The following Proposals I think might be proper on Behalf of the Ohio Company—
If the original instructions from his late Majesty to Sr. Wm. Gooch, then Governor for Virga. are insisted upon, & no other Indulgencys are to be granted the Company in Consideration of the Expence we have been at, & the Discoverys we have made, then we have certainly a Right to the 500,000 Acres therein mentioned in as many different Surveys as the Company think fit; the Words "Grant or Grants" plainly bea[r]ing that Meaning, & being no Way inconsistent wth. the Laws & Customs of Virga.—but if the Words of the Instructions are to be taken in the confined Sense recommended by a former Report of the Lords of Trade, & we must take the Land in Tracts of 20,000 Acres, the Breadth 1/3d. of the Length; then Lands will not be worth our Acceptance, as we cou'd have taken them up upon much better Terms here, without any Application in England.
If the Government in England shou'd think the Company deserve further Indulgencys, & shou'd be inclined to make us an extensive Grant; then I shou'd approve of the following Terms—A Grant to be made the Company (naming the Members) according to the following Bounds—To begin where the pensilvania Line crosses the River Monongahaly, to run with the Pesilvania Line a due West Course to the River Ohio, & down the River Ohio to the Mouth of the great Conhaway, alias New River, or Woods River, & up the sd. River Conhaway to the Mouth of the Green Briar River, & from thence by a straight Line to the Beginning upon the River Monongahaly: in Consideration of which the Company will pay a Yearly Acknowledgment to the Crown in Lieu of Quit Rents, will make a Purchase of the Lands at their own Expence from the Indians, & procure their Protection & Influence in setling them; & will engage to settle 500 Familys thereon within the space of seven Years from the Date of their Grant. It is to be observed that these Bounds are as nearly comformable to the original Bounds mentioned in the Ohio Company's first Petition & the Royal Instructions as they can be, without interfering with Mr. Penn's Grant; which according to the Line lately run by the Commissioners between the Proprietors of Maryland & Pensilvania, includes part of the Lands formerly ordered to be granted to the Company, & at the same time is so contiguous to Virginia as to admit of being under the same Government.
The Pesilvania Charter (according to the Line lately run by the sd. Commissioner's) includes the Lands actually discovered & setled by the Company—between the River Monongahaly & Youyuagaine; & tho' the Proprietors of Maryland & Pesilvania both promised Mr. Hanbury decd. that they wou'd grant any of their Lands in that Country, that might happen to fall within their Limits, to the Company upon the same Terms that the Crown did; yet these Promises can't now be relyed on: which is the Reason we now propose to bind our Grant upon the Pensilvania Line.