Note 11 — III Two Journals of Western Tours, by Charles Frederick Post: one, to the neighborhood of Fort Duquesne (July-September, 1758); the other to the Ohio (October, 1758-January 1759)
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Teedyuscung, one of the most famous of Delaware chiefs, was born in Trenton about 1705. When nearly fifty years old, he was chosen chief of the Susquehanna Delawares, and being shrewd and cunning played a game of diplomacy between the Iroquois, the Ohio Indians, and the authorities of Pennsylvania, by which he managed largely to enhance his own importance, and to free the Delawares from their submission to the Six Nations. His headquarters were in the Wyoming Valley, whence he descended to the Moravian settlements, and even to Easton and Philadelphia, to secure supplies from the Pennsylvania authorities. In 1756 a truce was patched up with this chief at Easton, after he had bitterly complained of the “Walking Purchase” of 1737, and the white settlements on the Juniata. His loyalty to the English was doubtful and wavering, and his opposition to Post’s journey was probably due to fears that his own importance as a medium between the Ohio Indians and the English would be diminished by the former’s success. His cabin at Wyoming having treacherously been set on fire, during one of his drunken sleeps, Teedyuscung was burned to death in 1763. The Iroquois, who were the guilty party, threw the obloquy upon the Connecticut settlement, whereupon Teedyuscung’s followers murdered all the band.—Ed.