THE INDIAN' TREATY HELD AT LANCASTER. 61 



stand that tliey were mistaken, that we lived before tliey eanic amongst 

 us, and as well or better, if we may believe what our Forefathers have 

 told Us. We had then room enough and Plenty of Deer, which was 

 easily caught, and though we had not Knives, Hatchets, or Guns, such 

 as we have now, yet we had Knives of Stone and Hatchets of Stone, and 

 Bows and Arrows, and these Served Our Uses as well then as the Eng- 

 lish ones do now. AYe are now Straitned and sometimes in want of 

 Deer, and lyable to many other Inconveniences since the English came 

 among Us, and particularly from that Pen and Ink work that is going on 

 at the Table [pointing to the Secretarys,] and we will give you an In- 

 stance of this. Our Brother Onas, a great while ago, came to Albany 

 to Buy the Susquehannah Lands of Us, but our Brother, the Governor 

 of New York, who, as we suppose, had not a Good understanding with 

 Our Brother Onas, advised us not to Sell him any Lauds, for he would 

 make an ill use of it, and Pretending to be Our Good friend, he advised 

 us, in order to prevent Onas's or any other persons imposing upon us, 

 and that we might always have Our Land when we should want it, to 

 put it into his Hands, and told us he would keep it for Our use, and 

 never open his Hands, but keep them close shut, and not part with any 

 of it but at Our request. Accordingly we Trusted him, and put Our 

 Land into his Hands, and Charged him to keep it safe for Our Use; but 

 sometime after he went away to England and carryed Our Land with 

 him, and there Sold it to Our Brother Onas for a Large Sum of money ; 

 and when, at the Instance of Our Brother Onas, we were minded to sell 

 him some Lands, He told us that we had sold the Sasquehannah Lands 

 already to the Governor of New York, and that he had bought them from 

 him in England, though when he came to Understand how the Governor 

 of New York had deceived L^s, he very generously paid L's for our 

 Lands over again. 



"Though we mention this Instance of an Imposition put upon us by 

 the Governor of New York, yet we must do the English the Justice to 

 say, we have had their hearty Assistances in Our Wars with the French, 

 who were no sooner arrived amongst us than they began to render us 

 uneasy and to provoke us to War, and we have had several Wars with 

 them, during all which we constantly received assistance from the Eng- 

 lish, and by their Means we have alwise been able to keep up Our Heads 

 against their Attacks. 



" We now come nearer home. We have had your Deeds Interpreted 

 to Us, and we acknowledge them to be good and valid, and that the Cou- 

 estogse or Sasquehannah Indians had a Right to sell those Lands unto 

 you, for they were then their's ; but since that time We have Conquered 

 them, and their Country now belongs to Us, and the Lands we demanded 

 satisfaction for are no part of the Lands comprized in those Deeds— they 



