Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives, 1754-1755 (Philadelphia, 1755), p. 87.
[April 9, 1755]
May it please the Governor,

As the Season of the Year is now Favourable, and the Time when the Indians ought to plant their Corn, we hope the heavy Charges we have sustained for supporting them through the Winter, are nearly over: Nevertheless, as we are unwilling to leave them entirely beyond our Notice, we are of Opinion, it may be advisable to settle the Indians from Aughwick, and such others as may continue to take Refuge among us, upon their own Lands, at French Town, where there is, as our Interpreter informs us, a considerable Quantity of cleared Land, formerly an Indian Settlement. Here they might plant their Corn, and hunt, towards their own Subsistance, and occasionally apply to this Government for Help in Cases of real Necessity. But as our Treasury is exhausted by the immediate Calls of the Crown, in Support of the British Interest in North-America, we are not able to assist them in the Manner we could wish and desire; and what we can do must be conducted with Justice and Frugality.

The Governor has been pleased to recommend to us particularly “to make Provision for the ensuing Treaty—and to enable him to take proper Notice of Scarroyady, and the young Men he has brought along with him.” We shall provide for this Chief, and the young Men, to their Satisfaction, But as this is the first Time we have heard of the Treaty, and the Governor has not been pleased to lay before us the Necessity of such a Treaty, or the Matters to be treated of when there, we presume he will not expect any immediate Resolves of this House, till he shall be pleased to communicate such further Information on that Head as he may Judge necessary.

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