If it does not very clearly appear how an
Indian rising would have settled the ownership of Fort Pitt, it
is evident enough where the interests of Virginia and
Pennsylvania clashed. Virginia wanted land for settlement and
speculation; Pennsylvania wanted the Indians left in possession
for the benefit of the fur trade. So far from stirring up the
Indians, as his enemies declared, Croghan was as usual giving
away all his substance to keep them quiet.* Indeed, during this
summer of 1774, eleven hundred Indians were encamped about Fort
Pitt visiting him.
* The suspicion that Croghan and Lord Dunmore, the Governor of
Virginia, were instigating the war appears to have arisen out of
the conduct of Dr. John Connolly, Dunmore's agent and Croghan's
nephew. Croghan had induced the Shawanoes to bring under escort
to Fort Pitt certain English traders resident in the Indian
towns. The escort was fired on by militiamen under command of
Connolly, who also issued a proclamation declaring a state of war
to exist. Connolly, however, probably acted on his own
initiative. He was interested in land on his own behalf and was
by no means the only man at that time who was ready to commit
outrages on Indians in order to obtain it. As Croghan lamented,
there was "too great a spirit in the frontier people for killing
Indians.
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