Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (Vol 1 1904).djvu/189

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
1758-1759]
Post's Journals
185

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