Agent appointed by the Assembly of Pennsylvania, relating to the Differences subsisting between His Majesty's Subjects and the Indians bordering upon the said Province, concerning large Quantities of Land, which the said Indians allege they have been deprived of without their Consent, or Satisfaction made them, for the same, particularly of the Lands which are included within the Forks of the River Delawar, and also of other lands on both sides the said River; And having been attended by the Petitioner, and also by the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, and heard what each

SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON. ,i3

Party had to offer upon the Occasion, We beg leave to acquaint your Lordships.

That it appears from many Letters and Authentick Papers in the Books of Our Office, that the extensive Purchases of Land made not only by the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, but in other Governments bordering on the Indian Country, have long since occasioned Disgusts and Suspicions of Injury in the minds of the Indians; And that these Jealousies have been one principal Cause of their Defection from the British Interest, and of the Hostilities which they have committed on the Frontiers of His Majesty's Provinces.

S''. William Johnson His Majesty's Agent for Indian Affairs in the Northern District of North America, has in many of his Letters declared himself of this Opinion in general. And in a Letter to Us of the lO^J^. of September 1756, he acquaints Us, that he has the greatest Reason to believe, that the Hostilities, which Pennsylvania in particular had suffer'd from the Indians living on the Susquehanna, had in great Measure arisen from the large Purchase made by that Government in 1754, at which, tho' publickly consented to and fairly paid for at Albany, some of the Six Nations appeared to be disgusted, and others to repent of their having consented to it.