588 INDIAN LAND CESSIONS IN THE UNITED STATES [eth.ann, 18 



possessory right to be iu the natives, and, although using it for selfish 

 purposes, respected it. As the policy of the Dutch, who gained and 

 held control of the province until it was acquired by the English in 

 1G64, has been referred to under Xew York, it is unnecessary to add 

 further evideuce ou this point. 



The province having been granted to Lord Berkeley aud Sir (ieorge 

 Carteret, they ai^ijoiiited Philip Carteret as governor. Although there 

 was no provision in the concessions for bargaining with the Indians, 

 Governor Carteret, on his arrival, thought it prudent to purchase their 

 rights. lie ordered that all settlers were either to purchase of the 

 Indians themselves, or if the lands had been purchased before, they 

 were to pay their proportions. In 107-' particular instructions were 

 given that the governor aud council should purchase all laiuls from the 

 Indians, aud be reimbursed by the settlers as they obtained grants or 

 made purchases from the proprietors. This course had the effect to 

 render the Indians, as a general rule, quiet aud peaceable neighbors 

 during the early days of the colony. By "The concessions and agree- 

 ments of the proprietors, freeholders and inhabitants," March 3, 1676, 

 which was substantially a constitution, it is agreed (chap, xxvi) : 



When any lands is to he taken up for settlements of towns, or otherways, before 

 it be surveyed, the commissioners or the major part of them, are to appoint some 

 persons to go to the chief of the natives concerned in that land, so intended to be 

 taken tip, to acquaint the natives of their intentions, and to give the natives what 

 present thoy shall agree upon, for their good will or consent; aud take a grant of 

 the same iu writing, nnder their hands aud seals, or some other publick way used 

 in those parts of the world: AVhich grant is to be registered iu the publick register, 

 allowing also the natives (if they please) a copy thereof; and that no person or 

 persons take up any land, but by order from the commissioners, for the time being.' 



In a memorial by the proprietors of East New Jersey, addressed to 

 the Lords of Trade in 1699, they ask, among other things, that "the pro- 

 l^rietors shall have the sole privilege — as always hath been practiced — 

 of purchasing from the Indians, all such laud lying within East Jersey, 

 as yet remain unpurchased from them." This request was granted. The 

 same request was repeated in 1701 by East Jersey and West Jersey 

 jointly. 



In 1G77 commissioners were seut by the proprietors of West .Jersey 

 with power to buy lauds of the natives; to inspect the rights of such 

 as claimed property, etc. On September 10 of the same year they 

 made a purchase of the lauds from Timber creek to Eankokas creek; 

 on September 27, from Oldmau's creek to Timber creek, and ou Octo- 

 ber 10, from liankokas creek to Assunpink. In 1703 another pur- 

 chase was made by the council of West Jersey of land lying above 

 the falls of the Delaware; another at the head of Eankokas river, and 

 several purchases afterward, including the whole of the lands worth 

 taking xip, except a few plantations reserved to the Indians.^ Previ- 

 ous to this, in 1693, Jeremiah Bass, attorney for the West Jersey 



' Smith's History of Xew Jersey, p. 533. 'Ibid., pp. 94.a5. 



