Answer to the Governour' s Message

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May it please your Honour: The House have taken into their serious consideration your Message of the 18th instant , respecting the panick into which the frontier inhabitants have been thrown by the late murders committed on some of the Western Indians, and their apprehensions thence arising of an Indian war; and sensibly affected with the unhappy situation of those inhabitants, after mature deliberation on the measures taken by the Magistrates, and approved by your Honour, we have resolved to pay and victual the troops raised for their relief, until the 10th day of next month; and if it shall then appear to the Governour and Commissioners, that the continuance of them is necessary, we have agreed to provide for such a number, not exceeding two hundred, as your Honour and the Commissioners shall think expedient, until the 20th day of September next.

And as you are pleased to intimate, "that could we devise any other probable method than what was recommended in your Message, by which the unhappy differences with the Indians can be accommodated, it would give you infinite satisfaction," we beg leave to recommend to your consideration the propriety of taking the necessary measures to renew the peace and friendship between this Province and the Indians, and to mediate the unhappy differences between them and the Colony of Virginia, as it appears to us scarcely possible that they can subsist, without continuing the frontiers of this Province in their present fears and distress.

The House, with horrour, look upon the frequent murders that have been of late committed on some of the Western Indians, in and to the westward of this Province, and think it their duty to aid Government in discouraging the perpetration of such atrocious offences, not only against the authority of Government but in open violation of treaties subsisting between this Province and those Indians; and, therefore, have voted the sum of one hundred pounds as a reward for apprehending John Hinkson and James Cooper, who have lately, as is said, cruelly put to death Joseph Weepy, a friendly Indian, within the bounds of this Province.

The Resolutions the House have entered into on this occasion, we have herewith communicated.

Signed by order of the House,

JOSEPH GALLOWAY, Speaker.

July 23, 1774.