[>] “The other Day”: Canasatego (July 12, 1742), in MPCP, 4:578. How precisely the written record of Indian speeches like this one, given at treaty councils and other formal occasions, matches what was actually said is a question that has vexed historians for centuries. The orator’s words had to pass through many linguistic layers to reach the printed page—in this case from spoken Onondaga (presumably) to spoken English, interpreted by a man whose first language was German; then to a scribe feverishly scribbling his version of the translated speech in English, and whose notes were often later assembled, edited, and reworked by a provincial official such as Logan, who submitted them for publication; and finally subjected to further polishing by someone like Benjamin Franklin, who reprinted volumes of treaty speeches over the years and who often added rhetorical flourishes of his own.
Each step was rife with opportunities for mistakes, misunderstandings, heavy-handed editorial grooming, and intentional tampering with a speaker’s words. Sloth, drunkenness, and exhaustion at the time of the translation and transcription all played roles, as did the opportunity to gore a particular political ox. The Reverend Richard Peters, provincial secretary of Pennsylvania during the 1740s and 1750s, seems to have frequently altered the speeches of Indian orators to provide a more colony-friendly reading. Yet is also clear that some scribes and interpreters would go to great lengths to ensure they were accurately capturing the letter and spirit of an oration. On one occasion in 1756, when Conrad Weiser and another interpreter differed in their understanding of a Seneca leader’s speech, they met with him privately to iron out the kinks before giving a public translation (Hagedorn 1988).
Imperfect as the council minutes and speech transcriptions are, “in no other source did ethnocentric Euro-Americans preserve with less distortion a memoir of Indian thoughts, concerns, and interpretations of events” (Richter 1982, 47–48), and they may be our best opportunity to hear the eloquence of an oral society speaking for itself. For an exploration of one especially well-documented example of varying accounts flowing from a single man’s speeches, see Merrell 2006.
[>] “We see with”: Canasatego (July 12, 1742), in MPCP, 4:579.
“You ought to be”: Ibid.
[>] “has never been deemed”: Robert Hunter Morris to Horatio Sharpe, January 7, 1754, in PA, 2nd ser., 2:114.
“amusing, provided it”: Albert T. Volwiler, “George Croghan and the Westward Movement, 1741–1782,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 46 (1922): 273–311.
“Youl Excuse”: George Croghan to Richard Peters, September 26, 1758, in PA, 1st ser., 3:545.
[>] at whose nexus: For a detailed examination of Logan’s Indian trade dealings, see Jennings 1966.
[>] “The French man offering”: Conrad Weiser (June 17, 1747), in MPCP, 5:86–87.
[>] Canada, New England: Though largely sparing the Middle Colonies, the war took a fearsome toll farther north, with major battles for the French fortress of Louisbourg (in the Maritimes) and frontier attacks that emptied much of New York north of Albany. The war ended with a peace treaty in 1748 that restored all boundaries and possessions to their prewar status, a situation no one expected to last. It didn’t.
“I have had a dream”: All quotations are from Wallace 1945, 152. Another version of this exchange appears in C. Z. Weiser, The Life of (John) Conrad Weiser, 2nd ed. (Reading, PA: Daniel Miller, 1899), 106.
“some Honest Trader”: Conrad Weiser to Richard Peters, July 20, 1747, in PA, 1st ser., 1:762.
“Twightwees”: The Miamis living in the Ohio country are usually referred to in colonial records as Twightwees, possibly derived from their own name for themselves, twaatwāā; their name in Lenape, tuwéhtuwe; or similar Iroquoian forms (Callender 1978, 689).
[>] “It is manifest”: Benjamin Franklin, “A treaty held by commissioners, members of the Council of the Province of Pennsylvania, at the town of Lancaster” (July 22, 1748), quoted in Susan Kalter, ed., Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania, and the First Nations: The Treaties of 1736–62 (Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2006), 157.
“loathsome idolatry:” Conrad Weiser (September 3, 1743), “Letter of Conrad Weiser to the Leaders at Ephrata,” in C. Z. Weiser, The Life of (John) Conrad Weiser, 2nd ed.
[>] “spiritual and physical”: Ibid.
“fulsome self-praise”: Ibid.
“I take leave”: Ibid.
[>] “Brethren, you came”: Conrad Weiser, “Copy of a Journal of the Proceedings of Conrad Weiser, in His Journey to Ohio,” trans. Hiester H. Muhlenberg, in Collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, ed. John Pennington and Henry C. Baird (Philadelphia: Merrihew & Thompson, 1853), 1:27.
“We give you”: Ibid.
[>] “We therefore remove”: Ibid., 1:28.
“back inhabitants”: See MPCP, 2:43, for one of the first uses of the term in the Pennsylvania records (sometimes written as “back Christian Inhabitants”).
“Brethren, some of you”: Weiser, “Copy of a Journal,” 1:30.
“a civil and brotherly present”: Ibid.
[>] “shall serve to strengthen”: Ibid., 1:31.
“You will have peace”: Ibid., 1:32.
“Let us keep”: Ibid.
[>] “You can’t be insensible”: James Hamilton to George Clinton, September 20, 1750, in Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York, ed. E. B. O’Callaghan (Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons, 1855), 6:594
“not the least danger”: Conrad Weiser, quoted in Wallace 1945, 270.
“The land on both”: Ibid.
“a midling good”: Ibid., 271.
“a good start”: Ibid.
“one thinks it”: Ibid.
“the 6 nations”: Ibid.
[>] “ye Scum”: Richard Peters to Thomas Penn, October 24, 1748, quoted in Wallace 1945, 270.
“may be made”: Ibid.
Chapter 9: The Long Peace Ends
[>] de boeufs illinois: Joseph-Pierre de Bonnécamps, “Account of the voyage on the Beautiful river made in 1749, under the direction of Monsieur de Celoron, by father Bonnecamps,” in Thwaites 1900, 69:178.
“somber and dismal”: Ibid., 69:169.
serpents à sonnettes: Ibid., 69:166.
[>] “a monument”: Pierre-Joseph Céloron de Blainville, “Céloron’s Journal,” ed. A. A. Lambing, in Expedition of Celoron, ed. C. B. Galbreath (Columbus, OH: F. J. Heer, 1921), 18.
between the upper Allegheny: Bonnécamps’s “Account of the voyage” contains many references to what was then a remarkable wilderness, from the virgin forest along the upper Ohio, where twenty-nine of the party were able to sit, shoulder to shoulder, inside a giant, hollow sycamore tree, to the “vast prairies, where the herbage was sometimes of extraordinary height” (p. 189) along the Great Miami River—the edge of the midwestern tallgrass prairie. The priest was sorely disappointed to learn he’d come within a few miles of Big Bone Lick in Kentucky, “the famous salt-springs where are the skeletons of immense animals” (ibid.). George Croghan twice visited the lick in the 1760s, collecting a six-foot mastodon tusk and teeth, which were described in a paper for the Royal Society—the frontier trader’s only scientific publication (Collinson and Croghan 1767).
“a cup of the milk”: Céloron, “Céloron’s Journal,” 29.
“Each village”: Bonnécamps, “Account of the voyage,” 185.
[>] working for George Croghan: See the testimony of Joseph Fortiner, “An Extract of the Examination of Four English Traders,” in The Olden Time, ed. Neville B. Craig (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke, 1876), 2:184.
[>] “They had some”: Bonnécamps, “Account of the voyage,” 171.
[>] “lodged in miserable”: Ibid.
[>] “a bad village”: Céloron, “Céloron’s Journal,” 34.
“who saw us”: Bonnécamps, “Account of the voyage,” 177.
[>] “give Encouragement”: John Lawson (1710), quoted in History of North Carolina (1831; repr., Charlotte, NC: Observer Prin
ting House, 1903), 142.
[>] “the white and the brown”: Conrad Weiser to Richard Peters, July 20, 1747, in PA, 1st ser., 1:762.
“Asia [is] chiefly”: Benjamin Franklin, “Observations concerning the increase of mankind, peopling of countries, etc.,” in The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Albert Henry Smyth (New York: Macmillan, 1905), 3:72. Although Franklin’s essay appeared in full at the end of the original 1755 tract Observations on the Late and Present Conduct of the French by William Clarke, the next edition four years later replaced the final paragraph containing Franklin’s musings on race with another concerning trade.
“purely white People”: Ibid.
“Spaniards, Italians, French”: Ibid.
“by excluding all”: Ibid., 3:73.
“the lovely White”: Ibid.
Ironically, “red”: See Shoemaker 1997. While Shoemaker traced the origins of the word “red” for American Indians back to Native societies in the Southeast, she was unable to determine whether the term emerged entirely from Indian self-identification or whether it was a reflection of European self-description as “white,” since, as noted, the colors red and white were potent duality symbols in southeastern Indian belief.
“desire always to be”: George Chicken, October 28, 1725, in “Colonel Chicken’s Journal to the Cherokees, 1725,” in Travels in the American Colonies, ed. Newton D. Mereness (New York: Macmillan, 1916), 169.
[>] “white nothings”: James Adair, The History of the American Indians, ed. Kathryn E. Holland Braund (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005), 138.
shuwánakw: See Silver 2008, 16.
“half one, half t’other”: Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana (Hartford: Silas Andrus & Son, 1820), 2:517.
[>] something uniquely his own: This interpretation of Montour’s goals, as expressed through his land dealings, and their eventual betrayal at the Albany Congress of 1754, reflects the work of James H. Merrell, especially “‘The Cast of His Countenance’: Reading Andrew Montour” (1997).
“Andrew Montour has”: Conrad Weiser to Richard Peters, August 4, 1748, in PA, 1st ser., 2:12.
“to Accommodate”: Jonathan Wright, Tobias Hendricks, and Samuel Blunston to Peter Chartier, November 19, 1731, in PA, 1st ser., 1:299.
“Remain free”: Ibid.
“earnestly and repeatedly”: April 24, 1752, MPCP, 5:566.
[>] “many Persons”: Ibid., 5:567.
[>] “the lower sort”: Richard Peters to Thomas Penn, July 5, 1749, quoted in Wallace 1945, 278.
“but Mr. Weiser”: Ibid., 279.
“the Proprietaries”: Ibid.
“all the lands”: Deed (July 2, 1744), quoted in Jennings 1984, 361.
[>] “Virginia resumes”: Robert Dinwiddie to Lords Commissioners for Trade, January 1755, in Official Records of Robert Dinwiddie, ed. Robert A. Brock (Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1883), 1:381.
[>] “Damn it”: Thomas Cresap, quoted in “Deposition of George Aston, 1736,” in PA, 1st ser., 1:510. For an overview of the border conflict, see Dutrizac 1991.
“the heedless greed”: Jennings 1988, 13.
“beautiful natural Meadows”: Christopher Gist, February 17, 1751, in “Christopher Gist’s First and Second Journals, September 11, 1750–March 29, 1752,” in George Mercer Papers Relating to the Ohio Company of Virginia, ed. Lois Mulkearn (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1954), 18.
“good level farming”: Ibid., 33.
[>] “polishing and strengthening”: “The Treaty of Logg’s Town, 1752,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 13 (October 1905): 145.
“An Indian who spoke”: Christopher Gist, March 12, 1752, in “Christopher Gist’s First and Second Journals,” 39.
“I was at a Loss”: Ibid.
“a very numerous Army”: Conrad Weiser, journal, August 13, 1753, in MPCP, 5:644–45.
“Raise about 2000 men”: Conrad Weiser to John Taylor? (recipient uncertain), n.d., quoted in Wallace 1945, 349, with minor editing.
[>] “Therefore now”: Report of Richard Peters, Isaac Norris, and Benjamin Franklin, September 22, 1753, in MPCP, 5:668.
“very contemptuous manner”: Ibid., 5:669.
“You are to require”: Earl of Holderness to Robert Dinwiddie, August 28, 1753, quoted in The Diaries of George Washington, ed. Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1976), 1:126.
“We do hereby”: Ibid.
[>] “four others as Servitors,”: George Washington, “Journey to the French Commandant 31 October 1753–16 January 1754,” in Diaries of George Washington, 1:130.
“extream good & bad”: Ibid., 1:133.
“equally well situated”: Ibid., 1:132–33.
“dos’d themselves”: Ibid., 1:144.
“with the greatest”: Ibid.
“an elderly Gentleman”: Ibid., 1:148.
[>] “Sir, in Obedience”: Ibid., 1:127n.
“ploting every Scheme”: Ibid., 1:151.
“As to the Summons”: Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre to Robert Dinwiddie, December 15, 1753, in Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, ed. Wilmer L. Hall (Richmond: Commonwealth of Virginia, 1945), 5:459.
“I was unwilling”: Christopher Gist, quoted in Diaries of George Washington, 1:157n.
“The Cold incres’d”: George Washington, December 26, 1753, in Diaries of George Washington, 1:155. The term “match coat” or “matchcoat” appears frequently in colonial records and not always in reference to a garment. Through the mid-seventeenth century, “match coat” often meant a length of rough-woven cloth, such as duffel or stroud, usually about six feet long—a common item included in Indian land purchases. By the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, however, the term could as easily refer to a tailored outer garment made of the same coarse fabric, as in Penn’s land deeds with the Lenape. See Becker 2005.
[>] “much fatigued”: Christopher Gist, quoted in Diaries of George Washington, 1:157n.
“a slender man”: Robert C. Alberts, The Most Extraordinary Adventures of Major Robert Stobo (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965), 1.
“If ye government”: George Croghan to Richard Peters, February 3, 1754, in PA, 1st ser., 2:118.
[>] “Can’t talk”: George Croghan to James Hamilton, February 3, 1754, in PA, 1st ser., 2:119.
“had enlisted about”: George Croghan to James Hamilton, March 23, 1754, in MPCP, 6:21.
“I am convinced”: Ibid., 6:22.
[>] “demanding a Reinforcement”: George Washington, April 19, 1754, in Diaries of George Washington, 1:177.
“Mr. Ward”: George Washington to James Hamilton, April 1754, in MPCP, 6:28.
[>] “Whatever may be”: Robert Dinwiddie to James Hamilton, April 27, 1754, in MPCP, 6:31.
“The whole of ye Ohio”: George Croghan to James Hamilton, May 14, 1754, in PA, 1st ser., 2:144.
“hearty Concurrence”: Ibid.
“is only atacking”: Ibid.
“I ashure”: Ibid.
“I am a fread”: Ibid.
[>] “A smart Action”: Adam Stephen, “Account of the Engagement That Happen’d at a Place Call’d The Flats,” Pennsylvania Gazette, September 12, 1754, 2.
[>] “Therefore keeping up”: Ibid.
Jumonville and several other: There are multiple, contradictory accounts of what happened during the skirmish, perhaps reflecting the fog of war as much as any intentional deceit. Washington’s journal says he ordered his men to fire when the French “discovered us” (Diaries of George Washington, 1:195). suggesting that Jumonville’s men shot first, while Stephen’s “Account of the Engagement” makes no mention of how the battle began. Neither says anything about Tanaghrisson executing Jumonville. A French survivor gave the most damning account, saying Washington’s troops fired two unprovoked volleys, waited for Jumonville to begin reading his message, and fired again. The witness escaped before the end of the battle, however, and made no mention of Jumon
ville’s death (Sieur de Contrecoeur to Marquis Duquesne, June 2, 1754, quoted in The Olden Time, ed. Neville B. Craig [Pittsburgh, Wright & Charlton, 1848], 2:190). A young French officer captured at the fight said that when the British attacked, “neither we nor our own Men took to our arms,” and through an interpreter the French invited Washington to “come to our Cabbin, that we might confer” (quoted in Official Records of Robert Dinwiddie, 1:225). An English private, not present but reporting what his comrades told him, said that a Frenchman fired the first shot, and he blamed Tanaghrisson for killing a wounded Frenchman, presumably Jumonville (Baker-Crothers and Hudnut 1942). Finally, Denis Kaninguen, believed to be a Catholic Iroquois who was with Tanaghrisson, specifically told the French that Tanaghrisson hatcheted the fallen Jumonville to death and dipped his hands in Jumonville’s brains (Denis Kaninguen [June 30, 1754], translated in Fred Anderson, Crucible of War [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000], 57).
“Thou are not dead”: Kaninguen (June 30, 1754), in Anderson, Crucible of War, 57.
“I heard the bullets”: George Washington to John Augustine Washington, May 31, 1754, quoted in Diaries of George Washington, 1:195n59.
“He would not”: Quoted ibid., 1:197n.
“a charming field”: George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, May 27, 1754, in Official Records of Robert Dinwiddie, 1:175.
[>] “an absolute Falsehood”: George Washington, May 27, 1754, in Diaries of George Washington, 1:198.
“with the utmost”: Robert Dinwiddie to George Muse, June 2, 1754, in Official Records of Robert Dinwiddie, 1:187.
“would be of singular”: George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, June 3, 1754, in Official Records of Robert Dinwiddie, 1:200n.
[>] “We have been”: George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, June 12, 1754, in Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931), 1:76.
“Intentions toward us”: George Washington, June 18, 1754, in Diaries of George Washington, 1:202.
“a good-natured man”: Conrad Weiser to James Hamilton, September 3, 1754, “Journal of the Proceedings of Conrad Weiser in His Way to and at Aughwick, by Order of His Honour Governor Hamilton, in the Year 1754, in August and September,” in MPCP, 6:151.
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