268 Assembly Proceedings, October 6-November 6, 1725.

U. H. J.

should have any ways facilitated the passing of that Act of
Assembly for ascertaining the bounds of a tract of Land
for the Use of the Nanticoke Indians Anno 1698 seeing that it
Appears Evidently the said Act was made In consequence

p. 99

only of the Indian habitation at that place for many Ages
as far as we can tell and of a Comission heretofore (Viz)
anno 1684 Directed to Col^o W^m Stevens Maj^r Thomas Taylor
& others for the laying out and Ascertaining a tract or por-
tion of Land where the Emperour of Nanticoke and the
Indians under his Subjection then usually Inhabited.
We of this Comittee do represent also for the Setting this
Case in A Clear Light and for preventing for the future the In-
tollerable Charge and great Interruption given to the publick"
business of this province by the frequent Complaint of those
Indians that we have made Diligent Search into Antient
Records and proceedings of this province in relation to In-
dian Titles and Possessions of Lands allotted or otherwise
ascertained to them and we find that upon application made
to the Queen of Port Tobacco &c^a that a proclamation
Issued Anno 1663 setting forth the Complaint of those In-
dians, that their Cornfields were Yearly destroyed by the
Cattle and Hogs of the English and they thereby reduced
to famine for prevention of which mischief it was by the
Lieutenant Gen^ll willed and required that no Inhabitants
of this province should take up nor seat any Lands, tho for-
merly taken up within three miles at least of those Indian
habitations as in Liber H. H. page 190. The Disturbance
and Incroachment of the English upon the Town lands and
Settlements of the Eastern Shore Indians was likewise found
of mischievious Consequence and therefore restrain'd in sev-
eral places in Somerset County and at Chicacoan in Dorches-
ter County by a Proclamation of the Lord Proprietary Anno
1678 Importing that his Lordship would Advise with the two
houses at the next Gen¹¹ Sessions of Assembly and that no
person or persons whatsoever should presume to seat Live
or Inhabit within three miles of the Indian Lands. The
like had been Ordered in Councill ten years before in relation
to the Indian town Lands at Mattawoman and Piscattoway
Creek where a reserve had been made for them between
those two Creeks
This Committee further Observes that the Prohibition of
Surveying and Seating Lands within three Miles distance of
any Indian town was the Constant practice of this Govern-
ment both before and after the Survey of the two Tracts of
Land menconed in Captain Riders Case and altho not

p. 100

specifically applyd to the Nanticoke Indians and the Subjects