xt7kd50fvc1v https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7kd50fvc1v/data/mets.xml Hanna, Charles A. (Charles Augustus), 1863-1950. 1911  books b929748h195v12009 English G. P. Putnam s sons : New York and London Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Indians of North America --Pennsylvania. Indians of North America --Ohio River Valley. Pennsylvania --History --Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775. Ohio River Valley --History --To 1795. The wilderness trail; or, The ventures and adventures of the Pennsylvania traders on the Allegheny path, with some new annals of the old West, and the records of some strong men and some bad ones, by Charles A. Hanna ... with eighty maps and illustrations. text The wilderness trail; or, The ventures and adventures of the Pennsylvania traders on the Allegheny path, with some new annals of the old West, and the records of some strong men and some bad ones, by Charles A. Hanna ... with eighty maps and illustrations. 1911 2009 true xt7kd50fvc1v section xt7kd50fvc1v 
    
    
    
   Of this work one thousand copies have been printed from type, and the type destroyed,

Novembet, 1910. 
    
   At the End of the Pickawillany Path.

Looking up the Big Miami River from Opposite the Mouth of Loramie's Creek.   The Crock comes in on the left. Pickawillany Town stood south and west of the trees at the extreme left. From a photograph furnished by Mr. Clark B. Jamison.

Srr page 272. 
    
    
   The Wilderness Trail

Or

The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path

With Some New Annals of the Old West, and the Records of Some Strong Men and Some Bad Ones

By

Charles A. Hanna

Author of " The Scotch-Irish "

With Eighty Maps and Illustrations

In Two Volumes Volume Two

G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London Gbe "ftntcfterbocher ipress 1911 
    
   CONTENTS VOLUME II

CHAPTER PAGE

I.    George Croghan, the King of the Traders  .      . i

II.    George Croghan, the King of the Traders {Con-

tinued)       .      .      . .      .      . .38

III.    The Ohio Valley before the White Man Came    . 87

IV.    The Ohio Valley before the White Man Came

(Continued) .      .      .      .      .      .      . .114

V.   The Lower Shawnee Town; or Chillicothe on the

Ohio.........125

VI.   The Conchake Route, and Other Ohio Paths . 163 VII.   John Finley; and Kentucky before Boone   . .212

VIII.   The Pickawillany Path.....257

IX.   The Indian Trade and the Pennsylvania Traders 300

X.   The Perils of the Path.....344

Index.........395

iii 
    
   MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME II

FACING PAGE

The Big Miami River at the Site of Pickawjllany Frontispiece

Otsego Lake, from the Site of Croghan's "Hutt"      .      . 62

Franquelin's 1684 Map of the Ohio Valley .... 92

Thevenot's Map of 1681, from Marquette's Journal   .      . 98

Van Keulen's 1720 Map of New France      .... 104

The Temple of the Natchez, from Lafitau (1724)        . .112

Bellin's 1744 Map of Louisiana   ...... 126

The Site of the Old Shawnee Town.....140

The Site of the Kanawha Shawnee Town   .      .      . .142

V Lewis Evans's Map of 1755, with Pownall's 1776 Additions .   144 i

The Pickaway Plains on the Scioto.....150

Traders' Map of the Ohio Country, 1752-53       .      . .156

The Site of Conchake Town......178

Indian Picture Writings at Mouth of Little Beaver Creek

180, 182, 184, 186

The South Shore of Sandusky Bay, from the Mouth of

Pickerel Creek........190

^ Thomas Hutchins's 1764 Map of the Ohio Country      .      .   202 y

The Site of Tuscarawas or King Beaver's Town        .      . 204

John Filson's 1784 Map of Kentucky.....212 < 
   V1 Maps and Illustrations

FACING PAGE

The Site of Eskippakithiki Town at "Kenta-ke," or "Many

Fields"        .      .      .......240

The Site of Pickawillany.......274

Alexander Lowrey's Trader's License       .... 322

Crevecceur's 1787 Map of the Beaver, Muskingum, and

Scioto Indian Towns before the Revolution     .      . 386 
   The Wilderness Trail 
    
   CHAPTER I

GEORGE CROGHAN, THE KING OF THE TRADERS EORGE CROGHAN came to America from Ireland in 1741. He

V_J appears to have been first licensed as an Indian Trader in Pennsylvania in 1744, the year after Logstown was built. He was made a Councillor of the Six Nations at Onondaga in 1746, according to his own sworn statement. Governor Morris, writing to the Governor of Maryland at the beginning of the year 1755, says that "Mr. Peters assures me that Mr. Croghan has never been deemed a Roman Catholic, [some people of that faith were then suspected of treasonable correspondence with the French], nor does he believe that he is one, though he knows not his education, which was in Dublin, nor his religious profession." Croghan first appears in the official correspondence of Pennsylvania as writing to Secretary Peters, May 26, 1747, that he had just returned from the woods, bringing a letter, a French scalp, and some wampum, for the Governor from a party of Six Nations Indians having their dwelling on the borders of Lake Erie (at Cuyahoga), who had formerly been in the French interest; and who now, thanks to Croghan's diplomacy, had, with "all-most all the Ingans in the Woods," declared against the French. This, and perhaps a second letter, was laid before the Pennsylvania Council by Mr. Peters June 8th, with the information that Mr. Croghan was a considerable Indian Trader, and "had traded this past winter on

the borders of Lake Erie with a nation of Indians called--

[Wyandots] who were formerly in the French interest, but are now come over and have begun hostilities, along with some of the Six Nations, against the French."

Croghan went to Logstown in April, 1748, with a message and present from the Pennsylvania Council to the Ohio Indians. He returned again in August, when Weiser carried a larger present to the western allies of Pennsylvania. Weiser lodged in Croghan's storehouse during his visit to Logstown in that year.

Croghan was sent to Logstown again in August, 1749, to counteract the influence of Celoron's visit, and arrived there but a few days after

VOL. II   I I

 
   2

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the latter had departed; though soon enough to bind the Indians closer than ever in their allegiance to the English.

Croghan was appointed as one of the justices for Cumberland County, at the time of its erection, in 1749. He then lived in East Pennsboro Township, about five miles west of the Susquehanna.

In the spring of 1750 he accompanied Richard Peters and his fellow magistrates on a trip among the settlers on the Indian lands in Path, Tuscarora, Juniata, and Aughwick valleys, warning them off, burning their cabins, and confining some to prison for their intrusions. In the fall of the same year, he went with Andrew Montour to Logstown, and thence to Conchake, on the Muskingum, where he also had a trading house, and where Christopher Gist overtook him in December. Gist had written of him at Logstown, on his way out, "enquired for Croghan, who is a meer idol among his countrymen, the Irish Traders." They journeyed together to the Lower Shawnee Town, where Croghan boldly announced to the Shawnees at a Council held January 30, 1751, that the French had offered a large sum of money to any one who would bring them the bodies or scalps of Croghan or Montour. From the Lower Shawnee Town, the party proceeded to Pickawillany, where Croghan made a treaty for Pennsylvania with two tribes of the Miamis    the Piankeshaws and Ouiatanons. This treaty was afterwards repudiated by the Governor, and Croghan" censured.

Croghan went to Logstown with Andrew Montour in May, 1751, to carry another Provincial present to the Indians. While there, he met Joncaire, the French Indian agent, but succeeded in outwitting him in diplomacy; and the chiefs ordered the French from their lands, and reasserted their friendship for the English. At this time they also requested that the Governor should cause a strong house to be built on the Ohio for the protection of their wives and children in case they should be obliged to engage in war, and for the protection of the Traders. The Assembly asserted that this request was misunderstood or misrepresented by Croghan, and rejected it with an insult.

In February, 1752, Croghan wrote the Governor from the Lower Shawnee Town, enclosing a message from the Indians of that place. At that time he had a storehouse there. In June, Croghan was at Logs-town, and took part in the treaty between the Indians and the Virginia Commissioners.

On April 10, 1753, Captain William Trent wrote Governor Hamilton from Virginia, telling him that he had just received a letter from Mr. Croghan, giving an account of the attack made by a party of French Mohawks on eight of his and Lowrey's Traders "at a place called Kentucky"; and of the killing of three of John Finley's men and the disappearance of Finley.   This attack took place on the 26th of January; 
   George Croghan, the King of the Traders

3

and it is possible that Croghan spent a portion of that winter at the Lower Shawnee Town or Logstown, or between both places. In company with William Trent, Robert Callender, and other Traders, Croghan was at Pine Creek, near Logstown, on May 7th, when the letter arrived from John Fraser of Venango, stating that the French were on Lake Erie in large force, with brass cannons, on their way to the Ohio. On the 12th, he held a conference at Pine Creek with Scarrooyady and the Half King. He was present at an important council between the Pennsylvania Commissioners and chiefs of the Six Nations, Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots, and Twightwees, held at Carlisle in October, 1753. He had assisted William Fairfax of Virginia at a conference with the same chiefs held at Winchester a week or two before.

About this time or soon after, he was compelled by impending bankruptcy, and the fear of being imprisoned for debt, to remove from the settled parts of Cumberland County, and take up his residence in the Indian country, building a house at Aughwick Old Town, near the Juniata. In the instructions given December 5, 1753, by Governor Hamilton to John Patten, who was to carry a message to the Ohio Indians, Patten was instructed to call, on his way West, "at Mr. George Croghan's at Aucquick, and accompany Andrew Montour to Ohio, if he went." Croghan himself preceded Patten and Montour to the Ohio, taking with him two Shawnee prisoners who had been released from jail in South Carolina, and were to be returned to their tribe. He reached Shanoppin's Town on January 13th, where he was overtaken by Montour and Patten, and the party proceeded to Logs-town. Here they remained, from the 14th to the 26th, unable to do any business with the Indians, as they were all drunk, on brandy furnished by La Force and a detachment of French soldiers then encamped in that town. On February 2d, just as they were leaving Logstown, the Indians gave them a belt of black wampum with a message to the governors of Pennsylvania and Virginia, saying that if they did not send assistance immediately, the Indians would surely be cut off by their enemy, the French. On the way back, Croghan tarried at the Forks of the Ohio, from whence he wrote Peters and Hamilton that William Trent (Croghan's partner in trade) had just come out with the Virginia goods, and workmen and tools to begin a fort; and as he could not speak the Indian language, Croghan was obliged to stay and assist him in delivering the goods. Croghan was at his house in Aughwick again in March, from whence he wrote Secretary Peters on the 23d. Twenty-five days later, his half-brother, Ensign Edward Ward, surrendered to the French the incompleted Virginia fort at the Forks of the Ohio.

On May 14th, Croghan wrote Governor Hamilton, telling him that 
   4

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Montour and himself would set off in two days to meet the chiefs of the Ohio Indians at the Monongahela, and advising him to send ammunition to the Shawnees at Ohio, as the Half King had notified Croghan that they were in a desperate condition, and if not immediately supplied by the English they would be forced to yield to the French.

In the early part of June, Croghan was with George Washington and his little army, on the march from Fort Necessity to Redstone, having been sent from Winchester or Will's Creek, with Andrew Montour and a company of Traders by Governor Dinwiddie, in response to a letter from Washington, written June 3d. The Mingo and Delaware chiefs who met Washington refused to accompany him as far as Gist's plantation, and returned on their tracks to Fort Necessity. Croghan was sent back to them with a message. On June 25th, Queen Alliquippa's son (afterwards called Captain Newcastle) brought a letter from him to the commander, stating that he was unsuccessful in getting the Indians to return. Washington's Journal comes to an abrupt end two days later; and his record of Croghan's further movements at that time is lost.

Washington surrendered Fort Necessity at Great Meadows to the French July 3d. On the 21st, Andrew Montour wrote Governor Hamilton from Winchester that the Half King and Monekatootha (Scarroo-yady), with a body of the Six Nations from Ohio came down to the back parts of Virginia after the defeat, but would not stay in that Government, and had gone to "Aucquick" (Croghan's settlement) to settle, where the other Indians, as fast as they could get off from the French, would join them. "As there is a large body of them and no ground there to hunt to support their families, they expect their brothers, the Pennsyl-vanians, will provide for their families; as their men will be engaged in the War."

On August 16th, Croghan wrote Hamilton from Aucquick Old Town, stating that the Half King and Scarrooyady, with several other Indians and their families, had been there since Colonel Washington's defeat; and that about twelve days ago, the young Shawonese king from the Lower Shawanese Town, and several more with him, and Delaware George and several other Delawares, came there from the French fort, Delaware George bringing a letter from Captain Robert Stobo, one of the hostages given the French by Washington, and then detained at Fort Duquesne.

Conrad Weiser was sent by Governor Hamilton to Aughwick to treat with these Indians and others. He reached there September 3d. In the letter accompanying his report to the Governor, Weiser wrote that he had counted about twenty cabins about Croghan's house, and in them at least two hundred Indians, men, women, and children, with 
   George Croghan, the King of the Traders

a great many more scattered about through the valley, some two or three miles off. Croghan wrote Governor Morris November 23d, that there were then about one hundred and eighty Indians at Aughwick, who expected to winter with him there. He likewise wrote that a Delaware Indian spy whom he had sent to the French fort had returned with the news that there were three hundred French families settling at the Twightwee town (Pickawillany) and thereabouts. The latter news was also sent by Governor Horatio Sharpe from Maryland some two or three weeks later, with the further information that the French families had settled on Mad Creek, near the Maguck.

On December 27th, Sharpe wrote to Morris (who had succeeded Jame? Hamilton as Governor of Pennsylvania), stating that Mr. Croghan's conduct had been represented to him in a light not very favorable or amiable; that he was a Roman Catholic, and that one, Campbell, of the same persuasion, who generally resided at Croghan's house, had recently paid a visit to the French; complaining of Croghan's conduct in having opened the letters sent by Captain Stobo at Fort Duquesne by way of Aughwick to Will's Creek; and accusing him of telling the friendly Indians false stories in order to divert them from going to the camp at Will's Creek. Governor Morris wrote in reply that Croghan, though educated at Dublin, was not deemed to be a Roman Catholic; that the man, Campbell, had no connection with Croghan; and that the latter had sent the copies of Stobo's intercepted letters to former Governor Hamilton.

In a "Detail of Indian Affairs," prepared for Governor Morris at the time he succeeded Hamilton (October, 1754), it is stated that, before the outbreak of hostilities with the French, "Croghan and others had stores on ye Lake Erie, all along ye Ohio from Bar [?], and other storehouses on Lake Erie, all along ye Miami River, and up and down that fine country watered by ye Branches of ye Miamis, Sioto, and Musking-ham Rivers, and upon the Ohio from Bockaloons, an Indian Town near its head, to below ye mouth of the Miami River, an extent of 500 miles on one of the most beautiful rivers in ye world, and they traded all along the River."

Croghan wrote Secretary Richard Peters December 2d., "I am greatly obliged to you for leting me know how ill I am represented to you, . . . I will be very willing to go to Philadelphia, either with Indians or without, att any time that you will appoint, to meet you and Mr. [Richard] Hockley [Thomas Penn's agent in America], and do all in my power to secure you boath; and those that say otherwise to you dose me wronge. Pray could not ye Assembly pass an actt of bankrucpt, to oblidge ye merchants to take what effects we [the firm of Croghan & 
   6

The Wilderness Trail

Trent] have for pay, and so discharge us. I should be glad to know if that could be don, or in what maner to proceed."

May i, 1755, Croghan wrote Morris from Aughwick: "To-morrow morning all those Indians here set off with me to the Camp [at Will's Creek], to wait upon the General [Braddock], except the women and children, chief of which insist on staying here."

Engineer Harry Gordon's Journal,1 states that General Braddock arrived at the camp at Will's Creek (Fort Cumberland), May 10th, and found there one hundred Indian men, women, and children. Richard Peters, who visited the camp in May, reported that he found there Andrew Montour, Scarrooyady, and about forty of the Indians from Aughwick, with their wives and families, "who were extremely dissatisfied at not being consulted with by the General, and got frequently into high quarrels, their squas bringing them money in plenty, which they got from the officers, who were scandalously fond of them." Croghan wrote Morris from Fort Cumberland, May 20th: "Tomorrow, what Indian women and children came here with me set off back for Aucquick, by order of the General, the men entirely going with the General; and the General insists on my going with him. ... I have here about fifty men [Indians and Traders], and in a few days expect twenty more, which were left behind at my house."

On the same day, Braddock wrote Governor Morris that he had engaged forty or fifty Indians for Pennsylvania to go with him over the mountains, "and shall take Croghan and Montour into service."

James Burd, who was in command of a party cutting a road to Raystown, wrote Peters, June 17th, from " Allogueepy's Town," that he had received a letter two days before from George Croghan, then at Little Meadows. Joseph Shippen reported on his return from Little Meadows that he had counted but seven Indians there, and had asked Mr. Croghan what had become of the rest of the thirty-seven he started with. "He say'd they were gone from Fort Cumberland with their wives and children to Awkwick, to leave them there, and expected to see them again before he could get to the Great Meadows." Daniel East, a servant of Joseph Simon's, was at the Great Crossing of the Youghio-gheny, fifteen miles beyond Little Meadows, and reported to Edward Shippen, on his return to Lancaster, that, by the help of Mr. Croghan and his seven Indians, Sir John Sinclair had discovered a party of two or three hundred French Indians, and pursued and driven them off.

Croghan was back in Aughwick during the summer and fall following Braddock's defeat. On the 9th of October he wrote Charles Swaine at Shippensburg, requesting the loan of six guns, with powder

   Printed in an incomplete form as "A Seaman's Journal" in Sargent's Braddock's Expedition; in a correct form in Hulbert's Braddock's Road. 
   George Croghan, the King of the Traders 7

and lead, and stating that he hoped to have the stockade around his house finished by the middle of the following week. He also sent reports he had received from an Indian who had come from Ohio, who stated that, at the time he left, the French had 160 men ready to set out, for the purpose of harassing the English settlements; that Croghan's Indian friends there desired him to leave Aughwick as soon as the French succeeded in drawing the Susquehanna Indians to them; for otherwise, he would lose his scalp; and that the French would, if possible, lay all the back frontiers in ruins that winter. On November 12th, Croghan wrote James Hamilton, from Shippens-burg, giving him Indian news from Ohio. He was more afraid of arrest and imprisonment for debt than of losing his scalp, and added to his letter: " From ye misfortunes I have had in tread [trade] which oblidges me to keep at a greatt distance, I have itt nott in my power to forward intelegance so soon as I could wish."

At a meeting of the Pennsylvania Assembly held November 26, 1755, the following petition was presented by fifteen creditors of George Croghan and William Trent, their names being Jeremiah Warder, Samuel Neave, William and David Mcllvaine, Buckridge Sims, Benjamin and Samuel Shoemaker, James Wallace, James Benezet, Thomas Campbell, William West, Adam Hoops, John Potter, David Franks, for Levy and Company, and Joseph Morris. They were mostly Philadelphia and Lancaster merchants and tradespeople, who had furnished goods or services to Croghan during the time of his extensive trading operations with the Ohio Indians:

The Petition of the principal Creditors of George Croghan and William Trent, of the County of Cumberland, Partners and Indian Traders, humbly sheweth:

That the said George Croghan and William Trent stand indebted to your Petitioners, and sundry others, in considerable and large sums of money; and that by many losses, occasioned by the defection of our Indian Allies from their former friendship and amity with this Province, and the invasion and conquest by the French on the Ohio and the . adjacent country (where, for the most part, the goods purchased of your Petitioners were sold, the contracts by the said George Croghan and William Trent made, and their debts became due), they are rendered altogether destitute of money or effects to make that satisfaction to their creditors which their inclination and conscience would oblige them to do were it in their power;

That the said George Croghan has been for some time and is now at Aughwick, in the most melancholy and deplorable circumstances, in a condition very defenceless, destitute of all kinds of provisions but what is procured at the hazard of his life, and daily liable to the invasion and massacre of our barbarian enemies;

That your Petitioners are well assured that the sole cause of his 
   s

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continuing there in this dangerous and truly unhappy situation proceeds from an apprehension that some of his creditors would lay him under arrest and deprive him of his liberty, should he come into the more settled parts of the Province;

That, although the chief and principal of the creditors of the said George Croghan and William Trent reside in this City, and are of the subscribers hereunto, yet there are many others to whom less sums are due, dispersed throughout the several Counties in this and the adjacent Provinces, which renders it next to impossible to procure all their creditors to sign a general letter of license (the usual method made use of in such cases), however inclinable they may be so to do;

That your Petitioners conceiving that the keeping of the said George Croghan under his present unhappy circumstances will answer no good end, and at the same time taking into their consideration the great knowledge of the said George Croghan in Indian Affairs, his extensive influence among them, and the service and public utility he may be of to this Province in these respects, they are willing cheerfully to surrender up their just demands against the said George Croghan and William Trent for the space of Ten Years; and are induced to pray that this House would be pleased to take the premises into their wise and prudent consideration, and enact such a law as they shall think most expedient and fit, to render the said George Croghan and William Trent, or either of them, free from any arrest, suit, trouble, or molestation whatsoever, for any sums of money which are now due, or contracted for and yet to become due, as well to us as others their said Creditors; inserting, nevertheless, in the said Act, a Proviso, that nothing therein contained shall affect any debts which are due to any person whatsoever from the said George Croghan and William Trent, in Company with others, so as to discharge their Partners (if any there be) from such Company debts.

A bill was accordingly drawn and passed by the Assembly on November 28th, giving Messrs. Croghan and Trent freedom from arrest for the period of ten years. It was presented to the Governor for his signature. On the 29th, he was informed by Mr. Richard Hockley, agent for Thomas Penn, that he, Hockley, had had no notice of the application for the bill for the relief of Croghan and Trent, though he had been in partnership with them, and was by far the largest creditor. On reading the bill, he proposed an amendment, which was accepted by the House, and the Governor enacted it into a law by affixing his signature.

This act, after standing for nearly three years, was disallowed, vetoed, and repealed by King George II., at Kensington, June 16, 1758."

Croghan met the Governor and three members of his Council at Carlisle January 13, 1756. He informed them that he had sent a friendly Indian to the Ohio for intelligence, who had been to Kittanning, the residence of Chief Shingas and Captain Jacobs.   That there, Beaver,

*Penna. Col. Rec, viii., 320. 
   George Croghan, the King of the Traders 9

brother of Shingas, had told him the Six Nations had given the war hatchet to the Delawares and Shawnees; that the messenger had then gone to the Logstown, and was told the same thing by the Shawnees there; and that there were a number of the Six Nations Indians still living in the Shawnee and Delaware towns, who always accompanied them in their war parties against the English settlements. On the 15th, 16th, and 17th, Croghan acted with Conrad Weiser as interpreter at a conference held by the Governor with The Belt of Wampum, Arroas (Silver Heels), Jagrea, Captain Newcastle, Seneca George, and others> chiefs and warriors of the Mingoes.

On February 9th, Francis West wrote from Carlisle to his brother, William, in Philadelphia, stating that the soldiers at Croghan's Fort in Aughwick had killed two of the neighboring Indians.

At Carlisle, on April 24, 1756, Croghan made up an account of his "losses occasioned by the French and Indians driving the English Traders off the Ohio," in 1754. Some of the items in this account, to which Croghan's affidavit was attached, were as follows:

"One Store House, fenced fields of Indian Corn, and numbers of large canoes and batteaux above the mouth of Pine Creek.

"One Store House at the Logstown, twelve miles from Fort Du Quesne, on the northwest side of Ohio,   150.

"One Store House at Muskingum [Conchake],   150.

"One large Store House on the Ohio, opposite to the Mouth of the River Scioto, where the Shawanese had built their new Town, called the Lower Shawanese Town; which House, we learn by the Indians, is now in the possession of a French Trader,   200." This item of property seized is stated to have belonged to "William Trent, George Croghan, Robert Callender, and Michael Teaff, Traders in Company."

In these accounts of Croghan & Company it is also stated that they lost goods, in the hands of Thomas Burney and Andrew McBryar, at the taking of the Twightwees' Town (Pickawillany), to the value of   331. 15s.

Soon after making up this account of his losses, Croghan departed from Pennsylvania and joined his fortunes with those of Sir William Johnson in the Mohawk Valley. On the 24th of June, 1756, he took part in a conference held by the baronet with some chiefs of the Six Nations at Onondaga Lake.

About the same time Governor Hardy, of New York, wrote to Governor Morris for a sample of Croghan's handwriting; as he wanted to compare it with that of some intercepted messages which had been sent by French spies in Pennsylvania, destined for Canada. Morris answered this letter July 5th, saying in relation to Croghan: "There were many Indian Traders with Braddock, and Croghan among others, 
   10

The Wilderness Trail

who acted as a Captain of the Indians [and Traders], under a warrant from Gen. Braddock; and I never heard any objections to his conduct in that capacity. For many years he had been very largely concerned in the Ohio Trade, was upon that River frequently, and had a considerable influence among the Indians, speaking the language of several nations, and being very liberal, or rather, profuse, in his gifts to them; which, with the losses he sustained by the French, who seized great quantities of his goods, and by not getting the debts due to him from the Indians, he became bankrupt, and since has lived at a place called Aughwick, in the back parts of this Province; where he had generally a number of Indians with him, for the maintenance of whom the Province allowed him sums of money from time to time, but not to his satisfaction. After this he went by my order with those Indians and joined Gen. Braddock, who gave the warrant I have mentioned. Since Braddock's defeat, he returned to Aughwick, where he remained till an act of Assembly was passed here granting him a freedom from arrest for ten years. This was done that the Province might have the benefit of his knowledge of the Woods, and his influence among the Indians; and immediately thereupon, while I was last at York, a Captain's commission was given to him, and he was ordered to raise men for the defence of the Western Frontier, which he did in a very expeditious manner; but not so frugally as the Commissioners for disposing of the Public Money thought he might have done. He continued in command of one of the Companies he had raised, and of Fort Shirley, on the Western Frontier, about three months, during which time he sent, by my direction, Indian Messengers to the Ohio for Intelligence; but never procured me any that was very material; and having a dispute with the Commissioners about some accounts between them, in which he thought himself ill-used, he resigned his commission; and about a month ago informed me that he had not received his pay on Gen. Braddock's warrant, and desired my recommendation to Gen. Shirley, which I gave him, and he set off directly for Albany; and I hear he is now at Onondaga with Sir William Johnson.

"I believe he knows nothing of the French language, but what he may have picked up among the Indians with whom he dealt, having been concerned in that Trade ever since he came into this country. I send you a letter of his under this cover, and the hand being pretty remarkable, you may easily find out if any papers you have procured are of his writing. I know very few of the Indian Traders besides, as they are mostly a low sort of people, generally too ignorant to be employed as spies, but not at all too virtuous."

Hardy wrote Morris in reply, July 9: "The letters of Croghan is by no means the hand I want.   I am rather inclined to think the treason- 
   George Croghan, the King of the Traders       11

able correspondence must have been carried on by some Roman Catholics. I have heard you have an ingenious Jesuit in Philadelphia."

At the German Flats, August 26, 1756, Sir William Johnson spoke to two parties of warriors, one, of several nations, under the command of Captain Montour and Scarrooyady, the other, a party of Aughquageys and Mohikanders, under Thomas, an Aughquagey (Oghquaga) chief. He asked them to go to the Oneida carrying place, to meet there the army of General Webb; and said that he would send their brother, Mr. Croghan, with them, instead of going himself.

The Indians promised to accompany Croghan, but delayed their departure from day to day; and General Webb, in the meantime, having destroyed his forts, abandoned the carrying place, and returned to German Flats, the proposed exped