From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, 6 June 1763
To Richard Jackson
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Philada. June 6. 1763
Dear Sir,
Supposing the Catalogue of our American Ores and Minerals collected by the late Mr. Hazard,3 might afford you some Amusement, I send my Letter to Mr. Tissington open to you,4 and give you the Trouble of forwarding it to him when you have perus’d it.
The Bearer of this is Mr. James Logan Son of my Learned Friend of that Name.5 I beg Leave to recommend him to your Civilities, as a young Gentleman of Fortune and Character.
The Indians on the Ohio have broke out again, scalp’d a Number of People, and seiz’d some Horse Loads of Goods.6 I do not hear of any Offence given them, and suppose it occasion’d by the mere Relish they acquir’d in the last War for Plunder.
I am just setting out for New York, and purpose writing to you from thence. I am, with perfect Esteem and Respect Dear Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servant
B Franklin
Richard Jackson Esqr
Endorsed: B Franklin 6 June 1763
3. Samuel Hazard (1714–1758), who published in 1755 a scheme for a western settlement; above, VI, 87 n. His mineralogical collection, purchased for Lib. Co. Phila. after his death, is described and the catalogue mentioned in The Charter, Laws, and Catalogue of Books, of the Library Company of Philadelphia (Phila., 1764), pp. 25–6.
4. Not found.
5. James Logan the younger (1728–1803) was fellow trustee with BF of the Loganian Library.
6. The first published news of the Indian uprising, commonly called Pontiac’s Uprising, was in an extract from a letter from Fort Pitt, May 31, printed in Pa. Gaz., June 9, 1763. The writer reported that Col. William Clapham (above, VI, 383 n) and his family had been murdered at their settlement twenty-five miles away; eleven men had been attacked at Beaver Creek (northwest of Fort Pitt), eight or nine of them had been killed, and twenty-five pack horses captured; “St. Dusky” (Sandusky, Ohio) was cut off; and the fort at Detroit had been invested. This news must have reached Philadelphia several days before it was published, because Colonel Bouquet, then in the city, reported it to General Amherst, who received it in N.Y. on June 6. Pontiac’s Indians began their depredations in the vicinity of Detroit on May 7 and he launched his attack on the fort there on the 9th, thereby effectively starting the war. Howard H. Peckham, Pontiac and the Indian Uprising (2d edit., Chicago, 1961), pp. 130–44, 166, 171, 176. BF, like Amherst and others, at first failed to recognize the significance of the news from Fort Pitt.