eration, and being fully sensible of the utility and great importance of the design, did, at a meeting at Hartford on the second Thursday of May 1755, freely relinquish and give up to the said Samuel Hazard for himself and in trust for those concerned, all the right, claim, or challenge, which was or might be made to such country or territory, by the Governour and Company of this Colony, as appears by the following Act, which is of the Record, viz:

At a Meeting of the General Assembly of the Governour and Company of the Colony of Connecticut holden at Hartford on the second Thursday of May 1755.

Whereas, Samuel Hazard of the City of Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania Merchant, by his Petition or Memorial, preferred to the Governour and Company of this Colony, in the sessions of this present Assembly, hath shown that he hath projected a scheme for settling a new Colony within his Majesty's Dominions, to begin at the distance of one hundred miles Westward of the Westerly boundaries of Pennsylvania and thence extend one hundred miles to the West ward of Mississippi and to be divided from Virginia and Carolina by the great chain of mountains that run along the Continent from the Northeast to the Southwest parts of America' and hath represented and set forth the ends and motives, as well as the general plan thereof; and that as it is apprehended the said country, or a considerable part thereof, is situate and comprehended within the ancient lines and boundaries of the grant made by the Royal Charter given by his late Majesty, King Charles the Second, to the Governour and Company of this Colony, in the year of our Lord 1602; so there may arise an objection against his proceeding in so important an undertaking, unless the same be removed; and therefore has petitioned this Assembly for a grant or release to him of such right or claim as is, or may be supposed to be vested in said Governour and Company, that he might without any objections from that quarter, make his humble applications to his Majesty for his Royal grant and favour in the premises for the end and purposes aforesaid, as by the said Memorial and Scheme thereto annexed. Reference being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.

Whereupon this Court having taken the matter into their serious consideration, and apprehending the settlement of a Colony in the country aforesaid, with such limits and boundaries as his Majesty shall think proper on the plan aforesaid, or in some measure agreeable there to, for the investing and securing of the rights, properties, and privileges of the Settlers, will greatly promote his Majesty's interest; secure his Dominions; and have a most happy tendency for the protection and defence of the British Plantations in America and be aneminent means to win and invite the Natives of the country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind, and the Christian faith, and therein answer that which is expressed in the said Royal Charter to be the principal end of this Plantation; therefore this Court do most humbly recommend the said Samuel Hazard and those who may undertake with him in this great and important design, to his sacred Majesty's gracious favour and notice; and if it may be consistent with his Royal wisdom and pleasure to order and direct the settlement of a Colony in the country, or part thereof; and grant unto said Petitioner, and those who shall engage therein, such lands, rights, privileges, and immunities as his Majesty shall be graciously pleased to determine for the purpose aforesaid,

This Court do declare their free consent thereunto; and for promo ting so extensive and beneficent a design, do freely relinquish and give up to the said Samuel Hazard for himself and in trust for those concerned and to be engaged therein all the right claim or challenge that is or may be made to such country or territories as his Majesty shall judge proper to settle as aforesaid by the Governour and Company aforesaid or any from them that no objection or obstruction may arise be made or suggested against so great a service for our King and country on account of such claim or right or by pretence or colour thereof.

Provided the Petitioner obtain his Majesty's Royal Grant and order for settling the said Colony, and proceed therein, under, and according to such limitations, restrictions, and orders, as his Majesty shall be pleased to appoint.

That the said Samuel Hazard having obtained from the General Assembly the before recited release of their claim; and in confident dependence upon it, proceeded in the matter with a; spirit becoming the importance of the undertaking; and at a very great expense of money and time, and with much trouble, procured the subscription of between four and five thousand persons, able to bear arms, some of whom were worth thousands, and great numbers of persons of the best character for sobriety and religion, among whom were fifteen ministers; and some "bore publick offices in Pennsylvania and New-Jersey; all of whom agreed to remove with their families to the proposed Colony, and become settlers there, as your Honours' Memorialist collects from copies of his father's Letters now in his possession.

That, as your Honours' Memorialist well remembers, the said Samuel Hazard had frequent meetings of Indians at his house, with whom he treated about the said country and territories.

That it appears from the said Samuel Hazard's Letters, that he personally explored that part of the country proposed for the situation of the new Colony; that he had corresponded with some of the nobility, and with other persons of note and influence in England who appear to have favoured and encouraged the design; and that having, as he apprehended, brought the scheme to a proper degree of maturity, he proposed embarking for England in the fall of the year 1758, in order to procure its final accomplishment.

That his death, in July 1758, prevented his completing his design, and your Memorialist was left an infant, and his father's associates without a guide sufficient to conduct so important an enterprise.

That your Honours' Memorialist proposes carrying into execution the Plan laid by his father, as nearly as the alteration of the times and circumstances of things will permit. He does not mean to trouble your Honours with a tedious repetition of the many and cogent arguments urged by his deceased father in his Memorial, in favour of such settlement; nor minutely to show how far the same reasons still operate respecting the prosecution of that design. These must be fresh in your Honours' memories, as the Petition and Plan annexed have been just now read in your hearing. He begs leave, however, just to observe, that they all remain in equal force at this day, that of making the proposed settlement a frontier against the French only excepted; instead of which the cession of Territory West of the Mississippi by the last Treaty of Peace, to the French and the subsequent one made by them of the same territory, to the Crown of Spain is worthy of serious consideration. He begs leave further to suggest, under this head, the peculiar necessities of the present times, as an additional reason for the immediate settlement of the Western lands. Many who are otherwise disposed, are thereby obliged to turn their attention to agriculture; and for these a proper provision is now more than ever become necessary; as the experience of the present day demonstrates that populous sea-port Towns cannot now, as formerly, afford employment to multitudes of industrious Mechanicks; and, instead of serving as a protection and defence for us, are used by the enemies of America as their most effectual engine at once to crush our manufactures and subvert our liberty.

That your Memorialist has already considerable interest engaged towards making the proposed settlement, and apprehends, that adding such persons in this Colony as would join in the undertaking, to such of his father's associates as still remain and are willing to proceed upon this business, he could, in a reasonable time, have two thousand actual settlers upon the land, which may now, with great propriety, be styled a vacuum domicilium as it has no Christian or civilized inhabitants, and but very few even of the natives now remain there.

That your Honours' Memorialist apprehends his Majesty, considering what has been already done respecting this matter, and for political reasons, which it is unnecessary to mention at present, would be easily induced to grant liberty of erecting a new Colony to the Westward of Pennsylvania; but, as your Honours' Memorialist considered himself as under obligations to the Colony of Connecticut for their kindness to his father, and thinks himself in honour bound to consult their interest as well as his own, he wishes not to be obliged to carry the matter to England; but proposes to your Honours a settlement under the claim and jurisdiction of the Colony of Connecticut and humbly offers to your Honours' consideration the following conditions, viz:

1st. That whereas the Honourable General Assembly, at their meeting in May 1755, released to your Memorialist's father their claim to lands, beginning at the distance of one hundred miles Westward of the Westerly bounds of Pennsylvania and thence to extend one hundred miles to the Westward of Mississippi. And whereas, by the last Treaty of Peace, the one hundred miles beyond the Mississippi included in the aforesaid release, were ceded by the Crown of Great Britain to France; that, therefore, a release or quit-claim may be given by your Honours to your Memorialist and his associates, of the right of the Governour and Company to lands beginning at the Western boundary of Pennsylvania and thence extending to the Mississippi.

2d. That your Honours' Memorialist and his associates, or their attorney, may have uninterrupted access to and