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

U. H J.

altho the bounds thereof were not particularly agreed upon,
but upon the Complaints of Incroachments Oppressions and
other Injurys done to those Indians it is Exprest in the Act
of 1698 for Ascertaining the bounds of a tract of Land for
the Use of the Nanticoke Indians the Legislature then took
the Affair in hand and by an Act Ascertained very particu-
larly the Extent of Dominion and Territorys above menconed
thereby to secure peace and tranquillity to this province by
redressing the Discontents of those people least following
the Examples [of the] Piscattoway and other Indians on the
Western Shore who were at the same time retired back into
the Mountains upon some Discontent about their Town
Lands made frequent incursions among the out plantations
which did Oblige the Government to maintain at a vast Ex-
pence very great numbers of Rangers for protecting the back
Inhabitants of Prince Georges and Baltimore Countys from
the Insults of those Savages.
This Comittee is further of Opinion that it was through
an Apprehension of the like Mischiefs from the Eastern
Shore Indians which facilitated the passing the Above men-
coned Act of Assembly rather than any design in the Legis-
lature of making the English Proprietors of Lands within
the Indians bounds Easier or thro any Expectations of those
Indians Deserting or leaving the place as it is falsly Sug-
gested by Captain Rider for the Same motives appear after-
wards to have Obtained with the Legislature viz. Anno
1711 in making the purchase of Three thousand Acres of
Land for the same Indians at broad Creek at A Conjuncture

p. 102

when the troubles of the Indians at Carrolina put them in
mind of the necessary measures for quieting the Minds of our
Indians then Sower'd by the frequent Injurys done them by
the English and particularly by turning Horses into their
Cornfields.
Having thus represented the right of Indians to their town
Lands and particularly that of the Nanticokes to the
Chicacoan town we proceed in the next to Examine the
Allegations of Captain Rider with regard to the Desertion
of that town it being alledged in his Case that the Nanti-
coke Indians in the Spring 1722 not only Omitted the Plant-
ing of Corn on the said Lands but broke down and burnt
their Fences and removed tu a Place twenty miles higher up
Nanticoke River.
This seems to Look something like a Dissertion and leav-
ing the place according to the words of the Act [if] the facts
alledged had been true but upon Enquiry into the matter we
find that the Nanticoke Indians upon some Disgust through