Povvnall having acquainted you in his Letter of the 6*h. of September, that your dispatch N°. 9 had been received and laid before the King ; I am now to acknowledge the having since received your Letters N*. 10, & 11, which having been read by the King, His Majesty was graciously pleased to express, that he had no doubt of the uprightness of your intentions in the execution of the Instructions relative to the Boundary Line, and in giving W'ay to the motives which you say induced you to deviate from those Instructions ; I have therefore only to add upon this subject that since you have thought fit not to mention to the Indians His Majesty's wish to decline the Cession of the Lands below the Kanawa, it is His Majesty's pleasure that you should declare the Royal Ratification of the Treaty at Fort Stanwix in such manner

SIB. WILLIAM JOHNSON. 961

as has been usual on the like occasions, with an exception however to the private Grants, to the Traders, and toM^. Croghan, wiiich, as I have before mentioned to you, His Majesty rererves for further consideration, when the persons interested shall apply for his Majesty's confirmation of them.

Your vigilant attention to what passes in the Indian Country is much approved by the King, and His Majesty considers your holding an interview with the Indians at Onondaga, and making a Tour through their Country with a view to discover their present temper and disposition, as a well judged, and expedient measure.