ticular, you will comply with a Demand which may be attended with such happy Effects to both.

Gentlemen:

I, with pleasure, take the first opportunity of speaking to you as a Body, to acquaint you that I have in charge from the Proprietaries to assure you of their paternal Regard and affection for the good people of this Province, and that they wish for nothing more than to promote their real Happiness. As to myself, I can with great Truth say, that I am most sincerely disrosed to do every thing in my power that may tend to the advantage & prosperity of the Province, and to cultivate and improve that Harmony and good understanding with this and all future Assemblies, during my Administration, which is so essentially necessary to the publick good, as well as to the ease and happiness of the several Branches of the Legislature. JOHN PENN.

20th December, 1763.

Letter to the Magistrates of York, Cumberland and Lancaster Counties, Directing the arrest of the murderers of six friendly Indians at the Conestoga Indian town in Lancaster County.

Gentlemen:

H

Philadelphia, 19th Decem'r, 1763.

AVING RECEIVED INFORMATION THAT ON Wednesday, the 14th Instant, a party of Men, armed and mounted, did, without cause or provocation, and in defiance of all Authority, proceed to the Conestoga Indian Town, in Lancaster County, and murder Six of our Friendly Indians, settled there under the Protection of this Government and its Laws. I do hereby direct and require you immediately to exert yourselves on this occasion, & to issue Warrants and

take all other Measures in your power for the apprehending all the Principals concerned in the murder of the said Indians and their accomplices, & securing them in some of the Gaols of this Province, that they may be brought to Justice, & receive a legal tryal for the Crimes they have committed.

I am, Gentlemen,

Your very humble Servant,

JOHN PENN.

To the Magistrates of the Counties of Lancaster, York, and Cumberland.

To the Assembly Concerning several Indian conferences and the late murder of six friendly Indians at Conestogoe Manor.

LAY BEFORE YOU THE MINUTES OF SEV. eral Conferences I have held with Papounan & some other Indians, who live at Wighalousin, on the River Susquehanna. I have no reason to doubt that they have disclosed to me all that they really know of the present state of the Indian War, and of the Cause assigned by the Enemy Indians in their Neighbourhood for their renewing Hostilities against us. They have intimated to me that they, and a few others with whom they are connected, being really our sincere Friends, are uneasy at their present Situation, and would incline to come and live among us, if we would receive & protect them. They have been very impor tunate with me for an immediate Answer, alledging, as they have been very kindly treated by us, if this overture should be likewise favourably accepted, that it would confirm those who are already well disposed, & also incline many others, who are at present in Arms against Us, to sue for Peace.

The Commissioners who are joined with me in the Disposition of the Publick Money, were made acquainted with this affair; and tho' they agreed with me as to the Expediency and Utility of the Measure, yet as it would be attended with Expence & the public Funds were nigh exhausted, we did not think proper to go into it. I therefore recommend it to you to consider this matter, & if you concur with me in Opinion that this will be for the public Service, & will provide a Fund on the Occasion, I desire you will give me your answer as soon as possible, that I may no longer detain the Indians, who are impatient to return home with my Messages.

I am also to lay before you a piece of intelligence I received from Lancaster on Friday last, which has given me the utmost Concern. On the 14 Instant a number of People well armed & mounted, went to the Indian Town in Conestogoe Manor, and, without the least Reason or Provocation, in cool blood, barbarously killed Six of the Indians settled there, & would probably have treated all the rest with the same cruelty, had they not Providentially been abroad at that time; & after burning all their Houses the Perpetrators of this inhuman & wicked Action retired.

As the Indians were seated on the Manor by the Government, & had lived there peaceably & inoffensively during all our late Troubles, I conceived they were as much under the Protection of the Government, & its Laws, as any others amongst us, wherefore I thought it my Duty to do every thing in my power for the immediate apprehending & bringing to Justice the Authors of this horrid Scene; & accordingly, by the advice of the Council, I have dispatched Letters to the Magistrates of Lancaster, Cumberland, and York Counties, requiring and charging them to exert themselves & endeavour, by all possible means, to discover and secure the Principals concerned in this outrageous Act. and their Accomplices. I am also preparing a Proc lamation, ordering and requiring all officers civil and

military, and all His Majesty's Subjects in this Government, to be aiding and assisting to the Magistrates in the Execution of the Laws on this unhappy occasion. Such of the Conestogoe Indians as had the good fortune to escape the Fury of the abovementioned lawless Party, are now taken under the protection of the Magistracy at Lancaster, and are secured in the Workhouse there, but are in great distress for want of necessaries & Apparel, having lost every thing except the little they had on their backs, in their Houses which were burnt.

As they do not apprehend themselves to be safe where they are, they have, by a verbal Message by one of your Members, requested of me that they may be removed to this city, or its Neighbourhood; and I am very ready to comply immediately with their desire, provided you will enable me to defray the Expence of it. December 21st, 1763. JOHN PENN.

Proclamation against the murderers of six friendly Indians at Conestogoe Manor in Lancaster County.

BY

Y THE HONOURABLE JOHN PENN, ESQUIRE, Lieutenant Governor & Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania, and. Counties of Newcastle, Kent, & Sussex, upon Delaware.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, I have received Information that on Wednesday the fourteenth day of this Month, a number of People armed & mounted on Horseback, unlawfully assembled together, & went to the Indian Town in the Conestogoe Manor, in Lancaster County, and without the least Reason or Provocation, in cool blood barbarously killed Six of the Indians settled there, and burnt & destroyed all their Houses & Effects. And Whereas, so cruel and in

human an Act committed in the Heart of this Province, on the said Indians, who have lived peaceably and inoffensively among us during all our late Troubles, and for many Years before, & were justly considered as under the protection of this Government and its Laws, calls loudly for the vigourous Exertion of the civil Authority to detect the Offenders and bring them to condign Punishment, I have therefore, by and with the advice and consent of the Council, thought fit to issue this Proclamation, and do strictly charge and enjoin all Judges, Justices, Sheriffs, Constables, Officers, Civil and Military, and all other his Majesty's liege Subjects within this Province, to make diligent Search & Enquiry after the Authors & Perpetrators of the said Crime, their Abettors and Accomplices, and to use all possible means to apprehend and secure them in some of the Public Gaols of this Province, that they may be brought to their Tryals, and be proceeded against according to Law.

And Whereas, a number of Indians who lately lived on or near the Frontiers of this Province, being willing and desirous to preserve and continue the ancient Friendship which heretofore subsisted between them and the good People of this Province, have, at their earnest request, been removed from their Habitations and brought into. the County of Philadelphia, and seated for the present, for their better Security, on the Province Island & in other places in the neighbourhood of the City of Philadelphia, where Provision is made for them at the Publick Expence. I do therefore hereby strictly forbid all Persons whatsoever, to molest or injure any of the said Indians, as they will answer the Contrary at their Peril.

Given under my hand and the Great Seal of the said Province, at Philadelphia, the twenty-second day of December, Anno Domini one thousand seven hun