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50 distant relative, Sir William Johnson, appreciating his abilities, chose him deputy Indian agent, and appointed him to manage the Susquehanna and Allegheny tribes. From this time forward he was engaged in important dealings with the natives, swaying them to the British interest, making possible the success of Forbes (1758), and the victory of Prideaux and Johnson (1759). After the capitulation of Montreal, he accompanied Major Rogers to Detroit. All of 1761 and 1762 were occupied with Indian conferences and negotiations, in the course of which he again visited Detroit, meeting Sir William Johnson en route.

Late in 1763, Croghan went to England on private business, and was shipwrecked upon the coast of France; but finally reached London, where he presented to the lords of trade an important memorial on Indian affairs.[10]

Upon his return to America (1765), he was at once dispatched to the Illinois. Proceeding by the Ohio River, he was made prisoner near the mouth of the Wabash, and carried to the Indian towns upon that river, where he not only secured his own release, but conducted negotiations which put an end to Pontiac's War, and opened the Illinois to the British.

A second journey to the Illinois, in the following year, resulted in his reaching Fort Chartres, and proceeding thence to New Orleans. No journal of this voyage has to our knowledge been preserved.

Croghan's part in the treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) was ———