urged to this step by the demand made of them at a popular meeting. Governor Tryon, thereupon issued orders to receive the tea into the barracks. Driven by stress of weather into the West Indies, it was not till April of the next year, that the vessel arrived at Sandy Hook. The pilots, under instructions from a "Committee of Vigilance," refused to bring the ship up, until assured that there was no tea on board. It having been discovered, however, that there were some eighteen chests on board, they were thrown into the river, and the captain was coolly put on board his ship, the anchors were weighed, and he was sent to find his way back again to England.
The ship bound for Philadelphia, was stopped four miles below the city, December 25th. News having arrived of the destruction of the tea at Boston, the captain judged it most prudent not to attempt to land his obnoxious cargo, and so he set sail for home. The Charleston tea ship reached that city the same day that the New York vessel reached the Hook. The teas were landed, but care was taken to store them in damp cellars, where they were soon spoiled.
It will be convenient at this point, before proceeding farther with the narrative, to give some attention to matters which we have passed over, so as not to interrupt the exciting story of ante-revolutionary days.
Peace having been concluded with the Indians in the north-west, a great impulse was thereby given to emigration. Cupidity, however, and a lawless state of morals and manners, soon led to great injustice being done to the Indians; and the consequence was, ere long, a collision between them and the white men. The more daring and reckless portion of the settlers continued to advance, and settle down upon Indian lands, without even the shadow of a right. Against these continual encroachments, sustained as they were by force and outrage, the Indians had repeatedly remonstrated to the local governments, but to little or no purpose. At length, on the 6th of May, 1768, a deputation from the Six Nations repaired to Fort Pitt, to present a remonstrance, which was forwarded to the Assembly of Virginia. The president of the Council in his message declared, "that a set of men, regardless of the laws of natural justice, unmindful of the duties they owe to society, and in contempt of the royal proclamations, have dared to settle themselves upon the lands near Redstone Creek and Cheat River, which are the property of the Indians, and, notwithstanding the repeated warnings of the danger of such lawless proceedings, they still remain unmoved, and seem to defy the orders and even the powers of the government." The royal government was at length compelled to interfere, by ordering Sir William Johnson to purchase from the Six Nations the lands already thus occupied, as well as to obtain a further grant; and accordingly, by a treaty at Fort Stanwix, large bodies of land extending to the Ohio, were, as it was said, ceded by the Indians, but, as they persisted in declaring, were obtained by mingled
