[14] Post, after leaving Fort Allen, passed through the present Carbon County, crossed the headwaters of the Schuylkill, and traversed Northumberland County to Fort Augusta. On the massacres in that region see Rupp, History of Northumberland, etc., (Lancaster, 1847), pp. 100-116. Fort Augusta, at the forks of the Susquehanna, was built in 1756, at the request of the Indians settled there under the chieftainship of Shickalamy. It was not a mere stockade and blockhouse, but a regular fortification, provided with cannon, and was commanded at first by Colonel Clapham, succeeded by Colonel James Burd. This stronghold was garrisoned until after the Revolutionary War; but before that time settlement had begun to spring up about the fort, and the town of Sunbury was laid out in 1772.—Ed.
[15] An Indian settlement towards the heads of Susquahanna.—[C. T.?]
[16] The reference is to Abercrombie’s defeat and retreat from Fort Ticonderoga in July, 1758.—Ed.
[17] The Indian trail followed by Post, passed up the West Branch of the Susquehanna, through a region which had earlier been thickly sprinkled with Indian towns. The Moravian missionaries had been here as early as 1742, and had been hospitably received by Madame Montour, whose town was at the mouth of Loyalsock Creek, opposite the present village of Montoursville. This was probably Post’s “Wekeponall,” as the path to Wyoming led northeast from this place. Queenashawakee (Quenslehague) Creek is in Lycoming County, with the town of Linden at its mouth.—Ed.
[18] Little hoops on which the Indians stretch and dress the raw scalps.—[C. T.?]
[19] Big Island is at the mouth of Bald Eagle Creek, in Clinton County. From that point the trail led up the creek to a point above Milesburg, Center County, then turned almost due west across Center and Clearfield counties to Clearfield (Shinglimuhee). This was the “Chinklacamoos path,” north of the Kittanning trail followed by Weiser in 1748. The word “Chinklacamoos” is said to signify “it almost joins,” in allusion to a horseshoe bend at this place. See Meginness, Otzinachson: A History of the West Branch Valley (rev. ed., Williamsport, Pa., 1889), p. 272.—Ed.
[20] An Indian Chief, that travelled with him.—[C. T.?]
[21] The money of Pennsylvania, being paper, is chiefly carried in pocket books.—[C. T.?]
[22] From Chinklacamoos the Indian trail crossed Clearfield, Jefferson, and Clarion counties, over Little Toby’s Creek (Tobeco), the Clarion River (big river Tobeco), and east Sandy Creek (Weshawaucks). That no Indians were met through all this region is proof of its deserted condition, its former frequenters having withdrawn to the French sphere of influence.—Ed.
[23] The officer commanding Venango at this time was Jean Baptiste Boucher Sieur de Niverville, a noted border ranger and Indian raider. Born in Montreal in 1716, he early acquired an ascendency over the Abenaki Indians, which was utilized in leading their parties against the English settlements of New England. In King George’s War, bands under his command ravaged New Hampshire and Vermont, and penetrated as far as Fort Massachusetts in the Berkshire Hills (1748). During the French and Indian War, he was similarly employed, and after Braddock’s defeat, conducted a winter campaign of thirty-three days, in the direction of Fort Cumberland on the Potomac, bringing off numerous English captives. At Lake George in 1757, he led the Abenaki auxiliaries, and was present at the massacre of Fort William Henry. The last that is known of his military exploits is during the siege of Quebec, when he defended dangerous outposts with the aid of savage allies.—Ed.