550 INDIAN LAND CESSIONS IN THE UNITED STATES Ieth.ann. 18 



the investigator is somewliat surprised to find (except so far as they 

 relate to the Dominion of Canada and near the close of the govern- 

 ment rule over the colonies) the data are not only meager but mostly 

 of a negative character. It must be understood, however, that this 

 statement refers to the policy of the English government as distinct 

 from the methods and i)olicy of the different colonies, which will later 

 be noticed. 



The result of this investigation, so far as it relates to the possessions 

 formerly held by Great Britain within the present limits of the United 

 States, would seem to justify Parkman's statement that " English 

 civilization scorned and neglected the Indian," at least so far as it 

 relates to his possessory right. It is a signiticant fact that the Indian 

 was entirely overlooked and ignored in most, if not all, of the original 

 grants of territory to companies and colonists. Most of these grants 

 and charters are as completely void of allusion to the native population 

 as though the grantors believed the lauds to be absolutely waste and 

 uninhabited. 



For example, the letters patent of James I to Sir Tliomas Gage and 

 others for " two several colonies," dated April 10, 160(3, although grant- 

 ing away two vast areas of territory greater than England, inhabited 

 by thousands of Indians, a fact of which tlie King had knowledge 

 both ofiftcially and uuofiicially, do not contain therein the slightest 

 allusion to them. 



Was this a mere oversight! More than a hundred years had elapsed 

 since the Cabots had visited the coast; Raleigh's attempted coloniza- 

 tion twenty years before was well known, and the history of the dis- 

 covery and contjuest of Mexico had been proclaimed to all the civilized 

 world. Still the omission might be considered a mere oversight but 

 for the fact that his second charter (May 23, 1609), to "The Treasurer 

 and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London for 

 the Colony of Virginia," and that of March 12, 1611-12, are equally 

 silent on this important subject. It may be said, and no doubt truly, 

 that the Grown merely granted away its title in the lands, its public 

 domain, leaving the grantees to deal with the inhabitants as they 

 might find most advantageous. Nevertheless this view will not attbrd 

 an adequate excuse for the total disregard of the native occupants. 

 The grants were to subjects, and the rights of sovereignty were 

 retained. 



The so-called " Great Patent of New England," granted " absolutely" 

 to the "said council called the council established at Plymouth, etc.," 

 the "aforesaid part of America, lying and being in breadth from forty 

 degrees of northerly latitude from the e(|uinoctial line, to forty-eight 

 degrees of said northerly latitude inclusively, and in length of and 

 within all the breadth aforesaid throughout the main land from sea to 

 sea, together also with all the firm land, soils, grounds, havens, ports, 

 rivers, waters, fishings, mines, and minerals," yet there is not the 



