send out colonies into foreign countries; they can give no encouragement to the fishery, and though the country might afford some kind of naval stores, the distance would be too far to transport them; and for the same reason they could not supply the sugar islands with lumber and provisions. As for the raising wine, silk, and other commodities, the same may be said of the present colonies without planting others for the purpose at so vast a distance; but on the supposition that they would be raised, their very long transportation must probably make them too dear for any market. I do not apprehend the inhabitants could have any commodities to barter for manufactures except skins and furs, which will naturally decrease as the country increases in people, and the desarts are cultivated; so that in the course of a few years necessity would force them to provide manufactures of some kind for themselves; and when all connection upheld by commerce with the mother country shall cease, it may be expected, that an independancy on her government will soon follow; the pretence of forming barriers will have no end; wherever we settle, however remote, there must be a frontier; and there is room enough for the colonists to spread within our present limits, for a century to come. If we reflect how the people of themselves have gradually retired from the coast, we shall be convinced they want no encouragement to desert sea coasts, and go into the back countries, where the lands are better, and got upon easier terms; they are already almost out of the reach of law and government; neither the endeavours of government, or fear of Indians, has kept them properly within bounds; and it is apparently most for the interest of Great Britain to confine the colonies on the side of the back country, and to direct their settlements along the sea coast, where millions of acres are yet uncultivated. The lower provinces are still thinly inhabited, and not brought to the point of perfection that has been aimed at for the mutual benefit of Great Britain and themselves. Although America may supply the mother country with many articles, few of them are yet supplied in quantities equal to her consumption, the quantity of iron transported is not great, of hemp very small, and there are many other commodities not necessary to enumerate, which America has not yet been able to raise, notwithstanding the encouragement given her by bounties and premiums. The laying open new tracts of fertile territory in moderate climates might lessen her present produce; for it is the passion of every man to be a landholder, and the people have a natural disposition to rove in search of good lands, however distant. It may be a question likewise, whether colonization of the kind could be effected without an Indian war, and fighting for every inch of ground. The Indians have long been jealous of our power, and have no patience in seeing us approach their towns, and settle up on their hunting grounds; atonements may be made for a fraud discovered in a trader, and even the murder of some of their tribes, but encroachments upon their lands have often produced serious consequences. The springs of the last general war are to be discovered near the Allegany mountains, and upon the banks of the Ohio.

"It is so obvious, that settlers might raise provisions to feed the troops cheaper than it can be transported from the country below, that it is not necessary to explain it; but I must own I know no other use in settlements, or can give any other reason for supporting forts, than to protect the settlements, and keep the settlers in subjection to government.

"I conceive, that to procure all the commerce it will afford, and as little expence to ourselves as we can, is the only object we shall have in view in the interior country, for a century to come; and I imagine it might be effected, by proper management, without either forts or settlements. Our manufactures are as much desired by the Indians, as their peltry is sought for by us; what was originally deemed a superfluity, or a luxury by the natives, is now become a necessary; they are disused to the bow, and can neither hunt, or make war without fire-arms, powder, and lead. The British provinces can only supply them with their necessaries, which they know, and for their own sakes would protect the trader, which they actually do at present. It would remain with us to prevent the trader's being guilty of frauds and impositions, and to pursue the same methods to that end, as are taken in the Southern district; and I must confess, though the plan pursued in that district might be improved by proper laws to support it, that I do not know a better, or more œconomical plan for the management of trade; there are neither forts nor settlements, in the Southern department, and there are both in the Northern department; and your Lordships will be the best judge, which of them has given you the least trouble; in which we have had the fewest quarrels with, or complaints from the Indians.

"I know of nothing so liable to bring on a serious quarrel with Indians as an invasion of their property. Let the savages enjoy their desarts in quiet; little bickerings that may unavoidably sometimes happen, may soon be accommodated; and I am of opinion, independent of the motives of common justice and humanity, that the principles of interest and policy, should induce us rather to protect than molest them: were they driven from their forests, the peltry trade would decrease; and it is not impossible that worse savages would take refuge in them, for they might then become the asylum of fugitive Negroes, and idle vagabonds, escaped from justice, who in time might become formidable, and subsist by rapine, and plundering the lower countries."

VIII. The opinions delivered in the foregoing recitals are so accurate and precise, as to make it almost unnecessary to add any thing more: But we beg leave to lay before your Lordships the sentiments of his Majesty's Governor of Georgia, upon the subject of large grants in the interior parts of America, whose knowledge and experience in the affairs of the colonies give great weight to his opinion.

In a letter to us, on the subject of the mischiefs attending such grants, he expresses himself in the following manner, viz.

"And now, my Lords, I beg your patience a moment, while I consider this matter in a more extensive point of view, and go a little further in declaring my sentiments and opinion, with respect to the granting of large bodies of land, in the back parts of the province of Georgia, or in any other of his Majesty's Northern colonies, at a distance from the sea-coast, or from such parts of any province as are already settled and inhabited.

"And this matter, my Lords, appears to me, in a very serious and alarming light; and I humbly conceive may be attended with the greatest and worst of consequences; for, my Lords, if a vast territory be granted to any set of gentlemen, who really mean to people it, and actually do so, it must draw and carry out a great number of people from Great Britain; and I apprehend they will soon become a kind of separate and independent people, and who will set up for themselves; that they will soon have manufactures of their own; that they will neither take supplies from the mother country, or from the provinces, at the back of which they are settled; that being at a distance from the seat of government, courts, magistrates, &c. &c. they will be out of the reach and controul of law and government; that it will become a receptacle and kind of asylum for offenders, who will fly from justice to such new country or colony; and therefore crimes