shall think most expedient; I do by these presents in the name and behalf of His Majesty, commit to your care and management the execution of the aforesaid Trust, hereby appointing and fully authorizing you to repair to the Indians of the Six Nations and their Northern allies, and to use your best endeavours to engage them to take part and act with His Majestys Forces in such operations as I shall think most expedient and according to such Instructions as you shall from time to time receive from me. And you are from time to time to make report to me of your proceedings herein and of all material occurrences which may effect His Majestys Interest with the said Indians. Given under my hand and Seal at New York this seventh day of December in the twenty ninth year of His Majestys Reign. By His Excellency's Command WM. ALEXANDER Secry. W. SHIRLEY. WILLIAM SHIRLEY TO WILLIAM JOHNSON 1 [Instructions] 1. You are on the receipt hereof to send Messengers to the principle Castles of the Indians of the Six Nations and endeavour if possible to have a general meeting of their Chief Sachems and Warriors at their antient Council Place at Onondaga as soon as may be after you shall receive these Instructions and the Commission therewith. 2. You are then to acquaint them that I succeed the late General Braddock in his Command and that I have thought fit for His Majesty's Service to commit to your care the cultivating a Friendship between them and the Northern Nations of Indians depending upon them and His Majesty's 1 Johnson Manuscripts, 4, 2. Copy inclosed in Shirley to Robinson, Dec. 20. A copy is in the New York papers in the Library of Congress. Printed: Docts. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y. 6, 1026; 2 Penna. Arch. 6, 333. Subjects and engageing them in a firm alliance with His Majesty against the French and the Indians in their Interest, in the present expedition for recovering His Majesty's just rights, and the country out of the hands of the French. 3. You are then to acquaint them that your calling them together at this time, is occasioned by the late behavior of the Shawanese and Delawares Indians in the Province of Pensilvania. 4. You are then to deliver them my speech delivered to you herewith which you are to enforce by all arguments in your power and with such presents as you shall judge necessary and you are to endeavor to prevail on them to send some of their Warriors to forbid the Delaware and Shawanese Indians to commit any hostilities against the English and in case these Indians shall not comply with such Orders to chastize them for their Behaviour as it bids defiance to that Authority which the Six Nations always maintained against those Indians and to make them sensible that unless they do that, they will not only infallibly loose that authority for ever, but with it the Character the Six Nations have always sustained of being Masters of those Indians. 5. You are also to assure them in the strongest Terms that I shall do all in my power to protect them and their Allies from any danger they may apprehend from the French, and particularly the Oneidas, that agreeable to my promise to them I have ordered Justice Petri to engage a sufficient number of men to build them a Fort of such size and in such place in their country as is most convenient to them and that I will if they chuse to have them this Winter send an officer with 30 men to reside among them as soon as their Barracks in their New Fort are ready to receive them. 6. You are to use every expedient in your power to cultivate and improve a good correspondence with the Indians. of the Six Nations and their Allies and endeavour to prevail on them to declare themselves, and to take up the Hatchet against the French and their Indians as well as to act immediately against those who have lately invested the borders of Pensilvania, Maryland and Virginia, as to be ready to take part and act with His Majesty's Forces in such operations as I shall think most expedient. 7. You are from time to time to inform me of your proceedings herein, and particularly to inform me as soon as may be, the answer of those Indians to my speech now sent and to inform me of the state of the new Fort now building for the Oneidas and when you judge the Barracks in it will be in a condition to receive a Garrison of His Majesty's Troops and whether it will be absolutely necessary to send Troops to Garrison it this Winter, or whether the Indians will not be content to be without that Garrison until the Spring. 8. And whereas I have great reason to expect that a number of the Sachems and Warriors of the Messes sagues, Cheppewes, and Outawas will meet me next Spring at Oswego and as the Chief Sachems of the Oneidas and Cayougas also have promised to meet me then and there, and as it will be necessary that as general a meeting as possible be had there with the Indians of the Six Nations you are therefore to use your best endeavours to engage some of the Chief Sachems and Warriors of all the Six Nations to meet me at Oswego early in the Spring to concert such measures as may be for the mutual benefit of them and us. Given under my hand at New York this tenth day of By His Excellencys Command WM ALEXANDER Secry. W. SHIRLEY. JAMES F. MERCER TO WILLIAM ALEXANDER SIR, [Extract]1 I have the pleasure to acquaint you with the Success and return of General Shirley's Messenger to the Messessagues 1 P. R. O., C. O. 5, 46. Inclosed in Shirley to Robinson, Jan. 12, 1756. A transcript is in the Library of Congress. and the other Foreign Indians, that they have Accepted of his Excellency's offers and Invitation and that they will be here in great Numbers early in the Spring being disgusted with the French for the little care they took of their families in their absence, their breach of promise in regard to presents and their want of Necessarys to supply their wants. He is anxious least we should not perform the absolute promise he made them in the General's name, of considerable presents and a large quantity of goods for trade, and as their being disappointed might be Attended with bad consequences; I have Directed the Commissary of the Stores to transmitt you an Account of the Indian goods in his possession, which is greatly short for the Occasion we may probably have to dispose of them. I have Signified this to the General and Doubt not of his taking care that a proper supply be sent. The Information I sent you the 15th of November concerning the Retreat of the Oswegatchi, and other Indians from Canada is false, they have since made proposals to a Council held at Onondago, desiring the five Nations to join the French and them against us and when the Council denied them that, they desired a Neutrality, which was Consented to on Condition that all the French Indians should likewise Remain Unactive and Neutral; However the Council is broke up and nothing Concluded. The peace agreed upon betwixt the foreign Indians and the five Nations, I find gives them Universal Satisfaction, I hope it will Turn the Scale in our favour, Oswego, in their Opinion will soon be a great Mart, where the wants of all the Indians in America may be Supply'd. a true Copy Examd by Endorsed: Extract of a Letter from Lieut. Colonel Mercer To William Alexander Esqr. dated December 11th, 1755 in M. G. Shirley's of Janry. 12th, 1756. WILLIAM JOHNSON TO WILLIAM SHIRLEY 1 Fort Johnson, Dec. 16, 1755. SIR, Your Excellency's Paquet I received this instant together with a Commission or Warrant from you for the Management of Indian Affairs, also a Letter and other Papers from Govr. Morris of Philadelphia concerning the Hostilities committed and still committing by the Indians on the Frontiers of that and the Neighbouring Provinces, desiring I would use my utmost endeavors to put a stop to it. On my return from Lake George I received an account of the cruel proceedings of the Indians in them parts by an express from Sir Charles Hardy and as soon as I got home, despatched Messages to all the six Nations, and also to the Susquehanna Indians, Delawares and Shawanese acquainting the former of the Behavior of those Indians and insisted on their immediate Interposition. To the latter who are the people concerned, I sent a very smart reprimand for their unnatural and unjustifiable Behaviour to their Brethren and Neighbours the English; giving them a strong and warm Invitation to join us, and turn their arms this way against the French and their allies. What effect it will now have upon them I can't pretend to say with any certainty, but this much I make bold to say, that if I had not been so much employed otherwise this Time past and for some other Reasons I shall defer mentioning now Indian affairs would be in a much more favorable and prosperous way, and this perhaps not have happened. I have this long time been told there was a Commission from His Majesty for me, and that it was sent by the late General Braddock, but I never received any, nor pay for the one I had of him, alltho' I have neglected all my own business, on account of it and suffered much thereby. I shall soon write your Excellency more fully and let you know my inclinations regarding the Commission. New York papers in the Library of Congress. Printed : Docts. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y. 6, 1027. |