Papers Relating to an Act of the Assembly of the Province of New-York / For encouragement of the Indian trade, &c. and for prohibiting the selling of Indian goods to the French, viz. of Canada

by Cadwallader Colden; Great Britain. Board of Trade; Great Britain. Privy Council; New York . Council

If the Six Nations have made any Conquest over Indians that may at any Time have lived on the West-side of the Great Mountains of Virginia, yet they never possessed any Lands there that we have ever heard of. That Part was altogether deserted, and free for any People to enter upon, as the People of Virginia have done, by Order of the Great King, very justly, as well by ancient Right, as by its being freed from the Possession of any other, and from any Claim even of you the Six Nations, our Brethren, until within these eight Years. The first Treaty between the Great King, in Behalf of his Subjects of Virginia, and you, that we can find, was made at Albany, by Colonel Henry Coursey, Seventy Years since; this was a Treaty of Friendship, when the first Covenant Chain was made, when we and you became Brethren.

The next Treaty was also at Albany, above Fifty-eight Years ago, by the Lord Howard, Governor of Virginia; then you declared yourselves Subjects to the Great King, our Father, and gave up to him all your Lands for his Protection. This you own in a Treaty made by the Governor of New-York with you at the same Place in the Year 1687, and you express yourself in these Words, "Brethren, you tell us the King of England is a very great King, and why should not you join with us in a very just Cause, when the French join with our Enemies in an unjust Cause? O Brethren, we see the Reason of this; for the French would fain kill us all, and when that is done, they would carry all the Beaver Trade to Canada, and the Great King of England would lose the Land likewise; and therefore, O Great Sachem, beyond the Great Lakes, awake, and suffer not those poor Indians, that have given themselves and their Lands under your Protection, to be destroyed by the French without a Cause."

The last Treaty we shall speak to you about is that made at Albany by Governor Spotswood, which you have not recited as it is: For the white People, your Brethren of Virginia, are, in no Article of that Treaty, prohibited to pass, and settle to the Westward of the Great Mountains. It is the Indians, tributary to Virginia, that are restrained, as you and your tributary Indians are from passing to the Eastward of the same Mountains, or to the Southward of Cohongorooton, and you agree to this Article in these Words; "That the Great River of Potowmack, and the high Ridge of Mountains, which extend all along the Frontiers of Virginia to the Westward of the present Settlements of that Colony, shall be for ever the established Boundaries between the Indians subject to the Dominions of Virginia, and the Indians belonging to and depending on the Five Nations; so that neither our Indians shall on any Pretence whatsoever, pass to Northward or Westward of the said Boundaries, without having to produce a Passport under the Hand and Seal of the Governor or Commander in Chief of Virginia; nor your Indians to pass to the Southward or Eastward of the said Boundaries, without a Passport in like Manner from the Governor or Commander in Chief of New-York."

And what Right can you have to Lands that you have no Right to walk upon, but upon certain Conditions? It is true, you have not observed this Part of the Treaty, and your Brethren of Virginia have not insisted upon it with a due Strictness, which has occasioned some Mischief.

This Treaty has been sent to the Governor of Virginia by Order of the Great King, and is what we must rely on, and, being in Writing, is more certain than your Memory. That is the Way the white People have of preserving Transactions of every Kind, and transmitting them down to their Childrens Children for ever, and all Disputes among them are settled by this faithful kind of Evidence, and must be the Rule between the Great King and you. This Treaty your Sachems and Warriors signed some Years after the same Governor Spotswood, in the Right of the Great King, had been, with some People of Virginia, in Possession of these very Lands, which you have set up your late Claim to.

The Commissioners for Indian Affairs at Albany gave the Account we mentioned to you Yesterday to the Governor of New-York, and he sent it to the Governor of Virginia; their Names will be given you by the Interpreter.

Brethren,

This Dispute is not between Virginia and you; it is setting up your Right against the Great King, under whose Grants the People you complain of are settled. Nothing but a Command from the Great King can remove them; they are too powerful to be removed by any Force of you, our Brethren; and the Great King, as our common Father, will do equal Justice to all his Children; wherefore we do believe they will be confirmed in their Possessions.

As to the Road you mention, we intended to prevent any Occasion for it, by making a Peace between you and the Southern Indians, a few Years since, at a considerable Expence to our Great King, which you confirmed at Albany. It seems, by your being at War with the Catawbas, that it has not been long kept between you.

However, if you desire a Road, we will agree to one on the Terms of the Treaty you made with Colonel Spotswood, and your People, behaving themselves orderly like Friends and Brethren, shall be used in their Passage through Virginia with the same Kindness as they are when they pass through the Lands of your Brother Onas. This we hope, will be agreed to by you our Brethren, and we will abide by the Promise made to you Yesterday.