prevent, and as there is no prospect of any Imediate remedy to be applit'd for these disorders, & the Licentiousness of some of our own people, my Endeavors Must be directed to prevent Their operation on the minds of the Indians till a more favorable period when the Orders of Government will be treated with more respect, and the people brought to a better sense of their Duty. The Rt honble

The Earl of Hillsborough

LORD HILLSBOROUGH TO SIR W^'^ JOHNSON.

Whitehall April i4th. 1770.

Sir,

I have received and laid before the King your Dispatch of the IQiii of Febi-y No. 12.

The matter proposed to the Confederacy of the six Nations by the Cherokees is of great Importance ; and it is with Concern His Majesty observes that the answer to be given to the Cherokees is made to depend upon your opinion and advice, by whi-ih the King will stand committed in measures which, if they adopt the proposition of a War against the Southern & Western Indians, are irreconcileable with the principles of humanity, and if on the contrary they tend to union of Indian Interests and Politicks, endanger the Security of His Majesty's Colonies by enabling the Savages to turn their Arms against Us.

This consequence however, which you seem to think would follow from discouraging a War against the Southern and Western Indians, is certainly to be avoided if possible, and therefore the King, however unwillingly, cannot but approve of your adopting the Alternative, and making the security of His Subjects and the Peace of the Frontiers, the principal Object of your attention at the Congress, but it would be most pleasing to His Majesty if it could be attained without encouraging the Savages in their barbarous attacks on each other.