This desire to begin a mission to the Western Indians was consummated in 1761, when Post proceeded alone to the Muskingum and built the first white man’s house within the present limits of Ohio. The following spring, he applied to the Moravian brethren for an assistant; whereupon John Heckewelder was assigned to this service, and in his Narrative describes their courteous reception by Bouquet at Fort Pitt, the restless conditions among the Delawares and Shawnees, and the warnings against the storm of fire and blood which was so soon to break over the frontier. Heckewelder retreated in due season; Post barely saved himself by a sudden flight.
In 1764, the ecclesiastical authorities saw fit to send this intrepid missionary to the Mosquito Coast, where he stayed two years, making a second visit in 1767. Toward the close of his life he retired from the Moravian sect, and entered the Protestant Episcopal Church. His death occurred at Germantown in 1785.
The journal of the first tour to the Ohio Indians (July 15-September 22, 1758), was printed in the appendix to An Enquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawanese Indians from the British Interest (London, 1759; reprinted Philadelphia, 1867). This book was published anonymously, but was known to be the work of Charles Thomson, a prominent Philadelphia Quaker, later secretary of the Continental Congress. Thomson gives a brief preface to Post’s journal, and the matter in the notes thereof is evidently by his hand; it is probable that the notes to the second journal are also by him. The first journal was reprinted by Proud, History of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1798), ii, appendix, pp. 65-95, from which edition our reprint has been made. Craig also published this in The Olden Time, i, pp. 99-125, following almost verbatim the edition of Thomson and Proud. Rupp, Early History of Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburg and Harrisburg, 1846), appendix, pp. 75-98, gives the same journal. The Pennsylvania Archives, iii, pp. 520-544, also contains this journal, evidently taken from the same manuscript, with but slight variations in the spelling of proper names.
Heckewelder, Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren (Philadelphia, 1820), pp. 55, 56, says: “To enumerate all the hardships, difficulties and dangers, Frederick Post had been subjected to on these journies, especially on the first, in the summer of the year 1758, is at this time both impossible and needless. Suffice it to say, that what he intended the public should know, was published in the year after, in England, under the title of ‘Christian Frederick Post’s Journal from Philadelphia to the Ohio,’ &c. His original manuscript journal, however, which had for some time been placed in the hands of the writer of this narrative, was far more interesting, and evinced that few men would be found able to undergo the fatigues of a journey, bearing so hard on the constitution, or a mind to sustain such trials of adversity—at least not with that calmness with which Mr. Post endured it.”
The diary of the second journey of Christian Frederick Post to the Ohio, October 25, 1758—January 8, 1759, was first printed in London, 1759, for J. Wilkie; see Field, An Essay towards an Indian Bibliography (New York, 1873), p. 315. Proud, History of Pennsylvania, ii, appendix, pp. 96-132, also reprints Post’s second journal, and from this our reprint is made. It appears also in The Olden Time, i, pp. 144-177; and in Rupp, Early History of Western Pennsylvania, appendix, pp. 99-126. The extract from a journal in the Pennsylvania Archives, iii, pp. 560-563, entitled “Journal of Frederick Post from Pittsburg, 1758,” is in reality that of Croghan’s—see ante, [p. 100]. For an example of the form and spelling of the original manuscripts of these journals before they were rigorously edited, see letter of Post’s in Pennsylvania Archives, iii, pp. 742-744. The following is a sample extract therefrom:
To his honnour da Governor of Pansylvanea:
Broder, I cam to Machochlaung, wa mane Indeans luve, I cald dam all togader, and I told dam wat we bous had agread on wan we sa one anoder last, and wat you ar sorre for and have so mouts at hart, and dasayrt me to mack it avere war noun avere war, and dasayrd dam to be strong and sea dat your flasch and blod may be rastord to you; now br’r, you know dat it is aur agreamand, dat as soun as I hoar any ting, I geave yu daracktly notys of, and as I am as jat closs bay you, so I sand daes prasonars to you which da daleverat to me, and I geave dam to Papunnahanck to dalever dam to you; br. I do not sand daes poepel daun, da have had damself a long dasayr to go daun to sea dar br. da Englesch, so I tot it proper to sand dam along; I hop you will rajoys to sea dam and be kaynd to dam, and allso to dam poepel dat bryng dam daun; wan I am farder from you and I schall meat wit som, I schall bryng dam maysalf daun wan I com along; br. you know aur worck is grat, and will tack a long taym befor we coan com back, I salud all da schandel pepel, and dasayr you to be strong.
Ye 20 Day of May, 1760, rot at Machochloschung.
Ordinarily, the modern historical student very properly deprecates any tampering with original manuscripts; but an examination of the foregoing inclines one not only to forgive but to thank the early editors for having translated Post’s jargon into understandable English.