T. Pickering to Henry Knox. Philad^a May 2^d 1792. Sir, Yesterday Good Peter handed me the inclosed speech made to & desired by Congress & the Board of War in Sept^r 1781. From Mr Kirkland's account, they have not received the promised "rewards", or as to other "consequences" of their attachment to us, & them they have not been "good", unless it is good for them to lose almost all their lands for a trifle. & have marked in the margin the passage on which they make their claims. Good Peter, & his friend Skenandoah (who is also here) have particular claims not only on the gratitude but the justice of the United States. For it seems they were sent at an early period in the late war revolution, by the Indian Commissioners for the Northern Department to Niagara. There they were eight or imprisoned many months, when liberated, not suffered to return to their own country till the war was over. I asked Mr. Kirkland what compensation he thought they would expect. He says that a year of corn or plough, or little cash, says the amount of sixty dollars in the whole, even, plough & each, for each would be satisfactory. I am Sir respectfully yours T.P. Gen^l Knox Sec. of War (From the draft or copy in Pickering's hand. Mass. Hist. Soc. Pickering Papers. 62: 31)