1765.] CROGIIAN AT FORT PITT. 281 



Whatever may have been Croghan's real attitude 

 in this affair, the border robbers had wrought great 

 injury to his mission ; since the agency most potent 

 to gain the affections of an Indian had been com- 

 pletely paralyzed in the destruction of the presents. 

 Croghan found means, however, partially to repair 

 his loss from the storehouse of Fort Pitt, where 

 the rigor of the season and the great depth of the 

 snow forced him to remain several weeks. This 

 cause alone would have served to detain him ; but 

 he was yet fiirther retarded by the necessity of 

 holding a meeting with the Delawares and Shaw- 

 anoes, along wdiose southern borders he would be 

 compelled to pass. An important object of the 

 proposed meeting was to urge these tribes to fulfil 

 the promise they had made, during the previous 



" The frontier inhabitants of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, 

 after having attacked and destroyed tlie goods which were going to Fort 

 Pitt (as in my last), did form themselves into parties, threatening to 

 destroy all Indians they met, or all white people who dealt with them. 

 They likewise marched to Fort Augusta, and from thence over the West 

 branch of the Susquehanna, beyond the Bounds of the last purchase made 

 by the Proprietaries, where they declare they will form a settlement, in 

 defiance of Wliites or Indians. They afterwards attacked a small party 

 of His Majesty's troops upon the Road, but were happily obliged to retire 

 with the loss of one or two men. However, from their conduct and 

 threats since, there is reason to think they will not stop here. Neither is 

 tlieir licentiousness confined to the Provinces I have mentioned, the peo- 

 ple of Carolina having cut off a party, coming down under a pass from 

 Col. Lewis, of the particulars of which your Lordsiiips have been doubtless 

 informed. 



" Your Lordships may easily conceive what eflTects tliis will have upon 

 the Indians, wlio begin to be all acquainted therewith. I wish it may not 

 have already gone too great a length to receive a timely check, or pre- 

 vent the Indians' Resentment, who see themselves attacked, threatened, 

 and their property invaded, by a set of ignorant, misled Rioters, who defy 

 Government itself, and this at a time when we have just treated with 

 some, and are in treaty with other Nations." 



