Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. II
Having stated to your Lordships the several facts respecting the particular case referred to Our Consideration, together with our opinion upon the whole, it is necessary for Us, befc<i-e We close our report, to take this opportunity of Observing to your Lordships, that the frauds and abuses, with respect to purchases and Settlements of Indian Lands properly so call'd and the fatal effects of such abuses are not confined to the Province of Pennsylvania, nor to this particular Tribe of Indians; they have been as mich practiced, complaia'd of, and almost as severely felt in every other Province, and extend to almost every Tribe of Indians with whom We have an intercourse, and tho' other Nations may not have taken up the hatchet against us, as the Delawars have done, yet they have not afforded us any effectual assistance in the War, in which We are engaged ; their Conduct in general has been at test doubtful! & equivocal and they have been more or less our Friends, as the Chances of War have been more or less in our favour.
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It is not to be wondered, that the Indians are tender and jealous, in a matter which so essentially concerns their Interest, nay, their very existence ; Whilst Our Settlements were confined to the Sea Coast and those of the French to the lower parts of the River S'- Lawrence, the Indians entertained little Jealousy and did not consider Us in the light of invaders ; their hunting Grounds lay higher up in the interior parts of the Country, and they not only acquiesced in Our Settlements, but encouraged them from the advantages they derived from them, in the supply of many wants which our connections with them had introduced, But no sooner had the prodigious increase of Our people obliged Us, and the discoverys made of the richness and fertility of the interior parts of the Country encouraged Us, to extend Our settlements, and that individuals were, from the want of a proper plan for ascertaining the mode of acquiring property, left at Liberty to practice every fraud and abuse in the .