14, 1724.
The Report of a Committee of the Council held at New-York, November 6, 1724.
May it please your Excellency,
In Obedience to your Excellency's Commands in Council, the 29th of October, referring to us a Petition of several Merchants in London, presented to the King's most excellent Majesty, against renewing an Act passed in this Province, entitled, An Act for Encouragement of the Indian Trade, and rendering it more effectual to the Inhabitants of this Province, and for prohibiting the selling of Indian Goods to the French; as likewise the several Allegations of the said Merchants before the Right Hon. the Lords of Trade and Plantations, we beg Leave to make the following Remarks.
In order to make our Observations the more distinct and clear, we shall gather together the several Assertions of the said Merchants, both in their Petition, and delivered verbally before the Lords of Trade, as to the Situation of this Province, with respect to the French and Indian Nations, and observe on them, in the first Place, they being the Foundation on which all their other Allegations are grounded. Afterwards we shall lay before your Excellency, what we think necessary to observe on the other parts of the said Petition, in the Order they are in the Petition, or in the Report of the Lords of Trade.
In their geographical Accounts they say, "Besides the Nations of Indians that are in the English Interest, there are very many Nations of Indians, who are at present in the Interest of the French, and who lie between New-York and the Nations of Indians in the English Interest.——The French and their Indians would not permit the English Indians to pass over by their Forts."
The said Act "Restrains them (the Five Nations) from a free Commerce with the Inhabitants of New-York.
"The Five Indian Nations are settled upon the Banks of the River St. Lawrence, directly opposite to Quebeck, two or three Hundred Leagues distant from the nearest British Settlements in New-York.
"They (the Five Nations of Indians) were two or three Hundred Leagues distant from Albany; and that they could not come to trade with the English but by going down the River St. Lawrence, and from thence through a Lake, which brought them within eighteen Leagues of Albany."