boundary.* A conference was held with them at Johnson's Hall, in May 1765. Sir William informed the Indians that the king, whose generosity and forgiveness they had already experienced, being very desirous of putting an end to the disputes between them and his people, concerning lands, and to do them strict justice, had fallen upon the plan of a boundary between them and his people, as the best method of accomplishing this object; he told them that "the settling of such a division line will be best for both white men and Indians, and he hoped it would be such a line as would best agree with the extent and increase of each Province: he wanted to know in what manner they would choose to extend it, and what they would heartily agree to, and abide by, in general terms." He said he would consult the governors of the Provinces interested as soon as he was fully empowered; and that whenever the whole would be settled, and that it appeared that they had so far consulted the increasing state of the colonists as to make any convenient cessions of ground where it was most wanted, that then they would receive a considerable present in return for their friendship.t

The Indians agreed to the proposition of a boundary line. Within three years, thirty thousand whites settled beyond the mountains. A change of administration took place in England. The contemplated Bill for establishing the boundary and regulating the Indian trade was not brought forward. The letters of Sir William Johnson were mislaid by Ministers, and he received no instructions enabling him to fulfil his engagements with the Indians. The Indians, finding their country everywhere invaded, began to believe they had been duped by the fair promises made by the northern superintendent. A border war was imminent. Many settlers

*The plan of a boundary line having been communicated to the Superintendent for Indian Affairs, they have [though not strictly authorized to do so] made it a subject of discussion and negotiation with the Indians in their respective districts. Lords of Trade to Earl Shelburne. N. Y. Hist. Doc., vol.8., p. 1005.

+N. Y. Hist. Doc. vol. 8, where the correspondence will be found See Franklin's letters to his son. Spark's Life of Franklin, vol. 4.

were massacred. A detachment of soldiers were sent in 1766 to Redstone creek and Cheat river, to remove those who ha settled at these places.*

On the 7th of December, 1767, General Gage, the Comm der-in-Chief of the forces in the Colonies, wrote to the Go nor of Pennsylvania, on the subject of the Indians' grievan and of the disregard paid by the western settlers to the se proclamations that had been published; and he declares the removal of those who had settled on Red Sand creek and Cheat river, "has been only a temporary dient, as they are returned again to the same encroachm greater numbers than ever." The Governor of Pen nia communicated the letter which he had receive General Gage to the Assembly of that Province on th January, 1768, and eight days after, the Assembly r a reply to the Governor; and, on the 19th, the Spe the Committee of Correspondence informed the Agents, by order of the House,-"That the delay of mation of the boundary, the natives had wa plained of, and that although they have received r ation for the lands agreed to be ceded to the Cr side of the boundary, yet that its subjects are d and occupying those very lands."

The Legislature of Pennsylvania, finding tha were becoming more and more inclined to war, the unauthorized encroachments upon their la doubting that orders would soon arrive from Eng the inchoate treaty of May, 1765, voted one the to purchase presents for the Indians upon the ence was held at Fort Pitt, in May, 1768. T that their grievances had long been known, an redressed; that settlements were still exten their country, and some of them wer upon that the English had laws to go would be a strong proof of "e sin

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of November, to William Trent, attorney for twenty-two traders whose goods had been destroyed during the war with Pontiac. This tract of land lay between the Monongahela and Kanawha rivers, and was called by the traders Indiana. Two days later a deed was made to the king for the remainder, and the Indians were at once paid. The chiefs of the Six Nations signed for themselves, their allies and dependents. The Shawanese and Deleware deputies did not sign these deeds. By this treaty the boundary of the territory thrown open for settlement along the middle colonies, was removed "from the sources of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, from the west or northwest," where it was "for the present" fixed by the proclamation of 1763, to the Ohio river.

The western boundary of Virginia, became at once the engrossing topic to the people of that Province. Lord Botetourt, who had shortly before become Governor of Virginia, cordially seconded their wishes, and declared he was ready to put in pledge his life and fortune to carry its jurisdiction on the parallel of thirty-six and-a-half degrees North latitude, as far west as the Treaty of Fort Stanwix would permit. † This boundary he was told would give room for settlement for ten or twelve years. ‡

The Earl of Shelburne, on the 5th of October, 1767, addressed a letter to the Lords of Trade, enclosing memorials and petitions which had been presented to the king from English and Colonial merchants, on the state of the Indian trade. He suggested the abolition of the Indian Departments, which had been created at a time when a general union of the Colonies, under the immediate direction of the king was contemplated, with a view, the better to resist the encroachments of France. He intimated that it would be well to trust both the Trade and

*Plain Facts, page 65--104. N. Y. Hist. Doc. vol 8. Stone's Life of Sir W. Johnson. + Botetourt to Hillsborough, 24th Dec., 1768.

Lewis & Walker to Lord Botetourt, in Botetourt to Hillsborough, 11th Feb'y, 1769. Bancroft, vol. 5, ch. 38.

the general management of Indian affairs to the different Colonies, subject to the king's disallowance. He then addressed himself to the subject of establishing new colonies. He says: "His Majesty likewise commands me to refer to your Lordship's extracts from several letters of Sir Jeffrey Amherst and General Gage, recommending the establishment of further new governments, on the Mississippi, the Ohio, and at Detroit, at one or more of which places a considerable body of French have been suffered to remain since the peace, without any form of government; also, different proposals from private people for undertaking establishments in these parts. Your Lordships will consider the force of the several arguments which are brought in favour of these settlements, setting forth that they will secure to his Majesty's subjects the command of the Fur and Peltry Trade, in preference to the French and Spaniards, preventing any smuggling with them, which, as appears, by the extracts of General Gage's and Mr. Crogan's letters, amounts to so considerable a sum annually as to become a national object; that they will be an effectual check to the intrigues of those nations, for gaining the affections of the Indians; that they will promote the great object of population in general, and increase the demand for the consumption of British manufactures, particularly by affording to the Americans an opportunity of following their natural bent for the cultivation of the lands, and offering a convenient reception and cultivation for their superfluous hands, who otherwise cooped up in narrow bounds, might be forced into manufactures, to rival the mother countryan event, which, any other way, it might be difficult to prevent; that by raising provisions of all sorts to supply such interior garrisons, as it may still be found necesary to keep up, they would greatly contribute to lessen the extraordinary expense accruing, not only from the establishment of the different Forts and the various contingent charges, but also from the necessity of transporting provisions as well as stores to supply the garrisons from the Provinces on the coast, by