matter of considerable doubt whether the right of the occupiers, or the title under which they hold, could be impeached by a prior grant without actual settlement."

The settlement at Coshutunk continued to progress. In 1760 it contained thirty dwelling houses, three large log houses, one block house for defence, one grist-mill and one saw-mill.

use.

Early in the spring of 1763, the Susquehanna adventurers returned to Wyoming with their families and a number of new emigrants, with a view of commencing a permanent settlement; for which purpose they brought a number of cattle and hogs, and considerable stores of provisions for immediate They took possession of their former dwellings at the mouth of the creek which they found in the same condition in which they had been left the preceding autumn, and commenced their labours by extending their improvements upon the West side of the river. The Indians in the Valley still continued apparently friendly, and although they acknowledged the power and influence of the Six Nations, they considered themselves as entitled to some compensation for the lands occupied by the Connecticut people, and appeared to view with suspicion the increasing number of their new neighbors.

These suspicions were much increased by the conduct of several warriors of the Six Nations who, having cherished a hatred against Tedeuscund since the peace of 1758, a hatred which his influence among the white people was not calculated to

diminish, came among the Delawares under the garb of friendship, and having in the night treacherously set fire to the dwelling of Tedeuscund, the building, together with the venerable chieftain was consumed, and the crime laid to the charge of the new Colonists. During the preceding summer the friendly disposition manifested by the Indians to the Wyoming settlers, as the Connecticut emigrants were called, had created a degree of confidence on their part which had prevented any expectation of danger; and fearing that warlike arms might create suspicion, they had not furnished themselves with any, and were almost destitute of any means of defence in case of an attack from the savages. While thus unsuspicious and occupied as usual with the labors of the field, they were attacked on the fifteenth of October by a party of Indians who massacred about twenty persons, took several prisoners and having seized upon the live stock drove it towards their Town. Those who escaped, hastened to their dwellings, gave the alarm to the families of those who were killed, and the remainder of the Colonists, men, women and children, fled precipitately to the mountains, from whence they beheld the smoke arising from their late habitations and the savages feasting on the remains of their little property. They had taken no provisions with them except what they had hastily seized in their flight, and must pass through a wilderness sixty miles in extent before they could reach the Delaware river. They had left brothers, husbands and sons to the mercy of the savages

they had no means of defence in case they should be attacked, and found themselves exposed to the cold winds of autumn without sufficient raiment. With these melancholy recollections and cheerless prospects did the fugitives commence a journey of two hundred and fifty miles on foot.

The report of this circumstance having reached Governor Hamilton of Pennsylvania, a detachment of militia from that Province under the command of Colonel James Boyd was ordered to march from Harrisburg to Wyoming and disperse the savages. Col. Boyd was also nominated a commissioner on the part of Pennsylvania to act in conjunction with such person as might be appointed on the part of Connecticut (agreeably to his majesty's order in such cases,) to put a stop to all disorders and establish tranquillity in the Colony. On the arrival of the detachment at Wyoming they found the Valley abandoned by the Indians who had scalped those whom they had killed and carried away their captives and plunder. The bodies of the slain lay strewed upon the field, and Col. Boyd having caused them to be decently interred, withdrew with his detachment down the river. The hostile Indians had fled to Sheshequanni or Sheshequinunk, an Indian Town on the Bank of the Susquehanna a little below Tioga Point or Tyogo; but those who continued friendly to the English and had embraced the christian religion, removed to Gnaddenhutten on the Lehigh near the English settlement, where they were taken under the protection of the Moravian Church. A definitive treaty

of peace being concluded between England and France in 1763, hostilities between their Ameri can Colonies consequently ceased and the different Indian tribes resumed their friendly traffic with the English settlements. The christian Indians afterwards removed in a body to Wyalusing on the Susquehanna, where, in the year 1765, they built a regular town on the bank of the river near the mouth of Wyalusing creek, and erected a spacious church. Here they attended strictly to their religious duties and employed themselves principally in agricultural pursuits.

Peace having been established between the English Colonies and the different tribes of Indians bordering upon their frontier settlements, the British ministry considered it a favorable time to cultivate a friendly intercourse with the Indians and to fix and establish a permanent and certain bounda

ry line between the Indian territories and the lands which had been at different times purchased by the Colonies, and accordingly gave orders for effecting these objects to the different Colonial and Provincial Governments. In pursuance of these orders a general treaty was held with the Indians at Fort Stanwix near the Oneida lake, in October 1768, where various purchases of lands were made, and such agreements entered into with the Indian tribes as were well calculated to preserve a good understanding between them and the English Colonies. At this treaty the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania procured a Deed from a number of the chiefs of the Six Nations, dated on the 5th. day of November

1768, for all the lands not previously sold to the Proprietaries lying within the Province of Pennsylvania. This purchase included Wyoming and all the lands previously sold by the chiefs of the same Nations to the Susquehanna company. The reader perhaps, is aware that an Indian gift and an Indian bargain are proverbial. The Indians would probably have sold the land as often as they could have received pay for it. After the conclusion of the treaty the Susquehanna company held a general meeting at Hartford, and entered into paricular resolutions relative to the settlement of Wyoming. In these resolutions they say that in 1763, having been advised that his majesty had inhibited all settlements of lands adjoining the Indian territory until precautions should be taken by his majesty's orders for preventing troubles with the Indians, and as those precautions have been made at the treaty at Fort Stanwix, they resolve that forty persons, being proprietors, shall proceed to Wyoming to commence settlements by the first of February; that two hundred more shall follow them early in the spring, and that £200 shall be immediately appropriated to provide implements of husbandry and provisions for the forty. Their resolutions appointed a committee consisting of Isaac Tripp, Benjamin Follet, John Jenkins, William Buck and Benjamin Shoemaker, being part of the forty, who were to have the government and superintendence of the new Colony. This committee were to be increased to the number of nine persons on the arrival of the 200 men, and they were

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