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1748] led to the establishment of the community at Ephrata, where he was known as Brother Enoch, and consecrated to the priesthood. These sectaries charged that the bribe of official position tempted him to forsake his vows; certain it is that in 1741 he was appointed justice of the peace for Berks County, and left Ephrata, later (1743) sending a letter requesting his former brethren to consider him a "stranger." The opposition of this sect of Germans, the indifference of the Moravians, and the alienation of his earlier Lutheran friends, lost him his coveted election for the assembly; and he afterwards withdrew from politics to remain the trusted adviser of the government upon Indian and local affairs. His sincerity, honesty, and trustworthiness made him greatly respected throughout the entire province, and his death, July 13, 1760, was considered a public calamity.

The journey undertaken to the Ohio, which the accompanying journal chronicles, was the first official embassy to the Indians who lived beyond the Alleghenies, and was undertaken for the following reasons.

The efforts of the English traders to push their connections among the "far Indians" had been increasingly successful, during the decade 1738-48, and the resulting rivalry with the French had reached an intense stage. The firm hold of the latter on the Indian nations of the "upper country" had been shaken by a long series of wars with the Foxes and Chickasaws, accompanied by humiliating defeats. In 1747, the most faithful of the French Indians—those domiciled at Mackinac and Detroit—had risen in revolt; and George Croghan sent word to the council at Philadelphia that some nations along the shore of Lake Erie desired the English alliance, having as an earnest thereof sent a belt of wampum and