In 1755, the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations were so solicitous to ascertain the territory of the Six Nations, that Dr. Mitchel, by their desire, published a large map of North America; and Mr. Pownal, the present Secretary of the Board of Trade, then certified, as appears on the map,—That the Doctor was furnished with documents for the purpose from that Board.—In this map Dr. Mitchel observes, "That the Six Nations have extended their territories, ever since the year 1672, when they subdued and were incorporated with the antient Shawanesse, the native proprietors of these countries, and the river Ohio: Besides which, they likewise claim a right of conquest over the Illinois, and all the Mississippi, as far as they extend. This," he adds, "is confirmed by their own claims and possessions in 1742, which include all the bounds here laid down, and none have ever thought fit to dispute them." And, in confirmation of this right of the Six Nations to the country on the Ohio, as mentioned by the King's Ministers, in their memorial to the Duke of Mirepoix in 1755, we would just remark, that the Six Nations, Shawanesse and Delawares, were in the actual occupation of the lands Southward of the Great Kenhawa for some time after the French had encroached up on the river Ohio; and that in the year 1752, these tribes had a large town on Kentucke River,—238 miles below the Sioto:—That in the year 1754, they resided and hunted on the Southerly side of the river Ohio, in the Low Country, at about 320 miles below the Great Kenhawa;—and in the year 1755, they had also a large town opposite to the mouth of Sioto;—at the very place, which is the Southern boundary line of the tract of land applied for by Mr. Walpole and his associates.—But it is a certain fact, that the Cherokees never had any towns or settlements in the country, Southward of the Great Kenhawa;—that they do not hunt there, and that neither the Six Nations, Shawanesse nor Delawares, do now reside or hunt on the Southerly side of the river Ohio, nor did not for several years before they sold the country to the King.—These are facts, which can be easily and fully proved.
In October 1768, at a congress held with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix, they observed to Sir William Johnson: "Now, brother, you who know all our affairs, must be sensible, that our rights go much farther to the Southward than the Kenhawa,—and that we have a very good and clear title as far South as the Cherokee River, which we cannot allow to be the right of any other Indians, without doing wrong to our posterity, and acting unworthy those warriors who fought and conquered it;—we therefore expect this our right will be considered."
In November 1768, the Six Nations sold to the King all the country on the Southerly side of the river Ohio, as far as to the Cherokee river; but notwithstanding that sale, as soon as it was understood in Virginia, that government favoured the pretensions of the Cherokees, and that Dr. Walker and Colonel Lewis (the commissioners sent from that colony to the congress at Fort Stanwix) had returned from thence, the late Lord Bottetourt sent these gentlemen to Charles-town, South-Carolina, to endeavour to convince Mr. Stuart, the Southern superintendent of Indian affairs, of the necessity of enlarging the boundary line, which he had settled with the Cherokees;—and to run it from the Great Kenhawa to Holston's river.—These gentlemen were appointed commissioners by his Lordship, as they had been long conversant in Indian affairs, and were well acquainted with the actual extent of the Cherokee country.—Whilst these commissioners were in South Carolina, they wrote a letter to Mr. Stuart, as he had been but a very few years in the Indian service, (and could not, from the nature of his former employment, be supposed to be properly informed about the Cherokee territory), respecting the claims of the Cherokees to the lands Southward of the Great Kenhawa, and therein they expressed themselves as follows:
"Charles-town, South Carolina,
February 2, 1769.
"The country Southward of the Big Kenhawa was never claimed by the Cherokees, and now is the property of the Crown, as Sir William Johnson purchased it of the Six Nations at a very considerable expence, and took a deed of cession from them at Fort Stanwix."
In 1769, the house of burgesses of the colony of Virginia represented to Lord Bottetourt, "That they have the greatest reason to fear the said line," (meaning the boundary line, which the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations have referred to, in the map annexed to their Lordships report) "if confirmed, would constantly open to the Indians, and others enemies to his Majesty, a free and easy ingress to the heart of the country on the Ohio, Holston's river, and the Great Kenhawa; whereby the settlements which may be attempted in these quarters will, in all probability, be utterly destroyed, and that great extent of country [at least 800 miles in length] from the mouth of the Kenhawa to the mouth of the Cherokee river extending Eastward as far as the Laurell Hill, so lately ceded to his Majesty, to which no tribe of Indians at present set up any pretensions, will be entirely abandoned to the Cherokees; in consequence of which, claims, totally destructive of the true interest of his Majesty, may at some future time arise, and acquisitions justly ranked among the most valuable of the late war be altogether lost."
From the foregoing detail of facts, it is obvious,
1st. That the country Southward of the Great Kenhawa, at least as far as the Cherokee river, originally belonged to the Shawanesse.
2d. That the Six Nations, in virtue of their conquest of the Shawanesse, became the lawful proprietors of that country.
3d. That the King, in consequence of the grant from the Six Nations, made to his Majesty at Fort Stanwix in 1768, is now vested with the undoubted right and property thereof. 4th. That the Cherokees never resided, nor hunted in that country, and have not any kind of right to it.