Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/55

 HISTORY or OHIO.

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��Washington saved a remnant of the army, and made his way back to the colonies. The En- glish needed a leader. They next planned four campaigns; one against Fort Du Quesne; one against Crown Point; one against Niagara, and one against the French settlements in Nova Scotia. Nearly every one proved a failure. The English were defeated on sea and on land, all owing to the incapacity of Parliament, and the want of a suit- able, vigorous leader. The settlements on the front- iers, now exposed to a cruel foe, prepared to defend themselves, and already the signs of a government of their own, able to defend itself, began to appear. They received aid from the colonies. Though the French were not repulsed, they and their red allies found they could not murder with impunity. Self-preservation was a stronger incen- tive in conflict than aggrandizement, and the cruelty of the Indians found avengers.

The great Pitt became Prime Minister June 29, 1757. The leader of the English now appeared. The British began to regain their losses on sea and land, and for them a brighter day was at hand. The key to the West must be retaken, and to Gen. Forbes was assigned the duty. Preceding him, a trusty man was sent to the Western Indians at the head-waters of the Ohio, and along the Mo- nongahela and Alleghany, to see if some compro- mise with them could not be made, and their aid secured. The French had been busy through their traders inciting the Indians against the English. The lawless traders were another source of trouble. Caring nothing for either nation, they carried on a distressing traffic in direct violation of the laws, continually engendering ill-feeling among the na- tives. "Your traders," said one of them, "bring scarce anything but rum and flour. They bring little powder and lead, or other valuable goods. The rum ruins us. We beg you would prevent its coming in such quantities by regulating the traders. * * * These wicked whisky sell- ers, when they have got the Indians in liquor, make them sell the very clothes off their backs. If this practice be continued, we must be inevitably ruined. We mostearnestly, therefore, beseech you to remedy it." They complained of the French tradersthe same way. They were also beginning to see the animus of the whole conflict. Neither power cared as much for them as for their land, and flattered and bullied by turns as served their purposes best.

The man selected to go upon this undertaking was Christian Frederic Post, a Moravian, who had lived among the Indians seventeen years, and mar-

��ried into one of their tribes. He was a missionary, and though obliged to cross a country whose every stream had been dyed by blood, and every hillside rung with the death-yell, and grown red with the light of burning huts, he went willingly on his way. Of his journey, suiFerings and doings, his own journal tells the story. He left Philadelphia on the 15th of July, 1758, and on the 7th of August safely passed the French post at Venango, went on to Big Beaver Creek, where he held a conference with the chiefs of the Indians gathered there. It was decided that a great conference should be held opposite Fort Du Quesne, where there were Indians of eight nations. "We will bear you in our bosoms," said the natives, when Post expressed a fear that that he might be delivered over to the French, and royally they fulfilled their promises. At the conference, it was made clear to Post that all the Western Indians were wavering in their allegiance to the French, owing largely to the fail- ure of that nation to fiilfill their promises of aid to prevent them from being deprived of their land by the Six Nations, and through that confederacy, by the English. The Indians complained bitterly, more- over, of the disposition of the whites in over-run- ning and claiming their lands. "Why did you not tight your battles at home or on the sea, instead of coming into our country to fight them?" they asked again and again, and mournfully shook their heads when they thought of the future before them. " Your heart is good," said they to Post. " You speak sincerely; but we know there is always a great number who wish to get rich ; they have enough ; look ! we do not want to be rich and take away what others have. The white people think we have no brains in our heads ; that they are big, and we are a handful ; but remember when you hunt for a rattlesnake, you cannot always find it, and perhaps it will turn and bite you before you see it."* When the war of Pontiac came, and all the West was desolated, this saying might have been justly remembered. After concluding a peace. Post set "out for Philadelphia, and after incredi- ble hardships, reached the settlement uninjured early in September. His mission had more to do than at first is apparent, in the success of the English. Had it not been for him, a second Brad- dock's defeat might have befallen Forbes, now on his way to subjugate Fort Du Quesne.

Through the heats of August, the army hewed its way toward the West. Early in September it


 * Post's Journal.

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