The Upper House. 273

Captain Rider and the Indians before both Houses of As-
sembly at which time there happened a remarkeable In-
stance of the Good Sence of those Savage People for after
the matter had been resolved in favour of the Indians
Henry Coursey the Emperor was advised to return home but
refused and said that he would stay in town until the Act
should be past that he might know whether Captain Rider
or he was to be Emperor of Chicacoan
It appears also to this Comittee to be a gross Reflection
upon the Justice of both houses that Capt" Rider should
alledge in his Case that it appeared to them that the Indian
Estate to the Lands in question had Determined and that
the late Law marked E. E. was made with design of restor-
ing them to the same again with a Stronger and fuller Title
but the Gentlemen's freedom in taxing the Justice of the
Legislature will turn to his own Shame upon Enquiry into the
true motives of that Act which are Expressly Declared in the
Journall 1723 to have arisen from fresh Complaints as it is
said in that Journall Even since the last Sessions (Wherein
an Ordinance of Assembly had been made in favour of the
Indians upon sundry Complaints to the Governor & Council)
that Captain Rider had molested the Nanticoke Indians and
would not Suffer them to Cultivate any part of their Lands
and Captain Rider himself after the making of the Act
petitioned the Governor and Council to have the Liberty of
purchasing or Leasing from those Indians but that Liberty
being Denyd him for the ill Consequences that had been
found to attend such practices he then made his application
to the Lord Proprietary and very artfully Insinuated in his
Case that his Lands were not Included within the bounds of
the Tract mentioned in the Act of 1669 marked N. N. but the
Gentleman was not so Ingenious as to inform his Lordship

U. H. J.

that his Lands were Included within the Limits of the Chica-
coan town reserved to the Nanticoke Indians in 1668 and
more particularly in the year 1678 and at length Invested
in the said Indians by Act of Assembly in 1698 long before
his purchase or Maj^r Hick's Demise to him of the Lands in
Question.
This Comittee upon Inspection into the papers of M^r Isaac
Nichols of Dorchester County do find the facts relating to
the manner and Validity of his Purchase from the Indians
to be very unfairly represented to his Lordship in the Case
laid before us for he therein hath very Industriously con-
cealed all those Circumstances which were previous to his
purchase and would have proved the Unreasonableness of it
as well as the particular motives which afterwards Induced

18

p. 106