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.