They were assured in reply that they might "make their minds easy," the governor would protect them; that the Leasees were the cause of their trouble.
The Cayugas also sent a message to the governor, saying they were "threatened with destruction, even total extermination. The voice comes from the west; its sound is terrible, our brothers the Cayugas and Onondagas are to share the same fate."
The complaint was, they had sold their lands without consulting the western tribes.
The decided position of the Executive in giving them assurance of protection, was the means of dissipating their alarm.
Historical evidence renders it apparent, that at this early period, the design was entertained by those in Canada, whose control over the Indians was well nigh supreme, to gain through them possession of Western New York, and without compromising the government of Great Britain, sever it from the United States, connect it with the territory of the North-west, and hold it by Indian possession, in a sort of quasi allegiance, to the crown of England.
Their design with respect to Western New York was defeated by the energetic measures of its chief executive, but further on we will see they did not relinquish the idea of holding from the United States, the territory of the North-west.
Next in the race of competition for the broad and fertile lands of the Genesee, appear the names of Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham. They were the acknowledged representatives of a considerable body of men, who were ambitious of securing an interest in what was regarded as the most desirable region in this country.
From the advent of Gen. Sullivan's army into the Indian country in 1779, their route being through the very finest portion of Western New York, and at a season of the year when vegetation was in its highest perfection; the beauty and fertility of these lands became the theme of praise, on the part of every soldier that beheld them. Their fame was thus carried to almost every village and hamlet in Pennsylvania and New England. Hence great eagerness was manifested in regard to the title, and settlement of these lands.
The company of which Messrs. Phelps and Gorham were the leading spirits, having purchased the pre-emptive right of Massachusetts, in the spring of 1788, Mr. Phelps went on to the ground, and was successful in convening a council of the Indians for the sale of their lands, at Buffalo creek, during the month of July of the same year. [Footnote: His success in obtaining this council, and securing a sale, was owing in a large degree, to his policy in paying court to the powerful faction of the Leasees residing in Canada, and giving them an interest in the purchase.]
The Indians at this treaty strenuously resisted the sale of any of their land west of the Genesee river; yet with a view of furnishing "a piece of ground for a mill yard" at the Genesee Falls, were finally persuaded to give their assent to a boundary line, that included a tract twelve miles square, west of that river. The eastern boundary of the lands sold, was the Massachusetts pre-emptive line; the western, was a line "beginning in the northern line of Pennsylvania, due south of the corner or point of land made by the confluence of the Genesee river, and the Canaseraga creek, thence north on said meridian line to the corner or point, at the confluence aforesaid; thence northwardly along the waters of the Genesee river, to a point two miles north of Canawangus village, thence running due west 12 miles; thence running northwardly so as to be twelve miles distant from the western bounds of said river, to the shores of Lake Ontario." The lands thus ceded, are what has been called "The Phelps and Gorham Purchase." It contained by estimation two million and six hundred thousand acres, for which they agreed to pay the Indians five thousand dollars, and an annuity of five hundred dollars forever.