Brother! We thank you for your Kindness to us since we came upon the Ground, and the Provision you have made for our Return. We have no more to say.

In the afternoon of the same Day the Oneida Nation attended the Commissioners at their Quarters in Council and the Governor addressed them as follows:

Sachems, Chiefs and Warriors of the Oneidas:

Brothers! From our Message to you last Spring and last Summer, you will be sensible that we intended to hold a general Treaty at this Time with you and our Brothers, the other Nations of Indians within this State: and we had expected that they would all have attended, and when you and we met together on our Arrival at this Place, we had still some Hopes of a Number from the other Nations, especially the Senecas and Cayugas, competent to represent them, and therefore your Proposal at that Time to return Home to attend to your private Affairs and there to remain till we had informed you that the other Nations were come so that we were ready to proceed on the Business of a general Treaty being for our mutual Convenience, was perfectly agreeable to us. It was an Evidence of Care and Industry which gave us much Pleasure. While we were waiting in the Expectation of the Attendance of the other Nations, which however became daily more improbable, our Brothers the Onondagoes who were here, then signified to their Wish to make a new and perpetual Covenant with us for their Nation separately, in Relation to their Lands. We accordingly entered on the Business with them and it is now accomplished to our mutual Satisfaction, and we are persuaded in a Manner most beneficial for them as well as most for the Peace and Interest of the State. They have ceded all their Lands to the State, reserving to themselves the free Right of hunting and fishing throughout the whole of the Lands, and also reserving to themselves and for their own Use and Cultivation a very large Tract and more than sufficient for that Purpose, and a Mile around the Salt Lake is to remain for the Purpose of making salt, in which they are to have an equal Right with our People. We have paid them eleven hundred and ten French Crowns in Silver and furnished them with Clothing to the Amount of one hundred and fifty Pounds without any Advance on the Price, and we have

agreed to furnish them at this Place on the first Day of June in every year forever with Clothing & Provisions to the amount of two hundred Pounds without any Advance on the Price, or to pay them five hundred Dollars in Money, as they shall from Time to Time elect.

We thought it proper before we open our Business with you to inform you of what has been done between us and the Onondagoes, to explain to you whence it arose that we have treated with them separately, and that you might be convinced that in the Covenant which we have now made with them, we have been as attentive to real Benefit to them as to any Advantage to the State.

Brothers attend! The Legislature of this State has heard that some of their People had without their Consent and Authority and contrary to the Constitution and Laws of the State and contrary to the ancient and salutary Usage which has always subsisted between your Forefathers and ours, and between you and us, been with you and our Brothers the Senecas, Cayugas and Onondagoes, in Order to get your Lands from you, and these People having pretended that they had obtained from you and the other Nations of Indians what they call Leases of all your Lands under certain annual Rents.

Altho' we will severely punish our People for this Act of Disobedience to their own Constitution and Laws, the Legislature of the State supposed they would notwithstanding be wanting in Care and Friendship to you, if they did not at the same Time take some Measures for preventing the Evils which might befall you, should these evil minded Persons attempt to settle on your Lands, claiming them under such pretended Leases. They have therefore appointed us their Commissioners to meet you at this Council Fire in Order that you and we might consult together and agree on what will be most for your interest and Security, and will best preserve Peace and good Government in the State in Opposition to the injurious Designs of these unworthy Citizens.

Brothers! Speak your Minds freely to us. Inform us fully how these Matters are, & let us know what you suppose most eligible to be done.

Brothers! You are sensible that in all Transactions between your Forefathers and ours, and between you and us, good Faith towards you and a Regard for your Welfare has always been

observed, and we hope you will be fully persuaded that we meet you with the same Disposition, and that it is requisite that in all our Consultations together we should have perfect Confidence in each other, & that neither you nor we should have any other Object than mutual Good. (Here a String of Wampum.)

Brothers! Having accomplished our Business Business with the Onondagoes we have it in our Power now wholly to attend to you, but as we have been detained here for some Time waiting for our Brothers the other Nations, and as other public Business requires that several of us should soon return home, we could wish that the Business to be transacted between you and us may receive as much Dispatch as the Importance and Difficulty of it will admit. To which Oneyanha, alias Beach Tree, commonly called Peter the Qt. Master, made the following Reply:

Brother of the State of New York & all the Chiefs here present with him, attend!

Your Governor has now opened your Minds to us, we have heard your Words in every thing you have spoken to us. The Great Spirit has seen fit to give us a pleasant Day at which you have spoken of the ancient Covenant between your Forefathers and ours, and pleasant Days they were, and the Revival of them gladdens our Hearts. In opening the Business of this Council Fire you have mentioned many Things to us; they are all important, they require great Deliberation. We therefore make no Reply, but tomorrow you shall hear our Voice. You may depend on it, that we will proceed with Wisdom, for we your Brethren, the Oneidas, are accustomed to speak decidedly, and after due Deliberation. Possess your Minds in Peace, that we decline making an Answer at present. You have told us that a good Mind is necessary in deliberating on Things of Importance. That you possess this Mind, and you may rely upon it that the same Temper will influence our Conduct, and that our mutual God will be consulted.

Brothers! We have nothing further to add at present.

Brother, We will take the Freedom to add one Word more, altho' we mean to speak freely, and altho' we may speak strong words, let us take Care that we say nothing on either Side that will excite Passion or give Offence.

Previous to entering upon Business with the Oneidas, the following Resolution was entered into by the Board, and a Copy thereof, signed by all the Commissioners, was delivered to Jacob Reed, vizt:

Jacob Reed and certain several other Persons of the Oneidas having represented to the Board that John Livingston, Caleb Benton, Ezekiel Gilbert and others, commonly known by the name of the New York Genesee Company of Adventurers, in Consideration of Promises from them, the said several Persons of he Oneidas, to assist them, the said Company, in obtaining at Lease from the Oneida Nation of their Lands, had by executing Notes, and otherwise, entered into Contracts to them, the said several Persons of the Oneidas, for the Payment of Monies or Goods, Provided they the said Company should succeed in obtaining such Lease, and the said several Persons having also stated to the Board that Payments in Part have been made on the said Contracts, and expressed their Apprehensions that in Case an Agreement should now take Place between the Board and the Oneida Nation for a Cession of Lands to the State, that the said Company would attempt to recover back the Value of the said Payments in Part, which having been expended by the several Persons to whom the same were paid and they being unable to repay the same, that therefore Suits for such Recoveries as aforesaid should the said Company prevail therein would prove ruinous to them, the said several Persons; and that by Reason of such Apprehensions the said several Persons had hitherto in the Council of their Nation altogether refrained from assenting to or advising a Cession of Lands to the State, and such Lease having been intended to be obtained not under the Authority or with the Consent of the Legislature, and Messrs. Benson, Jones and Varick having delivered it as their Opinion to the Board that the said Contracts were void and therefore that the said Company had no Remedy in Law for the Recovery back of whatever might have been paid in Part on such Contracts: Thereupon Resolved by the Board, that if at this present Treaty with the Oneida Nation they should make a Cession of Lands to the State to be accepted of by the Board, that then the Faith of the State be considered as pledged to every Person of the Oneidas for a full Indemnity against all Suits which may be commenced against them by any Person of the said Company on or in any wise relating to any such Contracts as aforesaid.

observed, and we hope you will be fully persuaded that we meet you with the same Disposition, and that it is requisite that in all our Consultations together we should have perfect Confidence in each other, & that neither you nor we should have any other Object than mutual Good. (Here a String of Wampum.)

Brothers! Having accomplished our Business with the Onondagoes we have it in our Power now wholly to attend to you, but as we have been detained here for some Time waiting for our Brothers the other Nations, and as other public Business requires that several of us should soon return home, we could wish that the Business to be transacted between you and us may receive as much Dispatch as the Importance and Difficulty of it will admit. To which Oneyanha, alias Beach Tree, commonly called Peter the Qt. Master, made the following Reply:

Brother of the State of New York & all the Chiefs here present with him, attend!

Your Governor has now opened your Minds to us, we have heard your Words in every thing you have spoken to us. The Great Spirit has seen fit to give us a pleasant Day at which you have spoken of the ancient Covenant between your Forefathers and ours, and pleasant Days they were, and the Revival of them gladdens our Hearts. In opening the Business of this Council Fire you have mentioned many Things to us; they are all important, they require great Deliberation. We therefore make no Reply, but tomorrow you shall hear our Voice. depend on it, that we will proceed with Wisdom, for we your Brethren, the Oneidas, are accustomed to speak decidedly, and after due Deliberation. Possess your Minds in Peace, that we decline making an Answer at present. You have told us that a good Mind is necessary in deliberating on Things of Importance. That you possess this Mind, and you may rely upon it that the same Temper will influence our Conduct, and that our mutual God will be consulted.

Brothers! We have nothing further to add at present.

You may

Brother, We will take the Freedom to add one Word more, altho' we mean to speak freely, and altho' we may speak strong words, let us take Care that we say nothing on either Side that will excite Passion or give Offence.