127 



mine an ancient manuscript volume, the original letter-book of 

 James Steel, Receiver-General under Thomas and Richard 

 Penn, Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, in which he found some 

 interesting information concerning the celebrated " Indian 

 walk," performed in 1737, by which the extent and northern 

 boundary of a former purchase of land from the Indians were 

 determined. 



Mr. Trego said that among the several deeds given by the Indians 

 for the purchase of land from them in Pennsylvania, by William 

 Penn and his agents, was one dated July 15, 1682, procured at a 

 treaty held with the Indians by William Markham, Penn's deputy- 

 governor, a short time before the arrival of Penn himself in the colony. 

 This deed sets forth that certain Indian chiefs, for themselves and their 

 people, grant to William Penn the land on the Delaware river, ex- 

 tending from a white oak near the Gray-stones, (the rocks on the 

 bank of the river opposite to the falls at Trenton), up the said river 

 side to a corner marked spruce tree; and thence westward to the 

 creek called Neshamony, and along the said creek to the river Dela- 

 ware, alias Makerisk-kitton ; and so bounded by the said river to the 

 said first-mentioned white oak, &c. 



The next purchase of land on the Delaware above this tract, ap- 

 pears to have been by a deed alleged to have borne date August 28, 

 1686, though the deed itself is not to be found. It is, however, re- 

 ferred to, recognised in, and confirmed by the deed of 1737. The 

 limits of this purchase were defined as follows : " Beginning upon a 

 line formerly laid out from a corner spruce-tree by the river Dela- 

 ware, (Makerisk-kitton), and from thence running along the ledge or 

 foot of the mountains west-south-west* to a corner white-oak, marked 

 with the letter P. standing by an Indian path that leadeth to an In- 

 dian town called Playwickey ; and from thence extending westward 

 to Neshamony creek ; from which said line the said tract or tracts 



* Some copies read west-north-west ; but this is manifestly an error. A 

 west-north-west course from the spruce-tree would not run " along the ledge 

 or foot of the mountains." The ridges of high lands in that region extend 

 from the river in a west-south-west direction, and would be crossed by a west- 

 north-west line. Nor would this course lead towards the point which is uni- 

 versally admitted by written documents and traditionary accounts, as the 

 place from which the Indian walk commenced. John Watson, of Bucks 

 county, who was acquainted with the local topography of the neighbourhood, 

 in his account of this walk, written in 1815, gives the course westsouth-west, 

 as taken from the original deed. 



