[37] The Ottawas were an Algonquian tribe, domiciled in Michigan about the posts of Mackinac and Detroit. Faithful to the French interests, they were doubtless acting under the directions of their commandants in gathering to attack the Shawnees on the Scioto—ED. [38] Lewis Montour, a brother of Andrew, had come the previous autumn to the governor of Pennsylvania, with a message purporting to have been sent by the Ohio Indians; they were represented as requesting help against the French, and the building of forts on the river, and as offering all the lands east of the river to pay the debts of the traders. As the character of those who claimed to have obtained this treaty was open to suspicion, the governor had sent Croghan and Andrew Montour to ascertain the truth of the matter. The unauthorized insertion of so great a land grant, is a good specimen of the methods by which the unprincipled traders sought to take advantage of the Indians. See _Pennsylvania Colonial Records_, v, pp. 691-696.—ED. [39] Shingas, brother of King Beaver, was one of the principal leaders of the Delaware Indians on the Ohio, where he had a town at the mouth of Beaver Creek. Shortly after this meeting with Croghan, he deserted to the French, and his braves were a terror to the border settlers. Governor Denny of Pennsylvania set a price of £200 upon his head. Post had a conference with Shingas (1758), and persuaded him to return to the English alliance; nevertheless, at the occupation of the Forks of the Ohio by the English, Shingas with his band retreated to the Muskingum. The last mention of him seems to be in 1762 (_Pennsylvania Colonial Records_, viii, p. 690), and he appears to have died before the conspiracy of Pontiac (1763), in which his tribe took part.—ED. [40] This letter is reprinted from _Pennsylvania Colonial Records_, vi, pp. 642, 643. In the interval between this and the preceding document, momentous events, in which Croghan had a full share, had occurred on the Ohio. The governor of Virginia had engaged him to act as interpreter in Colonel Washington’s army—see “Dinwiddie Papers,” _Virginia Historical Collections_ (Richmond, 1883-84), i, p. 187—and he had been present at the affair of the Great Meadows. During the period between this and Braddock’s expedition, Croghan had been busily employed in bringing over as many Indians as possible to the English cause, and he had led the Indian contingent to Braddock’s aid (see _post_). After the battle of the Monongahela, Croghan returned to his home at Aughwick Creek, caring at his own expense for the few Indians who remained firm in the English interest, and planning to defend his settlement by a stockade fort. A bill for his relief (he had lost all of his trading equipment) passed the Pennsylvania Assembly. Although holding no provincial office, his knowledge of the frontier situation was much relied on in this extremity.—ED.