Journals of Conrad Weiser (1748), George Croghan (1750-1765), Christian Frederick Post (1758), and Thomas Morris (1764)

by George Croghan; Thomas Morris; Christian Frederick Post; Conrad Weiser

FOOTNOTES

[1] See [Weiser’s Journal, ante]; and Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 287, 295.

[2] Ibid., v, p. 387; Pennsylvania Archives, ii, p. 31.

[3] Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 432-449.

[4] See Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, p. 568.

[5] Ibid., p. 665.

[6] Pennsylvania Archives, ii, pp. 114, 689.

[7] Pennsylvania Colonial Records, vii, p. 355; New York Colonial Documents, vii, pp. 136, 174, 196, 211.

[8] Stone, Life of Johnson, ii, app., p. 457.

[9] New York Colonial Documents, vii, p. 624.

[10] Ibid., p. 603.

[11] Egle, Notes and Queries (Harrisburg, 1896) 3d series, ii, p. 348.

[12] For his descendants see Egle, Notes and Queries, 3d series, ii, p. 349.

[13] See Craig, The Olden Time, and the heterogeneous mass of Croghan’s writings therein printed.

[14] The following is reprinted from Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 496-498; also printed in Early History of Western Pennsylvania, app., pp. 21-29. The circumstances under which it was written are as follows: In the autumn of 1750, Conrad Weiser reported to the governor of Pennsylvania that the French agent Joncaire was on his way to the Ohio with a present of goods, and orders from the governor of Canada to drive out all the English traders. Accordingly, Governor Hamilton detailed Croghan and Montour to hasten thither, and by the use of a small present, and the promise of more, to try and counteract the intrigues of the French, and maintain the Indians in the English interest. Upon Croghan’s arrival at Logstown, he sent back this reassuring letter. Proceeding westward to the Muskingum, where he had a trading house at a Wyandot village, Croghan met Christopher Gist, agent for the Ohio Company, and with him continued to the Scioto, thence to the Twigtwee town of Pickawillany (near the present Piqua, Ohio). All the way, Croghan held conferences with the Delawares, Shawnees, Wyandots, and Twigtwees, strengthening the English alliance, and promising a large present of goods to be furnished next spring at Logstown. At Pickawillany, he made an unauthorized treaty with two new tribes who sought the English alliance—the Piankeshaws and Weas (Waughwaoughtanneys, French Ouiatonons). Unfortunately no extant document by Croghan adequately chronicles this journey. Our knowledge of it is derived from the journal of Gist (q. v.); from incidental notices in the Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 476, 485-488, 522-525; and from Croghan’s brief account, see [post].—Ed.

[15] In the original publication the month was misprinted December for November. See Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, p. 498, where the governor in a message to the Assembly speaks of Croghan’s letter from the Ohio of the sixteenth of November. Cf. also, Gist’s Journal, November 25, 1750, where he says that Croghan had passed through Logstown about a week before.—Ed.

[16] Philippe Thomas Joncaire (John Cœur), Sieur de Chabert, was a French officer resident among the Seneca Indians, to whose tribe his mother was said to belong. Born in 1707, on the death of his father (1740) he succeeded to the latter’s influence and authority among the Iroquois, and made constant efforts to neutralize the influence of Sir William Johnson, the English agent. Joncaire had a trading house at Niagara, and his profits from the portage of goods at that place were great. He accompanied Céloron’s expedition in 1749; and in 1753 met Washington at Venango. It was chiefly due to his influence that the Ohio Indians deserted the English at the outbreak of the French and Indian war. Joncaire led the Iroquois contingent in all the campaigns on the Allegheny and in Western New York; and when Prideaux and Johnson advanced against Niagara, he commanded an outpost at the upper end of the portage. He signed the capitulation of Fort Niagara (1759), but after that nothing further is known of him.—Ed.

[17] The town mentioned here was at the mouth of the Scioto River, and was known as “the lower Shawnee town.”—Ed.

[18] Detroit was considered an important station by La Salle; but no permanent post was established there until 1701, when De la Mothe Cadillac built a fort named Pontchartrain, and established the nucleus of a French colony. Bands of Indians were induced to settle at the strait; and here (1712) took place the battle of the Foxes with the Hurons and Ottawas. Detroit continued to be one of the most important French posts in the West until in 1760, when it was transferred to an English detachment under command of Major Rogers. See [Croghan’s Journal, post].

The siege of Detroit during Pontiac’s War is one of the best known incidents in its history. During the Revolution, the British officials here were accused of sending scalping parties against the frontier settlements; and in 1779 George Rogers Clark captured at Vincennes its “hair-buying” commandant, General Henry Hamilton. In 1780, an expedition against Detroit was projected by Clark, but failed of organization. Throughout the Indian wars of the Northwest, Detroit was regarded with suspicion by the Americans, and its surrender in 1796 secured a respite for the frontier. Its capitulation to the British by Hull (1812) was a blow to the American cause, which was not repaired until after Perry’s victory on Lake Erie, when Proctor evacuated Detroit, which was regained by an American force (September 29, 1813). Cass was then made governor. As American settlement came in, the importance of Detroit as a centre for the fur-trade declined, and its career as a Western commercial city began.—Ed.

[19] Captain William Trent was a noted Indian trader, brother-in-law and at this time partner of Croghan. Although born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (1715), he served the colony of Virginia as Indian agent; and in 1752 its governor dispatched him to the Miamis with a present. See Journal of Captain Trent (Cincinnati, 1871). The following year he was sent out by the Ohio Company to begin a fortification at the Forks of the Ohio, from which in Trent’s absence (April, 1754), the garrison was expelled by a French force under Contrecœur. Trent was with Forbes in 1758, and the following year was made deputy Indian agent, assistant to Croghan, and aided at the conferences at Fort Pitt in 1760. His trade was ruined by the uprising of Pontiac’s forces, but he received reparation at the treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) by a large grant of land between the Kanawha and Monongahela rivers, where he made a settlement. At the outbreak of the Revolution he joined the patriot cause, and was major of troops raised in Western Pennsylvania.—Ed.

[20] Governor James Hamilton was the son of a prominent Philadelphia lawyer, and being himself educated for the legal profession, held several offices in the colony before he was appointed lieutenant-governor in 1748. His administration was a vigorous one, but owing to difficulties with the Quaker party he resigned in 1754. Five years later he was reinstated in the office, and served until the proprietor John Penn came over as governor (1763). His death occurred at New York during the British occupation (1783).—Ed.

[21] This document is reprinted from Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 530-536; a portion of it is also to be found in Craig, The Olden Time (Pittsburg, 1846), i, p. 136, and a reprint in Early History of Western Pennsylvania, app., pp. 26-34. As the result of Croghan’s Western journey during the winter of 1750-51, and the desire of Pennsylvania to maintain its trade relations with the Ohio Indians, the Assembly voted £700 to be employed in presents; and the governor instructed Croghan and Montour to deliver the goods.—See Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 487, 518, 525, and [Croghan’s account, post]. The adroitness with which Croghan outwitted the French officer and interpreter Joncaire, and his influence over the chiefs on the Ohio, as well as the susceptibility of the Indian nature to the influence of material goods, are all exemplified in this narrative. It did not result, however, as Croghan and the governor wished, in inducing the Pennsylvania authorities to construct a fort on the Ohio. The beginnings of that enterprise were left to the Virginians, but too late to secure the Forks of the Ohio from being seized by the French.—Ed.

[22] The commandant of this famous expedition (1749) was Pierre Joseph Céloron, Sieur de Blainville, born in 1693, and having served a long apprenticeship in the posts of the upper country. He commanded an invasion of the Chickasaw country (1739), and had charge of the post at Detroit in 1742-43, and again in 1750-54. Fort Niagara was entrusted to him in 1744-47, whence he was transferred to Crown Point, until his Ohio expedition took place. In the French and Indian War he held the rank of major, and served on the staff of the commander-in-chief. He died about 1777. In 1760, the Canadian authorities characterized him as “poor and brave.” Some question has arisen, whether the leader of this expedition might not have been a younger brother, Jean Baptiste. For Croghan’s visit to the Ohio directly after Céloron’s expedition had passed, see [post]; also, Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, p. 387, and Pennsylvania Archives, ii, p. 31.—Ed.

[23] The Onondaga Council was the chief governing body of the Six Nations, or Iroquois, and since this confederacy assumed supremacy over the Ohio Indians, it was the chief centre of Indian diplomacy. The council house was situated on the site of the present town of Onondaga, New York, and was about eighty feet long, with broad seats arranged on each side. For an early description see Bartram, Observations, etc. (London, 1751), pp. 40, 41.—Ed.

[24] Galissonière, the governor of Canada, who planned Céloron’s expedition to the Ohio, was superseded in the autumn of 1749 by Jacques Pierre de Taffanel, Marquis de la Jonquière, who continued the policy of the former; he sent orders to the commandants of the Western posts to arrest all British subjects found in the Ohio Valley. La Jonquière, who was born in 1686, had served in the French navy with distinction, and after his first commission as governor of New France was captured by an English vessel (1747), and kept a prisoner for more than a year, so that he did not reach his post until 1749. His term of service was but two years and a half, being terminated by his death in May, 1752.—Ed.

[25] This Dunkar (or Dunker) was doubtless Samuel Eckerlin one of three brothers who migrated from Ephrata about 1745, and ultimately settled on the Monongahela about ten miles below Morgantown, West Virginia. The Dunkers were a sect of German Baptists that arose in the Palatine about 1708, and migrated to Pennsylvania in 1719. Their formal organization took place at a baptism on the banks of Wissahickon Creek (near Philadelphia) in 1723. There were several divisions of this sect, one of which founded the community of Ephrata. Their tenets were baptism by immersion, a celibate community life, and refusal to bear arms. The Eckerlin brothers sought a solitary wilderness life, and at first were regarded with favor by the Ohio Indians. A massacre, however, demolished their settlement in 1757. Three of the party were captured, and sent as prisoners to Canada, and later to France. For details see Sachse, German Sectarians of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1900), ii, pp. 340-359.—Ed.

[26] For an account of this chief see [Weiser’s Journal, ante].—Ed.

[27] Indians receive a speech with grunts of approval, which the French annalists spelled “ho-ho.” Croghan is apparently giving the English rendering of this term.—Ed.

[28] This letter accompanied the preceding journal, and was written on Croghan’s return to the settlements. Pennsboro was the district in Cumberland County west of the Susquehanna, in which Croghan’s home was at this time situated.—Ed.

[29] The letter from Joncaire here referred to, is printed in French in Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, p. 540. It consists merely of a statement of the French right to the Ohio Valley, and of the orders of the governor of Canada to permit no English to trade therein.—Ed.

[30] This journal is reprinted from the Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 731-735 (also found in Early History of Western Pennsylvania, app., pp. 50-53), and chronicles a material change of affairs on the Ohio since the last account written by Croghan. Then the English interests were in the ascendency, and the French were being flouted and driven from the headwaters of the Ohio. But the division in English councils, the supineness of the colonial assemblies, and the active preparation and determined advance of the French into the upper Ohio Valley had had its effect upon the Indian tribes. Two years before, Trent had reported all the Ohio tribes secure in the English interest; but the same year an expedition from Detroit had moved against the recalcitrant Miamis (Twigtwees), and after inflicting a severe chastisement had secured them again to the French control, as Croghan herein reports. Early the following year the French expedition under Marin had advanced to take forcible possession of the Ohio country, and begin the chain of posts necessary to its defense. Presqu’isle and Le Bœuf had been built, while a deputation under Joncaire had seized the English trader’s house at Venango, and placed a French flag above it. A large number of the Indians, frightened at this show of force, yielded to the threatenings and cajoleries of the French officers. A small party, hoping to obtain aid from the English colonists, had sent off a deputation in the autumn of 1753 to meet the Virginia authorities at Winchester, and those of Pennsylvania at Carlisle, at both of which conferences Croghan was in attendance. The present which the Assembly of Pennsylvania had voted the preceding May (Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, p. 617) was cautiously given out, most of it consisting of powder and lead; it was feared with reason, that it might be used to the disadvantage of the back settlements. Croghan himself, although using every endeavor to fortify the Indians in the English alliance, lost heart at the dilatoriness of the Pennsylvania Assembly, some of whose members even doubted whether the land invaded did not rightfully belong to the French. He could wish with all his “hart Some gentleman who is an Artist in Philadelphia, and whos Acount wold be Depended on, whould have ye Curiosety to take a Journay in those parts,” in order to prove to the province (by means of a map) that the lands on which the French were building lay within their jurisdiction—(Pennsylvania Archives, ii, p. 132). Meanwhile, Washington had been sent out by Dinwiddie to summon the French to retire. Croghan, who reached this territory soon after Washington’s return, reports in the following journal the conditions on the Ohio.—Ed.

[31] A year and a half after this visit of Croghan’s, Turtle Creek was the site of Braddock’s defeat. For a description of the battle, and the present appearance of the site, see Thwaites, How George Rogers Clark won the Northwest and other Essays in Western History (Chicago, 1903), pp. 184, 185.

John Frazier, who had his house at the mouth of Turtle Creek, was a Pennsylvania trader, gunsmith, and interpreter, who had lived twelve years at Venango, whence he was driven by the invading French expedition the summer previous. He assisted Washington on his journey, and the next year (1754) was commissioned lieutenant of the militia forces under Trent’s command, that were to fortify the Forks of the Ohio.—Ed.

[32] The journal of Washington on this journey was on his return printed in Winchester (only two copies of which edition are known to be extant), also in London (1754). Frequent reprints have been made, and the journal has been edited by Sparks, Rupp, Craig, Shea, and Ford. The journal of Gist, who accompanied Washington, is found in Darlington’s Gist, pp. 80-87. Croghan gives a concise summary of Washington’s mission and its results.—Ed.

[33] John Patten was a Pennsylvania Indian trader, who was captured in the Miami towns by the order of the French governor (1750). He and two companions were carried to Canada, and afterwards sent to France, being imprisoned at La Rochelle, whence they appealed to the English ambassador who secured their release. See New York Colonial Documents, x, p. 241. Patten had at this time been sent to the Ohio with the Shawnee prisoners from South Carolina. See Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 730, 731.—Ed.

[34] Six Shawnee Indians had been arrested on suspicion of being concerned in a raid, and confined in the Charleston, South Carolina, jail. On the request of Governor Hamilton, two were released and sent to Philadelphia to be delivered to their kinsfolk. The other four made their escape. See Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 696-700.—Ed.

[35] The Half-King was a prominent Seneca or Mingo chief, whose home was at Logstown. He was faithful to the English interest, and accompanied Washington both on his journey of 1753 and his expedition of 1754; upon the latter, he claimed to have slain Jumonville with his own hand. He was decorated by the governor of Virginia in recognition of his services, and given the honorary name of “Dinwiddie” in which he took great pride. When the French secured the Ohio region, he removed under Croghan’s protection to Aughwick Creek, where he died in October, 1756.—Ed.

[36] The Chickasaws were a tribe of Southern Indians, domiciled in Western Tennessee and Northern Mississippi, who were traditional allies of the English and enemies of the French. After the Natchez War in Louisiana, the remnant of that tribe took refuge with the Chickasaws, who inflicted a severe defeat upon the French (1736), capturing and burning a Jesuit priest and several well-known officers.—Ed.

[37] The Ottawas were an Algonquian tribe, domiciled in Michigan about the posts of Mackinac and Detroit. Faithful to the French interests, they were doubtless acting under the directions of their commandants in gathering to attack the Shawnees on the Scioto—Ed.

[38] Lewis Montour, a brother of Andrew, had come the previous autumn to the governor of Pennsylvania, with a message purporting to have been sent by the Ohio Indians; they were represented as requesting help against the French, and the building of forts on the river, and as offering all the lands east of the river to pay the debts of the traders. As the character of those who claimed to have obtained this treaty was open to suspicion, the governor had sent Croghan and Andrew Montour to ascertain the truth of the matter. The unauthorized insertion of so great a land grant, is a good specimen of the methods by which the unprincipled traders sought to take advantage of the Indians. See Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 691-696.—Ed.

[39] Shingas, brother of King Beaver, was one of the principal leaders of the Delaware Indians on the Ohio, where he had a town at the mouth of Beaver Creek. Shortly after this meeting with Croghan, he deserted to the French, and his braves were a terror to the border settlers. Governor Denny of Pennsylvania set a price of £200 upon his head. Post had a conference with Shingas (1758), and persuaded him to return to the English alliance; nevertheless, at the occupation of the Forks of the Ohio by the English, Shingas with his band retreated to the Muskingum. The last mention of him seems to be in 1762 (Pennsylvania Colonial Records, viii, p. 690), and he appears to have died before the conspiracy of Pontiac (1763), in which his tribe took part.—Ed.

[40] This letter is reprinted from Pennsylvania Colonial Records, vi, pp. 642, 643. In the interval between this and the preceding document, momentous events, in which Croghan had a full share, had occurred on the Ohio. The governor of Virginia had engaged him to act as interpreter in Colonel Washington’s army—see “Dinwiddie Papers,” Virginia Historical Collections (Richmond, 1883-84), i, p. 187—and he had been present at the affair of the Great Meadows. During the period between this and Braddock’s expedition, Croghan had been busily employed in bringing over as many Indians as possible to the English cause, and he had led the Indian contingent to Braddock’s aid (see [post]). After the battle of the Monongahela, Croghan returned to his home at Aughwick Creek, caring at his own expense for the few Indians who remained firm in the English interest, and planning to defend his settlement by a stockade fort. A bill for his relief (he had lost all of his trading equipment) passed the Pennsylvania Assembly. Although holding no provincial office, his knowledge of the frontier situation was much relied on in this extremity.—Ed.

[41] This stockade fort was built on Aughwick Creek, where stands the present town of Shirleysburg. It was known first as Fort Croghan, then a private enterprise; but later in the same year (1755), a fort was built on this site by order of the government and named for General Shirley, commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America. Governor Morris wrote, after a visit to this fort in January, 1756, that seventy-five men were garrisoned therein (Pennsylvania Archives, ii, p. 556). It was appointed as the rendezvous for Armstrong’s expedition against Kittanning in August of this same year; but by October 15 the site had grown so dangerous that the governor ordered it abandoned.—Ed.

[42] This account of the situation on the Ohio, obtained from the journey of a Delaware Indian, is reprinted from Pennsylvania Colonial Records, vi, pp. 781, 782. Since the last letter written by Croghan, the Assembly had passed a militia bill (November, 1755), and Franklin had been commissioned to take charge of the erection of a series of frontier forts. Croghan was commissioned captain, and promptly raising a company, entered with zeal upon the work. For his instructions, see Pennsylvania Archives, ii, p. 536.—Ed.

[43] Robert Hunter Morris, son of Lewis Morris, prominent colonial statesman and governor of New Jersey, was born at Morrisania, New York, about 1700. Having been educated for the law, he became chief-justice of New Jersey (1738), a position held until his death in 1764. The Pennsylvania proprietors chose him as lieutenant-governor to succeed Hamilton in 1754; during his term of office he vigorously defended the province, but engaged in constant disputes with the Quaker party in the Assembly. The annoyance arising from this caused him to resign in 1756.—Ed.

[44] King Beaver (Tamaque) was head chief of the Delaware Indians on the Ohio, with headquarters at the mouth of Beaver Creek. He was somewhat half-hearted in the English service, but protested his desire to preserve the alliance until after Braddock’s defeat, when he openly took the hatchet against the English settlements. Post met him upon the Ohio in 1758, and secured a conditional agreement to remain neutral; but after the English occupation of the Forks of the Ohio, he retreated to the Muskingum, where a town was named for him. He took part in the treaties with the English in 1760 and 1762; but was one of the ring-leaders in the conspiracy of Pontiac (1763). After Bouquet’s advance into his territory, he reluctantly made peace, and delivered up his English prisoners. He died about 1770, having in his later years passed under the influence of the Moravian missionaries, and become one of their most eminent disciples.—Ed.

[45] Fort Duquesne, built at the Forks of the Ohio in 1754, was first commanded by Contrecœur; but in the September following the battle of the Monongahela, Captain Dumas, who had distinguished himself at that engagement, was made commandant. He was an officer of great ability, and while he sent out parties against the frontier, his instructions to one subordinate (Donville, captured in 1756) were to use measures “consistent with honor and humanity.” Dumas was superseded in 1756 by De Ligneris, who remained in command at Fort Duquesne until ordered to demolish the post, and retire before Forbes’s advancing army (1758).—Ed.

[46] The Caghnawagos (Caughnawagas) were the Iroquois of the mission village of that name, about six miles above Montreal.—Ed.

[47] This reference is to the massacre of the Moravian settlers at Gnadenhütten, in November, 1755.—Ed.

[48] This paper is reprinted from New York Colonial Documents, vii, pp. 267-271. It accompanied a letter from Croghan to Sir William Johnson, in which he says, “Inclosed you have a copy of some extracts from my old journals relating to Indian Affairs, from the time of Mr. Hamilton’s arrival as Governour of this Province till the defeat of General Braddock; all which you may depend upon are facts, and will appear upon the records of Indian Affairs in ye several Governments.”

After Croghan had been commissioned captain by the Pennsylvania authorities, “he continued in Command of one of the Companies he had raised, and of Fort Shirley on the Western frontier about three months, during which time he sent, by my direction, Indian Messengers to the Ohio for Intelligence, but never procured me any that was very material, and having a dispute with the Commissʳˢ about some accounts between them, in which he thought himself ill-used; he resigned his commission, and about a month ago informed me that he had not received pay upon Genˡ Braddock’s warrant, and desired my recommendation to Genˡ Shirley, which I gave him, and he set off directly for Albany, & I hear is now at Onondago with Sʳ Wᵐ Johnson.”—(Letter of Governor Morris, July 5, 1756, in Pennsylvania Archives, ii, pp. 689, 690.)

Sir William Johnson, having more penetration than the Pennsylvania authorities as to the value of Croghan’s services, immediately appointed him his deputy, in which position he continued for several years. When he presented himself to the governor’s council in Philadelphia, December 14, 1756, “the Council knowing Mr. Croghan’s Circumstances was not a little surprised at the Appointment, and desired to see his Credentials”—(Pennsylvania Colonial Records, vii, p. 355). In regard to his services during this period, see New York Colonial Documents, vii, pp. 136, 174, 175, 196, 211, 246, 277, 280; Pennsylvania Colonial Records, vii, pp. 435, 465, 484, 506; viii, 175; Pennsylvania Archives, iii, pp. 319, 544.

Sir William Johnson was born in Ireland in 1715, came to New York at an early age, and settled as a trader in the Mohawk Valley. He was adopted into the Iroquois nation, and acquired power in their national councils, retaining them in the English interest during the French and Indian War. After the battle of Lake George, Johnson was rewarded with a baronetcy, and secured the surrender of Niagara in 1759. From that time until his death in 1774, he was occupied with Indian negotiations, chief of which was the treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768).—Ed.

[49] Donegal was an old town on the east side of the Susquehanna, situated between the Conewago and Chiques creeks, in the northwestern angle of the county of Lancaster (Scull’s Map of Pennsylvania), where these Indians have left their name to the Conoy, or as it is now called, Coney Creek. Memoirs of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, iv, part ii, p. 210. The Conoys were originally from Piscataway, in Maryland, whence they moved to an island in the Potomac, and, on the invitation of William Penn, removed to the Susquehanna—(Pennsylvania Colonial Records, iv, p. 657).—E. B. O’Callaghan.

[50] Christopher Gist was of English descent, and a native of Maryland. In early life he removed to the frontiers of North Carolina, where he became so expert in surveying and woodcraft, that he was employed for two successive years by the Ohio Company in inspecting and surveying the Western country. It was on his first journey (1750-51) that he encountered Croghan, when they travelled together to Pickawillany (the Twigtwee town), and Gist continued via the Scioto River and the Kentucky country back to Virginia. On the second journey (1751-52), he explored the West Virginia region. His most noted adventure was accompanying Major George Washington in the autumn of 1753 to the French forts in Northwest Pennsylvania. Earlier in the same year, Gist had made a settlement near Mount Braddock, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and under the auspices of the Ohio Company was enlisting settlers for the region. Eleven came out in the spring of 1754, and a stockade fort was begun. This was utilized during Washington’s campaign, but burned by the French after the defeat at Great Meadows. Gist later petitioned the Virginia House of Burgesses for indemnity, but his request was rejected. Both Gist and his son served with Braddock as scouts, and after his defeat, raised a company of militia to protect the frontiers. After serving for a time as deputy Indian agent for the Southern Indians, he died in 1759, either in South Carolina or Georgia. One of his sons was killed at the battle of King’s Mountain (1780).—Ed.

[51] For a copy of this treaty see Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 522-525. In regard to the rejection thereof, note that the governor in the speech made to the Twigtwees says it is approved. See [ante].—Ed.

[52] The records appear to bear out Croghan’s contention that he was given instructions to discuss the erection of a fort. See Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 522, 529. Historians admit that this neglect of the Indians’ request was attended with evil consequences to the English colonies, and Pennsylvania in particular. Consult Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 537, 547, for the Indian demand and the Assembly’s refusal.—Ed.

[53] On this conference at Logstown see Dinwiddie Papers, i, pp. 6, 7, 11, 22; Trent’s Journals, pp. 69-81; Gist’s Journals, pp. 231-234.—Ed.

[54] For the French sources of this expedition see New York Colonial Documents, x, pp. 255-257; Pennsylvania Archives (2d series), vi, pp. 161-164.—Ed.

[55] On the conferences at Winchester and Carlisle (1753), see Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 657, 665-684.—Ed.

[56] Colonel Thomas Cresap was a Yorkshireman who came to Maryland at an early age. Having settled within the territory in dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania, he became an aggressive leader of the forces of the former and was arrested by the Pennsylvania sheriff of Lancaster, where he spent several months in jail. Being released by an agreement between the proprietors of the two colonies (1739), he moved westward, and became the first permanent settler of Maryland beyond the mountains, taking up land at a deserted Shawnee village now called Oldtown. An active member of the Ohio Company, he was assisted by the Indian Nemacolin in blazing the first path west to the Ohio (1752). After the defeat on the Monongahela, Cresap moved back to the settlements on Conococheague Creek; but on the return of peace sought his former location, where he became a noted surveyor and frontiersman. His son Michael was likewise a well-known borderer and Indian fighter. For a complete biographical account, see Ohio Archæological and Historical Publications (Columbus, 1902), x, pp. 146-164.—Ed.

[57] The official report of these affairs is in Pennsylvania Colonial Records, vi, pp. 150-161, 180, 181, 186-191.—Ed.

[58] On Croghan’s relations to Braddock’s expedition, see Pennsylvania Colonial Records, vi, pp. 372, 381, 398; New York Colonial Documents, vi, p. 973.—Ed.

[59] Colonel James Innes was an elderly Scotch officer, who had served under the king’s commission in the West Indies, and had settled in North Carolina. He commanded the contingent from that colony that came to the assistance of Virginia in 1754. On the death of Colonel Joshua Fry, Dinwiddie appointed Innes, who was his personal friend, to the position of commander-in-chief of the colonial army, of which Washington was acting commandant. Innes got no further than Fort Cumberland, where he remained as commander of the fort, alternately appealing to his former royal commission, and to his colonial authorization, for authority to maintain his rank.—Ed.

[60] The years between the last document (1757) and the commencement of this journey (October 21, 1760) had been eventful ones for the future of American history. The French and Indian War, which until the close of 1757 had resulted only in a series of disasters to the English, was pursued with greater vigor when a change of administration sent able officers and leaders to America. The evacuation of Fort Duquesne (1758), the capture of Niagara and Quebec (1759), and the final capitulation of all Canada at Montreal (1760) gave the mastery of the continent to the English, and opened the portals of the West. Croghan was occupied during these momentous years with Indian negotiations of great importance. As deputy of Sir William Johnson, he endeavored to hold the Six Nations firm in their alliance, to pacify the frontier tribes, and finally to announce to the expectant savages the English victory, and their transfer to British authority. In 1757, he was employed in making peace with the Susquehanna Indians (Pennsylvania Colonial Records, vii, pp. 517-551, 656-714; Pennsylvania Archives, iii, pp. 248, 319; New York Colonial Documents, vii, pp. 321-324); and made a journey to Fort Loudoun, in Tennessee to sound the disposition of the Cherokees—(Pennsylvania Colonial Records vii, pp. 600, 630). His influence was relied upon to pave the way for Forbes’s army (1758), and he was present at the important treaty at Easton, in October of this year—(Pennsylvania Archives, iii, p. 429; Pennsylvania Colonial Records, viii, pp. 175-223; Stone, Life of Sir William Johnson, ii, p. 389). Croghan also accompanied Forbes’s expedition, and assisted in pacifying the Allegheny Indians. The journal in Pennsylvania Archives, iii, pp. 560-563, designated as Journal of Frederick Post from Pittsburgh, 1758, is really Croghan’s journal, as a comparison with Post’s journal for these dates will reveal. Early in the next year we find Croghan at Fort Pitt, holding constant conferences with Western Indians (Pennsylvania Colonial Records, viii, pp. 387-391; Pennsylvania Archives, iii, pp. 671, 744), where he remained until ordered to join the expedition sent out under Major Rogers to secure possession of Detroit and other Western posts, included in the capitulation at Montreal. The diary of this journey, which we here publish, is reprinted from Massachusetts Historical Collections, 4th series, ix, pp. 362-379. Other letters of Croghan’s are found in the same volume, pp. 246-253, 260, 266, 283-289. These all relate to Indian affairs, and the information being brought in by his scouts and messengers of conditions in the country lying westward—of the agitation, alarm, and confusion among the Indian hostiles, who were eager to give in their allegiance to their conquering English “brothers.” This journal of the voyage to Detroit admirably supplements that of Major Robert Rogers, commandant of the party which Croghan accompanied, whose account has been the standard authority. It was published in Dublin, 1770, and several reprints have been issued, the best of which is that edited by Hough, Rogers’s Journals, 1755-1760 (Albany, 1883).—Ed.

[61] Major Robert Rogers, the noted partisan leader, was born in New Hampshire. On the outbreak of the French and Indian War he raised a company of scouts known as “Rogers’s Rangers,” who did great service on the New York frontier. After receiving the surrender of Detroit and attempting in vain to reach Mackinac, he was again sent to Detroit to relieve the garrison in Pontiac’s War, after which he proceeded against the Cherokees in the South. About this time he was retired on half pay, and visited England, where he published his journals, and a Concise Account of North America. In 1766, he was assigned to the command of the important post of Mackinac, and there schemed to betray the fort to the Spaniards. The plot having been discovered, he was tried in Montreal, but secured an acquittal, when he visited England a second time, only to be thrown into prison for debt. During the Revolution he led a body of Loyalists, and having been banished from New Hampshire retired to England (1780), where he died about 1800.—Ed.

[62] Fort Presqu’ Isle was built by the French expedition under Marin in the spring of 1753, on the site of the present city of Erie, Pennsylvania. It was a post of much importance in maintaining the communication between Niagara, Detroit, and the Forks of the Ohio. After the fall of Fort Duquesne at the latter site (1758), a large garrison was collected at Fort Presqu’ Isle, and a movement to re-possess the Ohio country was being organized, when the capture of Niagara (1759) threw the project into confusion. Johnson sent out a party to relieve the French officer at this place, and a detachment of the Royal Americans commanded by Colonel Henry Bouquet advanced from Fort Pitt and took possession of the stronghold. The fort was captured by Indians during Pontiac’s conspiracy (June 17, 1763), as graphically related by Parkman. After this uprising, a British detachment controlled the place until the final surrender of the posts to the United States in 1796. Within the same year, General Anthony Wayne, returning from his fruitful campaign against the Indians, died in the old blockhouse of the fort. Some remains of the works are still to be seen at Erie.—Ed.

[63] Captain Donald Campbell was a Scotch officer who came to America with the 62nd regiment in 1756, and was made captain of the Royal Americans in 1759. After accompanying this expedition to Detroit (1760), he was left in command of that post (see letter from Campbell, Massachusetts Historical Collections, 4th series, ix, p. 382), and when superseded by Major Gladwin remained as lieutenant-commander. Leaving the fort on an embassy, during the Pontiac uprising (1763), he was treacherously seized, made captive, and cruelly murdered by the Indian hostiles. See Parkman, Conspiracy of Pontiac (Boston, 1851), chaps. 11 and 14.—Ed.

[64] Marin’s expedition (1753), that erected forts Presqu’ Isle and Le Bœuf, intended to plant a fort at Venango, at the junction of French Creek with the Allegheny; the first detachment sent out for that purpose was, however, repulsed by the Indians. When Washington visited the place (December, 1753), he found the French flag flying over the house of an English trader, Frazier, who had been driven from the spot. The following year, the French built an outpost on this site, and named it Fort Machault. When Post passed by here in 1758, he found it garrisoned by but six men and a single officer; see [post]. The French abandoned Fort Machault in 1759, and early the following spring the English built Fort Venango, about forty rods nearer the mouth of the creek. At the outbreak of Pontiac’s War, the latter fort was commanded by Lieutenant Gordon, and he with all the garrison were captured, tortured, and murdered by Indian foes. No fort was rebuilt at this place until late in the Revolution, when Fort Franklin was erected for the protection of the border, being garrisoned from 1788-96. The present town of Franklin was laid out around the post in 1795.—Ed.

[65] The French Fort Le Bœuf (technically, “Fort de la Rivière aux Bœufs”) was built by Marin (1753) on a creek of the same name, at the site of the present town of Waterford, the terminus of the road which Marin caused to be constructed south from Presqu’ Isle. This was the destination of Washington’s expedition in 1753, and here he met the French commandant, Legardeur de St. Pierre. The fort at this place was farmed out to a French officer, who superintended the portage of provisions from Lake Erie to the Ohio. Post found it garrisoned by about thirty soldiers in 1758; see [post]. The following year, after the French had abandoned it, a detachment of the Royal Americans went forward from Fort Pitt to occupy this stronghold; and three years later Ensign Price was beleaguered therein by the Indians, and barely escaped with his life after a brave but futile defense. The Indians destroyed Fort Le Bœuf by fire, and it was never rebuilt. In 1794, another fort with the same name was erected near the old site, and garrisoned until after the War of 1812-15. Subsequently the structure was used as a hotel, until accidentally burned in 1868.—Ed.

[66] General Robert Monckton, a son of the Viscount of Galway, began his military career by service in Flanders (1742). He came to America about 1750, and was stationed at Halifax, being appointed governor of Nova Scotia (1754-56). After being transferred to the Royal Americans (1757), he was at the siege of Louisburg in 1758, and the following year was made second in command for the capture of Quebec. Promoted for gallant services, he was placed in control of the Western department, and had headquarters at Fort Pitt, where Rogers had been detailed to seek him for orders with reference to the latter’s Western expedition. General Monckton was military governor of New York City, 1761-63. During that time he made an expedition to the West Indies, and captured Martinique. Returning to England he was made governor of Berwick (1766), and later of Portsmouth, which he represented in Parliament. He refused to take a commission to serve against the Americans in the Revolutionary War.—Ed.

[67] Captain David Brewer joined Rogers’s Rangers as ensign in 1756, and three years later was promoted for gallant services on Lake Champlain. He appears to have been one of the most trusted officers of this company. Rogers left him to bring up the troops to Presqu’ Isle, while he hastened on to Fort Pitt, at the beginning of the expedition; after the capitulation of Detroit, he sent the larger portion of the Rangers back to Niagara under Brewer’s command. See Rogers’s Journal, pp. 152, 198.—Ed.

[68] The topography of this voyage is a disputed question. Croghan is the only contemporary authority who gives details. Siney Sipey is probably the present Conneaut Creek, about twenty miles from Presqu’ Isle. Rogers says “by night we had advanced twenty miles.” “Sinissippi” is frequently used for Stoney or Rock Creek; the present Rock River, Illinois, claims that for its Indian title. In 1761, Sir William Johnson describes this place (without naming it) as follows: “Encamped in a very good creek and safe harbor. The creek about fifty yards wide, and pretty deep; two very steep hills at the entrance thereof, and the water of it of a very brown color.”—Ed.

[69] Rogers in his Journal places this meeting with the Ottawas on the seventh instead of the fifth of November, and locates it at “Chogage” River (formerly supposed to be Cuyahoga, but now thought to be Grand River). Croghan’s account is more detailed, and probably written at the time; while Rogers’s was written or revised later. “Wajea Sipery” is probably Ashtabula Creek, which is sufficiently crooked in its course to make this name appropriate. This is the traditional meeting for the first time, with Pontiac, the Ottawa chief. Parkman’s well-known account of the haughty bearing and dignified demands of this great Indian contrast markedly with Croghan’s simpler and more literal account. In truth, it may be doubted whether this chief was Pontiac at all, as he here speaks of himself as an old man. Rogers’s Journal makes no mention of any chief, and alludes but incidentally to meeting the Ottawa band; but in his Concise Account of North America, published in London (1765), when the exploits of Pontiac were causing much attention, Rogers represents himself as having encountered that chief on his way to Detroit, and that the latter asked him how he dared to enter that country without his (Pontiac’s) leave. This was probably a flight of the imagination, consequent upon his representing the Indian chief as the hero of the tragedy in the verses he was then preparing, known as Ponteach, or the Savages of America (London, 1766). See Parkman, Conspiracy of Pontiac, i, p. 165, ii, appendix B. The plain, unadorned account of Croghan, and the begging attitude of the Ottawa chief, are probably more in accordance with historical verity than Parkman’s and Rogers’s more romantic accounts.—Ed.

[70] The creek which Croghan calls “Onchuago” was Grand River, whose Indian name was “Chaeaga” (Sheauga), and which is thus designated on Evans’s map of 1755, and Hutchins’s map of 1778. Whittlesey, Early History of Cleveland (Cleveland, 1867), thus identifies this stream. Baldwin, in his “Early Maps of Ohio and the West,” Western Reserve Historical Society Tracts, No. 25, thinks it is the Conneaut Creek; but that would be too far east to correspond with this description, and the present Geauga County takes its title from the Indian name of Grand River.—Ed.

[71] Lieutenant Dietrich Brehm (Braam) was a German engineer who came to America in 1756 with the 32nd regiment (later the 60th or Royal Americans). Little is known of his military career, save that in the line of promotion he was captain in 1774, and major in 1783.—Ed.

[72] Probably “Gichawaga” was Cuyahoga River, the site of the city of Cleveland, and a well-known rendezvous of the Ottawa Indians, who had a village some miles up its banks. Rogers speaks of it as Elk River, which by some geographers is placed east of Cuyahoga River; but Rogers’s list of distances, allowing for much tacking, would indicate that the expedition had by this time certainly come as far beyond Grand River as Cuyahoga.—Ed.

[73] Stony Creek was the present Rocky River, about five miles west of Cleveland. Near this spot a part of Bradstreet’s fleet was wrecked in 1764. See Western Reserve Historical Society Tracts, No. 13.—Ed.

[74] Marie François Picoté, Sieur de Bellestre, was born in 1719, and when about ten years of age emigrated with his father to Detroit. Entering the army, he held a number of commands—in Acadia (1745-46), and at the Western posts, especially at St. Josephs, where he had much influence over the Indians. In the Huron revolt (1748), his bravery was especially commended. During the French and Indian War he led his Indian allies on various raids—one to Carolina in 1756, where he received a slight wound; and again in New York against the German Flats (1757). Bellestre was present at Niagara about the time it was attacked; but Pouchot detailed him to retire with the detachments from forts Presqu’ Isle and Machault to Detroit, and he was commanding at this post when summoned to surrender to Major Rogers. After the capitulation of Detroit, he returned to Canada, and became a partisan of the British power, captured St. John, and defended Chambly against the Americans in 1775-76. He was made a member of the first legislative council of the province.—Ed.

[75] The encampment for the night of November 15 seems to have been made between two small creeks that flow into the lake near together, in Dover Township, Cuyahoga County.—Ed.

[76] Vermillion Creek or River retains its name. The river where the expedition encamped (“Notowacy Thepy”) was probably that now known as the Huron River, in Erie County, Ohio. Rogers’s Journal mentions these rivers without giving names.—Ed.

[77] Rogers names the lake here mentioned, as Sandusky. It is difficult to tell from this description whether or not the flotilla entered the inner Sandusky Bay. Probably the encampment for the nineteenth was on the site of the present city of Sandusky, at Mill or Pipe Creek.—Ed.

[78] Médard Gamelin was the son of a French surgeon, and nephew of that Sieur de la Jémerais who accompanied La Vérendrye on his Western explorations, and died (1735) in the wilderness west of Lake Superior. Gamelin was born two years before this event. Emigrating to Detroit, he employed himself in raising and training a militia company composed of the habitants, which he led to the relief of Niagara (1759). There he was captured and kept a prisoner until released by the orders of General Amherst in order to accompany Rogers’s expedition, and pacify the settlers at Detroit. He took the oath of allegiance and remained in that city after its capitulation to the British, dying there about 1778.—Ed.

[79] The present Cranberry Creek is east of Sandusky. The creek which Croghan mentions was some small tributary of Portage River (the Carrying-place), or directly beyond it. Rogers says they went “to the mouth of a river in breadth 300 feet,” which is evidently Portage River.—Ed.

[80] Rogers’s Journal (p. 191), gives his own speech. He indicates in his account that the Indians were preparing to resist the English advance; but Croghan does not mention any such suspicions.

General Jeffrey Amherst was an English soldier of much distinction, who after serving a campaign in Flanders and Germany, was commissioned by Pitt to take charge of the military operations in America (1758). His first success was the capture of Louisburg, followed by the campaign of 1759, when he reduced Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and moved upon Montreal, which capitulated the following year. He was immediately made governor-general of the British in North America, received the thanks of Parliament, and was presented with the order of the Bath. It was in obedience to his orders that Rogers undertook this westward expedition. Amherst’s later career was a succession of honors, emoluments, and high appointments in the British army. He opposed the cause of the colonies during the American Revolution. Late in life he was field-marshal of the British army, dying (1797) at his estate in Kent, as Baron Amherst of Montreal.—Ed.

[81] Cedar Point is at the southeastern entrance of Maumee Bay. Rogers’s Journal for November 23 says that an Ottawa sachem came into their camp; possibly this was Pontiac.—Ed.

[82] From the distances given in Rogers’s Journal it would appear that the expedition encamped the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth in the entrance of Swan Creek, Monroe County, Michigan, a short distance north of Stony Point.—Ed.

[83] Pierre François Rigault, Chevalier de Cavagnal, Marquis de Vaudreuil, was Canadian born, and entered the military service at an early age. In 1728 he was in the present Wisconsin on an expedition against the Fox Indians; some years later, he was governor at Trois Rivières, and in 1743 was sent to command in Louisiana, where he remained nine years, until appointed governor of New France, just before the outbreak of the French and Indian War. As the last French governor of Canada, his term of service was embittered by quarrels with the French generals, and disasters to French arms. After his capitulation at Montreal, he went to France, only to be arrested, thrown into the Bastile, and tried for malfeasance in office. He succeeded in securing an acquittal (1763); but, broken by disappointments and enmities, died the following year.—Ed.

[84] The Potawotami Indians are an Algonquian tribe, being first encountered by French explorers on the borders of Green Bay; but later, they had villages at Detroit, St. Josephs River (southeast Michigan), and Milwaukee. They were devoted to the French interests, and easily attracted to the vicinity of the French posts. For the Wyandots (Hurons) and Ottawas, see ante.—Ed.

[85] The French fort of St. Josephs was established early in the eighteenth century, on the right bank of the river of that name, about a mile from the present city of Niles, Michigan. Its commandant was the “farmer” of the post—that is, he was entitled to what profits he could win from the Indian trade, and paid his own expenses. After the British took possession of this fort, it was garrisoned by a small detachment of the Royal Americans. When Pontiac’s War broke out, but fourteen soldiers were at the place, with Ensign Schlosser in command. The fort was captured and eleven of the garrison killed, the rest being carried prisoners to Detroit. During the Revolution, Fort St. Josephs was three times taken from the British—twice by parties from the Illinois led by French traders (in 1777, and again in 1778); and in 1781, a Spanish expedition set out from St. Louis to capture the stronghold, and take possession of this region for Spain. See Mason, Chapters from Illinois History (Chicago, 1901). The United States failed to garrison St. Josephs when the British forts were surrendered in 1796, and built instead (1804) Fort Dearborn at Chicago.

Ouiatonon (Waweoughtannes) was situated at the head of navigation on the Wabash River, not far from the present city of Lafayette, Indiana. The French founded this post about 1719, among a tribe of the same name (called Weas by the English); and kept an officer stationed there until its surrender to the English party sent out by Rogers (1761). The small garrison under command of Lieutenant Jenkins was captured at the outbreak of Pontiac’s conspiracy; but through the intervention of French traders their lives were spared, while the fort was destroyed by burning, and never rebuilt. See Craig, “Ouiatonon,” Indiana Historical Society Collections (Indianapolis, 1886), v, ii. See also Croghan’s description when he passed here five years later, [post].—Ed.

[86] The speculation and corruption of the French officers at the Western posts, was notorious. Bellestre was not free from suspicions of taking advantage of his official position to exploit the Indian trade. See Farmer, History of Detroit and Michigan (Detroit, 1884), p. 766.—Ed.

[87] The French fort among the Miamis (English, Twigtwees) was situated on the Maumee River, near the present site of Fort Wayne. The date of its founding is in doubt; but the elder Vincennes was there in 1704, and soon after this frequent mention is made of its commandants. During the revolt of the French Indians (1748), the fort was partially burned. When Céloron passed, the succeeding year, he described it as in a bad condition, and located on an unhealthful site. About this time, the Miamis removed to the Great Miami River, and permitted the English to build a fortified trading house at Pickawillany. But an expedition sent out from Detroit chastised these recalcitrants, and brought them back to their former abode, about Fort Miami—which latter is described (1757) as protected with palisades, on the right bank of the river. The garrison of the Rangers sent out by Rogers from Detroit to secure this post, was later replaced by a small detachment of the Royal Americans, under command of Lieutenant Robert Holmes, who notified Gladwin of Pontiac’s conspiracy, but nevertheless himself fell a victim thereto. See [Morris’s Journal, post]. The fort destroyed at this time was not rebuilt. Croghan (1765) speaks of it as ruinous. In the Indian wars of the Northwest, Wayne, perceiving its strategic importance, built at this site the fort named in his honor (1794), whence arose the present city.—Ed.

[88] The expedition of Major Rogers to relieve the French at Mackinac, failed because of the lateness of the season, and the consequent ice in Lake Huron. Rogers returned to Detroit December 21, and two days later left for Pittsburg, where he arrived January 23, 1761, after a land march of just one month. The fort at Mackinac was delivered over to an English detachment under command of Captain Balfour of the Royal Americans, September 28, 1761.—Ed.

[89] The place here mentioned was a Wyandot town shown on Hutchins’s map (1778). Probably this was the village of the chief Nicholas, founded in 1747 during his revolt from the French. See [Weiser’s Journal, ante].—Ed.

[90] Croghan returned to Pittsburg by the “great trail,” a famous Indian thoroughfare leading from the Forks of the Ohio to Detroit. For a description of this route, see Hulbert, Indian Thoroughfares (Cleveland, 1902), p. 107; and in more detail his article in Ohio Archæological and Historical Society Publications (Columbus, 1899), viii, p. 276.

Mohican John’s village was on White Woman’s Creek, near the site of Reedsburg, Ohio. Beaver’s Town was at the junction of the Tuscarawas and the Big Sandy, the antecedent of the present Bolivar; for the town at the mouth of Big Beaver Creek, see [Weiser’s Journal, ante].—Ed.

[91] The manuscript of the journal that we here reprint came into the possession of George William Featherstonhaugh, a noted English geologist who came to the United States in the early nineteenth century and edited a geological magazine in Philadelphia. He first published the document therein (The Monthly Journal of American Geology), in the number for December, 1831. It appeared again in a pamphlet, published at Burlington, N. J. (no date); and Mann Butler thought it of sufficient consequence to be introduced into the appendix to his History of Kentucky (Cincinnati and Louisville, 2nd ed., 1836). Another version of this journey (which we may call the official version), also written by Croghan, was sent by Sir William Johnson to the lords of trade, and is published in New York Colonial Documents, vii, pp. 779-788. Hildreth published a variant of the second (official) version “from an original MS. among Colonel Morgan’s papers,” in his Pioneer History of the Ohio Valley (Cincinnati, 1848). The two versions supplement each other. The first was evidently written for some persons interested in lands in the Western country—their fertility, products, and general aspects; therefore Croghan herein confines himself to general topographical description, and omits his journey towards the Illinois, his meeting with Pontiac, and all Indian negotiations. The official report, on the other hand, abbreviates greatly the account of the journey and the appearance of the country, and concerns itself with Indian affairs and historical events. We have in the present publication combined the two journals, indicating in footnotes the important variations; but the bulk of the narrative is a reprint of the Featherstonhaugh-Butler version.

With regard to the circumstances under which the official journal was transcribed, Johnson makes the following explanation in his letter to the board of trade (New York Colonial Documents, vii, p. 775): “I have selected the principal parts [of this journal] which I now inclose to your Lordships, the whole of his Journal is long and not yet collected because after he was made Prisoner, & lost his Baggage &ca. he was necessitated to write it on Scraps of Paper procured with difficulty at Post Vincent, and that in a disguised Character to prevent its being understood by the French in case through any disaster he might be again plundered.”

The importance of this journal for the study of Western history has frequently been noted. Parkman used it extensively in his Conspiracy of Pontiac. Winsor in his Critical and Narrative History of America, v, p. 704, note, first pointed out in some detail the differences between the two versions. He errs, however, in confusing the letters Croghan wrote from Vincennes and Ouiatonon. Many secondary authorities also wrongly aver that Croghan on this journey went as far as Fort Chartres.—Ed.

[92] Croghan arrived at Fort Pitt, February 28, 1765, and from then until his departure was constantly occupied with Indian transactions in preparation for his journey. See Pennsylvania Colonial Records, ix, pp. 250-264; also Withers’s Early History of Western Pennsylvania, app., pp. 166-179.—Ed.

[93] Little Beaver Creek (near the western border of Pennsylvania) and Yellow Creek (in Ohio) were much frequented by Indians. On the former, Half King had a hunting cabin. Logan, the noted Mingo chief, lived at the mouth of the latter. Opposite, upon the Virginia shore, occurred the massacre of Logan’s family (April 30, 1774), which was one of the opening events of Lord Dunmore’s War. See Withers’s Chronicles of Border Warfare (Thwaites’s ed., Cincinnati, 1895), p. 150, notes.—Ed.

[94] The village here described was Mingo Town on Mingo bottom, situated at the present Mingo Junction, Ohio. It is not to be confused with the Mingo bottom opposite the mouth of Yellow Creek. The former town was prominent as a rendezvous for border war-parties in the Revolutionary period. From this point, started the rabble that massacred the Moravian Indians in 1782. Colonel Crawford set out from here, in May of the same year, on his ill-fated expedition against the Sandusky Indians. See Withers’s Chronicles, chap. 13.

Possibly the chief who joined Croghan at this point was Logan, since the former had known him in his earlier home on the Susquehanna, near Sunbury.—Ed.

[95] Buffalo Creek is in Brooke County, West Virginia, with the town of Wellsburg located at its mouth. The first settlers arrived about 1769. Fat Meat Creek is not identified; from the distances given, it might be Big Grave Creek, in Marshall County, West Virginia, or Pipe Creek, nearly opposite, in Belmont County, Ohio.—Ed.

[96] The “Long Reach” lies between Fishing Creek and the Muskingum, sixteen and a half miles in a nearly straight line to the southwest.—Ed.

[97] The French called the Muskingum Yanangué-kouan—the river of the Tobacco (Petun-Huron) Indians. Céloron (1749) left at the mouth of this river, one of his plates, which was found in 1798, and is now in possession of the American Antiquarian Society, at Worcester, Massachusetts. Croghan had frequently been on the Muskingum, where as early as 1750, he had a trading house. The inhabitants at that time appear to have been Wyandots; but after the French and Indian War the Delawares retreated thither, and built their towns on the upper Muskingum. Later, the Moravian missionaries removed their converts thither, and erected upon the banks of this river their towns, Salem, Schönbrunn, and Gnadenhütten. In 1785, Fort Harmar was placed at its mouth; and thither, three years later, came the famous colony of New England Revolutionary soldiers, under the leadership of Rufus Putnam, which founded Marietta.—Ed.

[98] The Little Kanawha was the terminus of the exploring expedition of George Rogers Clark and Jones in 1772. They reported unfavorably in regard to the lands; but settlers soon began to occupy them, and they were a part of the grant given to Trent, Croghan, and others at the treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) as a reparation for their losses in the previous wars. About the time of Croghan’s visit, Captain Bull, a well-known Delaware Indian of New York, removed to the Little Kanawha, and in 1772 his village, Bulltown, was the scene of a revolting massacre of friendly Indians by brutal white borderers.—Ed.

[99] Hockhocking is the local Indian name for a bottle-shaped gourd, to which they likened the course of this river. Its chief historical event is connected with Lord Dunmore’s War. Nine years after this voyage of Croghan, Dunmore descended the Ohio with his flotilla, and disembarking at the river with his army of regulars and frontiersmen—Clark, Cresap, Kenton, and Girty among the number—marched overland to the Scioto, leaving Fort Gower here to guard his rear. Signs of the earthwork of this fortification are still visible. At this place, on the return journey, the Virginia officers of the army drew up resolutions of sympathy with the Continental Congress then in session at Philadelphia.—Ed.

[100] The “Big Bend” of the river is that now known as Pomeroy’s Bend, from the Ohio town at its upper point. Alum Hill was probably West Columbia, Mason County, West Virginia. See Lewis, History of West Virginia (Philadelphia, 1889), p. 109.—Ed.

[101] The Kanawha takes its name from a tribe of Indians who formerly lived in its valley, but they were destroyed by the Iroquois in the early eighteenth century. Céloron called it the Chinondaista, and at its mouth buried a plate which is now in the museum of the Virginia Historical Society, at Richmond. Gist surveyed here for the Ohio Company in 1752; later, Washington owned ten thousand acres in the vicinity, and visited the spot in 1774. That same year, the battle of Point Pleasant was fought at the mouth of the Kanawha by Colonel Andrew Lewis’s division of Lord Dunmore’s army; and the succeeding year, Fort Randolph was built to protect the frontiers. Daniel Boone retired hither from Kentucky, and lived in this neighborhood four years (1791-95), before migrating to Missouri.—Ed.

[102] The word Scioto probably signified “deer,” although it is said by David Jones to mean “hairy” river, from the multitude of deer’s hairs which floated down the stream. The valley of the Scioto is famous in Western annals. During the second half of the eighteenth century it was the chief seat of the Shawnees whose lower, or “Shannoah,” town has been frequently mentioned in the Indian transactions which we have printed. The Shawnees, on their withdrawal up the valley, built the Chillicothe towns, where Pontiac’s conspiracy was largely fomented. These were the starting point of many raids against the Kentucky and West Virginia settlements. From these villages Mrs. Ingles and Mrs. Dennis made their celebrated escapes in 1755 and 1763 respectively. During all the long series of wars closing with Wayne’s victory in 1794, the intractable Shawnees were among the most dreaded of the Indian enemy.—Ed.

[103] The result of this message in regard to the French traders, is thus given in the official version of the journal:

“26th. Several of the Shawanese came there & brought with them 7 French Traders which they delivered to me, those being all that resided in their Villages, & told me there was just six more living with the Delawares, that on their return to their Towns they would go to the Delawares & get them to send those French Traders home, & told me they were determined to do everything in their power to convince me of their sincerity & good disposition to preserve a peace.”—Ed.

[104] Big Bone Lick, in Boone County, Kentucky, was visited by the French in the early eighteenth century. It was a landmark for early Kentucky hunters, who describe it in terms similar to those used by Croghan. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, scientists took much interest in the remains of the mammoth (or mastodon)—the “elephant’s bones” described by Croghan. Thomas Jefferson and several members of the American Philosophical Society, at Philadelphia, attempted to secure a complete skeleton of this extinct giant; and a number of fossils from the lick were also sent to Europe. Dr. Goforth of Cincinnati undertook an exploration to the lick at his own expense (1803), but was later robbed of the result. The store of huge bones is not yet entirely exhausted, specimens being yet occasionally excavated—the present writer having examined some there in 1894.—Ed.

[105] It is a curious mistake on Croghan’s part to designate the Kentucky as the Holston River. The latter is a branch of the Tennessee, flowing through the mountains of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. Its valley was early settled by Croghan’s friends, Scotch-Irish from Pennsylvania. It is probable that, as the Kentucky’s waters come from that direction, he had a confused idea of the topography.—Ed.

[106] One of the earliest descriptions of the Falls of the Ohio. Gist was ordered to explore as far as there in 1750, but did not reach the goal. Findlay was there in 1753. Gordon gives an account similar to Croghan’s in 1766. Ensign Butricke made more of an adventure in passing these falls—see Historical Magazine, viii, p. 259. An attempt at a settlement was made by John Connolly (1773); but the beginnings of the present city of Louisville are due to the pioneers who accompanied George Rogers Clark thither in 1778, and made their first home on Corn Island. For the early history of Louisville, see Durrett, Centenary of Louisville, Filson Club Publications, No. 8 (Louisville, 1893).—Ed.

[107] Colonel Reuben T. Durrett, of Louisville, thinks Croghan “must have meant Salt River when he spoke of passing Pigeon River during his first day’s journey after leaving the Falls of the Ohio.” The Owl River he identifies with Highland Creek in Kentucky, between the mouths of the Green and Wabash rivers.

The Wabash River was early considered by the French as one of the most important highways between Canada and Louisiana. Marquette designates it on his map as the Ouabouskiguo, which later Frenchmen corrupted into Ouabache. The name was also applied to that portion of the Ohio below the mouth of the Wabash; but James Logan in 1718 noted the distinction. See Winsor, Mississippi Basin, p. 17. Croghan was probably the first Englishman who had penetrated thus far into the former French territory, except Fraser, who had preceded him to the Illinois.—Ed.

[108] The Shawnees had formerly dwelt west and south of their habitations on the Scioto. The Cumberland River was known on early maps as the “Shawana River;” and in 1718, they were located in the direction of Carolina. Their migration east and north took place about 1730. The present Illinois town at this site, is still called Shawneetown.—Ed.

[109] Being able to speak French, Lieutenant Alexander Fraser of the 78th infantry had been detailed to accompany Croghan. He went in advance of the latter, and reached the Illinois, where he found himself in such danger that he escaped to Mobile in disguise. See Parkman, Conspiracy of Pontiac, ii, pp. 276, 284-286.

Captain Louis St. Ange de Bellerive, was the son of a French officer who came to Louisiana early in the eighteenth century, and commanded in the Illinois country in 1722 and again in 1733. St. Ange had himself seen much pioneer service, having been placed in charge of a fort on the Missouri (1736), and having succeeded Vincennes at the post bearing the latter’s name. St. Ange remained at Vincennes until summoned by De Villiers, commandant at Fort Chartres, to supersede him there, and spare him the mortification of a surrender to the English. After yielding Fort Chartres to Captain Sterling (October, 1765), St. Ange retired to St. Louis, where he acted as commandant (after 1766, in the Spanish service) until his death in 1774.—Ed.

[110] This man was in reality captured. See Parkman, Conspiracy of Pontiac, ii, p. 289, note.—Ed.

[111] The Kickapoos and Mascoutins were allied Algonquian tribes who were first encountered in Wisconsin; but being of roving habits they ranged all the prairie lands between the Wisconsin and Wabash rivers. In 1712, they were about the Maumee and at Detroit. Charlevoix describes them (1721) as living near Chicago. Being concerned in the Fox wars, they fled across the Mississippi; and again, about the middle of the eighteenth century, were with the Miamis on the Wabash, where they had a town near Fort Ouiatonon. They were always somewhat intractable and difficult to restrain. The remnant of these tribes live on reservations in Kansas and Oklahoma.—Ed.

[112] This branch of the Wabash is now called the Little Wabash River. The party must have taken a very circuitous route, else Croghan greatly overestimates the distances. Vincennes is about seventy-five miles from the point where they were made prisoners.—Ed.

[113] The date of the founding of Vincennes (Post or Port Vincent) has been varyingly assigned from 1702 to 1735; but Dunn, in his Indiana (Boston and New York, 1888), p. 54, shows quite conclusively that François Margane, Sieur de Vincennes, went thither at the request of Governor Périer of Louisiana in 1727, and founded a fort to counteract the designs of the English against the French trade. The French colony was not begun until 1735, and the next year the commandant Vincennes was captured and burnt by the Chickasaws, while engaged in an expedition against their country. Louis St. Ange succeeded to the position of commandant at Vincennes, which he continued to hold until 1764, when summoned to the Illinois. He left two soldiers in charge at Vincennes, of whom and their companions Croghan gives this unfavorable account. No English officer appeared to take command at Vincennes until 1777; meanwhile General Gage had endeavored to expel the French inhabitants therefrom (1772-73). It is not surprising, therefore, that they received the Americans under George Rogers Clark (1778), with cordiality; or that after Hamilton’s re-capture of the place, they were unwilling to aid the English in maintaining the post against Clark’s surprise (February, 1779), which resulted in the capture of Hamilton and all the British garrison. After this event, Vincennes became part of the Illinois government, until the organization of a Northwest Territory in 1787.—Ed.

[114] A johannies was a Portuguese coin current in America about this time, worth nearly nine dollars. The Indians, therefore, paid over forty dollars for their pound of vermillion.—Ed.

[115] The Piankeshaws were a tribe of the Miamis, who had been settled near Vincennes as long as they had been known to the whites.—Ed.

[116] The entries from July 1 to 18, inclusive, are here inserted from the second (or official) version in the New York Colonial Documents, vii, pp. 781, 782; hiatuses therein, are supplied from the Hildreth version. See [note 91, ante, p. 126].—Ed.

[117] François Rivard dit Maisonville was a member of one of the first families to settle Detroit. He entered the British service at Fort Pitt as an interpreter, accompanying Lieutenant Fraser to the Illinois in that capacity. In 1774, Maisonville was Indian agent on the Wabash with a salary of £100 a year. When George Rogers Clark invaded the Illinois country (1778), Maisonville carried the first intelligence of this incursion to Detroit. The next year General Hamilton employed him on his advance against Vincennes; but on Clark’s approach he was captured, while on a scouting party, and cruelly treated by some of the American partisans. He made one of the party sent to Virginia as captives, and the following year committed suicide in prison.—Ed.

[118] General Thomas Gage was at this time British commander-in-chief in America, with headquarters at New York. Having come to America with Braddock, he served on this continent for twenty years, in numerous important offices. After the surrender of Montreal he was made governor of that city and province, until in 1763 he superseded Amherst as commander-in-chief, in which capacity he served until the outbreak of the Revolution. His part in the initial battles of that conflict about Boston, where he commanded, is a matter of general history. After his recall to England his subsequent career was uneventful. He died as Viscount Gage in 1787.—Ed.

[119] Major William Murray of the 42nd infantry succeeded Colonel Henry Bouquet as commandant at Fort Pitt, in the spring of 1765.

Major Robert Farmer was sent to receive the surrender of Mobile in 1763. For a description by Aubry, the retiring French governor of Louisiana, of Farmer’s character and manner, see Claiborne, History of Mississippi (Jackson, 1880), p. 104. Late in this year that Croghan wrote (1765), Farmer ascended the Mississippi with a detachment of the 34th infantry, and took over the command of the Illinois from Major Sterling, being in turn relieved (1767) by Colonel Edward Cole. Farmer died or retired from the army in 1768.—Ed.

[120] La Guthrie was the interpreter sent with Lieutenant Fraser. Sinnott was a deputy-agent sent out by Stuart, agent for the Southern department to attempt conciliation in the Illinois. His stores had been plundered, and he himself having escaped with difficulty from Fort Chartres, sought refuge at New Orleans. See New York Colonial Documents, vii, pp. 765, 776.—Ed.

[121] We here again resume the first (Featherstonhaugh-Butler) version of the journal, which continues through August 17.—Ed.

[122] This is the Auglaize River. On the site called the Forks, Wayne built Fort Defiance during his campaign against the Indians (1794).—Ed.

[123] The rapids of the Maumee were famous in the later Indian wars. There, in 1794, the British built Fort Miami, almost within the reach of whose guns Wayne fought the battle of Fallen Timbers. Fort Meigs was the American stockade built here during the War of 1812-15; and this vicinity was the scene of operations during all the Western campaigns ending with Perry’s victory on Lake Erie, and the re-taking of Detroit.—Ed.

[124] All that follows, until the conclusion of the Indian speeches, is inserted from the second (official) version of the journals, found in the New York Colonial Documents, vii, pp. 781-787.—Ed.

[125] Although English born, Colonel John Bradstreet lived all his mature life in America, and distinguished himself for his military services in the later French wars. He was in the campaign against Louisburg (1745), and was promoted for gallantry, and given the governorship of St. John’s, Newfoundland. The outbreak of the French and Indian War found him at Oswego, where with great bravery he drove the French back from an attack on a convoy (1756). On the organization of the Royal Americans, Bradstreet became lieutenant-colonel, and served with Abercrombie at Ticonderoga (1758). His most renowned exploit was the capture, the same year, of Fort Frontenac, which severed the connection between Canada and its Western dependencies. After the close of the war, Bradstreet received a colonelcy. When the news of Pontiac’s uprising reached the East, he was detailed to make an expedition into the Indian territory by way of Lake Erie. His confidence in Indian promises proved too great; he made peace with the very tribes who went murdering and scalping along the frontiers as soon as his army had passed. Bradstreet was made a major-general in 1772; but two years later, died in the city of New York. The Indians whom Croghan found at Detroit were small bands from the north and west, who had not received Bradstreet’s message, in time to attend before that officer’s departure from Detroit.—Ed.

[126] In the Hildreth version these names are spelled “Duquanee” and “Waobecomica.” The former was a Detroit habitant Dequindre, who had brought messages from the Illinois to Pontiac during the siege of Detroit. Waobecomica was a Missassaga chief, well-affected toward the English, whom Johnson had sent in the spring of 1765 with messages to Pontiac. See New York Colonial Documents, vii, p. 747.—Ed.

[127] This was Lieutenant-colonel Alexander Campbell, formerly commander of the 95th regiment, who succeeded Major Gladwin in command of Detroit (1764). He is not to be confused with Captain Donald Campbell, the earlier commandant, who was killed by the Indians during Pontiac’s conspiracy.—Ed.

[128] There were present at this treaty about thirty chiefs and five hundred warriors. A list of the tribes is given, and the names of the chiefs. This was the last public transaction in which Pondiac was engaged with the English. The year following, in a council with the Indians on the Illinois, this noted chief was stabbed to the heart, by an Indian who had long followed him for that purpose.—Hildreth.

Comment by Ed.—Hildreth is mistaken in calling this the last public transaction of Pontiac. He was at Oswego and treated with Johnson in the spring of 1766. See New York Colonial Documents, vii, pp. 854-867.

[129] The Saginaw Indians were a notoriously turbulent band of Chippewas, who had a village on Saginaw Bay. They had assisted in the siege of Detroit; and going to Mackinac to secure recruits to continue their resistance, they attempted to kill the trader Alexander Henry. See Bain (ed.), Henry’s Travels and Adventures (Boston, 1901), pp. 148-152, an admirably-edited work, containing much valuable information.—Ed.

[130] According to Parkman, Le Grand Sauteur was Pontiac’s chief coadjutor among the northern Indians in his attack on the English. His Indian name was Minavavana, and he was considered the author of the plot against Mackinac. This has been since attributed to Match-e-ke-wis, a younger Indian; but Le Grand Sauteur remained an inveterate enemy of the English, and was at length stabbed by an English trader. See Henry, Travels, pp. 42-47.—Ed.

[131] Sir Thomas Stirling, Bart., obtained his company in July, 1757, in the 42d, or Royal Highland, regiment, which accompanied Abercromby in 1758, and Amherst in 1759 in their respective expeditions on Lakes George and Champlain; was afterwards detailed to assist at the siege of Niagara, and accompanied Amherst from Oswego to Montreal in 1760. Knox. Captain Stirling was appointed a Major in 1770, and Lieutenant-colonel of the 42d in September, 1771. He was in command of his regiment in the engagement on Staten Island, and in the battle of Brooklyn Heights, in 1776; was afterwards at the storming of Fort Washington and accompanied the expedition against Philadelphia. He became Colonel in the army in 1779, and was Brigadier, under Sir Henry Clinton, in the expedition against Charleston, S. C., in 1780. Beatson. He succeeded Lieutenant-general Frazer as Colonel of the 71st Highlanders, in February, 1782, and in November following, became Major-general. He went on the retired list in 1783, when his regiment was disbanded. In 1796 he was appointed Lieutenant-general; was created a Baronet some time after, and became a General in the army on the first of January, 1801. He died in 1808. Army Lists.—E. B. O’Callaghan.

[132] The entry for September 26, and the list of tribes following, are taken from the Featherstonhaugh-Butler edition of the journal.—Ed.

[133] This letter is reprinted from New York Colonial Documents, vii, pp. 787, 788. It was evidently written after Croghan’s return from the West, and accompanied the official version of his journal, which Johnson sent to England November 16, 1765. See New York Colonial Documents, vii, p. 775.—Ed.

[134] Fort Chartres was originally built as a stockade post in 1720; but in 1756 was rebuilt in stone, and became the most important French fortification in the West. It was an irregular quadrangle, with houses, magazines, barracks, etc., defended with cannon.—See Pittman, Settlements on the Mississippi (London, 1770), pp. 45, 46. After its surrender by the French, the English garrisoned the stronghold until 1772, when the river’s erosion made it untenable. For the present state of the ruins, see Mason, Chapters from Illinois History, pp. 241-249.

The French trading post sixty miles above Fort Chartres, on the western bank of the river, was the beginning of the present city of St. Louis, which was founded in April, 1764, by Pierre Laclède. Upon the surrender of the Illinois to the English, St. Ange, with the garrison and many French families, removed to this new post, in the expectation of living under French authority. To their chagrin the place was surrendered to the Spanish the following year.—Ed.

III
Two Journals of Western Tours, by Charles Frederick Post: one, to the neighborhood of Fort Duquesne (July-September, 1758); the other to the Ohio (October, 1758-January 1759)

Source: Proud’s History of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1798), ii, appendix.