tions appear to us to be as erroneous
in this as in the former proposition; for their Lordships say, that the
tract of land under consideration _extends several degrees_ of
longitude _Westward_. The truth is, that it is not more, on a medium,
than one degree and a half of longitude from the Western ridge of the
Allegany mountains to the river Ohio.
II. It appears by the second paragraph, as if the Lords Commissioners
for Trade and Plantations apprehended,--that the lands south-westerly
of the _boundary line_, marked on a map annexed to their Lordships
_report_,--were either claimed by the Cherokees, or were their hunting
grounds, or were the hunting grounds of the Six Nations and their
confederates.
As to any claim of the Cherokees to the above country, it is altogether
new and indefensible; and never was heard of, until the appointment of
Mr. Stewart to the superintendency of the Southern colonies, about the
year 1764; and this, we flatter ourselves, will not only be obvious
from the following state of facts, but that the right to _all the
country_ on the Southerly side of the river Ohio, quite to the Cherokee
River, is _now_ undoubtedly vested in the King, by the grant which the
Six Nations made to his Majesty at Fort Stanwix, in November 1768.--In
short, the lands from the _Great Kenhawa_ to the _Cherokee river_ never
were, either the dwelling or hunting grounds of the _Cherokees_;--but
formerly belonged to, and were inhabited by the _Shawanesse_, until
such time as they were conquered by the Six Nations.
Mr. Colden, the present Lieutenant Governor of New York, in his History
of the Five Nations, observes, that about the year 1664, "the Five
Nations being amply supplied by the English with firearms and
ammunition, gave a full swing to their warlike genius. They carried
their arms _as far South as Carolina_, to the Northward of New England,
and as _far West as the river Mississippi_, over a vast country,--which
extended 1200 miles in length from North to South, and 600 miles in
breadth,--where they entirely destroyed whole nations, of whom there
are no accounts remaining among the English."
In 1701,--the Five Nations put all their hunting lands under the
protection of the English, as appears by the records, and by the
recital and confirmation thereof, in their deed to the King of the 4th
September 1726;--and Governor Pownal, who many years ago diligently
searched into the rights of the natives, and in particul
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