ion to the Lords Commissioners of the treasury, proposing to
purchase a larger tract of land on the river Ohio in America,
sufficient for a separate government; whereupon their lordships were
pleased to acquaint the memorialists, they had no objection to
accepting the proposals made by them with respect to the purchase-money
and quit-rent to be paid for the said tract of land, if it should be
thought adviseable by those departments of government, to whom it
belonged to judge of the propriety of the grant, both in point of
policy and justice, that the grant should be made; in consequence
whereof the memorialists humbly renew their application that a grant of
said lands may be made to them, _reserving therein to all persons their
just and legal rights to any parts or parcels of said lands which may
be comprehended within the tract prayed for by the memorialists;_"
whereupon we beg leave to report to your lordships,

I. That according to the description of the tract of land prayed for by
the memorialists, which description is annexed to their memorial, it
appears to us to contain part of the dominion of Virginia, to the south
of the river Ohio, and to extend several degrees of longitude westward
from the western ridge of the Appalachian mountains, as will more fully
appear to your Lordships from the annexed sketch of the said tract,
which we have since caused to be delineated with as much exactness as
possible, and herewith submit to your Lordships, to the end that your
Lordships may judge with the greater precision of the situation of the
lands prayed for in the memorial.

II. From this sketch your Lordships will observe, that a very
considerable part of the lands prayed for, lies beyond the line, which
has, in consequence of his Majesty's orders for that purpose, been
settled by treaty, as well with the tribes of the Six Nations, and
their confederates, as with the Cherokee Indians, as the boundary line
between his Majesty's territories and their hunting grounds; and as the
faith of the crown is pledged in the most solemn manner both to the Six
Nations and to the Cherokees, that notwithstanding the former of these
nations had ceded the property in the lands to his Majesty, yet no
settlements shall be made beyond that line, it is our duty to report to
your Lordships our opinion, that it would on that account be highly
improper to comply with the request of the memorial, _so far as it
includes any lands beyond the said li