The Lower House. 365

of Major Hicks under whom he holds by Demise (nothing
being Shewn to the Contrary by Cap^t Rider) was after the
Year of our Lord 1698 the Time of Ascertaining the Bounds
of the Indians Lands at Chiccowan according to the paper
Marked C. C: and Seems to this Committee to be a Manifest
proof that Cap^t Riders purchase [was] under the Circum-
stance of an Indian Title and Possession and Ought therefore
both in Law and Equity to have waited untill their Right had
determined and devolved upon him according to the Proviso
in the afores^d Act of Assembly.
We find also the Indians Manner of Planting and habita-
tion in their Towns to be Represented in the Case far differ-
ent from the practice amongst those people who Instead of
being Unsettled Ubiquitarians had by themselves together
with the Wicomeses their Subjects, Claimed and Inhabited
about Chiccowan Creek Anno 1668, as appears Lib: H. H.
page 296 but how many Years before that time, we are not
able to Discover nor is it Reasonable to believe that any
Desire in the Proprietors of the Land in Question, to have
their Lands Cleared by the Indians (as it is alledged in the
Case) nor their being Eased of the Quitt Rents, nor much
less any Expectation of their Desertion of those Towns, the
fixt Habitation of the most potent Nations of the Indians on
the Eastern Shore Should have any ways facilitated the pass-
ing 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 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 Coll^o William Stevens,
Major Thomas Taylor and Others for the laying out and
Ascertaining a tract or portion of Land, where the Emperor
of Nanticoke and the Indians under his Subjection then
usually Inhabited.

L. H. J.

We of this Committee do Represent also for the Setting
this Case in a Clear Light and for preventing for the future
the Intollerable 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
Ancient Records and proceedings of this Province in Rela-
tion to Indian Titles and possessions of Lands allotted or
otherwise Ascertained to them, and we find that upon Appli-
cation Made to the Queen of Port Tobacco &c: That a proc-
lamation Issued Anno 1663 Setting forth the Complaint of
those Indians, that their Corn fields, were Yearly destroy'd
by the Cattle and Hogs of the English and they thereby Re-
duced to Famine, for Prevention of which Mischief it was

p. 68