[19] Captain William Trent was a noted Indian trader, brother-in-law and at this time partner of Croghan. Although born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (1715), he served the colony of Virginia as Indian agent; and in 1752 its governor dispatched him to the Miamis with a present. See _Journal of Captain Trent_ (Cincinnati, 1871). The following year he was sent out by the Ohio Company to begin a fortification at the Forks of the Ohio, from which in Trent’s absence (April, 1754), the garrison was expelled by a French force under Contrecœur. Trent was with Forbes in 1758, and the following year was made deputy Indian agent, assistant to Croghan, and aided at the conferences at Fort Pitt in 1760. His trade was ruined by the uprising of Pontiac’s forces, but he received reparation at the treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) by a large grant of land between the Kanawha and Monongahela rivers, where he made a settlement. At the outbreak of the Revolution he joined the patriot cause, and was major of troops raised in Western Pennsylvania.—ED. [20] Governor James Hamilton was the son of a prominent Philadelphia lawyer, and being himself educated for the legal profession, held several offices in the colony before he was appointed lieutenant-governor in 1748. His administration was a vigorous one, but owing to difficulties with the Quaker party he resigned in 1754. Five years later he was reinstated in the office, and served until the proprietor John Penn came over as governor (1763). His death occurred at New York during the British occupation (1783).—ED. [21] This document is reprinted from _Pennsylvania Colonial Records_, v, pp. 530-536; a portion of it is also to be found in Craig, _The Olden Time_ (Pittsburg, 1846), i, p. 136, and a reprint in _Early History of Western Pennsylvania_, app., pp. 26-34. As the result of Croghan’s Western journey during the winter of 1750-51, and the desire of Pennsylvania to maintain its trade relations with the Ohio Indians, the Assembly voted £700 to be employed in presents; and the governor instructed Croghan and Montour to deliver the goods.—See _Pennsylvania Colonial Records_, v, pp. 487, 518, 525, and Croghan’s account, _post_. The adroitness with which Croghan outwitted the French officer and interpreter Joncaire, and his influence over the chiefs on the Ohio, as well as the susceptibility of the Indian nature to the influence of material goods, are all exemplified in this narrative. It did not result, however, as Croghan and the governor wished, in inducing the Pennsylvania authorities to construct a fort on the Ohio. The beginnings of that enterprise were left to the Virginians, but too late to secure the Forks of the Ohio from being seized by the French.—ED.