Letter from the Earl of Dartmouth to the Earl of Dunmore

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Whitehall, September 8, 1774.

MY LORD: The Deputy Governour of Pennsylvania in his message to the House of Representatives, on the 18th of July last, asserts that the hostility of the Indians upon the River Ohio, which has spread such general alarm and distress throughout the back settlements, was occasioned by the unprovoked ill treatment of those Indians by the people of Virginia, who had barbarously murdered about eleven of the Delawares and Shawanese tribes, and that many friendly Indians, who had generously afforded protection to the persons and goods of Indian traders from the violence of some of their young warriors, and who were, at the risk of their own lives, escorting those traders to their friends near Pittsburgh, were, contrary to all faith, attacked, and some of them wounded by a party of Virginians sent out for the purpose by one Conolly, a militia captain, having a commission from the Government of Virginia.

My intelligence through a variety of other channels confirms these facts, and adds further that this Conolly, using your Lordship' s name, and pleading your authority, has presumed to re-establish the Fort at Pittsburgh, which was demolished by the King' s express orders; that he has destroyed the King' s boats, which were kept there for the purpose of a communication with the Illinois country; and that parties were sent out by his authority, or under his direction, for the purpose of building forts lower down the River Ohio.

The duty I owe the King, and the regard I entertain for your Lordship, induce me to take the earliest opportunity of acquainting your Lordship with this information, to the end that the facts asserted, if not true, may be contradicted

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I am, &c˙,
DARTMOUTH.

Earl of Dunmore.