“Ah! There you go! True to the dot, too!” he cried. “You Americans are restless. You acquire no attachment to any place. Wandering about seems to be engrafted in your natures. It’s your great weakness that you should forever be thinking the lands farther off are better than those on which you’re already settled.”
“But land-grants on the Ohio are worthless without settlers,” I meekly reminded. Colonel Lewis indulged in a frosty smile. His Excellency eyed me shrewdly, and said:
“Of course the lands must be settled sometime. The trouble comes from the frontier people’s failure to understand that His Majesty’s government has any right to forbid backwoodsmen from taking over any Indian lands which happen to hit the fancy.
“They have no idea of the permanent obligation of treaties which His Majesty’s government has made with the various Indian nations. Why, some of the frontier people feel so isolated from the colonies that they wish to set up democratic governments of their own. A pretty kettle of fish! Then such creatures as this Crabtree murder such men as the brother of the powerful Cherokee chief. More trouble for the border.
“I shall offer a reward of a hundred pounds for Crabtree’s arrest. If he is arrested the border men will release him. And yet they demand that His Majesty supply them with powder to defend their homes. Good God! What inconsistency! And as if we did not have enough trouble inside our colony there is Mr. Penn, to the north. As proprietary governor he sullies the dignity of his communications to the House of Representatives by making the same a conveyance of falsehood, thereby creating trouble between Pennsylvania and Virginia.
“He is even now trying to make my Lord Dartmouth believe that my zeal in carrying on this war is not through any sense of duty to my king, but because of a desire for personal emoluments. If he can make the people of Virginia believe that, then I am helpless.” Certainly this defense of his motives was not meant to convert me. My ideas worried His Excellency none. He was testing Colonel Lewis, whose reserve made the broaching of delicate subjects very much of a difficulty. The colonel quickly declared:
“Your Excellency knows that I thoroughly understand the true bias of Pennsylvania. We are with you in this war heart and soul. But I do think, to put it mildly, that Doctor Connolly has been indiscreet.”
He had come back to the one phase of the conversation which interested him. The governor hesitated a moment, then asked me:
“What is your personal opinion of Doctor Connolly? Speak freely.”
“I consider him to be a very ambitious, intriguing man, and very much of a fire-eater.”