562 INDIAN LAND CESSIONS IN THE UNITED STATES [eth.asn.18 



COLOXIAL POIilCY TOWARD THE INDIANS 



THE POLICY IN GENERAL 



In treating of the policy and nietliods adopted by the different colo- 

 nies in their dealings with the Indians in regard to their lands, one 

 object constantly kept in yiew will be to limit the investigation strictly 

 to this subject. No attempt, therefore, will be made to enter into the 

 general Indian history of colonial days, nor to discuss the rights or 

 wrongs of settlers or Indians. As heretofore stated, the scope of the 

 present work does not embrace the moral element in the numerous 

 transactions referred to, nor the policy adopted; it is limited as strictly 

 as possible to the facts seen from the legal point of view and to the usual 

 custom of the nation or colony. 



As the policy of the difl'erent colonies in the respect now treated of 

 was seldom, if ever, expressed at the outset, it must, to a large extent, 

 be ascertained from their practical dealings with the natives in regard 

 to their lands and their titles thereto. Reference will be made, there- 

 fore, to some of the more important purchases, cessions, grants, etc, by 

 which possession of the lands of the different colonies was obtained 

 and to the laws enacted; but no attempt to give a systematic list of 

 the various cessions to or by the colonies, or of all the laws relating to 

 the subject, will be made. The only object in view in presenting such 

 as will be given is to furnish data by which to judge of the method of 

 treating with the Indians and the policy adopted. Even where histo- 

 rians have clearly defined the policy of a colony in this resiiect, the 

 data are still furnished that the reader may be enabled to form his own 

 opinion, for historians are often more or less influenced by the point of 

 view from which they write. 



It may be remarked here in regard to the lands purchased of the 

 natives in the early days, that in many cases the bounds mentioned in 

 the deeds are so indefinite that it is impossible to define them on a map. 

 In some instances the limits actually adopted have been xireserved by 

 tradition, but in many others they were so indefinite that one purchase 

 overlapped or duplicated or even triplicated, in part, another. As 

 examples of this class, the purchases by the settlers of Connecticut 

 may be referred to. This uncertainty hangs about almost every one of 

 the earlier colonial purchases. Even those by William Penn, so landed 

 in history as examples of sturdy Quaker honesty, must be included in 

 this category, as their bounds and extent are poorly defined and 

 in some instances depend entirely on tradition. The extent, in some 

 cases, was decided by a day's travel on foot or horseback, while some of 

 the grants overlapped one another. 



A loose custom prevailed in some of the colonies of allowing individ- 

 uals to purchase from the Indians without sufBcient strictness as to the 

 authoritative acknowledgment or recording of such deeds of purchase. 

 Many of these are known only traditionally, others only through law- 



