FITCH. Mr. Armstrong reports, that the People of Connecticut are most earnestly and seriously determined to make a settlement on the Susquehannah within the Latitude of their Province, relying on the 49* words of their Grant, which extend to the South Sea, provided they can succeed in a Purchase of those Lands from the Six Nations, which they are now attempting by the Means of Col. Johnson and Mr. Lydius of Albany, having subscribed a thousand Pieces of Eight for that Purpose, each giving Four Dollars for what they call a Right. That some principal Persons in the Government covertly encourage them, and have paid their Constitutions; but he believes they will not be able to procure the open Countenance of the Government, nor any publick Act in favour of the Project. That many were staggered at his acquainting them with the Situation of Wyomink, and the Injunctions that had issued against setling it at the Instance of the Indians, and the Determination of the Government of Pennsylvania to make all the Opposition possible; And he has reason to think he opened the Eyes of abundance of People, which may have very good Effects. "The Governor directed the Secretary to inform the Council that since receiving the Letters of the Governor and Deputy Governor of Connecticut, and the Report of Mr. Armstrong, He had by Express from Justice Brodhead and Mr. Parsons been informed that several People in the County of Northampton had purchased Connecticut Rights, and expected their Agents this Spring to settle and put them into Possession of the Sasquchannah Lands, and that they desired his Advice what they as Justices ought to do; He had, therefore, thought it proper to apply to the Attorney General for his Opinion, which he had given, and his Honour had sent it to the Justices to be read in open Court, and along with it a Letter from the Chief Justice which he, having had several Informations given him by the Inhabitants of the County of Northumberland to the same Effect as Mr. Brodhead's and Mr. Parson's Information, had thought proper to send to them on the Occasion. Case for the Attorney General. "It appears by the Informations of Daniel Brodhead and William Parsons, Two of his Majestic's Justices of the Peace for the County of Northampton, that many Persons, the Natural born Subjects of his Majesty, now residing in this and some of the neighbouring Provinces, have openly declared their Intention in a Body to possess themselves of and settle upon a large Tract of Land in this Province lying on the Sasquehannah River, and commonly called Wyomink, without any Lycence or Grant from Our Honourable Proprietaries or Authority from the Government, which Intention they have also declared they will carry into Execution this Spring. "This Tract of Land has not yet been purchased of the Six Nation Indians, but has hitherto been reserved and is now used by them for their hunting Ground. |