and the minister, than they have had. 8.  That the business meetings for the tribe, have been held off the plantation, at an expense to them. 9.  That their Fishery has been neglected and the whites derived the most benefit from it. [The Overseers admit that the Herring Fishery has not been regulated for fifty years, although in 1763, it appears it was deemed a highly important interest, and in 1818, the Commissioners reported that it ought to be regulated for the benefit of the Indians to the exclusion of the whites.] 10.  That the laws discourage their people, who leave the plantation on that account. 11.  That men out of the tribe are paid for doing what those in it are capable of doing for the plantation. 12.  That the whites derive more benefit than themselves, from their hay, wood and timber. 13.  That the influence of the whites has been against them, in their petitions for the past years. 14.  That they believe they have been wronged out of their property. 15.  That they want the Overseers discharged, that they may have a chance to take care of themselves. 16.  That very many of their people are sober and industrious, and able and willing to do, if they had the privilege.  All these statements will be found abundantly proved.

This memorial comes directly from the Indians.  It was drawn up among them without the aid of a single white man.  They applied to me to prepare it for them.  They happened to select me, as their counsel, simply because I was born and brought up within a few miles from their plantation, and had known their people from my infancy.  I told them to present their grievances in their own way, and they have done so.  Not a line of the memorial was written for them.

On the other side, opposite to their memorial for self-government, is the remonstrance of Nathan Pocknet and forty-nine others, the same Nathan Pocknet, who in 1818 petitioned for the removal of the Overseership.  This remonstrance was not prepared by the Indians.  It came wholly from the Rev. Mr. Fish, and the Overseers.  It speaks of the “unprecedented impudence” of the Indians, and mentions a “Traverse Jury.”  No one who signed it, had any voice in preparing it.  It shows ignorance of the memorial of the tribe, by supposing they ask for liberty to sell their lands; and ignorance of the law, by saying that the Overseers have not power to remove nuisances from the plantation.

This remonstrance is signed by fifty persons, sixteen males and thirty-four females; seventeen can write.  Of the signers, ten belong to Nathan Pocknet’s family.  Ten of the males are Proprietors, of whom two are minors, and one a person non compos.  Of the non-proprietors, one is a convict, recently released from State prison, who has no right on the Plantation.  Two of the Proprietors, who signed this remonstrance, (John Speen and Isaac Wickham,) have since certified that they understood it to be the petition for Mr.