there is not a sufficient Quantity for the Company's Grant, but You need not be so particular in the Mensuration of that, as in the larger Bodies of Land.

You are to draw as good a Plan as you can of the Country You pass thro: You are to take an exact and particular Journal of all your Proceedings, and make a true Report thereof to the Ohio Company.'

What number of attendants Gist took with him does not precisely appear from his Journals. He probably had a light equipment-perhaps a packhorse for his baggage and some one to drive and care for it. For a time, in what is now Ohio, he had as assistants George Croghan and Andrew Montour. He set out from the house of Col. Thomas Cresap on the 31st of October, 1750. Col. Thomas Cresap lived at Old Town, a former Shawnee Indian village, on the north side of the Potomac, fifteen miles southeast of Cumberland, in Allegheny County, Maryland. Gist followed "an old Indian Path," and made eleven miles the first day. This "old Indian Path" was the Warrior's Path from the east up the Potomac to the Ohio Country. It followed the east base of Great Warrior Mountain. At Bedford, Pennsylvania, it branched into two roads, one leading northwest to Venango, and the other to Shannopin's Town, now Pittsburgh. The latter was followed by Gist, and he reached Shannopin's Town on the 19th of November, and of which he recorded "-a small Indian Town of the Delawares called Shannopin on the S E Side of the River Ohio, where We rested and got Corn for our Horses."

Gist arrived at Loggs Town (Loggstown) on Sunday, the 25th of November. In modern geography, this point is on the north bank of the Ohio River and immediately below the present Town of Economy. It is eighteen miles below Pittsburgh, and in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. It was originally a Shawnee town. The Shawnees left the Upper Potomac and Eastern Pennsylvania in 1727 to 1730, settling at this point and elsewhere in the Ohio Valley with the consent of the Iroquois and the permission of the Wyandots. The French erected for them some forty houses at Loggstown. These accommodated about 120 Shawnese families. It was first visited by whites from the English colonies in 1748. In that year Conrad Weiser and William Franklin were there. Capt. Bienville de Celeron, in command of a French party, was at this town in 1749. George Croghan had a Trading House there. Washington and Gist stopped there five days in 1753 when they were on the way to the French forces at Venango and Le Boeuf. The Shawnees began to desert the town before 1750 and move lower down the Ohio. Then came into that part of the country those renegade Indians from the Iroquoian tribes of New York who found a designation in going back to the generic name of Mengwe, which was corrupted to "Mingo" by the whites. They were principally Cayugas, and they lived along this part of the Ohio for many years.

Gist was ill received at Loggstown. He found "scarce any Body but a parcel of reprobate Indian Traders, the Chiefs of the Indians being out a hunting." Gist was told that he would never get safe home again, and to protect himself gave it out that he was on the King's business. This brought him respect and probably saved his life. He was desirous of engaging George Croghan and Andrew Montour to go with him from that point, but found that they had gone on west on a mission for the Colony of Pennsylvania. On Monday, the 26th, he left Loggstown, preferring the woods to such company as he found there. He left the river and traveled across the country. Six miles out, at Big Beaver Creek, he met Barney Curran, a trader of the Ohio Company, and they went on together. On the 14th of December they arrived at Muskingum, a Wyandot town of about 100 families. He called the Wyandots the Little Min

4 Christopher Gist's Journals, Darlington, pp. 31, 32.

goes. The Wyandots were usually in the French interests, but this town. inclined to the English, and George Croghan had a Trading House there over which Gist found floating the English colors. This town stood on the Tuscarawas which is a branch of the Muskingum. The Wyandots abandoned the town upon the fall of Fort DeQuesne, in 1758, or very soon thereafter.

Gist acquainted George Croghan and Andrew Montour with the nature of his mission on the 18th, with which they were pleased. It was the intention of Gist to read prayers on Christmas day, and after some delay a number of the inhabitants assembled to hear him. He delivered a brief discourse, which he recorded in his Journal, and, later, read them probably some service from the Prayer Book of the Episcopal Church. His course was so pleasing to the Indians that they desired him to baptize their children, thinking him a clergyman. The next day there occurred in the village one of those instances of Indian ferocity so common in the Indian country in pioneer times. A woman was a prisoner to the Wyandots, captured many years before. She had not become reconciled to savage life and made an attempt to escape. She was recaptured and had been brought into the town on Christmas Eve. Christmas passed, they turned their attention to her execution. She was taken beyond the town and released. When she ran in a new hope of escape she was pursued by men set for that purpose. When they came up with her they struck her, knocking her down. She fell with her face down, and they then shot her in the back with arrows, or "darts" as Gist has it. These went through her heart. When dead, she was scalped and her head cut off. All were forbidden to touch the body. In the evening Barney Curran sought permission to bury her. This was granted. Her grave was filled at dusk, and her troubles and sufferings as a captive in a barbarous Indian town happily at an end.

At this Wyandot town Gist secured intelligence of general conditions in the Indian country north of the Ohio. On the 4th of January one Teafe, an Indian trader, came in from the villages on the south shore of Lake Erie. He said the Wyandots there advised him to keep clear of the Ottawas, as they were completely committed to the French, who had set up claims to all the country drained by the waters flowing into the Great Lake and to the Ohio Valley. The Ottawas said that no English had right to come into any part of this country so claimed by the French. The portion of the Wyandot tribe living on the lake waters would soon join their brethren on the Muskingum, where a large town and strong fort would be erected. On the 9th two traders came in from the Twigtwee towns and told that an English trader had been taken by the French. Three French soldiers had deserted to the English at the Pickwaylines town. The Indians desired to put the French soldiers to death, but were prevented by the English, who were sending the prisoners to the Wyandot town on the Muskingum. On the 11th an Indian came in from the lake towns and confirmed what had been told of all these matters.

Gist began his preparations to leave the Wyandot town on the 12th of January. He sent his company away to the Lower Shawnee towns at the mouth of the Scioto. He went to a council held at the chief's house, but as some of the principal men were absent the council was postponed. It was in session again on the 14th. Andrew Montour acted as interpreter and speaker. He informed the council that the King had sent the Indians a present of much goods. These goods had arrived safely and the Indians were invited to come and see the governor of Virginia and receive the presents. The Indians said they would notify all the nations and that all would be present to receive the goods in the spring. After shaking hands with the members of the council, Gist took his leave of the Wyandots on the Muskingum. He set out for the Shawnee towns on the 15th, reaching White Woman's Creek, where there was a small town. This creek was so

named for a white woman who had been captured in New England forty years before when she was ten years old. Her name was Mary Harris. She had an Indian husband and several children. She remembered that the people of New England had been very religious, and she wondered at the wickedness of the white men in the forests of the Ohio Country. Gist and his company came to a small Delaware town on the east side of the Scioto on the 27th. The Delawares were friendly to the English, and the chief of this town entertained Gist as best he could. He owned a negro man- a slave-whom he directed to feed the horses of the party well. On the 28th a council was held with these Delawares, who were the most westerly of their people-no Delawares lived beyond them. The chief said he could gather a force of about 500 warriors, all of whom would stand by the English. Many Delawares were scattered among the other tribes, especially the Six Nations, of whom they had permission to hunt on their lands. On the 29th of January, 1751, Gist reached the Shawnee towns at the mouth of the Scioto. Guns were fired to notify the traders of their approach and they soon appeared and ferried them over the Scioto, the town being on the west side of the river. The town had about 100 houses there on the north bank of the Ohio, and about forty houses on the south side in what is now Kentucky. There was a council-house about 90 feet long, covered with bark. It was into this council-house that Mrs. Mary Ingles and other captives were taken on their arrival as prisoners in 1755. Gist found the Shawnees friendly to the English who had once protected them from the fury of the Iroquois.

On the 30th of January a council was held with the Shawnees. George Croghan delivered sundry speeches sent out by the governor of Pennsylvania to the chiefs of the Shawnees. He recounted information received at the Wyandot town-that the French would pay a large sum of money to any person or party who would bring in himself and Andrew Montour as prisoners or who would produce their scalps. He advised the Shawnees to keep their warriors at home until it was known what the French would do in the spring. Andrew Montour then told the council of the gift of goods the King had sent to his children on the Ohio, and invited the Shawnees to come and receive their portion. The Shawnee speaker was Big Hannaoa, who took Montour's hand and assured him of the friendship of the Shawnees for the English. He said he hoped that this friendship would continue as long as the sun should shine.

Gist remained in the Shawnee town from January 31 to February 11, 1751. On the 12th of February he set out for the Twigtwee town on the Miami. He left his attendant to take care of the horses in his absence, secured a fresh horse to ride, and with George Croghan, Andrew Montour, Robert Kallandar, and a servant to carry provisions, he rode northwest into the Ohio Wilderness. He arrived at the Twigtwee town on the 17th, computing the distance at 150 miles. The country passed over he describes as delightful. It was full of natural meadows covered with clover, wild rye, and blue grass. Clear streams were always to be seen. The timber was large and composed of ash, walnut, cherry, and sugartrees. Game was plentiful, and buffalo, elk, deer, and wild turkeys were in sight much of the time.

The town of the Twigtwees was on the west side of the Big Miami, on the south side of Laramie's Creek, which empties there. It was in what is now Miami County, Ohio, and some two and a half miles north of Piqua, Ohio. The Twigtwees, or Miami's as they were called by the French, were a part of the confederation known as the Illinois Indians— Piankashaws, Weas, Peorias, and other tribes. They were inferior in intelligence and courage to the Iroquois, the Delawares, and the Shawnees. They had shared in the common ruin of the Illinois Indians inflicted by the Iroquois in 1650-1700, and they were now on the Miami as tenants at will of the Six Nations. Gist got an exaggerated and erroneous im

pression of their prowess, numbers and importance. He remained at the Twigtwee town until Saturday, the 2d of March, and his accounts of the various councils and the daily occurrences of Indian life as he saw it there are extremely interesting and valuable. He secured a good knowledge of the intrigues of the French with the savages and of general conditions in the Indian country. There was uneasiness and agitation in those wilds and war between some of the tribes and between the French and English resulted in five years. In this war the French were the aggressors, but in the end they lost their American possessions to the English.

On the 2d of March Gist and his company left the Twigtwee town, crossed to the east bank of the river, and traveled some thirty-five miles to Mad Creek. Sunday morning, the 3d, the company separated, Gist continuing on to the Shawnee town at the mouth of the Scioto, and Croghan and the others, for Hockhocking. Gist was alone, and as he had been threatened by the French at the Twigtwee village, he turned out of the usual path and went down the Little Miami. This increased the distance he would have to travel, but he believed it the safer course. After a most delightful journey, he reached the Shawnee town on the 8th of March. There he was gladly received by both the whites and the Indians. His report that his mission to the Twigtwees had been entirely successful for the English interest and had defeated the intrigues of the French caused rejoicing in the town of the Shawnees. Peace had been secured with the Twigtwees and their allies-or, rather, its continuance assuredand in honor of this achievement 150 guns were fired. A Mingo chief was in the Shawnee town. He had lately returned from the Falls of the Ohio. On the 9th he informed Gist that a party of French Indians were there and that if he ventured to go so far down the Ohio he would certainly lose his life. But Gist's instructions made it necessary for him to go there, and he resolved to make the effort and go at least as far as possible. He got his horses across the Ohio very early on the morning of the 12th, and after breakfast he and his boy or attendant were taken over in a boat or canoe. He stood there and then for the first time on the soil of what was to be Kentucky. He remained in the Shawnee town on the Kentucky side, until the 13th, when he started for the Falls of the Ohio. He must have followed some well defined road, going down the river eight miles then turning south. After making ten miles on this latter course he met three men he was expecting to see in that country. On the east bank of the Big Miami opposite the Twigtwee town, he had stopped over night with one Robert Smith, who had given him an order on two of his traders for two teeth of the mastodon, the bones of which lay about the lick later known as the Big Bone Lick in what is now Boone County, Kentucky. With these two men was one Hugh Crawford. They gave the two teeth to Gist as directed, and he delivered one of them to the Ohio Company. In his Journal he records what Smith had told him. of the bones at the lick. As Smith had been at the lick and examined the bones, his statement of what he had seen is good evidence, and is given here as set down by Gist:

"Robert Smith informed Me that about seven Years ago these Teeth and Bones of three large Beasts (one of which was somewhat smaller than the other two) were found in a salt Lick or Spring upon a small Creek which runs into the S Side of the Ohio, about 15 M. below the Mouth of the great Miamee River, and 20 above the Falls of the Ohio-He assured Me that the Rib Bones of the largest of these Beasts were eleven Feet long, and the Skull Bone six feet wide, across the Forehead, & the other Bones in Proportion; and that there were several Teeth there, some of which he called Horns, and said they were upwards of five Feet long, and as much as a Man could well carry: that he had hid one in a Branch at some Distance from the Place, lest the French Indians should carry it away-The Tooth which I brought in for the Ohio Company, was a

Jaw Tooth of better than four Pounds Weight; it appeared to be the furthest Tooth in the Jaw, and looked like fine Ivory when the outside was scraped off."

This same day Gist met four Shawnee Indians coming up the Ohio River in canoes. They informed him that about sixty French Indians were encamped at the Falls. This was disturbing intelligence, but Gist continued in the direction of the Falls until the 18th, when he was on a stream he calls Lower Salt Lick Creek (probably Floyd's Fork of Salt River), which had been described to him by Robert Smith at his house at the town of the Twigtwees as being about fifteen miles above the Falls. He heard several guns fired in the woods, which made him believe that the French Indians were hunting in the adjacent forests. He saw plainly marked footprints on the ground about him. Newly-set traps for the capture of game were also seen by him along the trail. These evidences of the presence of hostile Indians in close proximity changed his resolution to reach the Falls. He thought to leave his equipment and the boy at this point and go privately to the Falls. To this course the boy strongly objected, as there was danger of his presence there being detected. So, Gist was compelled to change his course and disregard his instructions to visit the Falls. It was with much regret that he did this, and wrote in his Journal what information he had been able to secure concerning this obstruction of the Ohio.5

It is difficult to locate the point which Gist had reached on the 18th of March. Johnston, in his edition of Gist's Journals, makes it the Licking River. It is quite evident, however, that Gist had already crossed both the Licking and the Kentucky rivers. Darlington makes out that Gist was at the present site of Washington, Mason County, on the 14th, and that he crossed the Licking at the Lower Blue Lick on the 15th. An old and well-marked trail—much used at that time-led from the Ohio River to the Lower Blue Lick, and Gist had probably followed it. On the 16th he reached the Kentucky River near Frankfort. This would have taken him through Harrison, Nicholas, Scott, and Franklin counties. The Salt Lick which he found on the 18th was that called Bullitt's Lick later, on Floyd's Fork of Salt River, in the present Bullitt County, near Shepherdville, and about eighteen miles from Louisville. From this point he turned back and began the journey through the Kentucky wilderness to his own home on the Yadkin. On the 19th he crossed a number of creeks flowing to the southwest, and these are identified as Bullskin Creek, Gist's Creek, and other tributaries of Brashear's Creek, in what is now Shelby County. He reached the Kentucky River at a point only a little above that at which he had crossed it a few days before as he was going West, and probably only a little above the present City of Frankfort. He called it the Little Cuttawa, and was always under the impression that the "Great Cuttawa" River was much more to the west. "Cuttawa" is a corruption of the Indian name Catawba, and the river was often so called by early explorers for the reason that the Great Warrior's Path from the country of the Northern tribes to the country of the Catawbas, in the Carolinas, passed up its North Fork. But the name did not prevail.

"Of this matter Gist wrote in his Journal: "This Day We heard several Guns which made me imagine the French Indians were not moved, but were still hunting, and firing thereabouts: We also saw some Traps newly set, and the Footsteps of some Indians plain on the Ground as if they had been there the Day beforeI was now much troubled that I could not comply with my Instructions, & was once more resolved to leave the Boy and Horses, and to go privately on Foot to view the Falls; but the Boy being a poor Hunter, was afraid he would starve if I was long from him, and there was also great Danger lest the French Indians should come upon our Horses Tracts, or hear their Bells, and as I had seen good Land enough, I thought perhaps I might be blamed for venturing so far, in such dangerous Times, so I concluded not to go to the Falls; but travell'd away to the Southward till We were over the little Cuttaway River." Christopher Gist's Journals, Darlington, p. 58.