In answer to Sir William .lohnsons Opinion about the Government of Pennsylv^. raising Forces, and building Forts on the Susquahannah River.

" The proprietors say. this Insinuation is without any sort of " Foundation, as it never would have been attempted, had not the " Chiefs of the Indians living on Susquahannah & Delaware River, " on their own motion entirely, Desired they should be built at '• Shamokin and near Wyoming, for their own Security.

" In this the Proprietors must Certainly be misinformed, for " none of the Indians on Susquahannah, or Delaware, ever requested "any Forts to be built there. Indeed after the Defeat of General

SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON , 755

"Braddock, Scarvyade, Coyseuntenego, and two, or three more " Ohio Indians, who had left their Country on the first approach of "the French, in the year 1753, did desire the Government of " Pennsylvania, to build a Fort at Shamokin, in order to Protect " their Interest with the Susquahannah Indians but the request of " those four, or five, dispossessed Indians, can never be fairly " Construed as an Authority of application from the Six Nations, " or any other body of Indians. Neither did those Indians at that " time desire War might be declared against the Ohio Indians. " However this request for a Fort, was not Complied with, at that " time.

In a Message Sir William Johnson received the 23^ May 1756, from the Onandaga Indians, they say as follows --