Croghan's Journal, 1765[1]
May 15th, 1765.—I set off from fort Pitt with two batteaux, and encamped at Chartier's Island, in the Ohio, three miles below Fort Pitt.[2]
16th.—Being joined by the deputies of the Senecas, Shawnesse, and Delawares, that were to accompany me,
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- ↑ The manuscript of the journal that we here reprint came into the possession of George William Featherstonhaugh, a noted English geologist who came to the United States in the early nineteenth century and edited a geological magazine in Philadelphia. He first published the document therein (The Monthly Journal of American Geology), in the number for December, 1831. It appeared again in a pamphlet, published at Burlington, N. J. (no date); and Mann Butler thought it of sufficient consequence to be introduced into the appendix to his History of Kentucky (Cincinnati and Louisville, 2nd ed., 1836). Another version of this journey (which we may call the official version), also written by Croghan, was sent by Sir William Johnson to the lords of trade, and is published in New York Colonial Documents, vii, pp. 779-788. Hildreth published a variant of the second (official) version "from an original MS. among Colonel Morgan's papers," in his Pioneer History of the Ohio Valley (Cincinnati, 1848). The two versions supplement each other. The first was evidently written for some persons interested in lands in the Western country—their fertility, products, and general aspects; therefore Croghan herein confines himself to general topographical description, and omits his journey towards the Illinois, his meeting with Pontiac, and all Indian negotiations. The official report, on the other hand, abbreviates greatly the account of the journey and the appearance of the country, and concerns itself with Indian affairs and historical events. We have in the present publication combined the two journals, indicating in foot-notes the important variations; but the bulk of the narrative is a reprint of the Featherstonhaugh-Butler version. With regard to the circumstances under which the official journal was transcribed, Johnson makes the following explanation in his letter to the board of trade (New York Colonial Documents, vii, p. 775): "I have selected the principal parts [of this journal] which I now inclose to your Lordships, the whole of his Journal is long and not yet collected because after he was made Prisoner, & lost his Baggage &ca. he was necessitated to write it on Scraps of Paper procured with difficulty at Post Vincent, and that in a disguised Character to prevent its being understood by the French in case through any disaster he might be again plundered."The importance of this journal for the study of Western history has frequently been noted. Parkman used it extensively in his Conspiracy of Pontiac.
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