tions be given, and they are hereby given to the Overseers for the time being, appointed or to be appointed by this Assembly for said Mohegan Indians:

1st. That the said Overseers at all times treat the said Indians with paternal care and tenderness, and are held obliged to assist them by their friendly and parental advice.

2d. That the said Overseers have full power and authority, and they are hereby authorized and empowered in the name of said Indians to institute, bring forward, and prosecute to final judgment and execution, any suit or action against any person or persons that shall commit any trespass on the lands or possessions of the said Mohegan Indians and shall be accountable for any sum or sums they may recover.

3d. If any Indian shall trespass upon the lands, goods, or possessions of any other Indian upon complaint thereof made to said Overseers, they or any two of them are hereby ordered and directed to notify the parties to appear before them at such time and place as they shall appoint, when and where they shall proceed to hear and determine the case between them, and award such damages as they shall think just and reasonable to the party injured; and if the person adjudged to pay damages, shall neglect or refuse to pay the same, the said Overseers are hereby empowered to stop so much of the then next dividend of rent money belonging to such person so refusing, and pay and deliver the same over to him or them, to whom the same may be awarded in satisfaction of such award.

4th. When it shall so happen that any particular Indian or Indians shall want to take up any land for improvement in severally, such person or persons shall apply to said Overseers, who are hereby to set out by meets and bounds to such person or persons such a quantity of land for improvement as they shall think just and reasonable, and whoever shall enter on any land without the approbation of said Overseers shall be deemed trespassers.

5th. And whereas since the death of their late Sachem, and their declining to choose a successor, there will be money due for rent of lands to the said Indians as a common and undivided interest, the said Overseers are hereby directed, to distribute the same to and among the families of said Indians after deducting such sum as the said Indians shall agree upon, or shall be found necessary for the relief of the poor among them, and other publick charges, and so from time to time hereafter, as they shall have the common interest in their hands, observing as much as may be an equality among the families; and when any receive more benefit in the improvement of the land, it shall be considered in the distribution of the rent money.

6th. And no person to cut or carry away any timber, wood, or stones, except for their own buildings, firing, and fences, without liberty from the Overseers, upon the penalty said Overseers shall lay upon them, not exceeding for each offence treble the value of the timber, wood, or stone, so cut or carried away.

MEMORIAL OF ZEBULON BUTLER, OF WESTMORELAND.

To the Honourable General Assembly of the Colony of CONNECTICUT, to be holden at NEW-HAVEN, in said Colony on the second THURSDAY of OCTOBER, instant.

The Memorial of Zebulon Butler Esquire, and Joseph Sluman of Westmoreland in the County of Litchfield and Colony of Connecticut Agents for said Town of Westmoreland also for the Proprietors and Settlers of lands lying within this Colony West of the West line of said West moreland in the name and behalf of their constituents aforesaid, humbly show: That your Honours from principles of patriotick affection for the interests and emolument of this Colony, the increase and growth of its wealth and numbers, by and with advice of the principal Crown lawyers in England Council to his Majesty, did at a General Court holden at New-Haven in said Colony, on the second Thursday of October A. D. 1773, resolve and declare that extent of country lying West of the West line of the Province of New-York and within the limits and boundaries of the Charter and Patent of King Charles the Second to the Governour and Company of the English Colony of Connecticut made and passed in the fourteenth year of his reign, was granted and confirmed to this Colony to hold, and according to the tenour of said Charter and Patent in free and common soccage, not in capite, &c., according to the tenour of East Greenwich in the County of Kent; and that the same is within the jurisdiction of this Colony; and that your Honours would assert your right to and jurisdiction over the same.

And your Honours, to promote the wealth, increase, and future glory of this Colony, in pursuance of your Declaration and Resolve aforesaid, did, at a General Court, holden at Hartford by adjournment, on the second Wednesday of January A. D., 1774, incorporate and constitute a Town therein by the name of Westmoreland with all the rights, franchises, immunities, and prerogatives which other Towns in this Colony are by law invested, and annex said Town to the County of Litchfield and appointed civil authority therein;-And your Memorialists with their families, now at said Town of Westmoreland consist of about one hundred and twenty-six persons, whose land that belongs to them lieth on the West Branch of the Susquehannah River, who are now waiting to remove themselves and settle thereon;-And your Memorialists, who are Proprietors and Settlers of the land lying West of your said Town of Westmoreland and within the limits and jurisdiction of the Colony of Connecticut with their families, are upwards of two hundred families;-And your Memorialists having (from their birth and education) a most inviolable attachment to the Constitution and Government of your Honours, and impressed with sentiments of loyalty, affection, and zeal for the present and future greatness, tranquillity, and glory of this Colony; principles which in a far more eminent manner reside in your Honours' minds, and guide and influence all your publick measures, beg leave humbly to approach your Honours as the great parens patriœ the supreme power within this Colony, with grateful sentiments for your Honours' care for our good, peace, and safety heretofore exercised towards us, by incorporating us of said Westmoreland into a Town, do trust that the same benevolent intentions still influence your Honours, and that nothing will be wanting on the part of your Honours, to perfect the good which is begun towards us your dutiful subjects, who were but few in number when we first come up hither, but now by the good hand of our God upon us, are become a multitude; and to observe that the jurisdiction erected by your Honours, is inadequate to answer the ends and purposes of Government in our situation, for that all our writs which are not cognizable before a single Minister, are returnable to Litchfield which necessarily occasions an enormous expense to the suiters-And our not having any jail, and being unable by law to transport any man's person across the Province of New-York it being another jurisdiction, executions are thereby rendered in a great measure ineffectual; debtors enabled to avoid payment of their just debts; and criminals of every kind, almost, to escape justice; by reason whereof, your Memorialists are greatly embarrassed, perplexed, and exposed; living under civil Governments without most of its benefits; living in such a situation as that, it cannot with only the power already given be thoroughly administered, nor the noble end and design thereof fully answered;-And as many of your Memorialists, who are settlers and proprietors of lands lying West of said Town of Westmoreland within this Colony, labour under great difficulties, in continuing and proceeding in our just claims and settlements, without civil Government established amongst us;-And to relinquish our settlements and lands acquired with great hazard, labour, and expense, will be attended with risk of a total loss of them both to this Colony, and your Memorialists. And whereas the constituting and erecting a County within the following limits and boundaries, viz: to extend West to the Western boundaries of the Susquehannah purchase; and to bound North and South on the Colony line, exclusive of that part of said purchase, as is taken off by the line lately settled with the Indians at Fort Stanwix invested with powers, privileges, jurisdictions, &c., which other Counties in this Colony are, viz: that of having and holding County Courts, and Courts of Probate, having a Sheriff, a jail, &c., would remedy most of the difficulties which your Memorialists labour under, and make your Memorialists happy and comfortable: Or if your Honours should not think it best at this time to erect a County, &c., as prayed for, that your Honours would at this time either extend the limits of said Town of Westmoreland to the Western boundaries of Susquehannah