Area History: Warner-Beers' History of Franklin County, PA, 1887--Part I: Chapters VIII-X

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               HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA

                             ILLUSTRATED

                               CHICAGO:
                      WARNER, BEERS & CO., 1887


                               Chicago:
                    JOHN MORRIS COMPANY, PRINTERS
                      118 and 120 Monroe Street.
            __________________________________________________


PART I -- HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA

CHAPTER VIII.  William Penn, 1699-1701--Andrew Hamilton,
               1701-03--Edward Shippen, 1703-04--John
               Evans, 17104-09--Charles Gookin, 1709-17

     Being free from harassing persecutions, and in favor at court, 
PENN determined to remove with his family to Pennsylvania, and now 
with the expectation of living and dying here.  Accordingly, in July,
1699, he set sail, and, on account of adverse winds, was three months
tossed about upon the ocean.  Just before his arrival in his colony, 
the yellow fever raged there with great virulence, having been brought 
thither from the West Indies, but had been checked by the biting frosts
of autumn, and had now disappeared.  An observant traveler, who wit-
nessed the effects of this scourge, writes thus of it in his journal:
"Great was the majesty and hand of the Lord.  Great was the fear that
fell upon all flesh. I saw no lofty nor airy contenance, nor heard any
vain jesting to move men to laughter, nor witty repartee to raise mirth
nor extravagant feasting to excite the lusts and desires of the flesh
above measure; but every face gathered paleness, and many hearts were
humbled, and contenances fallen and sunk, as such that waited every
moment to be summoned to the bar and numbered to the grave.

     Great joy was everywhere manifested throughout the province at the
arrival of the proprietor and his family, fondly believing that he had
now come to stay.  He met the Assembly soon after landing, but it being
an inclement season, he only detained them long enough to pass two
measures aimed against piracy and illicit trade, exaggerated reports of
which, having been spread broadcast through the kingdom, had caused him
great uneasiness and vexation.  At the first monthly meeting of Friends
in 1700, he laid before them his concern, which was for the welfare of
Indians and Negroes, and steps were taken to instruct them and provide
stated meetings for them where they could hear the Word.  It is more
than probable that he had fears from the first that his enemies in 
England would interfere in his affairs to such a degree as to require
his early return, though he had declared to his friends there that he
never expected to meet them again.  His greatest solicitude, conse-
quently, was to give a charter to his colony, and also one to his city,
the very best that human ingenuity could devise.  An experience of now
nearly twenty years would be likely to develop the weakness and im-
practicable provisions of the first constitutions, so that a frame now
drawn with all the light of the past, and by the aid and suggestion of
the men who had been employed in administering it, would be likely to
be enduring, and though he might be called hence, or be removed by
death, their work would live on from generation to generation and age
to age, and exert a benign and preserving influence while the State
should exist.

     In February, 1701, PENN met the most renowned and powerful of the
Indian chieftains, reaching out to the Potomac, the Susquehanna and to
the Onondagoes of the Five Nations, some forty in number, at
Philadelphia, where he renewed with them pledges of peace and entered
into a formal treaty of active friendship, binding them to disclose any
hostile intent, confirm sale of lands, be governed by colonial law, all
of which was confirmed on the part of the Indians "by five parcels of
skins;" and on the part of Penn by "several English goods and merchan-
dises."

     Several sessions of the Legislature were held in which great
harmony prevailed, and much attention was giving to revising and re-
composing the constitution.  But in the midst of their labors for the
improvement of the organic law, intelligence was brought to PENN that
a bill had been introduced in the House of Lords for reducing all the
proprietary governments in America to regal ones, under pretence of
advancing the prerogative of the crown, and the national advantage.
Such of the owners of land in Pennsylvania as happened to be in England,
remonstrated against action upon the bill until PENN could return and
be heard, and wrote to him urging his immediate coming hither.  Though
much to his disappointment and sorrow, he determined to go immediately
thither.  He promptly called a session of the Assembly, and in his
message to the two Houses said, "I cannot think of such a voyage with-
out great reluctancy of mind, having promised myself the quietness of
a wilderness.  For my heart is among you, and no disappointment shall
ever be able to alter my love to the country, and resolution to return,
and settle my family and posterity in it.  * *   Think therefore (since
all men are mortal), of some suitable expedient and provision for your
safety as well in your privileges as property.  Review again your laws,
propose new ones, and you will find me ready to comply with whatsoever
may render us happy, by a nearer union of our interests."  The Assembly
returned a suitable response, and then proceeded to draw up twenty-one
articles.  The first related to the appointment of a Lieutenant Gover-
nor.  PENN proposed that the Assembly should choose one.  But this
they declined, preferring that he should appoint one.  Little trouble
was experienced in settling everything broached, except the union of
the province and lower counties.  PENN used his best endeavors to
reconcile them to the union, but without avail.  The new constitution
was adopted on the 28th of October, 1701.  The instrument provided for
the union, but in a supplementary article, evidently granted with great
reluctance, it was provided that the province and the territories 
might be separated at any time within three years.  As his last act be-
fore leaving, he presented the city of Philadelphia, now grown to be a
considerable place, and always an object of his affectionate regard,
with a charter of privileges.  As his Deputy, he appointed ANDREW
HAMILTON, one of the proprietors of East New Jersey, and sometime
Governor of both East and West Jersey, and for Secretary of the pro-
vince and Clerk of the Council, he selected JAMES LOGAN, a man of
singular urbanity and strength of mind, and withal a scholar.

     PENN set sail for Europe on the 1st of November, 1701.  Soon after
his arrival, on the 18th of January, 1702, KING WILLIAM died and ANNE
OF DENMARK succeeded him.  He now found himself in favor at court, and
that he might be convenient to the royal residence, he again took
lodgings at Kensington.  The bill which had been pending before Parlia-
ment, that had given him so much uneasiness, was at the succeeding
session dropped entirely, and was never again called up.  During his
leisure hours, he now busied himself in writing "several useful and
excellent treatises on divers subjects."

     GOVERNOR HAMILTON's administration continued only till December,
1702, when he died.  He was earnest in his endeavors to induce the 
territories to unite with the province, they having as yet not accept-
ed the new charter, alleging that they had tree years in which to make
their decisions, but without success.  He also organized a military
force, of which GEORGE LOWTHER was commander, for the safety of the
colony.

     The executive authority now devolved upon the Council, of which 
EDWARD SHIPPEN was President.  Conflict of authority, and contention
over the due interpretation of some provisions of the new charter,
prevented the accomplishment of much, by way of legislation, in the
Assembly which convened in 1703; though in this body it was finally
determined that the lower counties should thereafter act separately in
a legislative capacity.  This separation proved final, the two bodies
never again meeting in common.

     Though the bill to govern the American Colonies by regal authority
failed, yet the clamor of those opposed to the proprietary Governors
was so strong that an act was finally passed requiring the selection 
of deputies to have the royal assent.  Hence, in choosing a successor
to HAMILTON, he was obliged to consider the Queen's wishes.  JOHN 
EVANS, a man of parts, of Welch extraction, only twenty-six years old,
a member of the Queen's household, and not a Quaker, nor even of
exemplary morals, was appointed, who arrived in the colony in
December, 1703.  He was accompanied by WILLIAM PENN< JR., who was
elected a member of the Council, the number having been increased by
authority of the Governor, probably with a view to his election.

     The first care of EVANS was to unite the province and lower 
counties, though the final separation had been agreed to.  He presented
the matter so well that the lower counties, from which the difficulty 
had always come, were willing to return to a firm union.  But now the
provincial Assembly, having become impatient of the obstacles thrown
in the way of legislation by the delegates from these counties, was
unwilling to receive them.  They henceforward remained separate in a
legislative capacity, though still a part of Pennsylvania, under the
claim of PENN, and ruled by the same Governor, and thus they continued 
until the 20th of September, 1776, when a constitution was adopted, 
and they were proclaimed a separate State under the name of Delaware.
During two years of the government of EVANS, there was ceaseless dis-
cord between the Council, headed by the Governor and SECRETARY LOGAN
on the one side, and the Assembly led by DAVID LLOYD, its Speaker, on
the other, and little legislation was effected.

     Realizing the defenseless condition of the colony, EVANS deter-
mined to organize the militia, and accordingly issued his proclamation.
"In obedience to her Majesty's royal command, and to the end that the 
inhabitants of this government may be in a posture of defense and
readiness to withstand and repel all acts of hostility, I do hereby
strictly command and require all persons residing in this government,
whose persuasions will, on any account, permit them to take up arms
in their own defense, that forthwith they do provide themselves with 
a good firelock and ammunition, in order to enlist themselves in the
militia, which I am now settling in this government."  The Governor
evidently issued this proclamation in good faith, and with a pure pur-
pose.  The French and Indians had assumed a threatening aspect upon 
the north, and while the other colonies had assisted New York liber-
ally, Pennsylvania had done little or nothing for the common defense.
But his call fell stillborn.  The "fire-locks" were not brought out,
and none enlisted.

     Disappointed at this lack of spirit, and embittered by the fact-
ious temper of the Assembly, EVANS, who seems not to have had faith in
the religious principles of the Quakers, and to have entirely mistook
the nature of their Christian zeal, formed a wild scheme to test their
steadfastness under the pressure of threatened danger.  In conjunction
with his gay associates in revel, he agreed to have a false alarm 
spread of the approach of a hostile force in the river, whereupon he
was to raise the alarm in the city.  Accordingly, on the day of the
fair in Philadelphia, 16th of March, 1706, a messenger came, post haste
from New Castle, bringing the startling intelligence that an armed 
fleet of the enemy was already in the river, and making their way 
rapidly toward the city.  Whereupon EVANS acted his part to a nicety.
He sent emissaries through the town proclaiming the dread tale, while
he mounted his hourse, and in an excited manner, and with a drawn 
sword, rode through the streets, calling upon all good men and true to
rush to arms for the defense of their homes, their wives and children,
and all they held dear.  The ruse was so well played that it had an
immense effect.  "The suddenness of the surprise," says PROUD, "with
the noise of precipitation consequent thereon, threw many of the people
into very great fright and consternation insomuch that it is said some
threw their plate and most valuable effects down their wells and little
houses; that others hid themselves, in the best manner they could,
while many retired further up the river, with what they could most 
readily carry off; so that some of the creeks seemed full of boats and
small craft; those of a larger size running as far as Burlington, and
some higher up the river; several women are said to have miscarried
by the fright and terror into which they were thrown, and much mis-
chief ensued."

     The more thoughtful of the people are said to have understood the
deceit from the first, and labored to allay the excitement; but the
seeming earnestness of the Governor and the zeal of his emissaries so
worked upon the more inconsiderate of the population that the con-
sternation and commotion was almost past belief.  In an almanac 
published at Philadelphia for the next year opposite this date was
this distich: 
                   Wise men wonder, good men grieve,
                   Knaves invent and fools believe."

     Though this ruse was played upon all classes alike, yet it was
generally believed to have been aimed chiefly at the Quakers, to try
the force of their principles, and see if they would not rush to arms
when danger should really appear.  But in this the Governor was dis-
appointed.  For it is said that only four out of the entire population
of this religious creed showed any disposition to falsify their faith.
It was the day of their weekly meeting, and regardless of the dismay
and consternation which were everywhere manifest about them, they 
assembled in their accustomed places of worship, and engaged in their
devotions as though nothing unusual was transpiring without, manifest-
ing such unshaken faith, as WHITTIER has exemplified in verse by his
ABRAHAM DAVENPORT, on the occasion of the Dark Day:
            "Meanwhile in the old State House, dim as ghosts,
            Sat the law-givers of Connecticut,
            Trembling beneath their legislative robes,
            'It is the Lord's great day! Let us adjourn,'
            Some said: and then, as with one accord,
            All eyes were turned on Abraham Davenport.
            He rose, slow, cleaving with his steady voice
            The intolerable hush.  'This well may be
            The Day of Judgement which the world awaits;
            But be it so or not, I only know
            My present duty, and my Lord's command
            To occupy till He come.  So at the post
            Where He hath set me in His Providence,
            I choose, for one, to meet Him face to face,
            No faithless servant frightened from my task,
            But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls;
            And therefore, with all reverence, I would say,
            Let God do His work, we will see to ours.
            Bring in the candles.'  And they brought them in."

     In conjunction with the Legislature of the lower counties, EVANS
was instrumental in having a law passed for the imposition of a tax on
the tonnage of the river, and the erection of a fort near the town of
New Castle for compelling obedience.  This was in direct violation of
the fundamental compact, and vexatious to commerce. It was at length
forcibly resisted, and its imposition abandoned.  His administration
was anything but efficient and peaceful, a series of contentions, of
charges and counter-charges having been kept up between the leaders of
the two factions, LLOYD and LOGAN, which he was powerless to properly
direct or control.  "He was relieved in 1709.  Possessed of a good
degree of learning and refinement, and accustomed to the gay society
of the British metropolis, he found in the grave and serious habits of
the Friends a type of life and character which he failed to comprehend,
and with which he could, consequently, have little sympathy.  How 
widely he mistook the Quaker character is seen in the result of his 
wild and hair-brained experiments to test their faith.  His general
tenor of life seems to have been of a piece with this.  WATSON says:
'The Indians of Connestoga complained of him when there as misbehaving
to their women, and that, in 1709. SOLOMON CRESSON, going his rounds 
at night, entered a tavern to suppress a riotous assembly, and found
there JOHN EVANS, ESQ., the Governor, who fell to beating CRESSON.'"

     The youth and levity of GOVERNOR EVANS induced the proprietor to
seek for a successor of a more sober and sedate character.  He had 
thought of proposing his son, but finally settled upon COLONEL CHARLES
GOOKIN, who was reputed to be a man of wisdom and prudence, though as
was afterward learned, to the sorrow of the colony, he was subject to
fits of derangement, which toward the close of his term were exhibited
in the most extravagant acts.  He had scarcely arrived in the colony
before charges were preferred against the late Governor, and he was
asked to institute criminal proceedings, which he declined.  This was
the occasion of a renewal of contentions between the Governor and his
Council and the Assembly, which continued during the greater part of
his administration.  In the midst of them, LOGAN, who was at the head
of the Council, having demanded a trial of the charges against him, 
and failed to secure one, sailed for Europe, where he presented the
difficulties experienced in administering the government so strongly,
that PENN was seriously inclined to sell his interest in the colony.
He had already greatly crippled his estate by expenses he had incurred
in making costly presents to the natives, and in settling his colony,
for which he had received small return.  In the year 1707, he had be-
come involved in a suit in chancery with the executors of his former
steward, in the course of which he was confined in the Old Baily during
this and a part of the following year, when he was obliged to mortgage
his colony in the sum of 6,600 pounds to relieve himself.  Foreseeing
the great consequence it would be to the crown to buy the rights of
the proprietors of the several English colonies in America before they
would grow too powerful, negotiations had been entered into early in 
the reign of WILLIAM and MARY, for their purchase, especially the "fine
province of Mr. PENN."  Borne down by these troubles, and by debts and
litigations at home, PENN seriously entertained the proposition to
sell in 1712, and offered it for 20,000 pounds.  The sum of 12,000
pounds was offered on the part of the crown, which was agreed upon, 
but before the necessary papers were executed, he was stricken down
with apoplexy, by which he was incapacitated for transacting any 
business, and a stay was put to further proceedings until the Queen
should order an act of Parliament for consummating the purchase.

     It is a mournful spectacle to behold the great mind and the great
heart of PENN reduced now in his declining years, by the troubles of
government and by debts incurred in the bettering of his colony, to
this enfeebled condition.  He was at the moment writing to LOGAN on
public affairs, when his hand was suddenly seized by lethargy in the
beginning of a sentence, which he never finished.  His mind was touched
by the disease, which he never recovered, and after lingering for six
years, he died on the 30th of May, 11718, in the seventy-fourth year
of his age.  With great power of intellect, and a religious devotion
scarcely matched in all Christendom, he gave himself to the welfare of
mankind, by securing civil and religious liberty through the operations
of organic law.  Though not a lawyer by profession, he drew frames of
government and bodies of laws which have been the admiration of suc-
ceeding generations, and are destined to exert a benign influence in
all future time, and by his discussions with LORD BALTIMORE and before
the Lords in Council, he showed himself familiar with the abstruse 
principles of law.  Though but a private person and of a despised sect,
he was received as a friend and confidential advisee of the ruling
soverigns of England, and some of the principles which give luster to
British law were engrafted there through the influence of the powerful
intellect and benignant heart of PENN.  He sought to know no philoso-
phy but that promulgated by Christ and His disciples, and this he had
sounded to its depths, and in it were anchored his ideas of public
law and private and social living.  The untamed savage of the forest
bowed in meek and loving simplicity to his mild and resistless sway,
and the members of the Society of Friends all over Europe flocked to
his City of Brotherly Love.  His prayers for the welfare of his people
are the beginning and ending of all his public and private correspon-
dence, and who will say that they have not been answered in the 
blessings which have attended the commonwealth of his founding?  And
will not the day of its greatness be when the inhabitants throughout 
all its borders shall return to the peaceful and loving spirit of
PENN?  In the midst of a licentious court, and with every prospect of
advancement in its sunshine and favor, inheriting a great name and an
independent patrimony, he turned aside from this brilliant track to
make common lot with a poor sect under the ban of Government; endured
stripes and imprisonment and loss of property; banished himself to the
wilds of the American continent that he might secure to his people 
those devotions which seemed to them required by their Maker, and has
won for himself a name by the simple deeds of love and humble obedience
to Christian mandates which shall never perish.  Many have won renown
by deeds of blood, but fadeless glory has come to WILLIAM PENN by
charity.

CHAPTER IX.  Sir William Keith, 1717-21--Patrick Gordon,
             1726-36--James Logan, 1736-38--George Thomas,
             1738-47--Anthony Palmer, 1747-48--James
             Hamilton, 1748-54

     In 1712, PENN had made a will, by which he devised to his only sur-
viving son, WILLIAM, by his first marriage, all his estates in England,
amounting to some twenty thousand pounds.  By his first wife, GULIELMA
MARIA SPRINGETT, he had issue of three sons--WILLIAM, SPRINGETT, and
WILLIAM, and four daughters--GULIELMA, MARGARET, GULIELMA and LETITIA;
and by his second wife, HANNAH CALLOWHILL, of four sons--JOHN, THOMAS,
RICHARD and DENNIS.  To his wife HANNAH, who survived him, and whom he
made the sole executrix of his will, he gave, for the equal benefit of
herself and her children, all his personal estate in Pennsylvania and
elsewhere, after paying all debts, and alloting ten thousand acres of
land in the Province to his daughter LETITIA, by his first marriage, and
each of the three children of his son WILLIAM.

     Doubts having arisen as to the force of the provisions of this will,
it was finally determined to institute a suite in chancery for its 
determination.  Before a decision was reached, in March, 1720, WILLIAM
PENN, JR., died, and while still pending, his son SPRINGETT died also.
During the long pendency of this litigation for nine years, HANNAH PENN
as executrix of the will, assumed the proprietary powers, issued in-
structions to her Lieutenant Governors, heard complaints and settled
difficulties with the skill and the assurance of a veteran diplomatist.
In 1727, a decision was reached that, upon the death of WILLIAM PENN JR.,
and his son SPRINGETT, the proprietary rights in Pennsylvania descended
to the three surviving sons--JOHN, THOMAS and RICHARD--issue by the 
second marriage; and that the proprietors bargain to sell his province
to the crown for twelve thousand pounds, made in 1712, and on which one
thousand pounds had been paid at the confirmation of the sale, was void.
Whereupon the three sons became the joint proprietors.

     A year before the death of PENN, the lunacy of GOVERNOR GOOKIN hav-
ing become troublesome, he was succeeded in the Government by SIR WILLIAM
KEITH, a Scotchman who had served as Surveyor of Customs to the English
Government, in which capacity he had visited Pennsylvania previously,
and knew something of its condition.  He was a man of dignified and
commanding bearing, endowed with cunning, of an accommodating policy, 
full of faithful promises, and usually found upon the stronger side. 
Hence, upon his arrival in the colony, he did not summon the Assembly
immediately, assigning as a reason in his first message that he did not
wish to inconvenience the country members by calling them in harvest
time.  The disposition thus manifested to favor the people, and his
advocacy of popular rights on several occasions in opposition to the
claims of the proprietor, gave great satisfaction to the popular branch
of the Legislature which manifested its appreciation of his conduct by
voting him liberal salaries, which had often been withheld from his
less accommodating predecessors.  By his artful and insinuating policy,
he induced the Assembly to pass two acts which had previously met with
uncompromising opposition--one to establish a Court of Equity, with 
himself as Chancellor, the want of which had been seriously felt; and
another, for organizing the militia.  Though the soil was fruitful and
produce was plentiful, yet, for lack of good markets, and on account of
the meagerness of the circulating medium, prices were very low, the 
toil and sweat of the husbandman being little rewarded, and the taxes
and payments on land were met with great difficulty.  Accordingly,
arrangements were made for the appointment of inspectors of provisions,
who, from a conscientious discharge of duty, soon caused the Pennsyl-
vania brands of best products to be much sought for, and to command
ready sale at highest prices in the West Indies, whither most of the
surplus produce was exported.  A provision was also made for the issue
of a limited amount of paper money, on the establishment of ample
securities, which tended to raise the value of the products of the soil
and of manufactures, and encourage industry.

     By the repeated notices of the Governors in their messages to the
Legislature previous to this time, it is evident that Indian hostilities
had for sometime been threatened.  The Potomac was the dividing line
between the Northern and Southern Indians.  But the young men on either
side, when out in pursuit of game, often crossed the line of the river
into the territory of the other, when fierce altercations ensued. This
trouble had become so violent in 1719 as to threaten a great Indian war,
in which the powerful confederation, known as the Five Nations, would
take a hand.  To avert this danger, which it was forseen would inevit-
ably involve the defenseless families upon the frontier, and perhaps 
the entire colony, GOVERNOR KEITH determined to use his best exertions.  
He accordingly made a toilsome journey in the spring of 1721 to confer 
with the Governor of Virginia and endeavor to employ by concert of
action such means as would allay further cause of contention.  His 
policy was well devised, and enlisted the favor of the Governor.  Soon
after his return, he summoned a council of Indian Chieftains to meet  
him at Conestoga, a point about seventy miles west of Philadelphia.  He
went in considerable pomp, attended by some seventy or eighty horsemen,
gaily caparisoned, and many of them armed, arriving about noon, on the
4th of July, not then a day of more note than other days.  He went 
immediately to CAPTAIN CIVILITY's cabin, where were assembled four
deputies of the Five Nations and representatives of other tribes.  The
Governor said that he had come a long distance from home to see and
speak to representatives of the Five Nations, who had never met the 
Governor of Pennsylvania.  They said in reply that they had heard much
of the Governor, and would have come sooner to pay him their respects,
but that the wild conduct of some of their young men had made them
ashamed to show their faces.  In the formal meeting in the morning,
GHESAONT, chief of the Senecas, spoke for all the Five Nations.  He 
said that they now felt that they were speaking to the same effect that
they would were WILLIAM PENN before them, that they had not forgotten
PENN, nor the treaties made with him, and the good advice he gave them;
that though they could not write as do the English, yet they could keep
all these transactions fresh in their memories.  After laying down a
belt of wampum upon the table as if by way of emphasis, he began again,
declaring that 'all their disorders arose from the use of rum and 
strong spirits, which took away their sense and memory, that they had
no such liquors," and desired that no more be sent among them.  Here
he produced a bundle of dressed skins, by which he would say, "you see
how much in earnest we are upon this matter of furnishing fiery liquors
to us."  Then, he proceeds, declaring that the Five Nations remember
all their ancient treaties, and they now desire that the chain of 
friendship may be made so strong that none of the links may ever be
broken.  This may have been a hint that they wanted high-piled and 
valuable presents; for the Quakers had made a reputation of brightening
and strengthening the chain of friendship by valuable presents which 
had reached so far away as the Five Nations.  He then produces a bundle
of raw skins, and observes "that a chain may contract rust with laying
and become weaker, wherefore he desires it may now be so well cleaned 
as to remain brighter and stronger than ever it was before."  Here he
presents another parcel of skins, and continues, "that as in the firma-
ment, all clouds and darkness are removed from the face of the sun, so
they desire that all misunderstandings may be fully done away, so that
when they, who are now here, shall be dead and gone, their whole people,
with their children and posterity, may enjoy the clear sunshine with 
us forever."  Presenting another bundle of skins, he says, "that, 
looking upon the Governor as if WILLIAM PENN were present, they desire,
that, in case any disorders should hereafter happen between their young
people and ours, we would not be too hasty in resenting any such acci-
dent, until their Council and ours can have some opportunity to treat
amicably upon it, and so to adjust all matters, as that the friendship
between us may still be inviolably preserved."  Here he produces a 
small parcel of dressed skins, and concludes by saying "that we may now
be together as one people, treating one another's children kindly and
affectionately, that they are fully empowered to speak for the Five 
Nations, and they look upon the Governor as the representative of the
Great King of England, and therefore they expect that everything now
stipulated will be made absolutely firm and good on both sides."  And
now he presents a different style of present and pulls out a bundle of
bear skins, and proceeds to put in an item of complaint, that "they
get too little for their skins and furs, so that they cannot live by
hunting; they desire us, therefore, to take compassion on them, and
contrive some way to help them in that particular.  Then producing a
few furs, he speaks only for himself, "to acquaint the Governor, that
the Five Nations having heard that the Governor of Virginia wanted to
speak with them, he himself, with some of his company intended to pro-
ceed to Virginia, but do not know the way how to get safe thither."

     To this formal and adroitly conceived speech of the Seneca chief,
GOVERNOR KEITH, after having brought in the present of stroud match
coats, gunpowder, lead, biscuit, pipes and tobacco, adjourned the
council till the following day, when, being assembled at Conestoga, he
answered at length the items of the chieftain's speech.  His most
earnest appeal, however, was made in favor of peace.  "I have persuad-
ed all my [Indian] brethern, in these parts, to consider what is for
their good, and not to go out any more to war; but your young men
[Five Nations] as they come this way, endeavor to force them; and,
because they incline to the counsels of peace, and the good advice of
their true friends, your people use them ill, and often prevail with
them to go out to their own destruction.  Thus it was that their town
of Conestoga lost their good king not long ago.  Their young children
are left without parents; their wives without husbands; the old men,
contrary to the course of nature, mourn the death of their young; the
people decay and grow weak; we lose our dear friends and are afflicted.
Surely you cannot propose to get either riches or possessions, by
going thus out to war; for when you kill a deer, you have the flesh to
eat, and the skin to sell: but when you return from war, you bring
nothing home, but the scalp of a dead man, who perhaps was husband to
a kind wife, and father to tender children, who never wronged you,
though, by losing him, you have robbed them of their help and protec-
tion, and at the same time got nothing for it.  If I were not your
friend, I would not take the trouble to say all these things to you."
When the Governor had concluded his address, he called the Seneca
chieftain (GHESAONT) to him, and presented a gold coronation metal of
KING GEORGE I, which he requested should be taken to the monarch of
the Five Nations, "KANNYGOOAH," to be laid up and kept as a token to
our children's children, that an entire and lasting friendship is now 
established forever between the English in this country and the great
Five Nations."  Upon the return of the Governor, he was met at the
upper ferry of the Schuylkill, by the Mayor and Aldermen of the city,
with about two hundred horse, and conducted through the streets after
the manner of a conqueror of old returning from the scenes of his
triumphs.

     GOVERNOR KEITH gave diligent study to the subject of finance, 
regulating the currency in such a way that the planter should have it
in his power to discharge promptly his indebtedness to the merchant,
that their mutual interests might thus be subserved.  He even proposed
to establish a considerable settlement on his own account in the colony
in order to carry on manufactures, and thus consume the grain, of which
there was at this time abundance, and no profitable market abroad.

     In the spring of 1722, an Indian was barbarously murdered within
thee limits of the colony, which gave the Governor great concern.  
After having cautioned red men so strongly about keeping the peace, he
felt that the honor of himself and all his people was compromised by
this vile act.  He immediately commissioned JAMES LOGAN and JOHN 
FRENCH to go to the scene of the murder above Conestoga, and inquire
into the facts of the case, quickly apprehended the supposed murderers,
sent a fast Indian runner (SATCHEECHO) to acquaint the Five Nations
with his sorrow for the act, and of his determination to bring the
guilty parties to justice, and himself set out with three of his Coun-
cil (HILL, NORRIS and HAMILTON), for Albany, where he had been invited
by the Indians for a conference with the Governors of all the colonies,
and where he met the chiefs of the Five Nations, and treated with them
upon the subject of the murder, besides making presents to the Indians.
It was on this occasion that the grand sachem of this great confederacy
made that noble, and generous, and touching response, so different 
from the spirit of revenge generally attributed to the Indian charac-
ter.  It is a notable example of love that begets love, and of the 
mild answer that turneth away wrath.  He said: "The great king of the
Five Nations is sorry for the death of the Indian that was killed, for
he was of his own flesh and blood.  He believes that the Governor is
also sorry; but, now that it is done, there is no help for it, and he
desires that CARTLIDGE (the murderer) may not be put to death, nor that
he should be spared for a time, and afterward executed; one life is
enough to be lost; there should not two die.  The King's heart is good
to the Governor and all the English."

     Though GOVERNOR KEITH, during the early part of his term, pursued
a pacific policy, yet the interminable quarrels which had been kept up
between the Assembly and Council during previous administrations, at
length broke out with more virulence than ever, and he who in the 
first flush of power had declared "That he should pass no laws, nor
transact anything of moment relating to the public affairs without the
advice and approbation of the Council," took it upon himself finally
to act independently of the Council, and even went so far as to dismiss
the able and trusted representative of the proprietary interests,
JAMES LOGAN, President of the Council and Secretary of the Province,
from the duties of his high office, and even refused the request of
HANNAH PENN, the real Governor of the province, to re-instate him.  
This unwarrantable conduct cost him his dismissal from office in July,
1726.  Why he should have assumed so headstrong and unwarrantable a
course, who had promised at the first so mild and considerate a policy,
it is difficult to understand, unless it be the fact that he found 
that the Council was blocking, by its obstinancy, wholesome legisla-
tion, which he considered of vital importance to the prosperity of the
colony, and if, as he alleges, he found that the new constitution only
gave the Council advisory and not a voice in executive power.

     The administration of GOVERNOR KEITH was eminently successful, as
he did not hesitate to grapple with important questions of judicature,
finance, trade, commerce, and the many vexing relations with the native
tribes, and right manfully, and judiciously did he effect their solu-
tion.  It was at a time when the colony was filling up rapidly, and 
the laws and regulations which had been found ample for the management
of a few hundred families struggling for a foothold in the forest, and
when the only traffic was a few skins, were entirely inadequate for
securing protection and prosperity to a seething and jostling popula-
tion intent on trade and commerce, and the conflicting interests which
required wise legislation and prudent management.  No colony on the
American coast made such progress in numbers and improvements as did
Pennsylvania during the nine years in which WILLIAM KEITH exercised
the Gubernatorial office.  Though not himself a Quaker, he had secured
the passage of an act of Assembly, and its royal affirmation for allow-
ing the members of the Quaker sect to wear their hats in court, and 
give testimony under affirmation instead of oath, which in the begin-
ning of the reign of QUEEN ANN had been withheld from them.  After the
expiration of his term of office, he was immediately elected a member
of the Assembly, and was intent on being elected Speaker, "and had his
support out-doors in a cavalcade of eighty mounted horsemen and the
resounding of many guns fired;" yet DAVID LLOYD was elected with only
three dissenting voices, the out-door business having perhaps been
overdone.

     Upon the recommendation of SPRINGETT PENN, who was now the prospec-
tive heir to Pennsylvania, PATRICK GORDON was appointed and confirmed
Lieutenant Governor in place of KEITH, and arrived in the colony and
assumed authority in July, 1726.  He had served in the army, and in 
his first address to the Assembly, which he met in August, he said that
as he had been a soldier, he knew nothing of the crooked ways of the
professed politicians, and must rely on a straightforward manner of
transacting the duties devolving upon him. GEORGE I died in June, 1727,
and the Assembly at its meeting in October prepared and forwarded a
congratulatory address to his successor, GEORGE II.  By the decision
of the Court of Chancery in 1727, HANNAH PENN's authority over the colony
was at an end, the proprietary interests having descended to JOHN,
RICHARD and THOMAS PENN, the only surviving sons of WILLIAM PENN, SR.
This period, from the death of PENN in 1718 to 1727, one of the most 
prosperous in the history of the colony, was familiarly known as the
"Reign of HANNAH and the Boys."

     GOVERNOR GORDON found the Indian troubles claiming a considerable
part of his attention.  In 1728, worthless bands, who had strayed away
from their proper tribes, incited by strong drink, had become impli-
cated in disgraceful broils, in which several were killed and wounded.
The guilty parties were apprehended, but it was found difficult to
punish Indian offenders without incurring the wrath of their relatives.
Treaties were frequently renewed, on which occasions the chiefs ex-
pected that the chain of friendship would be polished "with English
blankets, broadcloths and metals."  The Indians found that this 
"brightening the chain" was a profitable business, which some have been
uncharitable enough to believe was the moving cause of many of the
Indian difficulties.

     As early as 1732, the French, who were claiming all the territory
drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries, on the ground of 
priority of discovery of its mouth and exploration of its channel, 
commenced erecting trading posts in Pennsylvania, along the Allegheny
and Ohio Rivers, and invited the indians living on these streams to a
council for concluding treaties with them at Montreal, Canada.  To
neutralize the influence of the French, these Indians were summoned
to meet in council at Philadelphia, to renew treaties of friendship,
and they were invited to remove farther east.  But this they were 
unwilling to do.  A treaty was also concluded with the Six Nations, in
which they pledged lasting friendship for the English.

     HANNAH PENN died in 1733, when the Assembly, supposing that the
proprietary power was still in her hands, refused to recognize the 
power of GOVERNOR GORDON.  But the three sons, to whom the proprietary
possessions had descended, in 1727, upon the decision of the Chancery
case, joined in issuing a new commission to GORDON.  In approving this
commission the King directed a clause to be inserted, expressly re-
serving to himself the government of the lower counties.  This act of
the King was the beginning of those series of encroachments which
finally culminated in the independence of the States of America.  The
Judiciary act of 1727 was annulled, and this was followed by an attempt
to pass an act requiring the laws of all the colonies to be submitted
to the Crown for approval before they should become valid, and that a
copy of all laws previously enacted should be submitted for approval 
or veto.  The agent of the Assembly, Mr. Paris, with the agents of
other colonies, made so vigorous a defense, that action was for the 
time stayed.

     In 1732, THOMAS PENN, the youngest son, and two years later, JOHN
PENN, the eldest, and the only American born, arrived in the Province,
and were received with every mark of respect and satisfaction.  Soon
after the arrival of the latter, news was brought that LORD BALTIMORE
had made application to have the Provinces transferred to his colony.  
A vigorous protest was made against this by Quakers in England, headed
by RICHARD PENN; but lest this protest might prove ineffectual, JOHN
PENN very soon went to England to defend the proprietary rights at court,
and never again returned, he having died a bachelor in 1746.  In August,
17736, GOVERNOR GORDON, died, deeply lamented, as an honest, upright
and straightforward executive, a character which he expressed the hope
he would be able to maintain when he assumed authority.  His term had
been one of prosperity, and the colony had grown rapidly in numbers,
trade, commerce and manufactures, ship-building especially having assumed
extensive proportions.

     JAMES LOGAN was President of the Council and in effect Governor,
during the two years which elapsed between the death of GORDON and the
arrival of his successor.  The Legislature met regularly, but no laws
were passed for lack of an executive.  It was during this period that
serious trouble broke out near the Maryland border, west of the Susque-
hanna, then Lancaster, now York county.  A number of settlers, in order
to evade the payment of taxes, had secured titles to their lands from
Maryland, and afterward sought to be reinstated in their rights under
Pennsylvania authority, and plead protection from the latter.  The
Sheriff of the adjoining Maryland County, with 300 followers, advanced
to drive these settlers from their homes.  On hearing of this movement,
SAMUEL SMITH, Sheriff of Lancaster County, with a hastily summoned
posse, advanced to protect the citizens in their rights.  Without a
conflict, an agreement was entered into by both parties to retire. Soon
afterward, however, a band of fifty Marylanders again entered the State
with the design of driving out the settlers and each securing for him-
self 200 acres of land.  They were led by one CRESSAP.  The settlers
made resistance, and in an encounter, one of them by the name of
KNOWLES was killed.  The Sheriff of Lancaster again advanced with a 
posse, and in a skirmish which ensued one of the invaders was killed,
and the leader CRESSAP was wounded and taken prisoner.  The Governor of
Maryland sent a commission to Philadelphia to demand the release of the
prisoner.  Not succeeding in this, he seized four of the settlers and
incarcerated them in the jail at Baltimore.  Still determined to effect
their purpose, a party of Marylanders, under the leadership of one
HIGGINBOTHAM, advanced into Pennsylvania and began a warfare upon the
settlers.  Again the Sheriff of Lancaster appeared upon the scene, and
drove out the invaders.  So stubbornly were these invasions pushed and
resented that the season passed without planting or securing the usual
crops.  Finally a party of sixteen Marylanders, led by RICHARD LOWDEN,
broke into the Lancaster jail and liberated the Maryland prisoners. 
Learning of these disturbances, the King in Council issued an order
restraining both parties from further acts of violence, and afterward
adopted a plan of settlement of the vexed boundary question.

     Though not legally Governor, LOGAN managed the affairs of the
colony with great prudence and judgement,  as he had done and continued
to do for a period of nearly a half century.  He was a scholar well
versed in the ancient languages and the sciences, and published several
learned works in the Latin tongue.  His Experimenta Melctemata de 
plantarum generatione, written in Latin, was published at Leyden in 
1739, and afterward, in 1747, republished in London, with an English
version on the opposite page by DR. J. FOTHERGILL.  Another work of his
in Latin was also published at Leyden, entitled, Canonum pro inveniendis
refractionum, tum simplicium tum in lentibus duplicum focis,
demonstrationis geometricae.  After retiring from public business, he
lived at his country seat at Stenton, near Germantown, where he spent
his time among his books and in correspondence with the literati of
Europe.  In his old age he made an English translation of Cicero's De
Senectute, which was printed at Philadelphia in 1744, with a preface by
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, then rising into notice. LOGAN was a Quaker of Scotch
descent, though born in Ireland, and came to America in the ship with
WILLIAM PENN, in his second visit in 1699, when about twenty-five years
old, and died at seventy-seven.  He had held the offices of Chief
Commissioner of property, Agent for the purchase and sale of lands,
Receiver General, Member of Council, President of Council and Chief
Justice.  He was the Confidential Agent of PENN, having charge of all
his vast estates, making sales of lands, executing conveyances, and
making collections.  Amidst all the great care of business so pressing 
as to make him exclaim, "I know not what any of the comforts of life
are," he found time to devote to the delights of learning, and collected
a large library of standard works, which he bequeathed, at his death, 
to the people of Pennsylvania, and is known as the Loganian Library.

     GEORGE THOMAS, a planter from the West Indies, was appointed
Governor in 1737, but did not arrive in the colony till the following
year.  His first care was to settle the disorders in the Cumberland
Valley, and it was finally agreed that settlers from either colony 
should owe allegiance to the Governor of that colony wherever settled,
until the division line which had been provided for was surveyed and
marked.  War was declared on the 23d of October, 1739, between Great
Britain and Spain.  Seeing that his colony was liable to be encroached
upon by the enemies of his government, he endeavored to organize the
militia, but the majority of the Assembly was of the peace element, and
it could not be induced to vote money.  Finally he was ordered by the
home government to call for volunteers, and eight companies were quickly
formed, and sent down for the coast defense.  Many of these proved to
be servants for whom pay was demanded and finally obtained.  In 1740,
the great evangelist, WHITEFIELD, visited the colony, and created a
deep religious interest among all denominations.  In his first inter-
course with the Assembly, GOVERNOR THOMAS endeavored to coerce it to 
his views.  But a more stubborn set of men never met in a deliberative
body than were gathered in this Assembly at this time.  Finding that 
he could not compel action to his mind, he yielded and consulted their
views and decisions.  The Assembly, not to be outdone in magnanimity,
voted him 1,500 pounds arrearages of salary, which had been withheld
because he would not approve their legislation, asserting that public
acts should take precedence of appropriations for their own pay.  In
March, 1744, war was declared between Great Britain and France.  Volun-
teers were called for, and 10,000 men were rapidly enlisted and armed
at their own expense.  FRANKLIN, recognizing the defenseless condition
of the colony, issued a pamphlet entitled Plain Truth, in which he 
cogently urged the necessity of organized preparation for defense. 
FRANKLIN was elected Colonel of one of the regiments, but resigned in
favor of ALDERMAN LAWRENCE.  On the 5th of May, 1747, the Governor
communicated intelligence of the death of JOHN PENN, the eldest of the
proprietors, to the Assembly, and his own intention to retire from the
duties of his office on account of declining health.

     ANTHONY PALMER was President of the Council at the time of the 
withdrawal of GORDON, and became the Acting Governor.  The peace party
in the Assembly held that it was the duty of the crown of England to
protect the colony, and that for the colony to call out volunteers and
become responsible for their payment was burdening the people with an
expense which did not belong to them, and which the crown was willing
to assume.  The French were now deeply intent on securing firm posses-
sion of the Mississippi Valley and the entire basin, even to the summits
of the Alleghanies in Pennsylvania, and were busy establishing trading
posts along the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers.  They employed the most 
artful means to win the simple natives to their interests, giving showy
presents and laboring to convince them of their great value.  Pennsyl-
vania had won a reputation among the Indians of making presents of 
substantial worth.  Not knowing the difference between steel and iron,
the French distributed immense numbers of worthless iron hatchets, which
the natives supposed were the equal of the best English steel axes.  The
Indians, however, soon came to distinguish between the good and the 
valueless.  Understanding the Pennsylvania methods of securing peace and
friendship, the natives became very artful in drawing out "well piled
up" presents. The government at this time was alive to the dangers
which threatened from the insinuating methods of the French.  A trusty
messenger, CONRAD WEISER, was sent among the Indians in the western
part of the province to observe the plans of the French, ascertain the
temper of the natives, and especially to magnify the power of the 
English, and the disposition of Pennsylvania to give great presents.
This latter policy had the desired effect, and worthless and wandering
bands, which had no right to speak for the tribe, came teeming in, 
desirous of scouring the chain of friendship, intimating that the French
were making great offers, in order to induce the government to large
liberality, until this "brightening the chain" became an intolerable
nuisance.  At a single council held at Albany in 11747, Pennsylvania
distributed goods to the value of 1,000 pounds, and of such a character
as should be most serviceable to the recipients, not worthless gew-gaws
but such as would contribute to their lasting comfort and well being, a
protection to the person against the bitter frosts of winter, and sus-
tenance that should minister to the steady wants of the body and 
alleviation of pain in time of sickness.  The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle,
which was concluded on the 1st of October, 1748, secured peace between
Great Britain and France, and should have put an end to all hostile
encounters between their representatives on the American continent. 
PALMER remained at the head of the government for a little more than two
years.  He was a retired merchant from the West Indies, a man of wealth,
and had come into the colony in 1708.  He lived in a style suited to a
gentleman, kept a coach and a pleasure barge.

     On the 23d of November 1748, JAMES HAMILTON arrived in the colony
from England, bearing the commission of Lieutenant Governor.  He was
born in America, son of ANDREW HAMILTON, who had for many years been
Speaker of the Assembly.  The Indians west of the Susquehanna had
complained that settlers had come upon their best lands, and were
acquiring titles to them, whereas the proprietors had never purchased
these lands of them, and had no claim to them.  The first care of
HAMILTON was to settle these disputes, and allay the rising excitement
of the natives.  RICHARD PETERS, Secretary of the colony, a man of great
prudence and ability, was sent in company with the Indian interpreter,
CONRAD WEISER, to remove the intruders.  It was firmly and fearlessly
done, the settlers giving up their tracts and the cabins which they had
built, and accepting lands on the east side of the river.  The hardship
was in many cases great, but when they were in actual need, the Secretary
gave money and placed them upon lands of his own, having secured a tract
of 2,000,000 acres.

     But these troubles were of small consequence compared with those 
that were threatening from the West.  Though the treaty of Aix was sup-
posed to have settled all difficulties between the two courts, the 
French were determined to occupy the whole territory drained by the
Mississippi, which they claimed by priority of discovery by LaSALLE.
The British Ambassador at Paris entered complaints before the French
Court that encroachments were being made by the French upon English soil
in America, which were politely heard, and promises made of restraining
the French in Canada from encroaching upon English territory.  Formal
orders were sent out from the home government to this effect; but at 
the same time secret intimations were conveyed to them that their 
conduct in endeavoring to secure and hold the territory in dispute was
not displeasing to the government, and that disobedience of these 
orders would not incur its displeasure. The French deemed it necessary,
in order to establish a legal claim to the country, to take formal pos-
session of it.  Accordingly, the MARQUIS DE LA GALISSONIERE, who was at
this time Governor General of Canada, dispatched CAPTAIN BIENVILLE DE
CELERON with a party of 215 French and fifty-five Indians, to publicly
proclaim possession, and bury at prominent points plates of lead bear-
ing inscriptions declaring occupation in the name of the French King.
CELERON started on the 15th of June, 1749, from La Chine, following the
southern shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie, until he reached a point
opposite Lake Chautauqua, where the boats were drawn up and were taken
bodily over the dividing ridge, a distance of ten miles, with all the
impedimenta of the expedition, the pioneers having first opened a road.
Following on down the lake and the Conewango Creek, they arrived at 
Warren near the confluence of the creek with the Allegheny River.  Here
the first plate was buried.  These plates were eleven inches long, 
seven and a half wide, and one-eighth of an inch thick.  The inscription
was in French, and in the following terms, as fairly translated into
English: "In the year 1749, of the reign of LOUIS XIV, KING OF FRANCE, 
We CELERON, commander of a detachment sent by MONSIEUR THE MARQUIS DE 
LA GALISSONIERE, Governor General of New France, to re-establish
tranquillity in some Indian villages of these cantons, have buried this
plate of lead at the confluence of the Ohio with the Chautauqua, this
29th day of July, near the River Ohio, otherwise Belle Riviere, as a
monument of the renewal of the possession we have taken of the said
River Ohio, and of all those which empty into it, and of all the lands
on both sides as far as the sources of the said river, as enjoyed or
ought to have been enjoyed by the King of France preceding, and as they
have there maintained themselves by arms and by treaties, especially
those of RYSWICK, UTRECHT and AIX-LA-CHAPELLE."	 The burying of this
plate was attended with much form and ceremony.  All the men and officers
of the expedition were drawn up in battle array, when COMMANDER CELERON
proclaimed in a loud voice, "Vive le Roi," and declared that possession
of the country was now taken in the name of the King. A plate on which 
was inscribed the arms of France was affixed to the nearest tree.

     The same formality was observed in planting each of the other plates,
the second at the rock known as the "Indian God," on which are ancient 
and unknown inscriptions, a few miles below Franklin, a third at the 
mouth of Wheeling Creek; a fourth at the mouth of the Muskingum; a fifth
at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, and the sixth and last at the mouth
of the Great Miami.  Toilsomely ascending the Miami to its head-waters,
the party burned their canoes, and obtained ponies for the march across
the portage to the head-waters of the "Maumee, down which and by Lake
Erie and Ontario they returned to Fort Frontenac, arriving on the 6th
of November.  It appears that the Indians through whose territory they
passed viewed this planting of plates with great suspicion.  By some
means they got possession of one of them, generally supposed to have
been stolen from the party at the very commencement of their journey
from the mouth of the Chautauqua Creek.

     Mr. O. H. MARSHALL, in an excellent monograph upon this expedition,
made up from the original manuscript journal of CELERON and the diary 
of FATHER BONNECAMPS, found in the Department de la Marine, in Paris, 
gives the following account of this stolen plate:
     "The first of the leaden plates was brought to the attention of the 
public by GOVERNOR GEORGE CLINTON to the Lords of Trade in London, dated
New York, December 19, 1750, in which he states that he would send to
their Lordships in two or three weeks a plate of lead full of writing,
which some of the upper nations of Indians stole from JEAN COEUR, the
French interpreter at Niagara, on his way to the River Ohio, which river,
and all the lands thereabouts, the French claim, as will appear by said
writing. He further states 'that the lead plate gave the Indians so much
uneasiness that they immediately dispatched some of the Cayuga chiefs to
him with it, saying that their only reliance was on him, and earnestly
begged he would communicate the contents to them which he had done, much
to their satisfaction and the interests of the English.'  The Governor
concludes by saying that 'the contents of the plate may be of great
importance in clearing up the encroachments which the French have made
on the British Empire in America.'  The plate was delivered to Colonel,
afterward SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON, on the 4th of December, 1750, at his
residence on the Mohawk, by a Cayuga sachem, who accompanied it by the
following speech:
      "'BROTHER CORLEAR and WAR-RAGH-I-GHEY!  I am sent here by the Five
Nations with a piece of writing which the Senecas, our brether, got by
some artifice from JEAN COEUR, earnestly beseeching you will let us know
what it means, and as we put all our confidence in you, we hope you will
explain it ingeniously to us.'
     "COLONEL JOHNSON replied to the sachem, and through him to the Five
Nations, returning a belt of wampum, and explaining the inscription on
the plate.  He told them that 'it was a matter of the greatest con-
sequence, involving the possession of their lands and hunting grounds, 
and that JEAN COEUR and the French ought immediately to be expelled from
the Ohio and Niagara.'  In reply, the sachem said that 'he had heard 
with great attention and surprise the substance of the "devilish writing"
he had brought, and that COLONEL JOHNSON's remarks were fully approved.'
He promised that belts from each of the Five Nations should be sent from
the Seneca's castle to the Indians at the Ohio, to warn and strengthen
them against the French encroachments in that direction."  On the 29th
of January, 1751, CLINTON sent a copy of this inscription to GOVERNOR  
HAMILTON, of Pennsylvania.

     The French followed up this formal act of possession by laying out
a line of military posts, on substantially the same line as that pursued
by the CELERON expedition; but instead of crossing over to Lake Chautau-
qua, they kept on down to Presque Isle (now Erie), where was a good 
harbor, where a fort was established, and thence up to LeBoeuf (now
Waterford), where another post was placed; thence down the Venango
River (French Creek) to its mouth at Franklin, establishing Fort Venango
there; thence by the Allegheny to Pittsburgh, where Fort DuQuesne was
seated, and so on down the Ohio.

     To counteract this activity of the French, the Ohio Company was
chartered, and a half million of acres was granted by the crown, to be
selected mainly on the south side of the Ohio, between the Monongalia 
and Kanawha Rivers, and the condition made that settlements (100 families
within seven years), protected by a fort, should be made.  The company
consisted of a number of Virginia and Maryland gentlemen, of whom 
LAWRENCE WASHINGTON was one, and THOMAS HANBURY, of London.

     In 1752, a treaty was entered into with the Indians, securing the
right of occupancy, and twelve families, headed by CAPTAIN GIST, estab-
lished themselves upon the Monongalia, and subsequently commenced the
erection of a fort, where the city of Pittsburgh now is.  Apprised of
this intrusion into the very heart of the territory which they were 
claiming, the French built a fort at Le Boeuf, and strengthened the post
at Franklin.

     These proceedings having been promptly reported to LIEUTENANT GOVER-
NOR DINWIDDIE, of Virginia, where the greater number of the stockholders
of the Ohio Company resided, he determined to send an official communi-
cation--protesting against the forcible interference with their chartered
rights, granted by the crown of Britain, and pointing to the late treaties
of peace entered into between the English and French, whereby it was
agreed that each should respect the colonial possessions of the other--
to the Commandant of the French, who had his headquarters at Fort Le
Boeuf, fifteen miles inland from the present site of the city of Erie.

     But who should be the messenger to execute this delicate and res-
ponsible duty?  It was winter, and the distance to be traversed was some
500 miles, through an unbroken wilderness, cut by rugged mountain chains
and deep and rapid streams.  It was proposed to several, who declined,
and was finally accepted by GEORGE WASHINGTON, a youth barely twenty-one
years old.  On the last day of November, 1753, he bade adieu to civili-
zation, and pushing on through the forest to the settlements on the
Monongalia, where he was joined by CAPTAIN GIST, followed up the
Allegheny to fort Venango (now Franklin); thence up the Venango to its
head-waters at Fort Le Boeuf, where he held formal conference with the
FRENCH COMMANDANT, ST. PIERRE.  The French officer had been ordered to
hold this territory on the score of the discovery of the Mississippi by
LA SALLE, and he had no discretion but to execute his orders, and 
referred WASHINGTON to his superior, the Governor General of Canada.
Making careful notes of the location and strength of the post and those
encountered on the way, the young embassador returned, being twice fired
at on his journey by hostile Indians, and near losing his life by being
twice thrown into the freezing waters of the Allegheny.  Upon his arrival,
he made a full report to the embassage, which was widely published in
this country and in England, and was doubtless the basis upon which 
action was predicted that eventuated in a long and sanguinary war, which
finally resulted in the expulsion of the power of France from this
continent.

   Satisfied that the French were determined to hold the territory upon
the Ohio by force of arms, a body of 150 men, of which WASHINGTON was
second in command, was sent to the support of the settlers.  But the
French, having the Allegheny River at flood-tide on which to move, and
WASHINGTON without means of transportation, having a rugged and mountain-
ous country to overcome, the former first reached the point of destination.
CONTRACOEUR, the French commander, with 1,000 men and field pieces on a 
fleet of sixty boats and 300 canoes, dropped down the Allegheny and 
easily seized the fort then being constructed by the Ohio Company at its
mouth, and proceeded to erect there an elaborate work which he called
Fort DuQuesne, after the Governor General. Informed of this proceeding,
WASHINGTON pushed forward, and finding that a detachment of the French
was in his immediate neighborhood, he made a forced march by night, and
coming upon them unawares killed and captured the entire party save one.
Ten of the French, including their commander, JUMONVILLE, were killed, 
and twenty one made prisoners.  COLONEL FRY, the commander of the 
Americans, died at Will's Creek, where the command devolved on WASHINGTON.
Though re-enforcements had been dispatched from the several colonies in
response to the urgent appeals of WASHINGTON, none reached him but one
company of 100 men under CAPTAIN MACKAY from South Carolina.  Knowing
that he was confronting a vastly superior force of the French, well
supplied with artillery, he threw up works at a point called the Great
Meadows, which he characterizes as a "charming field for an encounter,"
naming his hastily built fortification Fort Necessity.  Stung by the
loss of their leader, the French came out in strong force and soon in-
vested the place.  Unfortunately one part of WASHINGTON'S position was
easily commanded by the artillery of the French, which they were not 
slow in taking advantage of.  The action opened on the 3d of July, and
was continued till late at night.  A capitulation was proposed by the 
French Commander, which WASHINGTON reluctantly accepted, seeing all hope
of re-enforcements reaching him, cut off, and on the 4th of July marched
out with honors of war and fell back to Fort Cumberland.

     GOVERNOR HAMILTON had strongly recommended, before hostilities
opened, that the Assembly should provide for defense and establish a line
of block houses along the frontier.  But the Assembly, while wiling to
vote money for buying peace from the Indians, and contributions to the
British crown, from which protection was claimed, was unwilling to con-
tribute directly for even defensive warfare.  In a single year, 8,000
pounds were voted for Indian gratuities.  The proprietors were appealed
to to aid in bearing this burden.  But while they were willing to con-
tribute liberally for defense, they would give nothing for Indian 
gratuities.  They sent to the colony cannon to the value of 400 pounds.

     In February, 1753, JOHN PENN, grandson of the founder, son of  
RICHARD, arrived in the colony, and as a mark of respect was immediately
chosen a member of the Council and made its President.  In consequence
of the defeat of WASHINGTON at Fort Necessity, GOVERNOR HAMILTON 
convened the Assembly in extra session on the 6th of August, at which 
money was freely voted; but owing to the instructions given by the 
proprietors to their Deputy Governor not to sign any money bill that did
not place the whole of the interest at their disposal, this action of 
the Assembly was abortive.

     The English and French nations made strenuous exertions to strengthen
their forces in America for the campaigns sure to be undertaken in 1754.
The French, by being under the supreme authority of one governing power,
the power of men and resources to bear at the threatened point with more
celerity and certainty than the English, who were dependent upon colonies
scattered along all the sea board, and upon Legislatures penny-wise in
\voting money.  To remedy these inconveniences, the English Government
recommended a congress of all the colonies, together with the Six Nations,
for the purpose of concerting plans for efficient defense.  This Congress
met on the 19th of June, 1754, the first ever convened in America.  The
Representatives from Pennsylvania were JOHN PENN and RICHARD PETERS for 
the Council, and ISAAC NORRIS and BENJAMIN FRANKLIN for the Assembly.
The influence of the powerful mind of Franklin was already beginning to
be felt, he having been Clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly since 1736,
and since 1750 had been a member.  Heartily sympathizing with the movers
in the purposes of this Congress, he came to Albany with a scheme of
union prepared, which, having been presented and debated, was, on the
10th of July, adopted substantially as it came from his hands.  It 
provided for the appointment of a President General by the Crown, and an
Assembly of forty-eight members to be chosen by the several Colonial
Assemblies.  The plan was rejected by both parties in interest, the King 
considering the power vested in the representatives of the people too
great, and every colony rejecting it because the President General was 
given "an influence greater than appeared to them proper in a plan of
government intended for freemen."

CHAPTER X.  Robert H. Morris, 1754-56--
            William Denny, 1756-59--
            James Hamilton, 1759-63

     Finding himself in a false position by the repugnant instructions
of the proprietors, GOVERNOR HAMILTON had given notice in 1753, that, at
the end of twelve months from its reception, he would resign.  Accord-
ingly in October, 1754, he was succeeded by ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS, son of
LEWIS MORRIS, Chief Justice of New York and New Jersey, and Governor of
New Jersey.  The son was bred a lawyer, and was for twenty-six years
Councilor, and twenty Chief Justice of New Jersey.  The Assembly, at its
first session, voted a money bill, for 40,000 pounds, but not having the
proviso required by the proprietors, it was vetoed.  Determined to push
military operations, the British Government had called early in the year
for 3,000 volunteers from Pennsylvania, with subsistance, camp equipage
and transportation, and had sent two regiments of the line, under GENERAL
BRADDOCK, from Cork, Ireland.  Landing at Alexandria, Va., he marched to
Frederick, Md., where, finding no supplies of transportation, he halted.
The Assembly of Pennsylvania had voted to borrow 5,000 pounds, on its
own account, for the use of the crown in prosecuting the campaign, and
had sent FRANKLIN, who was then Postmaster General for the colonies, to
BRADDOCK to aid in prosecuting the expedition.  Finding that the army
was stopped for lack of transportation, FRANKLIN returned into Pennsyl-
vania, and by his commanding influence soon secured the necessary wagons
and beasts of burden.

     BRADDOCK had formed extravagant plans for his campaign.  He would
march forward and reduce Fort DuQuesne, thence proceed against Fort 
Niagara, which having conquered he would close a season of triumphs by
the capture of Fort Frontignace.  But this is not the first time in war-
fare that the results of a campaign has failed to realize the promises 
of the manifesto.  The orders brought by BRADDOCK giving precedence of
officers of the line over provincials gave offense, and WASHINGTON among
others up his commission; but enamored of the profession of arms, he
accepted a position offered him by BRADDOCK as Aide-de-Camp.  Accustomed
to the discipline of military establishments in old, long-settled coun-
tries, BRADDOCK had little conception of making war in a wilderness with
only Indian trails to move upon, and against wily savages.  WASHINGTON 
had advised to push forward with pack horses, and, by rapidity of move-
ment, forestall ample preparation.  But BRADDOCK had but one way of
soldiering, and where roads did not exist for wagons he stopped to fell
the forest and construct bridges over streams.  The French, who were kept
advised of every movement, made ample preparations to receive him.  In
the meantime, WASHINGTON fell sick; but intent on being up for the battle,
he hastened forward as soon as sufficiently recovered, and only joined 
the army on the day before the fatal engagement.  He had never seen much
of the pride and circumstance of war, and when, on the morning of the 9th
of July, the army of BRADDOCK marched on across the Monongahela, with
gay colors flying and martial music awakening the echos of the forest, 
he was accustomed in after years to speak of it as the "most magnificent
spectacle" that he had ever beheld.  But the gay pageant was destined to 
be of short duration; for the army had only marched a little distance
before it fell into an ambuscade skillfully laid by the French and Ind-
ians, and the forest resounded with the unearthly whoop of the Indians, 
and the continuous roar of musketry.  The advance was checked and thrown
into confusion by the French from their well chosen position, and every
tree upon the flanks of the long drawn out line concealed a murderous
foe, who with unerring aim picked off the officers.  A resolute defense
was made, and the battle raged with great fury for three hours; but the
fire of the English was ineffectual because directed against an invisible
foe.  Finally, the mounted officers having all fallen, killed or wounded,
except WASHINGTON, being left without leaders, panic seized the survivors
and "they ran," says WASHINGTON, "before the French and English like 
sheep before dogs."  Of 1,460, in BRADDOCK's army, 456 were killed, and
421 wounded, a greater mortality, in proportion to the number engaged, 
than has ever occurred in the annals of modern warfare.  SIR PETER
HALKETT was killed, and BRADDOCK mortally wounded and brought off the 
field only with the greatest difficulty.  When ORME and MORRIS, the other
aids, fell, WASHINGTON acted alone with the greatest gallantry.  In writ-
ing to his brother, he said: "I have been protected beyond all human 
probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and
two horses shot under me; yet I escaped unhurt, though death was leveling
my companions on every side."  In after years, when WASHINGTON visited
the Great Kanawha country, he was approached by an Indian chieftain who
said that in this battle he had fired his rifle many times at WASHINGTON
and had told his young men to do the same, but when he saw that his bul-
lets had no apparent effect, he had bidden them to desist, believing that
the Great Spirit was protecting him.

     The panic among the survivors of the English carried them back upon
the reserve, commanded by GENERAL DUNBAR, who seems himself to have been
seized with it, and without attempting to renew the campaign and return
to the encounter, he joined in the flight which was not stayed until 
Fort Cumberland was reached.  The French were anticipating a renewal of
the struggle; but when they found that the English had fled leaving the
frontier all unprotected, they left no stone unturned in whetting the
minds of the savages for the work of plunder and blood, and in organiz-
ing relentless bands to range at will along all the wide frontier.  The 
Indians could not be induced to pursue the retreating English, but fell 
to plundering the field.  Nearly everything was lost, even to the camp
chest of BRADDOCK.  The wounded General was taken back to the summit of
Laurel Hill, where, four days after, he breathed his last.  He was buried
in the middle of the road, and the army marched over his grave that it
might not be discovered or molested by the natives.  The easy victory,
won chiefly by the savages, served to encourage them in their fell work,
in which, when their passions were aroused, no known people on earth were
less touched by pity.  The unprotected settler in his wilderness home 
was the easy prey of the torch and the scalping knife, and the burning
cabin lit up the somber forests by their continuous blaze, and the 
shrieks of women and children resounded from the Hudson to the far
Potomac.  Before the defeat of BRADDOCK, there were 3,000 men capable of
bearing arms west of the Susquehanna.  In six months after, there were
scarcely 100.

     GOVERNOR MORRIS made an earnest appeal to the Assembly for money to
ward off the impending enemy and protect the settlers, in response to 
which the Assembly voted 50,000 pounds; but having no exemption of the
proprietor's estates, it was rejected by the Governor, in accordance with
his original instructions.  Expeditions undertaken against Nova Scotia
and at Crown Point were more fortunate than that before Du Quense, and
the Assembly voted 15,000 pounds in bills of credit to aid in defraying
the expense.  The proprietors sent 5,000 pounds as a gratuity, not as 
any part of expense that could of right be claimed of them.

     In this hour of extremity, the Indians for the most part showed
themselves a treacherous race, ever ready to take up on the stronger side.
Even the Shawanese and Delawares, who had been loudest in their protes-
tations of friendship for the English and readiness to fight for them,
no sooner saw the French victorious than they gave ready ear to their
advice to strike for the recovery of the lands which they had sold to the
English.

     In this pressing emergency, while the Governor and Assembly were
waging a fruitless war of words over money bills, the pen of FRANKLIN
was busy in infusing a wholesome sentiment in the minds of the people.  
In a pamphlet that he issued, which he put in the familiar form of a
dialogue, he answered the objections which had been urged to a legalized
militia, and willing to show his devotion by deeds as well as words, he
accepted the command upon the frontier. By his exertions, a respectable
force was raised, and though in the dead of winter, he commenced the
erection of a line of forts and block-houses along the whole range of
the Kittatinny Hills, from the Delaware to the Potomac, and had them
completed and garrisoned with a body sufficient to withstand any force
not provided with artillery.  In the spring, he turned over the command
to COLONEL CLAPHAM, and returning to Philadelphia took his seat in the
Assembly.  The Governor now declared war against the indians, who had 
established their headquarters thirty miles above Harris' Ferry, on the
Susquehanna, and were busy in their work of robbery and devastation, 
having secured the greater portion of the crops of the previous season
of the settlers whom they had killed or driven out.  The peace party 
strongly objected to the course of the Governor, and voluntarily going
among the Indians induced them to bury the hatchet.  The Assembly which
met in May, 1756, prepared a bill with the old clause for taxing the
proprietors, as any other citizens, which the Governor was forbidden to
approve by his instructions, "and the two parties were sharpening their
wits for another wrangle over it," when GOVERNOR MORRIS was superseded
by WILLIAM DENNY, who arrived in the colony and assumed authority on the
20th of August, 1756.  He was joyfully and cordially received, escorted
through the streets by the regiments of FRANKLIN and DUCHE, and royally
feasted at the State House.

     But the promise of efficient legislation was broken by an exhibition
of the new Governor's instructions, which provided that every bill for 
the emission of money must place the proceeds at the joint disposal of
the Governor and Assembly; paper currency could not be issued in excess
of 40,000 pounds, nor could existing issues be confirmed unless proprie-
tary rents were paid in sterling money; proprietary lands were permitted
to be taxed which had been actually leased, provided that the taxes were
paid out of the rents, but the tax could not become a lien upon the land.
In the first Assembly, the contention became as acrimonious as ever.

     Previous to the departure of GOVERNOR MORRIS, as a retaliatory act
he had issued a proclamation against the hostile Indians, providing for
the payment of bounties:  For every male Indian enemy above twelve years
old, who shall be taken prisoner and delivered at any forts, garrisoned
by troops in pay of this province, or to any of the county towns to the
keepers of the common jails there, the sum of one hundred and fifty
Spanish dollars or pieces of eight; for the scalp of every male Indian
above the age of twelve years, produced as evidence of their being killed,
the sum of one hundred and thirty pieces of eight; for every female 
Indian taken prisoner and brought in as aforesaid, and for every male
Indian under the age of twelve years, taken and brought in, one hundred 
and thirty pieces of eight; for the scalp of every Indian woman produced
as evidence of their being killed, the sum of fifty pieces of eight."
Liberal bounties were also offered for the delivering up of settlers who
had been carried away captive.

     But the operation which had the most wholesome and pacifying effect
upon the savages, and caused them to stop in their mad career and con-
sider the chances of war and the punishment they were calling down upon
their own heads, though executed under the rule of GOVERNOR DENNY, was
planned and provided for, and was really a part of the aggressive and
vigorous policy of GOVERNOR MORRIS.  In response to the act of Assembly,
providing for the calling out and organizing the militia, twenty-five
companies were recruited, and had been stationed along the line of posts
that had been established for the defense of the frontiers.  At Kittan-
ning, on the Allegheny River, the Indians had one of the largest of their
towns in the State, and was a recruiting station and rallying point for
sending out their murderous bands.  The plan proposes and adopted by
GOVERNOR MORRIS, and approved and accepted by GOVERNOR DENNY, was to send
out a strong detachment from the militia for the reduction of this 
stronghold.  Accordingly, In August, 1756, COLONEL ARMSTRONG, with a 
force of three hundred men, made a forced march, and, arriving unperceiv-
ed in the neighborhood of the town, sent the main body by a wide detour
from above, to come in upon the river a few hundred yards below.  At
3 o'clock on the morning of the 7th of September, the troops had gained
their position undiscovered, and at dawn the attack was made.  Shielded
from view by the tall corn which covered all the flats, the troops were
able to reach in close proximity to the cabins unobserved.  JACOBS, the
chief, sounded the war-whoop, and made a stout resistance, keeping up a 
rapid fire from the loop holes in his cabin.  Not desiring to push his
advantage to the issue of no quarter, ARMSTRONG called on the savages
to surrender; but this they refused to do, declaring that they were men
and would never be prisoners.  Finding that they would not yield, and 
that they were determined to sell their lives at the dearest rate, he
gave orders to fire the huts, and the whole town was soon wrapt in flames.
As the heat began to reach the warriors, some sung, while wrung with the
death agonies; others broke for the river and were shot down as they fled.
JACOBS, in attempting to climb through a window, was killed.  All calls
for surrender were received with derision, one declaring that he did not
care for death, and that he could kill four or five before he died.  Gun-
powder, small arms and valuable goods which had been distributed to them
only the day before by the French, fell into the hands of the victors. 
The triumph was complete, few if any escaping to tell the sad tale.
COLONE ARMSTRONG's celerity of movement and well conceived and executed
plan of action were publicly acknowledged, and he was voted a metal and
plate by the city of Philadelphia.

     The finances of the colony, on account of the repeated failures of
the money bills, were in a deplorable condition.  Military operations
could not be carried on and vigorous campaigns prosecuted without ready
money.  Accordingly, in the first meeting of the Assembly after the
arrival of the new Governor, a bill was passed levying 100,000 pounds on
all property alike, real and personal, private and proprietary.  This
GOVERNOR DENNY vetoed.  Seeing that money must be had, the Assembly
finally passed a bill exempting the proprietary estates, but determined
to lay their grievances before the Crown.  To this end, two Commissioners
were appointed, ISAAC NORRIS and BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, to proceed to England
and beg the interference of the royal Government in their behalf.  Fail-
ing health and business engagements of NORRIS prevented his acceptance,
and FRANKLIN proceeded alone.  He had so often defended the Assembly in
public and in drawing remonstrances that the whole subject was at his
fingers' ends.

     Military operations throughout the colonies, during the year 1757, 
conducted under the command of the EARL OF LOUDOUN were sluggish, and
resulted only in disaster and disgrace.  The Indians were active in
Pennsylvania, and kept the settlers throughout nearly all the colonies 
in a continual ferment, hostile bands stealing in upon the defenseless
inhabitants as they went to their plantings and sowings, and greatly
interfering with or preventing altogether the raising of the ordinary
crops.  In 1758, LOUDOUN was recalled, and GENERAL ABERCROMBIE was given
chief command, with WOLFE, AMHERST and FORBES as his subordinates.  It
was determined to direct operations simultaneously upon three points --
Fort DuQuesne, Louisburg, and the forts upon the great lakes.  GENERAL
FORBES commanded the forces sent against Fort DuQuesne.  With a detach-
ment of royal troops, and militia from Pennsylvania and Virginia, under
command of COLONELS BOUQUET and WASHINGTON, his column moved in July, 
1758.  The French were well ordered for receiving the attack, and the
battle in front of the fort raged with great fury; but they were finally
driven, and the fort, with its munitions, fell into the hands of the
victors, and was garrisoned by 400 Pennsylvanians.  Returning, FORBES
placed his remaining forces in barracks at Lancaster.

     FRANKLIN, upon his arrival in England, presented the grievances be-
fore the proprietors, and, that he might get his case before the royal
advisors and the British public, wrote frequent articles for the press,
and issued a pamphlet entitled "Historical Review of the Constitution 
and Government of Pennsylvania."  The dispute was adroitly managed by
FRANKLIN before the Privy Council, and was finally decided substantially
in the interest of the Assembly.  It was provided that the proprietors'
estates should be taxed, but that their located uncultivated lands should
be assessed as low as the lowest uncultivated lands of the settlers, 
that bills issued by the Assembly should be receivable in payment of quit
rents, and that the Deputy Governor should have a voice in disposing of
the revenues.  Thus was a vexed question of long standing finally put to
rest.  So successfully had FRANKLIN managed this controversy that the
colonies of Massachusetts, Maryland, and Georgia appointed him their 
agent in England.

     In October, 1759, JAMES HAMILTON was again appointed GOVERNOR, in
place of GOVERNOR DENNY, who had by stress of circumstances transcended
his instructions.  The British Government, considering that the colonies
had borne more than their proportionate expense in carrying on the war
against the French and Indians, voted 200,000 pounds for five years, to
be divided among the colonies, the share falling to Pennsylvania being
26,000 pounds.  On the 25th of October, 1760, GEORGE II died, and was
succeeded by his grandson, GEORGE III.  Early in 1762, war was declared 
between Great Britain and Spain, but was of short continuance, peace
having been declared in November following, by which Spain and France
relinquished to the English substantially the territory east of the
Mississippi.  The wise men of the various Indian nations inhabiting this
wide territory viewed with concern this sudden expansion of English 
power, fearing that they would eventually be pushed from their hunting
grounds and pleasant haunts by the rapidly multiplying pale faces.  The
Indians have ever been noted for proceeding against an enemy secretly
and treacherously.  Believing that by concerted action the English might
be cut off and utterly exterminated, a secret league was entered into by
the Shawanese and the tribes dwelling along the Ohio River, under the
leadership of a powerful chieftain, PONTIAC, by which swift destruction
was everywhere to be meted out to the white man upon an hour of an
appointed day.  The plan was thoroughly understood by the red man, and
heartily entered into.  The day dawned and the blow fell in May, 1763.  
The forts at Presque Isle, LeBooeuf, Venango, LaRay, St. Joseph's, Miamis,
Onaethtanon, Sandusky and Michilimackinack, all fell before the unantici-
pated attacks of the savages who were making protestations of friendship,
and the garrisons were put to the slaughter.  Fort Pitt (DuQuesne),
Niagara, and Detroit alone, of all this line of forts, held out.  PONTIAC
in person conducted the siege of Detroit, which he vigorously pushed from 
May until October, paying his warriors with promises written on bits of
birch bark, which he subsequently religiously redeemed.  It is an evi-
dence of his great power that he could unite his people in so general 
and secretly kept a compact, and that in this siege of Detroit he was
able to hold his warriors up to the work so long and so vigorously even
after all hope of success must have reasonably been abandoned.  The
attack fell with great severity upon the Pennsylvania settlers, and they
continued to be driven in until Shippenburg, in Cumberland County, be-
came the extreme outpost of civilization.  The savages stole unawares 
upon the laborers in the fields, or came steathily in  at the midnight
hour and spared neither trembling age nor helpless infancy, firing houses
barns, crops and everything combustible.  The suffering of the frontiers-
men in this fatal year can scarcely be conceived.

     COLONEL ARMSTRONG with a hastily collected force advanced upon their
towns and forts at Muncy and Great Island, which he destroyed; but the
Indians escaped and withdrew before him.  He sent a detachment under 
COLONEL BOUQUET to the relief of Fort Pitt, which still held out, though
closely invested by dusky warriors.  At Fort Ligonier, BOUQUET halted
and sent forward thirty men, who stealthily pushed past the Indians under
cover of night, and reached the fort, carrying intelligence that succor
was at hand.  Discovering that a force was advancing upon them, the 
Indians turned upon the troops of BOUQUET and before he was aware that 
an enemy was near, he found himself surrounded and all means of escape
apparently cut off.  By a skillfully laid ambuscade, BOUQUET, sending a
small detachment to steal away as if in retreat, induced the Indians to
follow, and when stretched out in pursuit, the main body in concealment
fell upon the unsuspecting savages, and routed them with immense 
slaughter, when he advanced to the relief of the fort unchecked.

     As we have already seen, the boundary line between Maryland and
Pennsylvania had long been in dispute, and had occasioned serious dis-
turbances among the settlers in the lifetime of PENN, and repeatedly
since.  It was not definitely settled till 1760, when a beginning was 
made of a final adjustment, though so intricate were the conditions that
the work was prosecuted for seven years by a large force of surveyors,
axmen and pioneers.  The charter of LORD BALTIMORE made the northern
boundary of Maryland the 40th degree of latitude; but whether the be-
ginning or end of the 40th was not specified.  The charter of PENN, which
was subsequent, made his southern boundary the beginning of the 40th 
parallel.  If, as LORD BALTIMORE claimed, his northern boundary was the
end of the 40th, then the city of Philadelphia and all the settled parts
of Pennsylvania would have been included in Maryland.  If, as PENN claimed
by express terms of his charter, his southern line was the beginning of
the 40th, then the city of Baltimore, and even a part of the District
of Columbia, including nearly the whole of Maryland would have been 
swallowed up by Pennsylvania.  It was evident to the royal Council that
neither claim could be rightfully allowed, and hence resort was had to
compromise.  PENN insisted upon retaining free communication with the
open ocean by the Delaware Bay.  Accordingly, it was decided that begin-
ning at Cape Henlopen, which by mistake in marking the maps was fifteen
miles below the present location, opposite Cape May, a line should be
run due west to a point half way between this cape and the shore of 
Chesapeake Bay; from this point "a line was to be run northerly in such
direction that it should be tangent on the west side to a circle with a
radius of twelve miles, whose center was the center of the court house
at New Castle.  From the exact tangent point, a line was to be run due
north until it should reach a point fifteen miles south on the parallel
of latitude at the most southern point in the boundary of the city of
Philadelphia, and this point when accurately found by horizontal measure-
ment, was to be the corner bound between Maryland and Pennsylvania, and
subsequently, when Delaware was set off from Pennsylvania, was the 
boundary of the three States.  From this bound a line was to be run due
west five degrees of longitude from the Delaware, which was to be the
western limit of Pennsylvania, and the line thus ascertained was to mark
the division between Maryland and Pennsylvania, and forever settle the
vexed question.  If the due north line should cut any part of the circle
about New Castle, the slice so cut should belong to New Castle.  Such a
segment was cut.  This plan of settlement was entered into on the 10th
of May, 1732, between THOMAS and RICHARD PENN, and FREDERIC, LORD BALTI-
MORE, entered into an agreement for the executing of the survey, and
JOHN LUKENS and ARCHIBALD MCLEAN on the part of the PENNS, and THOMAS
GARNETT and JONATHAN HALL on the part of LORD BALTIMORE, were appointed
with a suitable corps of assistants to lay off the lines.  After these
surveyors had been three years at work, the proprietors in England, 
thinking that there was not enough energy and practical and scientific
knowledge manifested by these surveyors, appointed CHARLES MASON and
JEREMIAH DIXON, two mathematicians and surveyors, to proceed to America
and take charge of the work.  They brought with them the most perfect and
best constructed instruments known to science, arriving in Philadelphia
on the 15th of November, 1763, and, assisted by some of the old surveyors
entered upon their work.  By the 4th of June, 1766, they had reached the
summit of the Little Allegheny, when the Indians began to be troublesome.
They looked with an evil eye on the mathematical and astronomical instru-
ments, and felt a secret dread and fear of the consequences of the 
frequent and long continued peering into the heavens.  The Six Nations
were understood to be inimical to the further progress of the survey.  
But through the influence of SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON a treaty was concluded,
providing for the prosecution of the work unmolested, and a number of
chieftains were sent to accompany the surveying party.  MASON and DIXON
now had with them thirty surveyors, fifteen axmen, and fifteen Indians
of consequence.  Again the attitude of the Indians gave cause of fear, 
and on the 29th of September, twenty-six of the surveyors abandoned the
expedition and returned to Philadelphia.  Having reached a point 244 
miles from the Delaware, and within thirty-six miles of the western limit
of the State, in the bottom of a deep, dark valley, they came upon a 
well-worn Indian path, and here the Indians gave notice that it was the
will of the Six Nations that this survey proceed no further.  There was
no question ing this authority, and no means at command for resisting,
and accordingly the party broke up and returned to Philadelphia.  And
this was the end of the labors of MASON and DIXON upon this boundary.
From the fact that this was subsequently the mark of division between 
the Free and Slave States, MASON and DIXON's line became familiar in
American politics.  The line was marked by stones which were quarried
and engraved in England, on one side having the arms of PENN, and on the
opposite those of LORD BALTIMORE.  These stones were firmly set every
five miles.  At the end of each intermediate mile a smaller stone was
placed, having on one side engraved the letter P., and on the opposite
side the letter M.  The remainder of the line was finished and marked in
1782-84 by other surveyors.  A vista was cut through the forest eight
yards in width the whole distance, which seemed in looking back through it
to come to a point at the distance of two miles.  In 1849, the stone at
the northeast corner of Maryland having been removed, a resurvey of the
line was ordered, and surveyors were appointed by the three States of
Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, who called to their aid COLONEL
JAMES D. GRAHAM.  Some few errors were discovered in the old survey, but
in the main it was found to be accurate.

     JOHN PENN, grandson of the founder, and son of RICHARD, had come to
the colony in 1753, and , having acted as President of the Council, was,
in 1763, commissioned Governor in place of HAMILTON.  The conspiracy of
PONTIAC, though abortive in the results contemplated, left the minds of
the Indians in a most dangerous state.  The more resolute, who had 
entered heartily into the view of their leader, still felt that his pur-
pose was patriotic, and hence sought, by every means possible, to ravage
and destroy the English settlements.  The Moravian Indians at Nain and
Wichetunk, though regarded as friendly, were suspected of indirectly 
aiding in the savage warfare by trading firearms and ammunition.  They
were accordingly removed to Philadelphia, that they might be out of the 
way of temptation.  At the old Indian town of Conestoga there lived some
score of natives.  Many heartless murders had been committed along the
frontier, and the perpetrators had been traced to this Conestoga town;
and while the Conestoga band were not known to be implicated in these out-
rages, their town was regarded as the lurking place of roving savages who
were.  For protection, the settlers in the neighboring districts of Paxton
and Donegal, had organized a band known as the Paxton boys.  Earnest 
requests were made by REVERAND JOHN ELDER and JOHN HARRIS to the Govern-
ment to remove this band at Conestoga; but as nothing was done, and fearful
depredations and slaughter continued, a party of these Paxton rangers 
attacked the town and put the savages to the sword.  Some few escaped,
among them a known bloodthirsty savage, who were taken into the jail at
Lancaster for protection; but the rangers, following them, overpowered
the jailer, and breaking into the jail murdered the fugitives.  Intense
excitement was occasioned by this outbreak, and GOVERNOR PENN issued his
proclamation offering rewards for the apprehension of the perpetrators.
Some few were taken; but so excellent was their character and standing,
and such were the provocations, that no convictions followed.  Apprehen-
sions for the safety of the Moravian Indians induced the Government to
remove them to Province Island, and, feeling insecure there, they asked
to be sent to England.  For safety, they were sent to New York, but the
Governor of that province refused them permission to land, as did the
Governor of New Jersey also, and they were brought back to Philadelphia
and put in barracks under strong guard.  The Paxton boys, in a consider-
able body, were at that time at Germantown interceding for their brethern,
who were then in durance and threatened with trial.  FRANKLIN was sent
out to confer with them on the part of the Government.  In defending
their course, they said:  "Whilst more than a thousand families, reduced
to extreme distress, during the last and present war, by the attacks of 
skulking parts of Indians upon the frontier, were destitute, and were
suffered by the public to depend on private charity, a hundred and twenty
of the perpetrators of the most horrid barbarities were supported by the
province, and protected from the fury of the brave relatives of the
murdered."  Influenced by the persuasions of FRANKLIN, they consented to
return to their homes, leaving only MATTHEW SMITH and JAMES GIBSON to
represent them before the courts.