and witnesses qualifying themselves, according to their conscientious persuasion, either by oath or the affirmation allowed by Act of Parliament to those called Quakers in England. Not even was the affirmation formerly desired by the radical Quakers made sufficient.

This, however, was done by an act of 1724, which remained in force. On May 26, 1719, the Act of May 31, 1718, was confirmed by the Regents of Great Britain. Following proposal by Keith, after hearing of the Crown's repeal of the laws of 1715 for courts, the Assembly resolved that the Governor be desired to open and hold a Court of Equity for the Province with the assistance of such of his Council as he should think fit, except those who had heard the same case in an inferior court. The Council adopted the suggestion, and, at the Governor's desire, established that as often as he should sit in Chancery he should be attended by all the Councillors in or near Philadelphia, and that there should be no decree made but by him as Chancellor with the concurrence of two at least of the six eldest Councillors, and that any one of the six might be employed by him as Master in Chancery. Accordingly, on Aug. 25, 1720, this court was established. Keith had not been prepared for the profession of law, nor had any of the six eldest Councillors. We shall see that the Court lasted under this and the next Lieutenant until 1736. It was the only separate equity tribunal which ever existed in Pennsylvania, the courts of law before and since being authorized to exercise equity jurisdiction, and some kinds of equitable relief being secured through a method of using common law forms, but the foreclosure of mortgages being by a proceeding under the Act of 1705 upon the common law writ of scire facias.

In the Lower Counties also, the aforesaid law as to crimes was in substance enacted; and the Court of Chancery had jurisdiction.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE IRISH AND THEIR KIRK.

The Southern Indians-Few whites west of the lower Pequea before 1719-Plight of the Indians on the lower Susquehanna and near the Potomac -Great quit claim by the Delawares-Pennsylvania Indians told not to aid the Five NationsArrival of the Scotch-Irish-The Tennent family -William Tennent Jr.'s vision-Origin and religion of the new immigrants, and prevailing cause for leaving Ireland - Pennsylvania government wishes its Indians not to die off-The Cayuga claim to the Susquehanna-Pennsylvania raises a militia -The Irish sent to Donegal for defence-Keith makes peace for the Pennsylvania Indians with those of Virginia-The Five Nations become reasonable Pennsylvania coerces whites offending Indians A Seneca killed-Treaty of AlbanyRatification of Virginia's proposals-Overwhelming continuation of Irish immigration-Provides the rural free labor, and protects the Penn boundary claim-New Presbyterian places of worship and congregations-Theological and ecclesiastical attitude and influence of Scotch and Irish ministers-Synods of 1733 and 1734 take up question of personal religion-Hemphill-Further examination of those ordained in Ireland sine tituloQuestion of college education-New Brunswick Presbytery is established, and disobeys the Synod -Whitefield and Gilbert Tennent oppose majority of Presbyterian ministers-The split into "Old Side" and "New Side"-The academy in Chester County, afterwards at Newark, Delaware.

The homes of the Shawnees, Ganawese, Delawares, and Mingoes on the slopes of the lower Susquehanna, and their hunting-grounds over the crest towards the Potomac, lay between the country proper of the Five Nations and that of the Southern Indians, so as to be unsafe during the wars between those rivals. At the southernmost end of the British possessions was the powerful tribe known to us as the Cherokees, of Iroquoian stock, who, calling themselves Tsalegi or Tsaragi, have been identified with the Alligewi, mentioned in the tradition of the Lenni Lenape as driven by the latter from Pennsylvania. The great mountain range of the Alleghanies perpetuates the name of these early owners. Between, however, this tribe in its XVIIIth Century location and the Potomac were the Southern Indians with whom we are now concerned. They were mostly of a different stock than Iroquoian or Algonquian, being now called Siouan after their kindred the Sioux, and, while all called Tuteloes by the Iroquois, were mainly in two great tribes, the Catawbas and the Tuteloes proper with the latter's close kindred the Saponi.

On the aforesaid frontier of Pennsylvania, we hear of no injuries at first to the persons or property of white men, of whom, besides those trading with the Indians, only a few stragglers were seating themselves as far west as the lower Pequea before 1719. Most of these pioneers had previously lived in the more thickly settled part of the dominion, and most appear to have been Quakers. The earliest warrant affecting the region in question issued in a decidedly Scotch name, and perhaps for a Scotch Irishman, was dated 4 mo. 12, 1717, for surveying 200 acres at Conestoga for Colum Macnair, or, as the Penn accounts call his surname, Macquare, late of West Jersey.

The Indians of the region suffered not merely as neutrals might have done, but as allies of the Five

Nations; for, when the warriors of the latter passed through the tributaries' villages, and appealed to the savages' passion for fighting, or reproached the younger men for want of spirit, recruits were obtained. Not these alone met with casualities, but the non-combatants at home were thus confounded by the enemy with the nations that had sent out the expeditions. By the disgraceful policy of enlisting Indians against Indians, the Five Nations were induced to take up the hatchet in alliance with the government of Virginia against the Catawbas. After the Lieutenant-Governor of that colony, Alexander Spotswood, had entered into peace negotiations with the Catawbas, an advanced body of Mohawks and Senecas, ignorant of this, and bent upon revenging a murder of ambassadors, attacked near Fort Christianna in Virginia, on April 10, 1717, some Catawbas who had surrendered their firearms, and given hostages. Six Catawbas were killed, and two carried off to the Mohawk country. Soon afterwards, an innocent Pennsylvania Indian, son of Owechela, the Delaware, while hunting beyond the furthermost branch of the Potomac, was murdered and decapitated by Virginia Indians accompanying a small troop of Virginia horsemen. This took place while Keith was on the ocean, coming to take the government of Pennsylvania. It is not asserted, but it would appear, that the cavalcade was the escort of Capt. Christopher Smith, who had been sent to the Five Nations by Lieut. Gov. Spotswood to inquire into the attack upon the disarmed Catawbas, to recover the prisoners, and to ask for an embassy to come to Virginia to make a treaty of peace. The Pennsylvania Indians about the Conestoga sent word to Philadelphia, not certain of the nationality of the white horsemen, and therefore alarmed at the possibility of destruction by an adverse European nation. The Mingoes, for the others, told Lieutenant-Governor Keith,

who met them at Conestoga on July 18, 1717, that, if such whites were English, they, the Mingoes, Delawares, Shawnees, and Ganawese, would inquire no further.

To Conestoga then also repaired Capt. Smith, who was on his way homeward, having received at Albany the promise of the Five Nations not to attack the Virginians or their friends, but having to report objection by the Five Nations to any treaty of peace being made elsewhere than at Albany. He had heard that Shawnees were participants in the attack upon the Catawbas, and he now asked to be allowed to treat with the Shawnees represented at Conestoga. Keith was told by the Shawnees in attendance that six Shawnees, who lived much higher up the Susquehanna, had been with the attacking party, but had stopped at a creek, and knew nothing until the Iroquois, eighteen in number, had returned with prisoners; nor did the Shawnees know anything about certain other hostilities committed in Virginia, and the only prisoner they had belonging to any tribe in amity with Virginia was a Catawba taken as a small lad, who had forgotten his native language, but who would be returned, if the King of the Catawbas would come, and make peace. Keith told Capt. Smith that he did not think it necessary or useful that anybody should treat with the Indians except the Governors of the provinces to which they respectively belonged; however, he would attempt to make any reasonable treaty for the benefit of the Indians of Virginia that Governor Spotswood would suggest. Keith reminded the chiefs that all the colonies from New England to South Carolina, both inclusive, were subject to the great King and Emperor of the English, so when any of these colonies made a treaty of friendship with Indians, it was made for the benefit of all the colonies, and of all the Indians in league with any of them. Accordingly, he explained,