severely censured by Sir William, in a speech to the Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas; and the latter were charged by the baronet to take the subject in hand, and "talk to him," and should they find him in fault, "make him sensible of it."*

But the Delawares and the Shawanese of the Alleghany and Ohio were yet upon the war-path, and although the horrors of the border warfare were somewhat mitigated by the peace with Teedyuscung, they were by no means at an end. More especially were the frontiers of Virginia exposed to the invasions of the Shawanese. Efforts for a more general pacification were therefore continued, under the auspices of the Quakers. But the French were strongly posted at Venango and Fort Du Quesne; and they were assiduous and plausible in cultivating the friendship of the Indians, and lavish in their presents. It was consequently a difficult matter to obtain access to the Indian towns thickly studding the more western rivers, or to induce the tribes to open their ears to any body but the French.

A most fitting and worthy agent to bear a message of peace to those Indians, was, however, found in the person of Christian Frederick Post. He was a plain, honest German, of the Moravian sect, who had resided seventeen years with the Indians, a part of which period had been passed in the valley of Wyoming, and he had twice mar

* Manuscripts of Sir William Johnson in the author's possession.

ried among them. He was therefore well acquainted with the Indian character, and was intimately known to many, both Shawanese and Delawares, who had also resided at Wyoming. The service required of him was alike severe and arduous. A dreary wilderness was to be traversed, ravines threaded and mountains scaled; and when these obstacles were surmounted, even if he did not meet with a stealthy enemy before, with his life in his hand he was to throw himself into the heart of an enemy's country and that enemy as treacherous and cruel, when in a state of exasperation, as ever civilized man has been doomed to encounter. But Christian Frederick Post entered upon the perilous mission with the courage and spirit of a Christian. Accompanied by two or three Indian guides, he crossed the rivers and mountains twice in the summer and autumn of 1758, visited many of the Indian towns, passed and repassed the French fort at Venango, and held a council with the Indians almost under the guns of Fort Du Quesne, where was a garrison, at that time, of about ten thousand men. Far the greater part of the Indians received him with friendship, and his message of peace with gladness. They had such perfect confidence in his integrity and truth, that every effort of the French to circumvent him was unavailing. They kept a captain and more than fifteen soldiers hanging about him for several days, watching his every movement, and listening to all that was said; and various

schemes were devised at first to make him prisoner, and ultimately to take his life; but although one of his own guides had a forked tongue, and was seduced from him at fort Du Quesne, yet the Indians upon whom he had thrown himself, with so much confidence and moral courage, interposed for his counsel and protection in every case of danger, and would not allow a hair of his head to be injured. He was charged with messages both from Teedyuscung and Governor Denny. To the former they would not listen for a moment. Indeed that chieftain seemed to be the object of their strong dislike, if not of their positive hate. They would therefore recognise nothing that he had done at Easton; but they received the messages of the Governor with the best possible feeling. It was evident from all their conversations with Christian Post, whose Journal is as artless as it is interesting, that they had been deceived by the representations of the French, and deluded into a belief that, while it was the intention of the English to plunder them of all their lands, the French were themselves actuated solely by the benevolent motive of driving the English back across the water, and restoring the Indians to all the possessions which the Great Spirit had given them.* Convinced by Post of the fraud that had

* In the course of the speech by one of the Six Nations, delivered at the Council at Lancaster in 1757, cited in a preceding note, it was said in reference to the influence which the French had acquired over the Delawares and Shawanese: "At this time our cousins the Delawares carried on a cor

been practised upon their understandings, their yearnings for peace gathered intensity every day. Several times, during his conversations with the chiefs of different towns, as he undeceived them in regard to the real designs of the French, their minds seemed filled with melancholy perplexity. A conviction of what was not wide of the truth, flashed upon them, and once at least, the apprehension was uttered, that it was but a struggle between the English and French, which should possess their whole country, after the Indians had been exterminated between them. "Why do not the great kings of England and France," they inquired, "do their fighting in their own country, and not come over the great waters to fight on our hunting grounds?" The question was too deep for honest Christian Frederick Post to answer. However, the inclination of the Indians was decidedly toward the English, and the result of his second embassy, in the autumn of 1758, after encountering fresh difficulties and dangers, was a reconciliation with the Indians of the Ohio country, in consequence of which the French were obliged to abandon the whole of that territory to

respondence with the French; by which means the French became acquainted with all the causes of complaint they had against you; and as your people were daily incroaching their settlements, by these means you drove them back into the arms of the French; and they took the advantage of spiriting them up against you, by telling them, 'Children, you see, and we have often told you, how the English, your brothers, would serve you; they plant all the country, and drive you back; so that in a little time, you will have no land; it is not so with us; though we build trading-houses on your land, we do not plant it, we have our provisions from over the great water.'"

General Forbes, after destroying with their own hands the strong fortress of Du Quesne.

Great, however, as was the influence of Christian Frederick Post with the western Delawares and Shawanese, he is by no means entitled to the entire credit of bringing about a peace. The efforts of Sir William Johnson were incessantly directed to the same end, and were not without their effect. The fact was, the French were omitting no exertions to win the Six Nations from their alliance with the English. In this design they were partially successful, and the British Indian Superintendent, great as was his influence with the red men, had his hands full to prevent the mass of the Six Nations from deserting him, during the years 1756 and 1757, and joining the French. True, the Mohawks, Oneidas and Tuscaroras maintained their allegiance to the British crown, and were not backward upon the war-path; but the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, against the strongest remonstrances of Sir William, declared themselves neutral; while large numbers of the Senecas and Cayugas actually took up the hatchet with the western Indians, in alliance with the French.*

The defection probably would have been greater, but for circumstances that occurred at Fort Du Quesne, late in the year 1757, and in the beginning of the following year. These circum

* MSS. of Sir William Johnson.