conflict of the claims of Virginia and Pennsylvania, Connolly,
inspired by Dunmore without doubt, then issued an incendiary
circular (April 21, 1774), declaring a state of war to exist.
Just two weeks before the Battle of the Great Kanawha, Patrick
Henry categorically stated, in conversation with Thomas Wharton:

"that he was at Williamsburg with Ld. D. when Dr. Conolly first
came there, that Conolly is a chatty, sensible man, and informed
Ld. Dunmore of the extreme richness of the lands which lay on
both sides of the Ohio; that the prohibitory orders which had
been sent him relative to the land on the hither side (or
Vandalia) had caused him to turn his thoughts to the opposite
shore, and that as his Lordship was determined to settle his
family in America he was really pursueing this war, in order to
obtain by purchase or treaty from the natives a tract of
territory on that side; he then told me that he was convinced
from every authority that the law knew, that a purchase from the
natives was as full and ample a title as could be obtained, that
they had Lord Camden and Mr. York's opinion on that head, which
opinion with some others that Ld. Dunmore had consulted, and with
the knowledge Conolly had given him of the quality of the country
and his determined resolution to settle his family on this
continent, were the real motives or springs of the present
expedition."

At this very time, Patrick Henry, in conjunction with William
Byrd 3d and others, was negotiating for a private purchase of
lands from the Cherokees; and when Wharton, after answering
Henry's inquiry as to where he might buy Indian goods, remarked:
"It's not possible you mean to enter the Indian trade at this