untry_, at about 320 miles _below_ the Great Kenhawa;--and in
the year 1755, they had also a large town opposite to the mouth of
Sioto;--_at the very place_, which is the _Southern boundary_ line of
the tract of land applied for by Mr. Walpole and his associates.--But
it is a certain fact, that the Cherokees _never_ had any towns or
settlements in the country, _Southward_ of the Great Kenhawa;--that
they do _not_ hunt there, and that neither the Six Nations, Shawanesse
nor Delawares, do _now_ reside or hunt on the Southerly side of the
river Ohio, nor did _not_ for several years _before_ they sold the
country to the King.--These are facts, which can be easily and fully
proved.

In October 1768, at a congress held with the Six Nations at Fort
Stanwix, they observed to Sir William Johnson: "Now, brother, you who
know all our affairs, must be sensible, that _our_ rights go much
farther to the _Southward_ than the _Kenhawa_,--and that we have a very
good and clear title as far _South_ as the _Cherokee River_, which we
cannot allow to be the right of any other Indians, without doing wrong
to our posterity, and acting unworthy those warriors who fought and
conquered it;--we therefore expect this our right will be considered."

In November 1768, the Six Nations sold to the King all the country on
the Southerly side of the river Ohio, as far as to the Cherokee river;
but notwithstanding that sale, as soon as it was understood in
Virginia, that government _favoured_ the pretensions of the Cherokees,
and that Dr. Walker and Colonel Lewis (the commissioners sent from that
colony to the congress at Fort Stanwix) had returned from thence, the
late Lord Bottetourt sent these gentlemen to Charles-town,
South-Carolina, to endeavour to convince Mr. Stuart, the Southern
superintendent of Indian affairs, of the necessity of enlarging the
boundary line, which he had settled with the Cherokees;--and to run it
from the _Great Kenhawa_ to Holston's river.--These gentlemen were
appointed commissioners by his Lordship, as they had been long
conversant in Indian affairs, and were well acquainted with the actual
extent of the Cherokee country.--Whilst these commissioners were in
South Carolina, they wrote a letter to Mr. Stuart, as he had been but a
very few years in the Indian service, (and could not, from the nature
of his former employment, be supposed to be properly informed about the
Cherokee territory), respecting the claims of the Cheroke