486 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe.

Letter Bk. V

five thousand Acres together not being at this time to be found
vacant on this side the Allegany Mountain. If the Indians
remain quiet I doubt not but His Ldp might if he pleases sell
the whole within these few years at a better price than he now
grants uncultivated vacant Land or if he chooses to have the
level & best Parts of the Survey laid out immediately in Tene-
ments they may I am told be leased for a Term of years at
Ten Shillings p^r Annum the hundred Acres with a Condition
in the Leases that the Tenants shall make thereon certain
Improvements. As some Tracts of patented Land lye within
the Bounds of this large Survey I have caused another of
2524 Acres to be made beyond it on a Branch of The Yoghi-
ogany near a Place called the little Meadows, imagining that
His Ldp may hereafter if he pleases therewith purchase (by
way of Exchange) such patented Tracts lying within the large
Survey in case he should choose to erect the whole into one
Mannour. In His Majestys proclamation of the 7^th of Oct^r
1763 of which I send you an Extract there is a prohibition as
to the Granting Lands lying Westward of the Heads of the
Rivers that run into the Atlantic Ocean, wherefore the Sur-
veyor of Frederick County does not execute any Warrant at
this time beyond the Alegany Mountain nor will he do so till
His Ldp shall be pleased to send Orders for that purpose. I
intimated to you in my Letter dated the 11^th of Feb^ry that in
Consequence of a Complaint from the Indians a Parcel of
People who had made a Settlement in the Western part of
Pennsylvania at a Place called Red Stone Creek would be this
Spring compelled to retire, in a late Pennsylvania Gazette is
published an Act of Assembly that has been made there for
that purpose & I understand the Virginians also talk of oblig-
ing the People who have settled in that Dominion beyond the
Allegany to break up their Settlements, lest otherwise they
should be the means of another Indian War. I am very sorry
to tell you that since I wrote to you the 11^th Feb^ry the Piece
which I then told you had been published in our Gazette by
M^r Allen as was alledged under the Name of a Bystander was
soon followed by one signed the Querist calculated to stir up
the Vestrymen & other Inhabitants of both S^t James's & this
Parish against M^r Allen to which he the next Week replied
under the former Signature of the Bystander but the popular
Tide being already against him, the Cavalier Manner in which
he treated his Antagonist tho it made many laugh was so far
from serving his Cause, that the Position of Pluralities being
tenable here by Laws transcendent to Acts of Assembly &
the Conclusion of the next Paragraph at once interested in
the Dispute All the Vestries & Numbers of warm People
throughout the Province. As M^r Allen had from the time M^r