We are well assured, that this is no better grounded than the other Facts they assert with the same Positiveness. For it is well known almost to every Person in New-York, that there has not been a less, but rather a greater Quantity of European Goods imported into this Place, since the passing of this Act, than was at any Time before it, in the same Space of Time. As this appears by the Manifests in the Custom-house here, the same may likewise be easily proved by the Custom-house Books in London.
As all the Arguments of the Merchants run upon the ill Effects this Act has had upon the Trade and the Minds of the Indians, every one of which we have shown to be asserted without the least Foundation to support them, there nothing now remains, but to show the good Effects this Act has produced, which are so notorious in this Province, that we know not one Person that now opens his Mouth against the Act.
Before this Act passed, none of the People of this Province travelled into the Indian Countries to trade: We have now above forty young Men, who have been several Times as far as the Lakes a trading, and thereby become well acquainted, not only with the Trade of the Indians, but likewise with their Manners and Languages; and these have returned with such large Quantities of Furs, that greater Numbers are resolved to follow their Example. So that we have good Reason to hope, that in a little Time the English will draw the whole Indian Trade of the Inland Countries to Albany, and into the Country of the Five Nations. This Government has built a publick Trading-house upon Cataraqui Lake, at Irondequat in the Sennekas Land, and another is to be built next Spring, at the Mouth or the Onondagas River. All the far Indians pass by these Places, in their Way to Canada; and they are not above half so far from the English Settlements, as they are from the French.
So far is it from being true what the Merchants say, That the French Forts interrupt all Communication between the Indians and the English, that if these Places be well supported, as they easily can be from our Settlements, in case of a Rupture with the French, it will be in the Power of this Province, to intercept the greatest Part of the Trade between Canada and the Indians, round the Lakes and the Branches of the Misissippi.
Since this Act passed, many Nations have come to Albany to trade, and settle Peace and Friendship, whose Names had not so much as been heard of among us.
In the Beginning of May 1723, a Nation of Indians came to Albany singing and dancing, with their Calumets before them, as they always do when they come to any Place where they have not been before. We do not find that the Commissioners of Indian Affairs, were able to inform themselves what Nation this was.
Towards the End of the same Month, eighty Men, besides Women and Children, came to Albany in the same Manner. These had one of our Five Nations with them for an Interpreter, by whom they informed the Commissioners, that they were of a great Nation, called Nehkereages, consisting of six Castles and Tribes; and that they lived near a Place called by the French Missilimakinak, between the Upper Lake and the Lake of the Hurons. These Indians not only desired a free Commerce, but likewise to enter into a strict League of Friendship with us and our Six Nations, that they might be accounted the Seventh Nation in the League; and being received accordingly, they left their Calumet as a Pledge of their Fidelity.
In June another Nation arrived, but from what Part of the Continent we have not learned.
In July the Twightwies arrived, and brought an Indian Interpreter of our Nations with them, who told, that they were called by the French Miamies, and that they live upon one of the Branches of the River Misissippi.
At the same Time some of the Tahsagrondie Indians, who live between Lake Erie and the Lake of the Hurons, near a French Settlement, did come and renew their League with the English, nor durst the French hinder them.