and he has ordered me to keep it private so that I don't intend to communicate it to any body but you. I don't know whether the Governor should be made acquainted with it or no; but if you judge it proper write the Governor the whole, but at the same time request him to keep it a secret from whom he had his Information, for if it should be made publick to the Interpreters or Indians it may cost me and the man I had my Information from our Lives; and, moreover, the best method to frustrate their Designs will be for the Governor not to let the Indians know that he is acquainted with their design, but to conduct the affair privately, so as not to let the Indians know he has any suspicion of them. Indeed it is only what I thought the Indians always aimed at, and what I feared they would accomplish, for I see all our great Directors of Indian affairs are very short sighted, and glad I am that I have no hand in Indian affairs at this critical time, where no fault can be thrown on my shoulders.
I am, Dear Sir, Your most humble Servant,
To Mr. Charles Swaine.
P. S.—Sir, if you could possibly Lend me 6 guns with powder, 20 of lead by the bearer, I will return them in about 15 days, when I can get some from the Mouth of Conegochege. I hope to have my Stockade finished by the middle of next week.[1]
————
- ↑ This stockade fort was built on Aughwick Creek, where stands the present town of Shirleysburg. It was known first as Fort Croghan, then a private enterprise; but later in the same year (1755), a fort was built on this site by order of the government and named for General Shirley, commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America. Governor Morris wrote, after a visit to this fort in January, 1756, that seventy-five men were garrisoned therein (Pennsylvania Archives, ii, p. 556). It was appointed as the rendezvous for Armstrong's expedition against Kittanning in August of this same year; but by October 15 the site had grown so dangerous that the governor ordered it abandoned.—Ed.
