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 . Obtaining excessive tracts of Lands from the Indians, then they at once felt the embarrasment, and grew Jealous of the Consequence of such a conduct.

In this Situation therefore the 5 Nations, who were at the head of a Confederacy of almost all the Northern Nations, and in whom all their interests were united, did in 1701, resolve upon a measure the most wise and prudent with regard to their own interests, and the most advantageous with regard to Ours, that could have been framed; they delineated upon paper in the most precise manner the Limits of what they called their hunting grounds, comprehending the great Lakes of Ontario and Erie, and all the circumjacent Lands for the distance of Sixty miles around them. The sole and absolute property of this Country they desired might be secured to them ; and as a proof of perpetual Alliance, and to support Our Rights against any Claims which the French might make, founded on the va(yue and uncertain pretence of unlimited Grants or accidental local discovery, they declared themselves willing to yield to Great Britain, the Sovereignty and absolute dominion of it, to be secured and protected by Forts to be erected whenever it should be thought proper.