A Journey from Pennsylvania to Onondaga in 1743. Introduction by Whitfield J. Bell, Jr. Illustrations by Nathan Goldstein.

Barre, Massachusetts: Imprint Society, (1973). One of a Limited Edition of 1950. Signed by the Illustrator. Octavo, leather-backed marbled boards (hardcover), gilt letters, 132 pp. Very Good, with lightly rubbed edges and embossed stamp to Content page. From Introduction: In the fall of 1742 there occurred in the back country of Virginia one of those unpremeditated, meaningless clashes between an Iroquois hunting party and some white settlers that so often threatened or broke the peace of the North American colonies. Who fired the first shot was not at first clear, but because an Indian war in Virginia would inevitably draw in Pennsylvania, the governor of this province in January 1743 sent Conrad Weiser, the Province interpreter, to Shamokin to assure the Iroquois representative there of the continuance of Brother Onas’ friendship and to appeal to the Six Nations not to take the warpath. Reared among the Iroquois of New York, a Mohawk by adoption, Weiser spoke the Indians’ language, understood and observed their customs, and enjoyed their confidence. For ten years as Pennsylvania’s “ambassador to the Indians” -- his own accurately descriptive term -- Weiser had served them and his own people with rare intelligence, selflessness, and integrity. In his urgent mission to the Iroquois in the winter of 1743 Weiser succeeded in allaying the Indians’ anger and resentment. The next summer, on behalf of the governor of Virginia, who offered the Iroquois a present to remove the hatchet from their heads, he travelled to the Council seat of the Six Nations at Onondaga. On this journey he was accompanied by two acquaintances, John Bartram and Lewis Evans...