[5] Pennsylvania Colonial Records, viii, pp. 341, 419, 463, 466, 469, 491; Pennsylvania Archives, iii, pp. 581, 582, 689, 702, 703.
[6] All Indians are excessive fond of rum, and will be drunk whenever they can get it.—[Charles Thomson?]
[7] Willamegicken (Wellemeghikink), known to the whites as James, was a prominent brave of the Allegheny Delawares, who had been employed as a messenger between them and the Susquehanna tribes of the same race. He had agreed to accompany Post on this journey, for which the Pennsylvania Council had voted to supply him with a horse. Pennsylvania Archives, iii, p. 415; Pennsylvania Colonial Records, viii, p. 148.—Ed.
[8] Bethlehem is a Moravian town built in 1741-42, after the retreat of these people from Georgia. Count Zinzendorf organized the congregation at this place, and named the settlement (1742). For the first twenty years a community system prevailed among the inhabitants, called the “Economy.” Portions of the buildings erected under that régime are still standing. See “Moravians and their Festival,” in Outlook, August 1, 1903. In 1752, the brethren built a large stone house for the accommodation of Indian visitors, and those who escaped the massacre of 1755 were domiciled there when Post passed through.—Ed.
[9] These two treaties were made with Teedyuscung: the first at Easton in July and August, 1757, whereby the neutrality of the Susquehanna Indians and the Six Nations was secured (Pennsylvania Colonial Records, vii, pp. 649-714); the second at Philadelphia in April, 1758 (see Id., viii, pp. 29-56, 87-97).—Ed.
[10] After Braddock’s defeat, the ravaging of the frontiers both west and north of the settled portions of Pennsylvania became so serious that the colonial government appointed a commission, headed by Franklin, to take means to protect the settlers, and defend the territory. Franklin proceeded into Northumberland County, and made arrangements to fortify the point on the Lehigh where Weisport, Carbon County, now stands. But before the stockade was completed a body of Indians fell upon and seriously defeated a party of militia from the neighboring Irish settlements, led by Captain Hayes (January, 1756). The works were pushed rapidly after this setback, and the fort was named in honor of William Allen, chief-justice of the province. This post was garrisoned until after Pontiac’s War, and probably throughout the Revolution. See Franklin’s Writings (New York, 1887), ii, pp. 449-454.—Ed.
[11] Teedyuscung, one of the most famous of Delaware chiefs, was born in Trenton about 1705. When nearly fifty years old, he was chosen chief of the Susquehanna Delawares, and being shrewd and cunning played a game of diplomacy between the Iroquois, the Ohio Indians, and the authorities of Pennsylvania, by which he managed largely to enhance his own importance, and to free the Delawares from their submission to the Six Nations. His headquarters were in the Wyoming Valley, whence he descended to the Moravian settlements, and even to Easton and Philadelphia, to secure supplies from the Pennsylvania authorities. In 1756 a truce was patched up with this chief at Easton, after he had bitterly complained of the “Walking Purchase” of 1737, and the white settlements on the Juniata. His loyalty to the English was doubtful and wavering, and his opposition to Post’s journey was probably due to fears that his own importance as a medium between the Ohio Indians and the English would be diminished by the former’s success. His cabin at Wyoming having treacherously been set on fire, during one of his drunken sleeps, Teedyuscung was burned to death in 1763. The Iroquois, who were the guilty party, threw the obloquy upon the Connecticut settlement, whereupon Teedyuscung’s followers murdered all the band.—Ed.
[12] Wyoming Valley was the bone of contention between the Connecticut and Pennsylvania colonies, each claiming that it was within their charter limits. The Connecticut agents succeeded in securing an Indian title at the Albany conference (1754); but their first settlement being effaced by an Indian massacre (see preceding note), their next body of emigrants did not proceed thither until 1769. Meanwhile, on the strength of the Indian purchase at Fort Stanwix (1768) the Pennsylvanians had occupied the valley; and a border warfare began, which lasted until the Revolution. The massacre of 1778, by the Tories and British Indians, is a matter of general history.
The Indians of the valley were of many tribes—Oneidas, Delawares, Shawnees, Munseys, Nanticokes, etc. The Moravian Christian Indians settled at Wyoming in 1752. After the murder of Teedyuscung they fled, but returned to found the town of Wyalusing (1765), where the missionary Zeisberger lived with them until their removal, three years later to the Ohio.—Ed.
[13] An Indian expression meaning free admission.—[C. T.?]