1758]
Post's Journals
235
go with me:" and I likewise said the same to him, and told him, "I will accompany you, if you will go the same way as I must go." And then I called them together, in Mr. Weiser's house, and read a letter to them, which I had received from the Governor, which is as follows, viz. "To Pisquetomen and Thomas Hickman, to Totiniontenna and Shickalamy, and to Isaac Still.[1]
"Brethren, Mr. Frederick Post is come express from the general, who sends his compliments to you, and desires you would come by the way of his camp, and give him an opportunity of talking with you.
"By this string of wampum I request of you to alter your intended rout by way of Shamokin,[2] and to go to the general,[3] who will give you a kind reception. It is a
- ↑ Thomas Hickman was an Indian who had taken an English name, and was much employed by the province of Pennsylvania as an interpreter. A brutal white man murdered Hickman in the Tuscarora Valley in 1761. Totiniontenna was a Cayuga chieftain who with Shickalamy was sure by the Six Nations to undertake this embassy to the Ohio Indians. The chief here called Shickalamy was the youngest son, of the famous Oneida of that name, who dwelt so long at the forks of the Susquehanna, and was friendly to the whites, especially the Moravians. The elder chief died in 1749, his most famous son being Logan. Isaac Still was a Moravian Christian Indian, frequently employed as a messenger and interpreter.—Ed.
- ↑ Shamokin was an Indian town at the forks of the Susquehanna, the abode of Shickalamy, vice-king of the Indians of that region. It was first visited by the whites in 1728. Weiser built a house at this village by request of the chief, in 1744. Frequent visits of the Moravians led to the establishment here of a blacksmith's shop, and a quasi-mission. Fort Augusta was built there in 1756; but on the proclamation of war against the Delawares in the same year, the Indians abandoned the place and destroyed the settlement.—Ed.
- ↑ The general here referred to was John Forbes, a Scotchman who in 1757 was appointed brigadier-general for the war in America. His first service was at Louisburg. In 1758, he was appointed to organize the expedition against Fort Duquesne. After the French, on the approach of Forbes's army, had abandoned that stronghold, the general, suffering from a serious disease, was carried by slow stages to Philadelphia, where he died in March, 1760. He was a man of iron purpose, and great strength of character, being popular alike with his soldiers and Indian allies.—Ed.
