opened a correspondence with him, hoping to obtain the relic for his Braddock library. In this he was successful, and some time since it was forwarded to Mr. James Gayley, president of the Library Association, who will have it preserved in a suitable frame. It will then occupy a conspicuous place on the walls of the library building. The quaint old instru ment, written on sheepskin parchment, reads as follows:

"Patent.

Braddock's Field. George Wallace, Esq., 328 acres Allegheny county.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania-To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting:

Know that, in consideration of the sum of £48 10s 4d, lawful money, paid by George Wallace, Esq., into the Receiver General's office of this Commonwealth, there is granted by the said Commonwealth unto the said George Wallace a certain tract of land called 'Braddock's Field,' situate on the North side of the River Monongahela, at Braddock's Field in Pitt township, Allegheny county: Beginning at a locust on the bank of the said river, thence by land supposed to be vacant, north 52 degrees, west 222 perches to a white oak, thence by land of Peter Rolleter south five degrees, west 98 perches to a white oak, south 70 degrees, west 129 perches to a walnut tree, south 50 degrees, west 36 perches to a Spanish oak on the bank of said river, and thence up the same, bounding thereon, containing 328 acres, and allowance of 6 per cent. for roads, etc., with appurtenances (which said tract was surveyed in pursuance of a special application, No. 45, entered the first day of April, 1769, by Robert Thompson, who by deed dated 1 December, 1788, conveyed the same to George Thompson, who, by deed dated 1 March instant, conveyed the same to said George Wallace, for whom a warrant of acceptance issued the second day of March, instant). To have and to hold the said tract or parcel of land with the appurtenances, unto the said George Wallace and his heirs, to the use of him, the said George Wallace, excepting and reserving only the fifth part of all gold and silver ore, for the use of this Commonwealth, to be delivered at the pit's mouth, free of all charges. In witness whereof, Thomas Mifflin, Governor of the said Commonwealth, hath hereto set his hand and caused the State seal to be hereto affixed, the fourth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one, and of the Commonwealth the fifteenth.

A. I. Dallas, Secretary."

Thomas Mifflin.

The deed is in an excellent state of preservation, being as bright, almost, as if made out but yesterday. It is signed by Thomas Mifflin, governor of Pennsylvania at that time, who lived just across the river from Braddock in what is now known as Mifflin township. A. I. Dallas, who attests it, was Governor Mifflin's secretary, and his descendants now, or at one time did, own considerable real estate in and around Dallas station on

the line of the Pennsylvania railroad, a few miles out from Pittsburg. The deed bears two paragraphs on its back, one which reads as follows: "Inrolled in the rolls office for the State of Pennsylvania in pat. book No. 18, page 31. Witness my hand and seal of office, March 5, 1791.

NORTH IRVIN."

The seals, curious contrivances cut from paper in star shape, were put on with ordinary sealing-wax. In a letter in reply to an inquiry as to how this instrument came to stray away from the original owner, and how he became the possessor of the deed, Mr. Martheus writes:

"I am very sorry, but I am unable to give any information in regard to how I came by the Braddock's Field' deed. I have had it for many years, and cared but little for it at first, which I think is the reason why I have totally forgotten how it was obtained. But of late years it has wonderfully appreciated in value with me, and I was very much gratified to find that Mr. Carnegie had the same high opinion of its value. It was a great satisfaction to me to place the relic in so suitable a place, through his hands, as the admirable library which he provided for your people, and it will doubtless be an incentive to others who possess mementos of the early times which were so full of stirring events, to deposit them in that institution."

WAYNESBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

Zena's M Donald

OLIVER POLLOCK

HIS CONNECTION WITH THE CONQUEST OF ILLINOIS, 1778

This paper is suggested by the admirable article from the pen of Hon. E. A. Bryan, president of the Vincennes university, which appeared in the Magazine of American History for May, 1889, entitled "Indiana's First Settlement." In that article the scholarly author makes the following statement in relation to the conquest of the Illinois country: "To two men above all others the success of the enterprise was due, George Rogers Clark and François Vigo, and their names deserve to be cherished as long as Americans are freemen."

To the sentiment expressed in the latter part of this sentence readers of American history will heartily subscribe, but to the statement made in the first part of the sentence the writer takes decided exception. No one familiar with the history of Clark's expedition of 1778 would desire to deprive François Vigo of any credit justly due him for his prompt and willing assistance in Clark's hour of necessity. But if Clark must share with any person the distinguished honor of a conquest, the plan of which was entirely the conception of his own brilliant genius, that person should be Oliver Pollock.

To most of the readers of this Magazine the name of Oliver Pollock is probably unknown. In no published history of Clark's successful campaign does it occur. Neither Clark in his Sketch of the Campaign in the Illinois, nor Major Bowman in his Journal of the Capture of St. Vincents, mentions him; nor had the Hon. Henry Pirtle who annotated and published these accounts even heard of him until after the issue of his work. Burnet, in his Notes on the Northwest Territory, eulogizes the generosity of Vigo, but ignores the existence of Pollock; Bryant and Bancroft name him, but not in any connection with Clark's expedition, and the histories of Illinois are equally silent about him.

And yet from the beginning to the end Oliver Pollock was the one individual factor who made the expedition of Clark a possibility and a success, since he almost exclusively furnished the sinews of war.

Like François Vigo, Pollock was of foreign birth, and for twenty-five years a resident of Spanish territory. Like Vigo who furnished Clark with $12,000 in specie from his private means, he honored from his own

private exchequer nearly every draft issued by Clark, to the extent of $50,000 in specie within a period of nine months. Like Vigo, he was arrested and imprisoned, but for debts incurred in cashing the drafts of Clark. His personal sacrifices for Virginia and the united colonies, especially in aiding Clark in his campaigns, not only forced him to dispose of his large estate much below its value, but also made him acquainted with the discipline of a Spanish prison and kept him harassed and financially embarrassed for a decade of years.

Patrick Henry, the governor of Virginia, in his private instructions to General Clark, January 2, 1778, closed his letter with these words, “You are to apply to General Hand for powder and lead necessary for this expedition. If he can't supply it, the person who has that which Captain Lynn bro't from Orleans can." This powder with which Clark began his march to the Wabash was supplied by Oliver Pollock, it having been secured by him "out of the king's store" in New Orleans for Virginia. During the same month Governor Henry ordered Pollock to draw bills on France for $65,000, to aid Clark, which he did on his individual bond. During the same year, 1778, he borrowed on his personal security, from the royal treasury at New Orleans, $70,000 in specie, which was also expended for the furtherance of Clark's campaign and the defense of the Virginia and Pennsylvania frontiers. And yet this Robert Morris of the West remains almost unknown in history.

In 1778, when Vigo made his timely and generous loan of $12,000 to Clark, he received in return the latter's drafts on Pollock for the entire amount. There was then no trader or merchant from St. Louis to New Orleans who was not familiar with the financial and mercantile reputation of Oliver Pollock. It was confidence in the integrity of the American merchant that made Vigo so readily accept Clark's bills of exchange. Pollock paid all these drafts, excepting the one for $8,616. This bill Vigo testified that he did not present to Pollock until 1779, and at a time when the latter was "out of funds." In Report 216, 3d U. S. Congress, Ist Sess. pp. 1-62, 1834, will be found in full Colonel Vigo's petition to congress for the payment of these drafts. The report contains also General Clark's accounts with Virginia in behalf of the said state and Illinois department, from which it appears that from March, 1778, to October, 1781, he had received and expended $2,201,392.83% currency. Of this amount he had drawn from Pollock during the time he was actually engaged in the Illinois conquest, from March 30, 1778, to November 19, 1779, when at Louisville, Kentucky, he wrote his Sketch of the Campaign, the sum of $50,804.76 in specie; and from the treasurer of Virginia $54,772.00-whether in specie

or not is not stated-a total of $105,576.76. If these drafts were all for specie, as Clark himself testifies of the $50,000 drawn on Pollock, he expended in the actual Illinois campaign $108,612.80. The same report (No. 216) also contains Pollock's account with the state of Virginia, which shows that his advances of money from September, 1776, to August, 1781, mainly for Clark's expedition, amounted to $91,497.00 in specie, a sum in comparison with which Colonel Vigo's $12,000 sinks into insignificance.

It was decided in 1790 by General Knox, then secretary of war, that the expenses incurred by Virginia in acquiring and maintaining the Illinois territory, covering a period of three years from 1778 to 1781, amounted to $500,000.* This sum was credited to the state of Virginia by the United States in the general adjustment of accounts, as the equivalent of $2,201,000 currency of 1781.

As to the bearing of Pollock's liberal advances of money on the suc cessful issue of Clark's campaign, the following testimony from General Clark himself, and from two of the three members of the board of commissioners appointed by the United States for "adjusting the expenses of the Illinois country," are conclusive. One of the three commissioners, Colonel David Henley, a distinguished officer of the Revolution, wrote to Pollock under date of April 22, 1788: "It appears to me, from the knowl edge I have of the Illinois accounts and papers as laid before the board and commissioners for a settlement, that your exertions in behalf of General Clark and the troops under his command were the means of enabling him to hold the country and support his army."

Colonel William Heth, another of the commissioners, and also eminent as a revolutionary officer, wrote him: "There is no circumstance of which I am more convinced than that the conquest of the Illinois country could. not have been maintained by Virginia, and consequently that it would not now form a part of the United States, if it had not been for your assistance and very liberal advances; except, indeed, that your private fortunes were injured thereby, and that your character has been lightly spoken of by those who are ever more ready to join in a popular clamor against a public servant, than to examine minutely into his transactions."

The aspersions upon Pollock's character were from the charge made by some member of the congress that he (Pollock) had claimed reimbursement of the sums expended for Clark in specie, when the original payment had been made in paper money. Whereupon he appealed to General Clark himself for corroboration of his claim, with the following result: "These are to certify to all whom it may concern, that all the bills I Rep. Secretary of War, June 21, 1790.

*