es to the
lands _Southward_ of the Great Kenhawa, and therein they expressed
themselves as follows:

"Charles-town, South Carolina,
February 2, 1769.

"The country _Southward_ of _the Big Kenhawa was never claimed
by the Cherokees_, and now is the property of the Crown, as Sir
William Johnson purchased it of the Six Nations at a very
considerable expence, and took a deed of cession from them at
Fort Stanwix."

In 1769, the house of burgesses of the colony of Virginia represented
to Lord Bottetourt, "That they have the greatest reason to fear the
said line," (meaning the boundary line, which the Lords Commissioners
for Trade and Plantations have referred to, in the map annexed to their
Lordships report) "if confirmed, would constantly open to the Indians,
and others _enemies_ to his Majesty, a free and easy ingress to the
heart of the country on the Ohio, Holston's river, and the Great
Kenhawa; whereby the settlements which may be attempted in these
quarters will, in all probability, be utterly destroyed, and _that
great extent of country_ [at least 800 miles in length] _from the mouth
of the Kenhawa_ to the _mouth of the Cherokee river_ extending Eastward
as far as the Laurell Hill, _so lately ceded to his Majesty, to which
no tribe of Indians at present set up any pretensions, will be entirely
abandoned to the Cherokees_; in consequence of which, claims, _totally
destructive_ of the true interest of his Majesty, may at some future
time arise, _and acquisitions justly ranked among the most valuable of
the late war be altogether lost_."

From the foregoing detail of facts, it is obvious,

1st. That the country _Southward_ of the _Great Kenhawa_, at least as
far as the Cherokee river, originally belonged to the Shawanesse.

2d. That the Six Nations, in virtue of their conquest of the
Shawanesse, became the lawful proprietors of that country.

3d. That the King, in consequence of the grant from the Six Nations,
made to his Majesty at Fort Stanwix in 1768, is _now_ vested with the
undoubted right and property thereof. 4th. That the Cherokees _never_
resided, nor hunted in that country, and have _not_ any kind of right
to it.

5th. That the House of Burgesses of the colony of Virginia have, upon
good grounds, asserted, [such as properly arise from the nature of
their stations, and proximity to the Cherokee country], that the
Cherokees had not any just pretensions to the territory _South