Header img
Beyond Penn's Treaty

Joshua Sharpless diaries, Vol. 1 1798

Page out of 92

on it, would also be theirs, when we left it, & in order to
know where it would be best for our young Men to
settle and make a beginning, we must look a little
about their Country & go to their upper town, and
we desired some of their chiefs might go along with
us, & help to agree on some suitable places where
our friends could be of most use to their people in
general. To which they readily agreed. We next
inform’d that we had a number of Plough Irons, hoes, aces
Scythes & other farming utensils, coming up in a boat,
besides carpenters, Mason, & Cooperstools, which were
intended for their use & would be left with them &
never taken away again, but that we thought it
best, & most for their Good, to leave them particu-
larly under our friends care & not to give them away
at present, but only to lend them, that they might
have the use of them , for they knew that some of
their young Men were not so good as they should
be, and if these things were divided amongst them
some might pawn them away for whisky & then
they would be as bad off as they were before they got
them. At this observation some of their old Men
and chiefs appeared to express their approbation
whilst some of their young Men manifested their
sen