Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (Vol 1 1904).djvu/26

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Early Western Travels
[Vol. 1

a French scalp.[1] The Pennsylvania authorities voted them a present of £200, to be sent out by Croghan. About the same time, a deputation of ten Indians from the Ohio arriving in Philadelphia, the council considered this "an extraordinary event in the English favor," and not only secured a grant of £1,000 from the assembly, but applied to the governors of the Southern provinces to aid in this work; in accordance with which request, Virginia replied with an appropriation of £200.[2] Croghan set off in the spring of 1748, and informed the Allegheny Indians that Weiser, the official interpreter, would be among them during the summer. Meanwhile, the latter was detained by a treaty with the Twigtwee (Miami) Indians, who had come unexpectedly offering to the English the alliance of that powerful nation;[3] so that it was not until August that he was able to start on his mission to the Ohio.

In addition to the delivery of the present, he was also instructed to secure satisfaction for the attack of some Northern Indians upon the Carolina settlements; wherein one Captain Haig, with several others, had been carried off prisoners—supposedly by some Ohio Indians.[4] The success of this mission was most gratifying to the English and the frontier settlers. The Virginia authorities were more active than those of Pennsylvania in following up the advantage thus gained; and under the leadership of the Ohio Company sought to secure the Forks of the Ohio, with the ensuing consequences of the French and Indian War.

R. G. T.



  1. Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, p. 72.
  2. Ibid., pp. 121, 140, 145-152; 189, 190, 257.
  3. Ibid., pp. 286-290, 307-319.
  4. Ibid., pp. 290-293, 304.