[Warriors] of the Chickasaw Nation. [The Pr]esident your father has considered the talk delivered by Piomingo, Olinatahe, Mink[undecipherable: natahe?], Major George Colbert, Thomas Brown, John Brown, & George Augusta the 24^th November last. In that talk it is said that your chiefs, on their way to see him, found the road crowded with people going to Cumberland; and that they wished the boundary line between your nation and the United States to be run. Your Father knows that a great many people go back every year towards the Indian country; these cannot be kept at home, but he will as soon as possible have the boundary line run and marked that so none [undecipherable] shall have any excuse for trespassing on your land from ignorance. He will besides employ all the means in his power to protect your land from intrusion which he hopes will prove effectual. Since the departure of Piomingo, your Father has had a talk with those who remained after him. They have wished to know when the Spaniards would leave the Chickasaw Bluff. This your Father could not tell them. He has made a treaty with the King of Spain, a copy of which he has sent to you, by M^r M[undecipherable], in which the King of [undecipherable] promises to leave that Post: but as the order is [to] come a great way, to the Garrison, the evacuation may not be as soon as has been promised. By the [undecipherable] you will see in it, the United [undecipherable] King of Spain have agreed to run and mark the boundary [line] between their country from the United States. [The running] of this line is very important to all the [na]tions as well as to the United States, because it will take away in future all pretext from [undecipherable] for interfering on our side of the line. Your Chiefs have asked that the Fort at the Chickasaw Bluff should be demolished when given up by the Spaniards. To this it has been answered: if the Spaniards should leave it before the boundary line shall be settled, between the United States & Spain, that it will only be held by the United States till such time as that line is run and settled. If however the Chickasaws will be [as?] kind to the United States [as?] Spain, and are not willing that they should hold it for that short time, their Father will not insist upon it. But he expects that the nation will gratify his request, and send their answer to him or his agent, M^r Hawkins or to M^r Dinsmoor or the commanding Officer at Fort Massac. Some of your Chiefs have stated to your Father a claim against the State of South Carolina for land of theirs which that State has confiscated upon the plea that the Indians to whom it belonged had joined the British army during the great war which the United States had [with] England. As your Father wishes to see justice done, he will instruct his Secretary of War to send the claim to South Carolina, and will employ his good offices to obtain compensation to them for the land. George Colbert has already [undecipherable] upon the Cherokees for three Negroes [undecipherable] by some individual of the[m] [You und]erstand that some of the Chickasaws [re]ceived [them] taken from the Cherokees, and that [the] Negroes are with[held] till that account can be settled. If this account cannot be settled the President recommends it to the Chickasaws to pay George Colbert the value of his Negroes out of the annual present made to the nation. Your Father has requested the Secretary of War to mention to the Chickasaw nation that it will be proper that they should in future, once every year meet together before delivery of the presents, which he has promised them, to fix upon the persons who ought to receive them. In order to avoid confusion in this business, let their Interpreter write down the names of those the nation shall so fix upon, and give this [undecipherable] to the person whom the President [undecipherable] appoint to distribute the [goods] of which in conjunction will be given them. But this, and every thing else may be done according to the intention of the United States, he will direct his beloved agent Benjamin Hawkins, who he has [appointed] to reside among the Creeks, for the purpose of watching over the [inter]ests of all the Southern Indians, to visit his beloved Chickasaws from time to time; to see that presents have been properly distributed among them, and that nothing is wanting to their happiness which the United States can afford them. The President requests his Children the Chickasaws [to listen] to his beloved man, as often as he may [be] convenient to visit them or write to them and as often as they want any [undecipherable] States, to send their talks to him[,] [undecipherable] who resides with the Cherokees, or to [undecipherable] M^r Hawkins may appoint to [undecipherable] them. The President now wishes his Children a pleasant journey, and a happy meeting of their friends and families in the nation. Given at the War Office in Phila^a this nineteenth day of December 1796, and in the twenty first year of the Independence of the United States of America — Sign^d James McHenry [seal]