Hear now, we beseech you, what has happened concerning that land. On the day in which we finished the treaty at Fort Stanwix, commissioners from Pennsylvania told our Chiefs that they had come there to purchase all the lands belonging to us within the lines of their State, and they told us that their line would strike the river Susquehanna, below Tioga Branch. They then left us to consider of the bargain till next day. On the next day, we let them know that we were unwilling to sell all the lands within their State, and proposed to let them have part of it, which we pointed out to them in their map. They told us that they must have the whole; that it was already ceded to them by the great King, at the time of making peace with you, and was _their own_; but they said that they would not take advantage of that, and were willing to pay us for it--after the manner of their ancestors. Our Chiefs were unable to contend at that time, and, therefore, they sold the lands up to the line which was then shown to them as the line of that State. What the commissioners had said about the land having been ceded to them at the peace, our Chiefs considered as intended only to lessen the price, and they passed it by with very little notice; but since that we have heard so much from others, about the right to our lands, which the King gave when you made peace with him, that it is our earnest desire that you will tell us what it means. Father! Our nation empowered JOHN LIVINGSTON to let out part of our lands on rent, to be paid to us. He told us that he was sent by Congress to do this for us, and we fear he has deceived us in the writing he has obtained from us. For since the time of our giving that power, a man of the name of PHELPS has come among us, and claimed our whole country, northward of the line of Pennsylvania, under purchase from that LIVINGSTON, to whom he said he had paid twenty thousand dollars for it. He said, also, that he had bought, likewise, from the Council of the Thirteen Fires, and paid them twenty thousand dollars more for the same. And he said, also, that it did not belong to us, for the great King had ceded the whole of it when you made peace with him. Thus he claimed the whole country north of Pennsylvania, and west of the lands belonging to the Cayugas. He demanded it; he insisted on his demand, and declared that he would have it _all_. It was impossible for us to grant him this, and we immediately refused it. After some days, he proposed to run a line at a small distance east-ward of our western boundary, which we refused to agree to. He then threatened us with immediate war if we did not comply.