I sent them a message, strongly recommending it to them, to enable me to supply the cannon and stores you had demanded, and to regulate the hire of wagons, horses and men, and the price of provisions, that private men might not be at liberty to distress public measures, as you will see by a copy of the message under this cover, but I have no hopes of their doing any thing to the purpose. I am, sir, &c.,

ROBT. H. MORRIS. PHILADELPHIA, June 18, 1755.

SIR-Your express just brought me your favor of the 9th inst., with Carolina bills of exchange to the amount of £4000 sterling, which are drawn in such large sums that they will not readily sell, wherefore, I have directed the merchant I employ to send them immediately to England, and draw his own bills to the amount in such sums as may suit the traders here, which he will do at the highest exchange; but bills are so plenty here and at New York, by means of Shirley's and Pepperell's regiments, the Northern expedition and Col. Hunter's draughts, that I am fearful exchange will soon fall. Before you receive this, you will be informed of what I have done with regard to the forage and provisions, which I flatter myself will meet with your approbation. I have done my utmost, and make no doubt I shall have every thing you want in great readiness before you will have occasion for it; my only doubt is about escorts, but I shall try to work upon my Assembly to keep some man in pay for that purpose, for the reasons I have mentioned to you in another letter of this day. As soon as the Assembly is adjourned, and a London ship just going is departed, I shall go into the back counties to settle all matters about the magazine; and you may rest assured, that every thing that is possible shall be done in the best and cheapest

manner.

My intelligence from the roads is, that they have got as far as Rays town, and I hope they will soon join you. If some log store houses were built nigh the falls of Ohiogany, or at some other more convenient place upon that new road, flour and other provisions might be sent thither from the magazine near Shippensburg; and you might with greater ease be supplied when you get to the Ohio; but of that you are the best judge.

The getting recruits here is become somewhat difficult, and Shirley's and Pepperell's officers have taken great numbers from here. However, I will try what can be done, and if I had some arms, the recruits might serve as escorts from time to time.

The women you have discharged shall be taken care of as soon as they arrive, if I can prevail on my Assembly to contribute any thing to it. I am, sir, &c.

Prov. Rec. N. p. 63.

ROBT. H. MORRIS.

BEAR CAMP, June 21, 1755.

SIR-I have this day received your two letters of June 12 and 16, and am much obliged to you for the trouble you have had, as well with regard to the magazine of provisions, as the forage you have procured for

me. I have a firm dependance upon your care and regard for the service you have undertaken that shall meet with no disappointments, and that every thing will be conducted in the best manner.

I shall order the Deputy Pay Master to send Mr. Franklin a draught by this opportunity upon Col. Hunter, for £1000 sterling, on account of the purchase of forage. You will please to let me know what further demands there may be on that account. When I am further advanced, I shall be able to judge better of the expediency of forming a second magazine upon the new road.

The party I have sent for the protection of your people working upon that road, will, I hope, be a sufficient security for them against all panics. I am obliged to you for the inclosed from Captain Bradstreet. Herewith I send you some letters which are to go to the northward; and you will be so good as to forward them in the best manner.

I am, sir, &c.

.

E. BRADDOCK.

P. S.-As it is perfectly understood here in what part the road making in your province is to communicate with, through which I am now proceeding to Fort Duquesne; I must beg that you and Mr. Peters, would immediately settle it, and send an express on purpose after me with the most exact description of it, that there may be no mistake in a matter of so much importance.

FROM THE CAMP AT THE LAST CROSSING OF THE YOUGHIOGHENY, June, 30, 1755. S

SIR-I shall be very soon in want of supplies from your province, I must beg you would order all possible dispatch to be made use of in finishing the new road as far as Crow Foot of the Youghiogheny, and immediately afterwards send forward to me such articles of provision as shall be in your power. Some of the inhabitants near Fort Cumberland having been killed, and taken prisoners by straggling parties of Indians, the people in these parts have been deterred from coming to the camp. My chief dependence must therefore be upon your province, when the road will be secure from insults or attacks of that kind; and lest it should not be in my power to send a sufficient number of wagons or horses, to bring up from the magazine at McDowell's mill* the provisions I may have occasion for, I must desire you to direct Mr. Swaine, or some proper person, to have in view such a number of them as may answer that purpose, which shall be conducted to the camp under a proper escort: but I would not have any contract or positive engagement made till further orders, as I am in hopes this measure may not be necessary, and expense consequently avoided.

I hope soon to have an express from you, with an exact account of the place fixed upon for the communication between the two roads, And am sir, your most humble and most ob't serv't,

E, BRADDOCK. PHILADELPHIA, July 6, 1755.

SIR: The packet I have the honor to transmit to you, by this conveyance, will inform you of the success of our part of his Majesty's

* Franklin county, a few miles from Loudon, Pa.-I. D. R.

forces under your command, and of the treatment that part of their fleet have received from Admiral Boscawen, who, with Admiral Moslyn, commanded thirteen sail of the line, now cruising between St. Lawrence Bay and Cape Table. It is said that the French fleet consists of twenty-four ships, and the English of thirty, but I cannot think these accounts are to be depended on; but as our fleet has fallen in with theirs, I am in hopes we shall have as good an account of the whole as we have of the two that are mentioned in the letters herewith.

I make no doubt Colonel Innis has informed you that some Indians have been murdering some of the inhabitants near Fort Cumberland, and given you the particulars, which I have not yet received. This has struck a panic into the people of the back parts of our country, and I expect it will be difficult to prevail with them to go with provisions to the road cutters without an escort, which I have it not in my power to furnish, not being enabled by my Assembly.

Mr. Franklin tells me that the £1,000 you have sent him, will be sufficient to pay the forage bought to my order in this town, and for transporting it to the camp. He thinks, too, that it will be sufficient to pay for a thousand bushels of wheat, that you have ordered him to buy, of all which, he tells me, he will give me an account. That there will be wanting about £500 sterling more to pay for the forage that was bought and sent from the back counties. I have 330 bushels of Indian corn remaining in this town, which I can sell again for what it cost: but do not intend to do it till I hear from you, which I shall expect to do by the return of the express, when I shall be at Shippensburg; and beg you would direct me whether any, and what forage must be laid in at Shippensburg, that I may give the necessary orders, when I am in that county.

The panic that has taken possession of the people near the mountains, since the Indians have begun to scalp, will make it next to impossible to carry the magazine farther back than Shippensburg. However, I shall judge better of that when I am upon the spot, and fix it either at McDowell's mill, at Shippensburg, or at some place between them, as I shall think will best answer the public purpose.

This express will bring you letters from Colonel Johnson, that will let you into the progress he is making among the Indians, and in which I suppose he mentions the state of things in that quarter, of which I had no account for some time, further than all our troops are in motion. The cutting off this re-inforcement of six batallions, will put it out of the power of the French to hinder the execution of any part of your plan; and if a war should be the consequence of our success in America, and the colonies can be prevailed upon to keep up the troops, they have at present, Canada itself may find you employment for next summer. I am, sir, &c.,

ROBERT H. MORRIS.

CARLISLE, July 14, 1755.

SIR-I have this minute the favor of yours of the 30th of last month, from the last crossing of the Yohiogany, upon which I congratulate you, and I hope this will find you in possession of Fort Duquesne.—

The opening of the road has been somewhat interrupted by some Indians, who have killed some of the wagoners, and people employed in carrying them provisions, which has generally alarmed this part of the province. And Mr. Burd writes me from Allegheny mountain, that thirty of his men had left him for want of arms. As soon as possible after the people that escaped the Indians returned, a number of cattle were procured, and with a proper quantity of flour, were sent under the protection of sixty-four volunteers, who, I imagine, will meet the thirty now in their way home, and carry them back to their work. As soon as I am informed that the new road is nigh joining your route, which, as I have written, I imagine will be about the Great Crossing, I shall send forward a parcel of oxen, some pork, and some flour; as much of the two last articles as I can procure wagons to carry; and propose staying in this part of the province (where I came to forward and secure the magazine) till that be done. The letter here with I wrote at Philadelphia, but the bearer has been detained a long time on the road, on account of the murders committed by the Indians, and his hopes of an escort from me'; but for want of militia, it is not in my power; so he goes round by Winchester, and may be some time before he reaches you with the good news he is charged with.

I am your Excellency's most ob't and most humble serv't, ROBERT H. MORRIS.

POST'S JOURNAL, 1758.

[No. X.]

The first Journal of Christian Frederick Post,* from Philadelphia to the Ohio, on a message from the Government of Pennsylvania to the Delaware, Shawanese, and Mingo Indians, settled there, and formerly in alliance with the English; in order to prevail on them to withdraw from the French interest; in the year 1758.

THE JOURNAL, &c.

July the 15th, 1758-This day I received orders from his honor, the Governor, to set out on my intended journey, and proceeded as far as Germantown, where I found all the Indians drunk. WILLIAMEGICKEN returned to Philadelphia, for a horse, that was promised him.

16th-This day I waited for the said Williamegicken till near noon, and when he came, being very drunk, he could proceed no further, so that I left him, and went to Bethlehem.

CHRISTIAN FREDERICK POST was an unassuming, honest German, a Moravian. He came from Germany to Pennsylvania, in 1742. In 1743 he accompanied the missionaries Pyrlaeus and Senseman to Shekomeko, an Indian village bordering on Connecticut, where he married a baptized Indian woman. (He married twice.) Having preached the gospel among the Indians for sevral years; and after much persecution and personal abuse-having been arrested at Albany and imprisoned in New York; and on his enlargement preached the gospel to the Indians at Pachgatgoch or Skattock, in Connecticut, and at the same time working at his trade as a joiner, returned to Europe about the year 1749. He again re-visited this country; and while at

17th-I arrived at Bethlehem, and prepared for my journey.

18th-I read over both the last treaties, that at Easton, and that at Philadelphia, and made myself acquainted with the particulars of each.

19th-With much difficulty I persuaded the Indians to leave Bethlehem, and travelled this day no further than Hayes's, having a hard shower of rain.

20th-Arrived at Fort Allen.

21st-I called my company together, to know if we should proceed. They complained they were sick, and must rest that day. This day, I think, Teedyuscung laid many obstacles in my way, and was very much against my proceeding: he said, he was afraid I should never return; and that the Indians would kill me. About dinner time two Indians arrived from Wyoming, with an account that Teedyuscung's son, Hans Jacob, was returned, and brought news from the French and Allegheny Indians. Teedyuscung then called a Council, and proposed that I should only go to Wyoming, and return, with the message his son had brought from Philadelphia. I made answer, that it was too late, that he should have proposed that in Philadelphia; for that the writings containing my orders were so drawn, as obliged me to go, though I should lose my life.

22d-I desired my companions to prepare to set out, upon which Teedyuscung called them all together in the fort, and protested against my going. His reasons were, that he was afraid the Indians would kill me, or the French get me; and if that should be the case he should be very sorry, and did not know what he should do. I gave for answer, "that I did not know what to think of their conduct. It is plain, said I, that the French have a public road to your towns, yet you will not let your own flesh and blood the English, come near them; which is very hard and if that be the case, the French must be your masters." I added, that, if I died in the undertaking, it would be as much for the Indians as the English, and that I hoped my journey would be of this advantage, that it would be the means of saving the lives of many hundreds of the Indians: therefore, I was resolved to go forward, taking my life in my hand, as one ready to part with it for their good. Immediately after I had spoken thus, three rose up and offered to go with me the nearest way; and we concluded to go through the inhabitants, under the Blue mountains to fort Augusta, on Susquehanna; where we arrived on the 25th.

It gave me great pain to observe many plantations deserted and laid waste; and I could not but reflect on the distress the poor owners must be drove to, who once lived in plenty; and I prayed the Lord to restore peace and prosperity to the distressed.

Bethlehem, he was prevailed on to carry a message to the western Indians.— Having discharged the duties of a messenger faithfully on both occasions, he again, attempted to convert the Indians west of the Ohio. He chose to take up his abode about the year 1762, a hundred miles west of Fort Pitt, in Tuscarora Town; he however failed in establishing a mission at that place. He abandoned the project, and left this country for the bay of Honduras, to preach the gospel to the Musquito Indians, who, it is said, were more tractable.-I. D. R.