years

this opinion, another company of gentlemen, a few ago, purchased a tract between the forks of the Mississippi and Ohio, beginning about a league below Fort Chartres, and running over towards the mouth of the Wabash; but whether or not their boundary line is above or below the mouth of the Wabash, the gentleman who shewed me their deed could not tell, as it is not mentioned, but is said to terminate at the old Shawanese town, supposed to be only thirty-five leagues above the mouth of the Ohio. And the said company purchased another larger tract, lying on the Illinois river. It was from one of this company that I procured a copy of the above opinion, which he assured me was a genuine one, and is the very same which you have heard was in possession of Lord Dunmore, as it was their company who sent it to him, expecting he would join them.

I was several times with Mr. Deane of Connecticut, the gentleman of whom Mr. Hooper told you when here. He says he will send some people to see our country; and if their report be favourable, he thinks many Connecticut people will join us. This gentleman is a scholar, and a man of sense and enterprise, and rich; and, I am apt to believe, has some thoughts of heading a party of Connecticut adventurers, providing things can be made agreeable to him. He is reckoned a good man, and much esteemed in Congress; but he is an enthusiast in liberty, and will have nothing to do with us unless he is pleased with our form of government. He is a great admirer of the Connecticut constitution, which he recommended to our consideration; and was so good as to favour me with a long letter on that subject, a copy of which is enclosed. You would be amazed to see how VOL. II.-22

much in earnest all these speculative gentlemen are about the plan to be adopted by the Transylvanians. They entreat, they pray that we may make it a free government, and beg that no mercenary or ambitious views in the proprietors may prevent it. Quit-rents they say is a mark of vassalage, and hope they shall not be established in Transylvania. They even threaten us with their opposition, if we do not act upon liberal principles when we have it so much in our power to render ourselves immortal. Many of them advised a law against negroes.

Inclosed I send you a copy of a sketch by J. Adams, which I had from Richard Henry Lee.

Lord Botetourt to Colonel Donelson.

Williamsburg, Aug. 9th, 1770.

Sir,-By the enclosed papers you will find that Mr. Stuart has directed his deputy, Mr. Cameron, to convene the Cherokee chiefs on the 5th of October, at Lochaber, and that it is his particular desire that a gentleman from this dominion may attend at that congress. It is, likewise, very much my wish that the whole of that transaction may be reported to the next meeting of the general assembly, by a member of their own, upon whom they can depend. I do, therefore, hereby appoint you to be present at that treaty, that you may take minutes of all their proceedings, and report to us the time which shall be then fixed upon for running the line, as well as what provisions, &c., shall be deemed necessary to be provided for that purpose; and must intreat that you be very exact in the whole of that estimate and account. Extremely your obedient,

Col. Donelson.

BOTETOURT,

Treaty of Lochaber, 18th Oct. 1770.

At a meeting of the principal chiefs and warriors of the Cherokee nation, with John Stuart, Esq., superintendent of Indian affairs, &c.

South Carolina, Lochaber, 18th Oct. 1770. PRESENT-Col. Donelson, by appointment of his Excellency, the Right Honourable Lord Botetourt, in behalf of the Province of Virginia.

Alexander Cameron, deputy superintendent.

James Simpson, Esq., clerk of his Majesty's council of South Carolina.

Major Lacey, from Virginia.

Major Williamson, Captain Cohoon, Jno. Caldwell, Esq., Captain Winter, Christopher Peters, Esq., Edward Wilkinson, Esq., and John Hamarar, Esq.; besides a great number of the back inhabitants of the province of South Carolina, and the following chiefs of the Cherokee nation:-Oconistoto, Kettagusta, Attacullaculla, Keyatoy, Tiftoy, Tarrapinis, Eucy of Tugalo, Scaleluskey, Chinistah, Chinistah of Wataugah, Otasite Hey Wassie, and about a thousand other Indians of the same nation.

Interpreters.-John Watts, David M'Donald, John

Vann,

TREATY.

Monday, 22d October. At a Congress of the principal chiefs of the Cherokee nation, held at Lochaber, in the province of South Carolina, on the eighteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord 1770, by John Stuart, Esq., his Majesty's agent for, and superintendent of the affairs of the Indian nations in the southern district of North America.

A treaty for a cession to his most sacred Majesty, George the Third, by the grace of God of Great Bri tain, France, and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, &c., by the said nation of Cherokee Indians, of certain lands lying within the limits of the dominion of Virginia.

Whereas, by a treaty entered into and concluded at

Hardlabour, the 14th day of October, in the year 1768, by John Stuart, Esq., his Majesty's agent for, and superintendent of the affairs of the Indian nations inhabiting the southern district of North America, with the principal and ruling chiefs of the Cherokee nation, all the lands formerly claimed by, and belonging to, said nation of Indians, lying within the province of Virginia, to the eastward of a line beginning at the boundary of the province of North Carolina and Virginia, running in a N. by E. course to Col. Chiswell's mine on the eastern bank of the Great Canaway, and from thence in a straight line to the mouth of the said Great Canaway river, where it discharges itself into the Ohio river, were ceded to his most sacred Majesty, his heirs and successors. And whereas, by the above recited treaty, all the lands lying between Holston's river, and the line above specified, were determined to belong to the Cherokee nation, to the great loss and inconvenience of many of his Majesty's subjects inhabiting the said lands; and representation of the same having been made to his Majesty, by his Excellency the Right Honourable Norboine Baron De Botetourt, his Majesty's lieutenant and governor general of the dominion of Virginia; in consequence whereof, his Majesty has been graciously pleased to signify his royal pleasure to John Stuart, Esq., his agent for, and superintendent of, Indian affairs in the southern district of North America, by an instruction contained in a letter from the Right Honourable the Earl of Hillsborough, one of his Majesty's principal secretaries of state, dated the 13th May, 1769, to enter into a negotiation with the Cherokees, for establishing a new boundary line, beginning at the point where the North Caro