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6/19/1759. PIttsburgh ye 19th 6 mo. 1759 My Friend The two Creatures yet Missing are a Sorrel Horse of [Pronj.n?] Loans Branded WW on ye Shouldr. and Buttock prais'd to 5[£?] & a Brown Mare of Thos. Hintons Branded TK and prais'd to £6.10 and if they they did not get Down homeward I am ready to Conclude some Rogues met with them that took them off. I had Advertised them before I left Cumber.d but hears no further account of them, as to y.e proportion betwixt ye [wt?] Number of ye. Skins I am not sensible of any Error in ye [wt?]. they being n'sigh'd before I came but I believe there were many small Skins & our Endeavours at this difficult time of pleasing them & Gaining thire affections toward ye English Subjects as to except some of thire produce that otherwise we might more dispute we are [nocossiated? necessitated?] to bear [wt.?] them & al they bring they want to sell, we can hardly get them to Dry ye. Skins they bring us, that are too wet, but those Humours are not to me unexpected [insertion] but [????] bring them off such measures [end insertion], besides ye principle I act from, makes thire Humours more easy to my mind [insertion] so as not to fret or be [peevish?][?] them[end insertion] as my Love toward them is not in deed feigned but Sincere which I often find [ronsw'd?] I have had ye Satisfaction to hear Samuel say that I was fonder to wait of ye INdians than of him, as sometimes Hillbuck ( who is reckoned to be as cuning as any amongst them here & has gone of private brands for ye Collonel several times) Lodges at our House rather than ye Fort [with] his Company I have took ye labour to Boyle some Meat of his one Night & brings them Drink when they & others [seem?] too much above it or too Lazy, which to my Satisfaction [Hillbuck?] with appearance of Gratitude acknowledged one Day as he sat with us at Dinner signifying that ye French would not show him such kindness but make him stand at a Distance & Talked more openly than ever we heard him before, two Shawanys from ye [Lorose?] town come here to see us one of which seemed very Saucy, & talked much of thire dissteem of ye English Continuing here but upon Reasoning wt him that they could not thenhave any Trade with us, & that in truth I believ'd ye French would not be able long to suply them with Goods & on his telling much of his exploits at War against ye Virginians but never against our Province I told him that all War proceeded from ye Bad Spirit that caused Men to Hate one another & that people ought to obey ye Good Spirit that caused Love in mens hearts, on to another that ye Good Spirit was Strongest, & although for ye Wicknedness of man he suffer'd them to kill & punish one another for a time that ye Good Spirit would in time make all ye Nations on Earth to cease from War & that they should Love One another upon which he answered me that he knows [document damaged] to be our Principles & that ye Quakers were ye best People on ye Earth & that they could believe us notwithstanding they were cconfused wt Lies, that such a time of Peace was very Desireable as all ye people might pass & repass to any part safely, so he waited [Croughans?] Coming who is here now so if of service i believe at this time as they desired much to see him, & ye Shwanys will go better satisfied home than they were in Coming, altho we have frequent rumors of being vissited or attacked by our Enemies, & partly all ye people several nights that use to reside out of ye Fort do take into it for refuge we keep our own house & I have not slept a night as yet in any of thire fortificaitons [???] knows not how soon our Weightier Tryals may present themselves, & haveing no strength of our own, knows not how we should stand in case of such a Tryal unless faviour'd with supernatural Aid which my mind at times is exercised for, I say altho all this, I harbour strong Hopes that we may escape such Troubles which I doubt not of our friends concern likewise on our behalf, I think it is reported that Croughan ventures to promote a free or General Trade here, as some storekeepers who came here with him [dales?] in Skins or pottery freely this Day being a Great Day of business with us so that we took no time to Dine untill