their condition, and what their interest and comfort required.
He was especially charged to represent to them the parental
feelings and regard of the government of the Commonwealth
towards them; to assure the head men, that, if the Overseers
appointed by the State, had been unjust or unkind, they should
forthwith be removed, and others appointed in their stead, and
the wrongs sustained at their hand amply redressed, but
that the guardianship, originally imposed for their security
against the frauds and wicked devices of unprincipled white
men, and continued under frequent assurances, _by the Indians
themselves_, of its necessity, could not be suspended by the
authority of the Governor and Council. That this rested with
the Legislature, to which, after careful investigation of
their complaints, a proper representation would be made by
the Executive. He was also directed to caution them against
heeding the counsels of those who would excite them to
disquiet in their present situation, and to admonish them,
that disorder and resistance to any rightful authority would
meet with immediate and exemplary correction, through the
civil tribunals.

On reaching the plantation, the agent found these deluded
people in a state of open rebellion against the government of
the State, having with force, seized upon the Meeting-house,
rescued from the Overseers a portion of property in their
possession, chosen officers of their own, and threatened
violence to all who should attempt to interfere with them,
in the measures of _self-government_ which they had assumed.
These threatenings and outrages had already created great
alarm among the white inhabitants in the neighborhood, and