USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. VIII > Part 26
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"NOTE .- Tho' the said Marshall, Scull, Smith, &ca., differ in their Evi- dence in some not very material Circumstances, except that of the Indians expressing Dissatisfaction with the Watch, the Time, as mentioned by one or Two of the Witnesses, but contradicted by much the greater Force, par- ticularly by those who we think most worthy of Credit, yet they all agree that the Walk was fairly performed in Eighteen Hours, with the necessary Intermissions only of One Night's Rest, and meal Times ; and being greatly surprized that these Affadavits of so many of the principal Men Present at the Walk should be so diametrically opposite and contradictory to the Re- port of the Four Provincial Commissioners who attended your Honour at the said Treaty at Easton, which we see subjoined to the Assembly's printed Publication of that Treaty, in which Report those Commissioners rake upon them to assert [' that the Transaction of that Walk was at that Treaty universally given up as unfair and not to be defended, even from the Accounts of some of our own People who were present at the Walking,' and that ' even the Secretary, tho' he said he believed that Satisfaction was afterwards made the Indians, and that this was the only Instance in which
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present thereat [to which we refer your Honour for the Particulars about the said Walk], the said Mr. Eastburn laid down the Tract, Course, Beginning and End of the said Walk in a fair Map which he drew of the contiguous Lands, &cª", in order to ascertain and compleat the Extent and description of the said Disputed Lands, in the parts for which Blanks had been left, untill the said One and Half Day's Journey or Walk should be performed, and the said Map was accordingly lodged and is now found with the Pro- prietaries' Indian Deeds, as mentioned in the hereto annexed affi- davit, No. 10.
" But perhaps it may be objected that Mr. Eastburn took more Liberty in his May than he was warranted to do by the said Deeds for that Purchase, in making the Head Line to run at Right Angles with the Line or Course of the Walk : To obviate and Answer which Objection, and also those against the Place of Be- ginning the Walk, and Course of it, &cª-, we observe, that after the Description in the Deed has carried the Boundary Line of this Purchase from the Spruce Tree away to the White Oak marked P, and so Westward to Neshameny Creek (being so far the Line of the Contiguous Purchase in 1682), it goes 'on thus from which said Line, the said Tract hereby granted, does extend itself back into the Woods as far as a Man can go in One Day and an Half, and bounded on the Westerly Side with the Creek called Nesha- meny, or the most Westerly Branch thereof so far as the said
any Foundation of Complaint had ever been given them, yet he allowed this to be unworthy of any Government ;'] he, after finishing the Examina- tions of all the Persons present at the said Walk, who we could learn were now to be had, desired the Secretary to inform us whether those or any other Persons present at the Walk were examined on Oath at the said Treaty at Easton, or on what else it was that those Commissioners founded those positive Assertions of theirs that the said Walk was then universally given up as unfair and not to be defended, when the direct Contrary so clearly appeared to us by the Affidavits of all those Persons at it, and whose Testimony only was worth regarding : To which the Secretary answered that none of those or any other Persons were to his Knowledge examined on Oath or otherwise about the said Walk at the said Treaty, but that some Persons who dined there with the Governor, taking upon them to speak of the unfairness of the Walk with great Positiveness, and as a thing certain, and allowed by all or most of those present at it, and particularizing many aggravating Circumstances of the Fraudulent and unjust performance of it, and throwing out some Insinuations and Reflections against the Proprie- taries as if they were privy to it, he believes he might say if those things were true, such a Procedure was unworthy of any Government, but avers that he, not being concerned in these Proprietaries' Affairs till after that Transaction, was an absolute Stranger to it, and that any thing he might say about the Proprietaries making the Indians Satisfaction, for it was not from any Knowledge he had of the Fact (for that he knew nothing at all about it), but merely from his Opinion of their Strict Regard to Justice ; and in Short, that tho' these Gentlemen had in their said Report pronounced so positively about that affair, he believes it could only be founded upon the said Table Talk and Loose Hear-say, and that, in fact, they knew no more of it than he did.
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Branch does extend, and from thence by a Line [Blank in the Deed, but, as we corstrue, is to run parrallel with and] to the ut- most Extent of the said One and Half Day's Journey, and from thence by a Line [Blank in the Deed] to the aforesaid River Dela- ware, and from thence down by the Several Courses thereof to the first-mentioned Spruce Tree,' the Place of Beginning. And on comparing and Considering the several Parts of the said Descrip- tion, and that of the Contiguous Purchase on the South Westerly Side thereof, between Neshameny and Pennapeck, &c2., made by Four Several Deeds, all dated the 23d June, 1683 [of which Deeds we have also annexed a Copy, No. 11], we think it clearly appears that the Walk might, consistently with the Deed, have begun at the End of the said Line running Westward from the said White Oak to where it strikes Neshameny, which would have been more in favour of the Proprietaries, than beginning it at Wright's Town, as it would have made the Walk Considerably shorter, and that the South Westerly Side Line, from the utmost Extent of the most Westerly Branch of Neshameny, was to be a parrallel with the Course of the Walk which, according to the Words of the Deed, was to be back into the Woods as far as a Man can go in One Day and an Half. In order to understand and settle what Course the Indians and Proprietaries meant by those Words [back into the Woods], We had Recourse to the other Purchase Deeds, where we find those words frequently used to Signify or denote the Line that was to run back into the Country from or at Right Angles with the general Course of that Part of the River Delaware from New- castle to the Bend of the River above Pennsbury, where the Dela- ware Indians then lived, and where the new Settlements and cleared Lands were then encreasing and spreading each Way from the City. Which General Course of the Delaware being from about North-East to South-West, a Line at Right Angles from it back into the Woods must Consequently be North Westerly, as it is ex- pressly called in the Deed for the Purchase of the Land between upland or Chester, and Dublin or Pennapeck Creeks, dated the 30th July, 1685 (a Copy whereof is hereto annexed and marked No. 12) ; from whence it necessarily follows that the Course of the said Walk, and of the South Westerly Side Line of this Disputed Purchase, from the utmost Extent of the most Westerly Branch of Neshameny (which was to be settled and determined by the Course of the Walk), must be North Westerly, as Mr. Eastburn has laid it down in his Map, and exactly corresponds with the Line of the next Contiguous Purchase, on that Side, between Neshameny and Pennapect.
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" And then as the Deed requires that the Head or Cross Line shall go directly from the End of the said South Westerly Side Line, and of the Walk to the River Delaware in One Line or Couse, as we understand it, we cannot but think as Mr. Eastburn did, that it is most rational and Equitable that the said Head or Cross Line
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should Run at Right Angles from the Course of the Walk and End of the South Westerly Side Line (that being the Medium and with- out favouring One side or the other). And especially when it is considered that the Kittatinny Mountains are made the Boundary of the Proprietaries' New Purchase in 1749 (in which Nutimus and another Delaware Chief also joined with the Six Nations), of the Lands to the North Westward of those Mountains, which run near at right Angles with the Course of the walk, and, therefore, we conclude must be the most Proper Boundary of the said Purchase in 1686, as well as that of the said new purchased Tract on the other Side of those Mountains. See Copy of Deed for Purchase in 1749, No. 21.
" As to the Indians insisting that the Walkers should have begun at and gone up a long Delaware Side, we shall only add to what we have observed on that Head before, that the Deed expressly says the finishing and Closing Line of the Description is Down by the Several Courses of Delaware to the place of Beginning, at the Spruce Tree. This may Serve to shew the Ignorance of the In- dians and the Wickedness of those who put them on making so unjust and groundless a Charge.
"And it appears to us equally absurd and rediculous in the In- dians to say, that instead of its being a Journey as far as a Man can go in One Day and a half, as the Deed expresses, it should only be an idle, trifling Walk, such as a Person would take who had little else in View, but to spend the Time in Pleasure, killing · Game, and every now and then setting down to smoak his Pipe ; And as it was not to be such a Walk, but a real Day and Half's Journey on an Affair of so much Consequence as the settling the , Boundaries of so large a Purchase, and considering that according to the Natural Construction of those Words [a Journey as far as a Man can go in a Day and an Half ], the Walkers were not strictly to be confined to Walking, tho' by the Affidavits of the said Per- sons present it appears they did; we think the Length of the Walk (especially stopping at the Kittatinny Mountains, where, according to Mr. Thomas Penn's Directions, as mentioned in Mr. Smith's Deposition, and where, by the said Purchase in 1749, that Head Line was fixed as aforesaid), it being only, as we are well informed, about Forty Seven Miles from Wright's Town to those Mountains, was not at all extravagant or unreasonable and ought not to have been objected to, as we find most of the Deeds for the Prior Pur- chases fix the North Western Boundary at Two full Days Journey " with a Horse from the River Delaware.
" For Answer to the Third Head of the Complaint, and supposing it to allude, as we apprehend it does, to the Proprietaries' Purchases from the Six Nation Indians ; we find by several Minutes of Coun- cil [particularly the Entries in the Council Journals, Book D, Fol. 121, &ca-, a Copy whereof is hereto annexed, marked No. 137], and
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other Proofs, that the Delaware Indians had, before the Settlement of Pennsylvania, been conquered by the Five, now Six Nation In- dians, and that they were, and continued ever since, their Tributa- ries and Dependants, and were looked upon to have no Right to sell any Lands within this Province by the said Confederate Indians of the Six Nations, who thereupon repeatedly forbid and caution the Old Proprietary And his Sons, against purchasing any lands from the Delaware Indians, and therefore the Old and present Proprie- taries, not only took Deeds for all their lands bought of the Indians from the Delaware, Susquehannah, Schuylkill, and all other Indians who claimed the right of Possession, as well particular Chiefs and Possessors of large Tracts and Districts, as the Sachems and Heads of the several Communities of those Indians, and paid for many of the Purchases Two or Three Times over on taking the Deeds of Confirmation thereof. But they also took Deeds for many of their Lands from the Six Nation Indians, that they might the better guard against any Cavil with any of the Indians about those Lands.
" We don't find that any of the Proprietaries' Indian Purchases were ever run out by a Compass, nor can we' apprehend that it Could be of any use in laying them out, as they seem all to be described in the Deeds by natural Bounds; and therefore we are very much at a Loss to understand what Teedyuscung means by that part of his Charge against the Proprietaries (in our Fourth Head), wherein he Complains ' that when he (meaning, we suppose, the Ancestors of the Present Delaware Indians) had agreed to sell the Land to the Old Proprietary by the Course of the River, the young Proprietaries come and got it run out by a Straight Line by the Compass, and by that means took in double the Quantity intended to be sold,' Unless he alluds to the Circumstance of a Compass being used in the going the said One and Half Day's Walk, as mentioned in one or two of the Depositions of the Witnesses whom we examined about the walk, particularly Marshal, who says he carried a Compass at the Time of his going the Walk. But besides his being Contradic- ted in that Circumstance by almost all the rest of the Witnesses, we think it very improbable that he should, as it must so much retard his Walking if he stopped frequently to make any use of it, that he could not possibly Walk so far in the Eighteen Hours, as he says in his Deposition he did ; and further, we find by Mr. Smith's Depo- sitions, there could be little or no Occasion for Marshal's carrying or using a Compass, for that in order to prevent the Walkers loosing themselves and Wandering out of the Way when they quitted the great Road and old Paths, the Proprietaries' Agents had sometime before the going the walk, tried the Course, and previously marked the Trees to direct the Walkers where they were obliged by the Course of the Walk to leave the great Road and Old Paths,. which indeed, as it appears by almost all the Evidence, was very little, till they came near the Kittatinny mountains, where they should have stopped, as we have before observed.
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" In the Year 1740 and 1741 we find that the said Nutimus, and some others of the Delaware Indians (notwithstanding their said Deed of Confirmation in August, 1737, for the said Purchase of the said Land in and near the Forks), made a Complaint about the White People's settling those disputed Lands, but did not make any objection to, or so much as mention the said Walk, pretending* or affecting to be quite ignorant both of the said Deed in 1686, and of their own said Deed in 1737, and only said they had never sold the Proprietaries that Land.
" In Consequence of which Complaint, and of their appealing to or desiring to have their Uncles, the Six nation Indians, present when the pretended Causes for that Complaint were examined into, We find that at a Treaty held in Philadelphia in July, 1742, with the Six Nation Indians, at which there was a numerous appearance of them, with their Chiefs, and the Delawares, as well from Shamokin, with their Chiefs, as those from the Forks of Delaware, with their Chiefs also attending, the said Complaint was fully enquired into in the presence of the said Six Nation Indians, and after hearing every thing that the Complainers had to say in support of it, and what the Agent of the Proprietaries had to say in their Vindication, and perusing and carefully Considering the Proprie- taries' Purchase Deeds, relating to that Disputed Land, and after the Indian Chiefs of the Six Nations had by themselves considered it, and with the Assistance of their Interpreter, Mr. Weiser perused and fully examined the Delawares and their own Letters on the Subject, with the Draught of the Land, and the Proprietaries' Deeds and Writings relating thereto, which were all laid before them, they, moved with a Proper Spirit of resentment and Concern which such base Conduct of their Couzins, the Delawares, had raised in them, declared to the Governor and Council that they saw with their own Eyes, and were fully convinced, 'that their said Cousins had been a very unruly People, and were altogether in the wrong,' and then their famous Speaker, Canasatego, applying himself to the Delawares, with a Belt of Wampum in his Hands, reprimanded them in a most warm and pathetic Speech, which is so strong, expressive, and pertinent to the Subject of this Enquiry, that we could not omit inserting the following Extract from it, Vizt :
"'Let this Belt of Wampum serve to chastise, you ought to be taken by the Hair of the Head and shaked severely till you recover your Senses and become Sober; you don't know what Ground you stand on, nor what you are doing. Our Brother Onas' [meaning the Proprietor ] Cause is very just and plain. On the other Hand your Cause is bad ; your Heart far from being Upright; and you are maliciously bent to break the Chain of Friendship with our Brother Onas and his People. We have seen with our Eyes a Deed signed
"*See Copies of minutes of Council, with their Letter of the 21st November, 1740, and Governor Thomas' Answer of the 27th March, 1741, No. 14.
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by nine of your Ancestors above Fifty Years ago for this very Land, and a release signed not many years since by some of yourselves and Chiefs now living to the Number of Fifteen or upwards. . But how came you to sell Land at all? We conquered you ; we made Women of you ; you know you are Women, and can no more sell Land than Women ; nor is it fit you should have the Power of selling Lands since you would abuse it. This Land that you claim is gone through your guts; you have been furnished with Cloaths, Meat, and Drink by the Goods paid you for it, and now you want it again like Children as you are.'*
" And after upbraiding them with Selling the Land without their Privity or giving them any part of the Purchase Money, and with their having, in their Excuse, told them a Blind Story that they had sent a Messenger to acquaint the Six Nations with that Sale, but that he never arrived; and charging them with being dishonest and greedy to hear and receive slanderous Reports of their Brethren, the English. He charges them to remove instantly off the Land to the other Side of Delaware, where they came from. But on reflec- tion that they might have sold that Land too, he assigns them two Places to go to, either to Wioming or Shamokin, that their future Behaviour might be the easier and better observed by their Uncles, the Six Nations; and then orders them to depart the Council.
" Accordingly, we find the Delawares (acquiescing and satisfied with their Uncles' Judgment and Determination of their Differences with the Proprietaries about the said Land) did, in obedience thereto, settle on the River Susquehannah at Wioming, Shamokin, and other Places thereabouts, taking with them Several Jersey and Minnisink Indians, and Continue ever since (till their late Ravages upon our Borders) to live in Harmony with the Six Nations, and a Kind and Friendly Intercourse and good Agreement with the People of this Pro- vince, carrying on a considerable Trade with them, and thereby supply- ing themselves with all the necessaries and Conveniences of life without ever Complaining or expressing any Dissatisfaction about the said Land. And we find by the Council Minutes, that in the Year 1754, when some of the People of Connecticut setting up a Claim to the Wio- ming Lands, sent some Persons to the Susquehannah to view the Country, who were imprudent enough to make Draughts of the Lands and Rivers in the presence of the Indians, and to make some Attempts to Corrupt our Back Inhabitants, and engage them to purchase from them and to join with them in settling the Wioming Lands. Governor Hamilton coming to the Knowledge of these Pretentions and Designs of the New England People, and being apprehensive of the bad consequences that might attend these new Claims, and the imprudent conduct of these People, sent Mr. Weiser and his Son to Shamokin and Wioming to those Indians
"*See this Speech and Transaction in the printed Treaty in July, 1742, No. 15, and in Colden's History of the Five Nations, Page 77, &ca.
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with Friendly Messages to be delivered at their Towns on Susque- hannah to enquire after their Health, and to acquaint them that something had been insinuated to him as if they had Cause of Com- plaint against some of our Inhabitants ; and if they had to impart their Grievance to him assuring them Justice should be done to their Satisfaction. See Copy of Minutes of Council, No. 16.
" This Message was taken very kindly by those Indians; and they, in consequence thereof, in April ,1755, came to Philadelphia to make their Acknowledgements for that Favour, as they esteemed it; and tho' so fair an Opportunity was given them to have signi- fied to the Governor their Dissatisfaction about the said Land pur- chased by the Proprietaries in 1686, or any other cause of uneasi-, ness if any they had entertained or conceived against the Proprie- taries or people of this Government; yet they made not the least Mention of any, but on the Contrary did by their Speaker, the said Teedyuscung, then give this Government the most Solemn and full Assurances of their Warmest Affections and most earnest desire of renewing, establishing and Continuing to the end of Time that Covenant of Friendship which the Old Proprietor, William Penn, had so happily settled with their Ancestors and those of their Uncles, the Six Nations. See Copy Minutes of Council, No. 17.
" And in the Treaty held at Philadelphia in August, 1755, with the Owendates, accompanied by Scarroyady, Chief of the Six Na- tions, and some other Indians, just after the unhappy Defeat of General Braddock, we also find that these Delawares were then so far from having any thoughts or just cause to fall out with us, that after expressing some resentment for their not being asked to join the English in that Expedition, they, by Scarroyady, promised in the strongest Terms that if we would give them the Hatchet they would most heartily join us and their Uncles, the Six Nations, against the French. See Copy minutes of Council, No. 18.
" Besides what appears on the Subject in the said Treaty in Au- gust, 1785, we further observe, that at a subsequent Treaty or Conference at Philadelphia, the Eighth of the following November, with Scarrooyady, Andrew Montour, and Jagrea, Scarrooyady ac- quainted the Governor that the Speaker and House of Assembly (convened by the Governor at the Instance of Scarrooyady, to be present on that Occasion), that he was sent on Purpose by all the Nations of Indians on Susquehannah (then our hearty Friends and Allies, and at the Head of whom were these Delawares), to renew their Application and earnest request to us, to give them the Hatchet, and to aid, protect, and join with them against the French, and that he came ' to obtain our explicit Answer, whether we would fight or no;' and after he had used many other Arguments, he addressed himself to the Governor and Assembly in these words : [' Brethren : I must deal plain with you, and tell you if you will not fight with us, we VOL. VIII .- 17.
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will go somewhere else. We never can or ever will put up the Af- front. If we cannot be safe where we are, we will go somewhere else for protection, and take care of ourselves] ; ' and tho' the Gov- ernor at the close of that Conference, after he had dismissed the Indians, did in the most Pressing manner entreat the Speaker and Assembly to return to their House, to consider well what the In- dians had said on that Important Occasion, and to Strengthen his Hands, and enable him to make a proper Answer to what they had then proposed and expected of us; and letting the House know that without their Aid he could not do it ; Yet we find that noth- ing could prevail with the Assembly to agree to our giving the Hatchet to the Indians, and joining them against the French. The Consequence whereof was, that the Governor was obliged to let the Indians go away dissatisfied, & soon after the Delawares joined the Enemy, and began to fall upon and destroy our Frontier Inhabi- tants. See Copy, Minutes of Council, No. 19.
" And thus this grand Crisis was neglected, and that critical and most favourable Opportunity of keeping these Indians in our Inte- rest (when they with such earnest and repeated Solicitations and Importunities Courted and pressed us to it), and of Preventing a great part of the fatal Mischiefs that have since befallen this unhappy country, was lost !
" As to the fifth Head of the said Indians' Complaint, that they have been ill-treated by the out-Settlers, in being refused the Lib- erty of cutting Firewood, and interrupted in their Hunting, we being Strangers to the Facts can only say, that nothing of this kind appear to us to have been done with the Privity of the Proprie- taries or this Government, and in general believe, that they have been extremely well treated by the People of this Province. There may, perhaps, have been some few rash indiscreet Person in the back Parts, who may have had Differences with some of the Indians, and if that has been really the Case they should have complained of it to the Government, where they knew from manifold Experience, they might be sure of always meeting with the Redress and full Satisfaction for any Injuries they might have Sustained, whether of a Publick or private Nature, and not have resented it and taken their own Revenge in so unjust and cruel a Manner against the whole Province.
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