Settlement of the said Boundaries shall be effected; hereby rat- "JOHN PENN. "Instructions to James Tilghman and Andrew Allen, Esquires, Commissioners appointed to treat and agree with the Right Honorable John Earl of Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, concerning the Settlement of the Western Bounds and Limits of the Province of Pennsylvania, and preserving the Public Peace and Tranquility on the Borders 'till a final Settlement of the said Lines. "1st. You are to proceed without loss of time to Williamsburg, the Place of His Lordship's Residence in Virginia, and enter upon the Execution of your Commission as soon as possible after your Arrival. Should his Lordship be from Home, and not gone to too great a Distance, you will wait his Return, or send an Express (as you judge most proper), to acquaint him with your being sent from this Government to treat with him on Public Business and request his return. "2d. Your first Point should be to prevail with him to join with the Proprietaries of this Province in a Petition to His Majesty in Council to appoint Commissioners to run and mark out the Boundary or Division Line, such as His Majesty shall please to order and direct, between this Province and Virginia, the expence of which to be equally borne by the two Colonies. "3d. Whether his Lordship should accede to the above Proposal or not, you should urge every Argument in your power to induce him to agree to the settling a Temporary Line of Jurisdiction between the two Colonies, 'till the said Boundary Lines shall be settled, or His Majesty's Orders and Directions can be obtained respecting the same. "4th. Should his Lordship come into the last mentioned Measure, you will no doubt endeavour to fix the Temporary Line of Jurisdiction as favorably as possible for this Province, and as near to the Charter Bounds as you can; and in Order thereto, you will refer yourselves to the Map, or plan heretofore transmitted by me to him, which shews to Demonstration that Fort Pitt is near six miles to the Eastward of our five Degrees of Longitude. At any Rate, however, you are not to accede to any proposed temporary Line which shall give Jurisdiction to Virginia over any Lands lying to the Eastward of the River Monongahela. "5th. Whatever may be the temporary Line agreed on, you should take Care to insert a Clause in the Articles to be drawn up, containing a saving of the Rights on both sides to the Lands up to the true Lines or Boundaries, where they shall be finally settled. "6th. If the Business is not carried on by the interchange of Letters or written Proposals between you, You should take private Notes or Minutes, by way of Diary, of every Thing_material that passes, not only to enable you to make an exact Report of the whole Transaction, but to found Affidavits on, to be sent to England if necessary. As great reliance is had on your Knowledge and Abilities, any further Instructions are unnecessary. "PHILADELPHIA, 7th May, 1774." "JOHN PENN. Here follows the Governor's Letter to the Earl of Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, Viz": "My Lord: "PHILADELPHIA, 7th May, 1774. By Accounts received from the Westward since my last Letter to Your Lordship, I find that the Disorders in that Quarter are greatly increased by your Lordship's extending the Jurisdiction of Virginia to Pittsburgh, and the Country thereabouts, and that Doctor Conolly's Proceedings have been such as are very alarming, and have a tendency to put the whole Country beyond the Allegheny Mountains into a State of Confusion. "The Consideration of these unhappy Circumstances have induced me to send two Gentlemen of my Council, Mr. Tilghman and Mr. Allen, to wait on your Lordship, in order to confer with you on this important Subject, and, if possible, to conclude with you upon such Measures as may restore and establish the Public Tranquility until the Lines and Boundaries of this Province can be finally settled by His Majesty's Authority, for which good Purpose I flatter myself your Lordship will not hesitate to join with us in representing to His Majesty the necessity of such a Settlement. In the mean Time, I am in hopes such Temporary Expedients may be fallen upon as may put an End to the present Disturbances, secure the Public Peace, and quiet the Minds of the People concerned in the unhappy differences which at present subsist between the Governments of Virginia and this Province. "I am, with great Respect, "Your Lordship's most Obedient humble Servant, "To the Right Honorable the Earl of Dunmore, Governor and ComCommander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Province of Virginia, Williamsburg." MEMORANDUM, 1st June, 1774. The Reverend Dr. Peters having, at the Instance of the Governor, wrote a Letter to Henry Wilmot, Esquire, the same was ordered to he entered on the Minutes of Council, and follows in these Words, Viz: "Sir: PHILADELPHIA, 18th May, 1774. "I am desired by the Governor to give you an Account of what I know with respect to an Indian Deed, under which some private People, calling themselves the Susquehanna Company, Inhabitants of the Colony of Connecticut, claim all the Lands in Pennsylvania between the 41st and 42d Degree of Latitude. This, then, that follows, will give a true Notion of the whole Transaction, as far as my Remembrance will enable me to recollect Matters. "In the Year 1741, The Proprietor, Thomas Penn, went from here for England, and from that Time to this, I have been well acquainted with all sorts of Indian Negotiations, and have had a great Share in the management of them, either as Proprietary Secretary, or as a Member of Council, or as Provincial Secretary, so that I can speak from the best Grounds of every Matter relating to Indians for above thirty Years; and I can with Truth declare, that before the Year 1753, I never, that I can remember, heard of any Claim set up by the Government, or any of the Inhabitants of the Colony of Connecticut, to any Lands within this Province. "In the Year 1753, I received Information of a Claim set up by some Connecticut People, to a Degree of Longitude within this Province, in virtue of the Connecticut Charter, and that there was a party gone into the Indian Country to make a Purchase of Lands, between Susquehanna and Delaware, to begin at or near Wyomink. Mr. Hamilton and several others were alarmed at this wicked attempt, and Conrad Weiser, the Indian Intrepreter, was ordered to give the Six Nation Indians an account of this Intelligence, and to put them upon their Guard. Colonel Johnson, the Indian Agent for His Majesty in the New York Government, was likewise made acquainted with this new Project, and desired likewise to apprise the Indians of it. The Intelligence was likewise communicated to the Governor and Deputy Governor of Connecticut, who both disavowed the Thing, and declared that the Government had no Concern in it; and the Letters which passed between Mr. Hamilton and the Government of Connecticut were put into the Council Books, and a Copy of those Minutes of Council are exemplified under the Great Seal and sent to you. "The Year following, namely: in the year 1754, there was a Congress, by Order of the Crown, at Albany, between the whole Body of the Six Nations and the King's Agent, together with the Governments of all the Northern Colonies. Four Commissioners were sent on the part of Pennsylvania, Mr. John Penn and myself on the Part of the Governor, and Mr. Isaac Norris and Mr. Benjamin Franklin, on the part of the Assembly, were the four Commissioners for this Province, at that Congress. This being deemed VOL. X.-12. a proper Time to get a Purchase from the Indians of more Lands, and which was become absolutely necessary by the Numbers of People that had come into the Province and could not be kept within the Bounds of the purchased Lands, Mr. John Penn and myself were instructed and empowered to make as extensive a Purchase as the Indians could be prevailed on to make, and Belts were sent to the Onondago Council by the Governor, to signify to them his Desire to make another Purchase of them when they should be all together at this Public Treaty at Albany. Accordingly, as both sides were before hand prepared for a new Indian Purchase, the Matter was gone upon, and a large Extent of Country, even as far as the Western Boundary of the Province, was treated for and agreed to in open Council, and a Deed executed by the Indians; and likewise another Deed was executed by them, confirming to the Proprietaries a former Deed, wherein the Indians bound themselves not to sell to any Persons whatever any of the Lands comprized within the Bounds of His Majesty's Charter to the Proprietaries. The Connecticut attempt was likewise made known by the Indians to us, and they, in their Speeches, declared their absolute refusal to make any Grant to them of any Lands they were solliciting for; and, indeed, in their Public Treaty, they over and over declared that they would sell none of the Wyoming Country either to them or to us, it being what they had reserved for their own use, and for the reception of such other Indians as would want to come and reside amongst them. These, and further Particulars, are to be seen in the exemplied Copy of the Report of that Treaty, made by Mr. John Penn and myself to Governor Hamilton, as the same is entered in the Minutes of Council. "This will serve to shew that at that Time there was no Indian Deed made to the Connecticut People by the Onondago Council, and that if any Deed is set up it must have been obtained in a clandestine Manner from private Indians. Indeed it was then currently reported that one Lydins, of the City of Albany, had undertaken this Matter for the Connecticut People, and as he lived (and I think kept a Public House) at Albany, he made it his Business to get the Indians, as they came to Trade there, into his House, and by Liquor or private Bribes, by twos or threes, as he could find Opportunity, to prevail with them to execute a Deed, which was lodged with him for this infamous Purpose. "I have further to observe, that the Persons to whom this pretended Indian Deed was made were private People, and acting in direct Opposition to their own Laws, and in open Violation of the Right if any, of the Colony of Connecticut to those Lands. The Indians themselves in public Treaties, made mention that these very Lands were formerly given by them to Colonel Dungan by Deeds regularly and duly executed, but in Trust for them as they aid, and that Colonel Dungan sold those Lands to the late Proprietor, Mr. Penn who, notwithstanding this Purchase from Colonel Dungan, did not hesitate to buy them over again of the Indians, and to give them the full Consideration for them. "Let it be further observed that, in the General Treaty held at Fort Stanwix by Sir William Johnson, His Majesty's Indian Agent with all the six Nation Indians, in 1768, for the King's Purchase of Lands from them, and to settle a General Boundary between the Indians and the King's Subjects, at which The Governor of Jersey and Commissioners from the other Provinces, and from Pennsylvania in particular, were present, and assisting the Indians, executed a Deed to the Proprietors of Pennsylvania for all the Lands within the Bounds of this Province, so far as they had then settled the General Boundary with His Majesty. That this Purchase contains all or most of the Lands claimed by Connecticut, and that the Consideration Money, together with the Expences attending that Treaty, amounted to the Sum of eight thousand Pounds, or some Sum near that, and in that very Treaty, this Attempt of the Connecticut People was solemnly mentioned and as Solemnly condemned by all the Indians. "As this Great Treaty is deservedly esteemed the Basis and Foun dation of all Matters relating to Lands between the Indian Nations and His Majesty, it was transmitted by Sir William Johnson to the King's Ministers, and lies among the Public Papers in the Privy Council, and may be consulted for the Truth of what is here set down by the Proprietarie's Sollicitors at any future Time. "As it is supposed that the Susquehanna Company have assigned over their Right under this Deed to the Government of Connecticut, I have been thus particular, and this Detail of the Circumstances that attended the obtainment of the Indian Deed may be kept among the Proprietary Papers, together with the exemplified Minutes of Council that have been sent to you, and may be made use of in order to furnish ample Proofs for the invalidating of this pretended Indian Deed, if it should ever be set up by the Connecticut Government. "I "Your most humble Servant, "TO HENRY WILMOT, Esquire, in Bloomsbury Square, London." At a Council held at Philadelphia, on Thursday 7th June, 1774. PRESENT: The Honourable JOHN PENN, Esquire, Governor. James Hamilton, James Tilghman, Esquires. Andrew Allen, The Governor laid before the Board the Copy of a Petition from sundry Inhabitants of the Province, to call the Assembly on occa |