The New York Genesee Land Company, led by John Livingston, was one of the competitors to acquire title to these lands. He gathered several of the chiefs together at Geneva. To circumvent New York state law that only permitted the state to buy land from the natives, he negotiated a lease for a term of 999 years for all the Iroquois lands of Western New York. This included a down payment of $20,000 and an annual payment of $200 to their heirs. But when New York state learned of his agreement, it advised all parties including the natives that the lease had no standing in either Massachusetts or New York.