from this fatal Source have arose many of our Calamities under which we groan. We humbly pray, therefore, that this Grievance may be redressed, and that no private subject be hereafter permitted to treat with, or carry on a Correspondence with our Enemies.

"Ninthly. We cannot but observe with sorrow, that Fort Augusta, which has been very expensive to this Province, has afforded us but little assistance during this, or the last War. The men that were stationed at that place neither helped our distressed Inhabitants to save their Crops, nor did they attack our Enemies in their Towns, or patrole on our Frontiers. We humbly request that proper measures may be taken to make that Garrison more serviceable to us in our Distress, if it can be done.

"N. B. We are far from intending any Reflection against the Commanding Officer stationed at Augusta, as we presume his Conduct was always directed by those from whom he received his Orders.

"Signed on Behalf of ourselves, and by appointment of a great number of the Frontier Inhabitants.

"MATTHEW SMITH, "JAMES GIBSON,

"February 13th, 1764."

Friday, the 17th February.

Two Members of Assembly waited on the Governor, and acquainted him that the House had appointed a Committed to confer with him concerning the Remonstrance of Matthew Smith and James Gibson, and desired to know when he would be pleased to meet the Committee for that purpose; to which His Honour made answer, that he would meet them to-morrow Morning at 10 o'Clock.

The two Members at the same time requesting the Governor would be pleased to lay before the House the Declaration of the Rioters, presented to him previous to their Remonstrance, His Honour accordingly delivered to them the said Declaration, which follows in these words, viz":

"The Declaration of the injured Frontier Inhabitants, together with a brief sketch of Grievances the good Inhabitants of the Province labour under.

"Inasmuch as the killing those Indians at Conestogoe Manor and Lancaster has been, and may be, the subject of much Conversation, and by invidious Representations of it, which some, we doubt not, will industriously spread, many unacquainted with the true state of Affairs may be led to pass a Severe Censure on the

Authors of those Facts, and any others of the like nature, which may hereafter happen, than we are persuaded they would if matters were duly understood and deliberated. We think it, therefore, proper thus openly to declare ourselves, and render some brief hints of the reasons of our Conduct, which we must, and frankly do, confess, nothing but necessity itself could induce us to, or justify us in, as it bears an appearance of flying in the face of Authority, and is attended with much labour, fatigue, and expence.

"Ourselves, then, to a Man, we profess to be loyal Subjects to the best of Kings, our rightful Sovereign George the third, firmly attached to his Royal Person, Interest, and Government, & of consequence, equally opposite to the Enemies of His Throne & Dignity, whether openly avowed, or more dangerously concealed under a mask of falsly pretended Friendship, and chearfully willing to offer our Substance & Lives in his Cause.

"These Indians, known to be firmly connected in Friendship. with our openly avowed embittered Enemies, and some of whom have, by several Oaths, been proved to be murderers, and who, by their better acquaintance with the Situation and State of our Frontier, were more capable of doing us mischief, we saw, with indignation, cherished and caressed as dearest Friends; But this, alas! is but a part, a small part, of that excessive regard manifested to Indians, beyond His Majesty's loyal Subjects, whereof we complain, and which, together with various other Grievances, have not only enflamed with resentment the Breasts of a number, and urged them to the disagreeable Evidence of it they have been constrained to give, but have heavily displeased by far the greatest part of the good Inhabitants of this Province.

"Should we here reflect to former Treaties, the exorbitant presents and great Servility therein paid to Indians, have long been oppressive Grievances we have groaned under; and when at the last Indian Treaty held at Lancaster, not only was the Blood of our many murdered Brethren tamely covered, but our poor unhappy captivated Friends abandoned to slavery among the Savages, by concluding a Friendship with the Indians, and allowing them a plenteous trade of all kinds of Commodities, without those being restored, or any properly spirited Requisition made of them; How general Dissatisfaction those Measures gave, the Murmurs of all good People (loud as they dare to utter them) to this day declare, and had here infatuated Steps of Conduct, and a manifest Partiality in favour of Indians, made a final pause, happy had it been; We perhaps had grieved in silence for our abandoned, enslaved Brethren among the Heathen; but matters of a later Date are still more flagrant Reasons of Complaint. When last Summer His Majesty's Forces, under the Command of Colonel Bouquet, marched through this Province, and a demand was made by His Excellency General Amherst, of Assistance to escort Provisions, &ca., to relieve that important Post, Fort Pitt, yet not one man was granted, although

never any thing appeared more reasonable or necessary, as the interest of the Province lay so much at stake, and the standing of the Frontier Settlements, in any manner, evidently depended, under God, on the almost despaired of success of His Majesty's little Army, whose Valour the whole Frontiers with gratitude acknowledge, and as the happy means of having saved from ruin great part of the Province; But when a number of Indians, falsely pretended Friends, and having among them some proved on Oath to have been guilty of Murder since this War begun, when they, together with others, known to be His Majesty's Enemies, and who had been in the Battle against Col. Bouquet, reduced to Distress by the Destruction of their Corn at the Great Island, and up the East branch of Susquehanna, pretend themselves Friends, and desire a Subsistance, they are openly caressed, & the Publick, that could not be indulged the liberty of contributing to His Majesty's assistance, obliged, as Tributaries to Savages, to support these Villians, these Enemies to our King & our Country; nor only so, but the hands that were closely shut, nor would grant His Majesty's General a single Farthing against a Savage Foe, have been liberally opened, and the Publick money basely prostituted to hire, at an exorbitant Rate, a mercenary Guard to protect His Majesty's worst of Enemies, those falsly pretended Indian friends, while, at the same time, Hundreds of poor distressed Families of His Majesty's Subjects, obliged to abandon their Possessions & fly for their lives at least, are left, except a small Relief at first, in the most distressing Circumstances, to starve neglected, save what the friendly hand of private Donations has contributed to their support, wherein they who are most profuse towards Savages, have carefully avoided having any part. When last Summer the Troops raised for Defence of the Province were limited to certain Bounds, nor suffered to attempt annoying our Enemies in their Habitations, and a number of brave Volunteers, equipped at their own Expence in September, up the Susquehanna, met and defeated their Enemy, with the loss of some of their number, and having others dangerously wounded, not the least thanks or acknowledg ment was made them from the Legislature for the confessed Service they had done, nor only the least notice or Care taken of their wounded; Whereas, when a Seneca, who, by the Informany of many, as well as by his own Confession, had been, through the last War, our inveterate Enemy, had got a cut in his Head, last Summer, in a quarrel he had with his own Cousin, & it was reported in Philadelphia that his Wound was dangerous, a Doctor was immediately employed and sent to Fort Augusta to take care of him, and cure him if possible. To these may be added, that though it was impossible to obtain, through the Summer, or even yet, any Premium for Indian Scalps, or encouragement to excite Volunteers to go forth against them; Yet, when a few of them known to be the fast friends of our Enemies, and some of them murderers them

selves, when these have been struck by a distressed, bereft, injured Frontier, a liberal reward is offered for apprehending the Perpetrators of that horrible Crime of Killing his Majesty's, Cloaked Enemies, and their Conduct painted in the most atrocious Colours, while the horrid Ravages, cruel murders, and most shocking Barbarities, committed by Indians on His Ma jesty's Subjects, are covered over, and excused, under the charitable Term of this being their method of making War. But to recount the many repeated Grievances, whereof we might justly complain, and instances of a most violent attachment to Indians, were tedious beyond the patience of a Job to endure, norc an better be expected, nor need we be surprized at Indians insolence & Villainy, when it is considered, and which can be proved from the Publick Records of a certain County, that sometime before Conrad Weiser died, some Indians belonging to the Great Island or Wighalousing, assured him that Israel Pemberton (an ancient leader of that Faction, which for so long a time have found means to enslave the Province to Indians), together with others of the Friends, had given them a Rod to scourge the White People that were settled on the purchased Lands, for that Onas had cheated them out of a great deal of Land, or had not given near sufficient Price for what he had bought; and that the Traders ought also to be scourged, for that they defrauded the Indians, by selling Goods to them at too dear a rate; and that this Relation is matter of Fact, can easily be proved in the County of Berks. Such is our unhappy Situation, under the Villainy, Infatuation and Influence of a certain Faction, that have got the Political Reins in their hands, and tamely tyrannize over the other good Subjects of the Province. And can it be thought strange, that a Scene of such treatment as this, & the now adding, in this critical Juncture, to all our former Distresses, that disagreeable Burthen of supporting, in the very heart of the Province, at so great an Expence, between one and two hundred Indians, to the great Disquietude of the Majority of the good Inhabitants of this Province, should awaken the resentment of a people grossly abused, unrighteously burthened, and made Dupes and Slaves to Indians? And must not all well disposed people entertain a charitable Sentiment of those who, at their own great Expence and Trouble, have attempted or shall attempt, rescuing a labouring Land from a Weight so oppressive, unreasonable and unjust? It is this we design, it is this we are resolved to prosecute, though it is with great Reluctance we are obliged to adopt a Measure not so agreeable as could be desired, and to which Extremity alone compels.

"GOD SAVE THE KING."

VOL. IX.-10.

At a Council held at Philadelphia on Saturday the 18th Febr 1764.

PRESENT:

The Hopourable JOHN PENN, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor,

&ca.

James Hamilton,

Benjamin Shoemaker,

William Logan,

Lynford Lardner,
Benjamin Chew, Esq
Richard Penn,

The Governor having appointed this morning for a Conference with a Committee of Assembly, by the desire of the House, to consider of some matters relative to the Remonstrance addressed to the Governor & Assembly by Matthew Smith & James Gibson, in behalf of themselves and the five Frontier Counties of this Province, praying a Redress of Grievances, The Committee of Eight Members accordingly met the Governor in Council.

After reading the said Remonstrance, the Committee acquainted the Governor, that as it was addressed to both branches of the Legislature, the House were desirous that he would act in concert with them in sending for Matthew Smith and James Gibson, in interrogating them in public, & convincing them that the several matters set forth respecting the Conduct of the Executive & Legislative Powers of Government, are unjust and without foundation.

The Committee, after giving the Governor the several Reasons for this proposal of the House, retired. The Council then took the same into Consideration, but being of Opinion that they ought not to be precipitate in forming their judgment on this matter, advised the Governor to defer giving an Answer to the Assembly till Monday. Accordingly, the Governor directed the Secretary to acquaint the House, that as the matters proposed by the Committee of Assembly this morns were of some importance, he inclined to take them under further Consideration till Monday, when he hoped to give them an Answer.

At a Council held at Philadelphia, on Monday the 20th February, 1764.

PRESENT:

The Honourable JOHN PENN, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor, &ca.

The Governor laid before the Board a Bill sent to him by the Assembly, for His Honour's Concurrence, entitled "A Supplement to