[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.