USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. III > Part 9
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The Indians Answer delivered in Council, at Conestogoe, June 29th 1719.
PRESENT :
Colonel John ffrench,
Canatowa, Queen of the Mingoes,
Capt. James Gould,
Sevana, King of the Shawenese,
Joseph Pigeon,
Wightomina, King of the Delawares,
John Cartledge, Wininchack, King of the Canawages, James Hendrickson, Capt. Civility, of Conestogoe.
Civility, interpreter in behalf of the four Nations, who all agreed to return one answer, acquainted John Cartledge, Interpreter for the English, that this Day the Indians were mett to return an answer to the Governours speech by Colonel French, and on no other Ac- count. Looking upon everything said to Colonel French to be said as if the Governour and his Council were there present, and well knowing Colonel French to be a true man to the Govmt. and to the Indians. They return with one heart and mind their Thanks to the Governour for his kind Message. They meet him and take him by the Hand, and are forever determined that his will shall be theirs, and that on all occasions they will be ruled by the same.
They desire that the Governour may be acquainted that they are much pleased that his message came whilst their young People were at home, for whom they had lately been in Pain & Trouble as being absent and abroad, that they might hear his good words and Counsel which both old and young of the Mingoes, Shawanese, Delawares and Conawages are resolved to hearken to; For though hitherto they have taken Night for Day, yet now by his good Counsel They can see the Light and what is good for them. They are glad that none of their young people miscarried in their late Journey, and that being now present, they have an opportunity of hearing the Gover- nour's Message by Colonel French, for most of them were absent when the other Letters from the Govr. came, as also that they have an Opportunity to ask their Opinions and Designs. Their young People all agree to Obey the Governours Words and Message, And as Colonel ffrench yesterday told them that what he said was with the whole Heart of Governour and Council; So they declare that what they say is not from their Mouths only but from their whole Hlearts, and the Heart of every one. They desire the Governour to believe, and be assured that they will be obedient to his Words, and
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that they ever have and ever will advise their young people to be mindful of his good advice. They acknowledge themselves so much obliged to the Governour for his care and concern for them, that they intend in two months time to wait upon the Governour per- sonally, to return their hearty thanks for such Love from him and his Government.
Colonel ffrench also produces an Accot. of his Expenses, viz : eight Pounds five Shillings Expended in money, and for the Trouble of his Journey and Negotiation He refers it to the Board, who allow him ten pounds.
John Cartlidges Accott. of his several Disbursements and Pay- ments to the Indians, and his charges in entertaining and treating them on several occasions, by Order of the Government, was also laid before the board, vizt. : nine Pounds ten Shillings supplied in Goods for a present to the Indians at Colonel French's aforemen- tioned Treaty, and three pounds for other presents, and ten pounds sixteen Shillings and four pence for his several other Expenses and Trouble, amounting in all to twenty three pounds six Shillings and four pence due to John Cartledge ; Which Accott. being duly ex- ยท amined is allowed, and ordered to be recommended to the Assem- bly to order the payment thereof, together with Colonel French's Accott., the whole being forty one pounds eleven Shillings and four pence, and is the whole Charge of Indian Treaties for this present year.
At a Council held at Philadia., November the 17th, 1719.
PRESENT :
The Honourable WILLIAM KEITH, Esqr., Governour. Richard Hill, Samuel Preston,
William Trent,
Jonathan Dickinson,
Isaac Norris,
James Logan, Secretary.
The Governour acquainted the Board, That whereas one John Burrows, who had been convicted before the Court of Quarter Ses- sions held for the County of Bucks, of a Certain Crime, For which He was by the said Court ffined in the Sum of two hundred pounds, after having lain many months in the Common Gaol at Bristol, did now make application by his wife unto the Governour, that in re- gard of the approaching Extremity of the Winter Season, and his other Circumstances, the Governour would please to extend bis Com- passion towards the Prisoner, by remitting the whole or such part of the said ffine as should seem meet ; And for the better Satisfaction of the Country, the Governour desires the opinion of this board what may be proper for him to do therein. The Board were of Opinion, that if the said John Burrows was recommended to the Governour's Compassion by the magistrates before whom he was convicted, Or that it was otherways certified to the Governour, that the releasing the said Prisoner would be acceptable to the magistracy of that County, then the Governour might without any apparent Inconve-
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niency make use of the Powers granted by the Royal Charter, for remitting the whole or any part of the said fine.
At a Council held At Philadelphia, March the 3d, 1719.
PRESENT :
The Honourable WILLIAM KEITH, Esqr., Governour.
Richard Hill,
Jonathan Dickinson,
William Trent,
Colonel John ffrench,
Isaac Norris,
James Logan, Secretary.
Samuel Preston,
The Governour laid before the Board a Letter from the President of the Council of the Province of New York, with certain Proposi- tions made by the Commissioners for Indian affairs at Albany, to some Sachims of the ffive Nations, with their Answer, which Letter and Propositions were read, and the said Letter ordered to be En- tered upon the Minutes, and the Propositions to be kept among the Council Papers in the Secretary's Office ; the Letter is in these words.
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Then the Governour acquainted the Board, that according to Mr. Schuyler's Desire, He had transmitted the said Propositions, with a Duplicate of the above Letters to the Governours of Virginia and Mary Land. And that by his Letter of the 14th of Decemf. last, He had signified to the President that he was willing to Know their Sen- timents upon those Propositions before he communicated them to this Board; That the Governour of Virginia having returned an Answer or Remonstrance, (which came to the Governour's hands Yesterday by the Mary Land Post under a flying Seal,) to the Pre- sident of New York, upon the subject matter of Indian affairs con- tained in the Letter & Propositions above mentioned, the Governour proposes that the said Remonstrance which contains many things worthy of some Attention may be read, which was done accordingly, and ordered to be entered on the Minutes at large, being as follows : WILLIAMSBURG, January 25th, 1719-20.
SIR,-On the 2d instant I received a certain Paper, giving an ac- count of a Conference held at Albany, on the 7th & 9th of Novem- ber last, between your Commrs. for Indian affairs and some Sachims of the five Nations, and as the same came handed to me from Phila- delphia, without any Letter on the part of your Govmt., to introduce and Explain the meaning of sending such a Paper hither. I should scarce have taken it to have been transmitted to me from the Presi- dent & Council of New York, had not Governour Keith communi- cated to me the Copy of your Letter to him upon that Subject, wherein you mention, that it is by Advice of the Council that those Copys are sent as well to the Governours of Virginia & Mary Land and South Carolina as to him, and wherein you are pleased to express your self in these words, viz : " And their immediate Answers is ex-
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pected with yours." The Account too contained in the said Paper might have well caused me to doubt whether it was genuine, because when you vouchsaf'd me the Honour to write to me in August last, you then promised to take Notice of the Memorial, given in at New York by Colo. Robinson in behalf of this Govmt., and gave me to expect that you would, at the next meeting of the Indians with your Commrs. press them to discover who that Chief man of Virginia was that had (as your Indians declared in the Conferrence at Albany on the 19th Day of June last,) invited them to come to wage War upon our ffrontiers, and had promised to assist them in the Undertaking with ammunition. This must needs appear to you a very treasonable Practice against the Peace of this Colony, so that I could not but think it deserved the attention of such of his Maty's Servants as had it most in their power to detect the Conspirators, especially since your Govermt. was formerly applied to upon the Occasion, but not pceiving one Word opened by your Commrs. to the Indians on that Head, I could hardly imagine that the said Paper contained a just Account of your Negotiations.
But to come to the Point, and to give you an Answer on the part of this Government. In your said Letter to Mr. Keith you are pleased to observed that Your Indians think themselves slighted by the Governments to the Southward, that this may prove of ill Consequence, and therefore sending Us Governours Copys of your Sachims Demands, you conclude with saying that our immediate Answer is expected; By which I can infer nothing less than a justi- fying your Savages, and threatening no longer to interpose your Endeavours to restrain them from infesting these Southern Govern- mts., or falling upon our Indian Allies unless we will submit to their Terms ; but I beseech you, out of a Regard to his Maty's Subjects in these parts to keep them from such Attempts till I have fairly stated the Case, and then leave you and all indifferent Persons to judge whether your Indians have Cause to Complain of this Go- vernmt., or we of them.
In the first place I cannot but wonder to see fellow Subjects in- dulging even to a Suspicion of Encouragement, those Savages in their haughty Demands of having all the King's Governours on this Con- tinent dance many hundred of miles to Albany to treat there upon every Caprice of theirs; And I with Admiration observe that your Commissioners (some whereof, if I mistake not their names, have been of long standing for the Indian Affairs. at Albany, and even you yourself for many years at the Head of them,) suffer the Sa- chims of the five Nations to go away with the Notion of their being ill treated by these Southern Govermts. ; Certainly, if those Gentle- men would have consulted the Journals of their own proceedings, they might have found somewhat to argue in behalf of Virginia. However, I hope it is not yet too late to remonstrate upon that Head, and therefore I shall take this Occasion to remind them of some Passages.
I shall not now run back to the Behaviour of your Indians on these Frontiers in former Governours times, nor herein trouble you with
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a long Enumeration of their Continual infractions of solemn Treaties which they had made from time to time with this Goverment, having laid a full State thereof before your Governour when I was at New York. I will begin with their actions in these parts only, during my Administration, chusing not to dwell upon petty Roberies and single Murders which have been frequently committed by their like Skulk- ing Parties, but to instance only some flagrant Facts too notorious to be denyed.
In the year 1712 & 1713, They were actually in these parts as- sisting the Tuscarouroes, who had massacred in cold Blood some hundreds of the English and were then warring against us, and they have, at this very day, the Chief Murderers, with the greatest part of that Nation seated under their protection near Susquehanna River, whither they removed them, when they found they could no longer support them against the fforce which the English brought upon them in these parts.
During the Tusoouroro War, about two hundred of your Indians set upon our Virginia Indian Traders, as they were going to the Southern Indians with a Carravan of at least eighty Horses loaded, And after having killed one of our People and shot most of their Horses they made Booty of all the Goods, declaring their Reason for so doing was because They did not carry their Ammunition to the Tuscouroroes, and this Plunder was so publickly vended to the Northward, that it was no Secret to your people at Albany what a villainous part they had been acting here with the English ; And whether such an action be not at this day an incontestible Truth. I dare appeal to you yourself, notwithstanding your Commrs. may be willing out of some politick views, to conceal this piece of your Indians Treachery.
In April 1717, while I was treating in person upon our Frontiers with the Chief of the Cattawbraes and other Southern Indians, (who were certainly at that time under the immediate protection of this Government, having then delivered into my Custody all their Fire Arm, with some Hostages,) a Party of your Indians well Knowing that I was present, and learning from the Tuscouroroes the Business we were met upon, took the Opportunity of the disarmed Condition of those Cattawbra's to surprize and murder several of them in the Night, and to run off with a prisoner or two. Upon this Occasion, the Governmt. of Virginia sent Capt. Christopher Smith that Sum- mer to New York, to expostulate with the five Nations upon several parts of their Behaviour towards this Colony, and to reclaim the pri- soners taken from hence, and in the Conference He had with them at Albany, in the presence of your Governour on the 16th and 17th of June, their Sachims readily owned, that their People had been concerned in the action complained of, and had brought off one Woman prisoner, but making a Sham Excuse of their not Knowing that the Indians they fell upon were in Alliance with the English, and alledging that their prisoner had made her Escape. We were forced to be contented with their bear Promise of not Suffering their People for the future to come out a fighting this way to annoy any
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of the English or their Friends, but Capt. Smith was scarce returned to Virginia when a considerable Body of their Warriours were ac- tually upon their March this way ward, and the Accounts I received of their Design, made me hasten away to the Northward to consult with the neighbouring Governours upon measures that might more effectually secure his Maty's Subjects and Allies from these Attempts of your Indians.
To Judge whether I had Grounds to be alarmed at this march of your Indians, I refer you to your Albany Journals of the 28th of August & 15th of September 1717, whereby it plainly appears that a Body of four or five hundred of their Young Warriors were in that month of August advanced as far as Sasquehannah River, and that they Openly declared their Design was to march directly to Virginia to make War upon our Indians; And it seems a second Promise was there made on the 2d of September, to Lawrence Clau- son, your Interpreter, that they would desist from molesting our Allies, and bend their Course to the Westward against Indians above six hundred miles from any English Settlement, but the event has shewn that this Promise was no sincerer than the former made to Capt. Smith, for they forthwith passing on this side of the Moun- tains directed their Course in the Cattawbra Country, and there fell upon a Company of about one hundred and forty Men, Women and Children of those Indians, And a remarkable occurrence will prove them to be of the same Nation with those who were assaulted a few months before when I was present. For the above mentioned Wo- man Prisoner having made her Escape, after abundance of cruel usage from the Mohocks, came in to me almost famished with Cold and Hunger, about the middle of December 1717, and I cloathing her sent her home to her own Country, and this very Woman was of that number of the one hundred & forty, and carried off again captive to the Northward, for she in 1718 made her Escape again, and came in a second time to me through Pensilvania and Mary- Land, with the Passports of Mr. Logan & Coll. Addison.
After their Exploits with the Cattawbras, they were during the year 1718, continually hovering about our Christianna Indians Set- tlement, and tho' I sent out to invite them into a Treaty with me, they would not come to hearken to any Terms, answering me very haughtily that I must go to Albany to treat, and instantly demand- ing that I should turn the Christianna Indians from under the Pro- tection of our Fort. This was what I could not in Honour nor Conscience agree to, because I knew that when these Tributary In- dians of ours yielded to the proposal of this Government in the year 1713, for quitting the Lands and ffort they were then possessed of within the inhabited part of this Colony, and removing without all our Plantations in Order to awe the skulking parties of foreign In- dians which at that time infested our Frontiers. They expressly stipulated with me that the English should build and garrison a ffort at their new Settlement, to serve as a Place of Refuge for them in case they should be overpowered by their Enemies, so that finding
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them now by such like Threats in imminent Danger, I was instead of turning them away obliged to receive them into the ffort.
After your Indians found themselves not strong enough to at- tempt any thing upon our Christianna Indians in their new situation, They marched home in May 1719, openly threatening to return again with a greater force to try the strength of our Fort, and having taken their rout through our Inhabitants, they marched as through an Enemy's Country, living on ffree Quarters, and committing several Robberies and Outrages on their way, and that we might understand They intended to continue their Course. They in their way home, stopt on the 20th of May at the Connoy Town, under the Govmt. of Pennsylvania, there send for one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of Chester, and upon his (Mr. John Cartlidges) Arrival they sit down down before him in a grand Council of War, produce fifteen prisoners, bid him discourse with two of them that spoke English. He finds them Virginians born, and intercedes for their lives & liberties ; they refuse his request, & in fine tell him they had made a clear path to pass & repass to & from the Southward, hav- ing removed all obstacles out of the way, and that they expected to have free recourse for their Peple amongst the English Plantations, whilst they were making war.
Soon after they returned in several parties carrying themselves very rudely to our outward Inhabitants, & in the month of July last, they approached Christianna & ravaged our Corn fields close to the Fort there, upon which our Indians sallied out and a Skirmish ensued, wherein were two of ours and four of yours Killed. In September following they came in the night & lay in Ambush before the gate of the Fort, & at the opening thereof they shot the first person that came ont, and kept firing upon the Fort until the English got to the great Guns, & so scared them away without any further mischief done at that time.
At length I found means to perswade one of their War Captains, (who calling himself Connaughtoora,) to come in with ten more to a Council held here at Williamsburg, on the ninth of December last, where I with abundance of civil treatment, endeavoured to engage him to carry a Belt of peace to their ffive Nations in behalf of our Christi- anna Indians, but he haughtily refused the same, and answered that they would not be at peace with them upon any Terms, however I prevailed upon him to carry it with this proposal; That the ffive Nations should observe their ancient Treaty with this Government so far as not to come among the English Plantations, & particularly that none of their Warriours should approach within twenty miles of our Fort at Christianna.
Now, Sir, having laid before you a faithful account of your Indians behaviour in these parts, during my Administration, give me leave to reason with you a little thereupon ; Is their close Confederacy with the Tuscourroroes, any ways agreeable to the five Nations Answer which Laurence Clauson reports to your Commissioners on the 6th of May 1712, & to be taken for the assistance promised to reduce those Mur- derers ? or is the reason they gave for plundering our Traders a
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Testimony of their acting for the English ? Can their forbearance with the Cattawbras so long as these were making War upon South Carolina, and their continual attacks upon them ever since they have been engaged for that Province, be look'd upon as a faithful observ- ance of their engagements to your Governour on the last of August, 1715 ? Or is it creditable that they should not guess the Cattawbras to be our friends, when they saw me the Day before come out with six persons only to meet a hundred of them? Is not their marching through our Settlements a manifest breach of their treaty with Vir- ginia ? and their continual attacks upon our tributary Indians so many violations of their repeated promises ? Can they charge this Colony with ever injuring or molesting one of them ? And if they will perpetually haunt us, alarming and doing mischief to our people, need they wonder that we often follow them with complaints, tho' they in their Conference on the 19th of June last, would make our complaining a crime, & your Commissioners are pleased to term it a troubling of your Province ?
But perhaps you may urge what I have already been told on the part of your Govrmt., that the Indians are strangers to our refined notions of Honour & Justice, & yt their Savage Nature will not bear reasoning upon their Conduct ; however, let me argue the Case with a person that presides over a civilized people, who by their situation are the only proper Conservators of that peace which the five Nations have covenanted to observe towards all his Majesty's Subjects & Allies on this Continent.
I have given serious attention to your Conferences at Albany, and the Transactions of Indian affairs there, and cannot but take Notice how the five Nations have brought your Government to confer with them in a more submissive and soothing Stile than they were for- merly treated with, even when they were much more numerous, and the English less powerful on this Continent ; ffor I gather from at- tested Records about thirty or forty years ago, sundry Instances of their being boldly taxed with Injuries done our King's Subjects, and of their being sharply reproved and severely threatened for the same, to all which they then submitted with humble promises of amend- ment, and thanking the English for being so mercifull as to forgive them ; but Now your Commrs. are either afraid or unwilling to urge upon those people their late Violences committed against the Southern Governments, to remonstrate to them their many Infractions of their Treaties and Promises, or to take the least notice of the Plunder and Captives which they have returned with from this Colony; Nay, They represent us Governours, (in one of their letters to Brigadier Hunter,) as if We chose to clamour upon those Occasions, only to put your province to trouble and expence, and to every remonstrance of your injuries, the concluding answers we receive is, that We must forthwith repair in person, or by our Deputies to Albany, to com- pound and make up the breach there ; Nor will preliminaries be ad- mitted of, but it seems to be expected that without conditions we first appear to pay our homage and tribute, for when I was last at New York, I offered but two preliminary Articles proposed as the
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Basis of a Treaty which the Government of Virginia should for once, send to conclude at Albany, nor did they contain any other Condition than what had been already stipulated in former treaty's, vizt. : That they should not pass on this side the High Ridge of Mountains to Concern themselves with the English or their neigh- bouring Indians, but as we had experienced that the agreement of the Sachims Signified little without the Concurrence of the young men, I judged it Convenient to insist that these should previously give their Consent to those two Articles. Tho' I left those Preliminaries about two years agoe at New York, in Writing, I have not yet understood that your Commrs. ever touched upon them, and I cannot but observe with Surprize that you suffer with- out a Reply, the Sachim of the Oneydes to tell you and the rest of the Commissioners to your Faces, on the 19th of June last, that you never before that day acquainted them, that the Indians they had been warring against (which were those bordering upon as far on this side of the mountains,) were in League with any of his Majestys Colonies.
After this Government had been at the Charge of a hundred pounds in sending Captain Smith to Albany to expostulate with your Indians, and I myself had been at a greater Expence in going to New York to offer Proposals ; Surely if they had been communicated to them, 'tis I, not they that have Reason to complain of no Answer being yet returned, and I hope upon better Consideration, you'll say, your In- dians have not been slighted by Virginia, and will reflect that 'tis hardly to be expected that I should attend them at Albany upon a fruitless Negotiation, until I have an Answer to the preliminaries which I delivered to your Governour; as to the Burden of your In- dians Song, that Albany must be the only place for their treating with the English and their Allies, I must frankly tell you, that your allowing (not to say encouraging) them to insist upon that haughty Demand, however you may fancy it raises the Reputation of your Province, is far from strengthing it, or acting for the Honour of the British Nation in General. What ? Are They not to stir one Foot to treat with any of his Majestys Governmts., and yet will run a thou- sand miles to treat with a petty Nation of Indians ? Believe me, Sir, This Treatment lessens the English in the Eye of both Pagan & Christian World, for not only our tributary and neighbouring In- dians begin to grow more insolent since they perceive we bear with this presumption of your Indians, but I also found in Discourse not long ago with some French Traders, that they conceived a very mean Opinion of those Governments from hearing that we were so managed by the five Nations.
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