Daily stories of Pennsylvania : $b prepared for publication in the leading daily newspapers of the state...Godcharles, Frederic Antes
History
Daily stories of Pennsylvania : $b prepared for publication in the leading daily newspapers of the state...
Godcharles, Frederic Antes
Pennsylvania -- Biography; Pennsylvania -- History
From that time until his death, at Germantown, April 29, 1785, he
performed many hazardous missions for his church and the Provincial
Government of Pennsylvania, and many times was in imminent peril. The
first several years of his residence in Pennsylvania he was employed as
a Moravian missionary, but afterwards was almost constantly performing
important services for the Province in its Indian dealings.
Some of the journals of Post, which appear in the Archives of
Pennsylvania, and have been republished elsewhere, are valuable for the
intimate history of the peoples and the country through which he
traveled. One of the editors who republished his journals, wrote as
follows concerning the missionary and mediator: “Antiquarians and
historians have alike admired the sublime courage of the man and the
heroic patriotism which made him capable of advancing into the heart of
a hostile territory, into the very hands of a cruel and treacherous foe.
But aside from Post’s supreme religious faith, he had a shrewd knowledge
of Indian customs, and knew that in the character of an ambassador
requested by the Western tribes his mission would be a source of
protection. Therefore, even under the very walls of Fort Dusquesne, he
trusted not in vain to Indian good faith.”
When Conrad Weiser visited Shikellamy at Shamokin, May, 1743, he wrote:
“As I saw their old men seated on rude benches and on the ground
listening with decorous gravity and rapt attention to Post, I fancied I
saw before me a congregation of primitive Christians.”
In 1743 Post was married to a converted Indian woman, and endeared
himself to all the Indians. But all was not smooth, for the Brethren
were persecuted and humbled before their converts. Post, who had been on
a journey to the Iroquois country, in March, 1745, was arrested at
Canajoharie and sent to New York, where he was imprisoned for weeks, on
a trumped-up charge of abetting Indian raids. He was released April 10.
In 1758 it became a matter of importance with Governor Denny and Sir
William Johnson, that a treaty of peace be secured with the Western
Indians. Post was selected to convey to them the white belt of peace and
reconciliation. Tedyuskung, the Delaware king, protested against his
going, declaring he would never return alive, but the bold and confident
Christian said it was a mission of peace, that God would protect him,
and that he must go.
On July 15, 1758, Post departed from Philadelphia with five Indian
guides. He carried with him copies of the treaties made with Tedyuskung,
belts of wampum and messages from the Governor. He made his trip by way
of Bethlehem, Shamokin, Great Island, Chinclamoose, etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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