John and Richard Penn to the Friendly Association, September 5, 1760 - 1
In so dangerous and critical a situation of
Affairs as has fallen to our Lot for several years past, and which
has deeply affected us on account of the Distresses of the back
Inhabitants of the Province in particular, it is a great satisfaction
to us to find you have with the approbation of your Governor given
your assistance to endeavour to bring the Indians to a peaceable
temper of Mind, and a sense of the good treatment we had a right to
expect from the constant, kind and brotherly behaviour of our
Government towards them, such a conduct is very praiseworthy, and
demands our best acknowledgements.
The heavy accusations brought against us by the Indians,
no doubt suggested by some very wicked People of our own Country,
gave us a very sensible concern, as we had on every Treaty acted
a just and kind part towards them.
The endeavours that we are informed have been used to induce
the Indians to declare their supposed ill treatment: about Land, the
Cause of their defection, was so extreamly wicked, that nothing could
equal, but the folly of thinking it necessary to find out reasons for
their joining themselves to the French, when, they, a very warlike,
politick and powerful Nation, had constant Emissarys among
them, promised to secure their Land to them from the English,
who are continually extending their Settlements, and to restore
the Delawares, in particular, to their independency of the Six
Nations.
We are very much pleased to find you were not of the
number of those People, and as you profess to have nothing
[Transcribed by Bailey Placek]
