scout Christopher Gist on a tour of Ohio Indian villages. Croghan had already informed Pennsylvania Governor Hamilton that the Ohio Confederation wanted a British fort at the Forks of the Ohio. During a Logstown conference at the end of May 1751, he formally recorded the request and sent Andrew Montour to the Pennsylvania Assembly to confirm it. Montour, however, denied that the Indians wanted a fort, claiming that it was all Croghan's idea. The colony's plans for a fort evaporated as Pennsylvania "defaulted its leadership in the West to Virginia's Ohio Company." Croghan protested and among other things had Montour retract his testimony before the Pennsylvania Assembly, but no one believed it. Evidence of the underhanded charade is found in the Native American conference held in June 1752 at Logstown (the Treaty of Logstown), with Croghan serving on the Indian Council and Andrew Montour acting as translator. The Ohio Confederation gave Virginia's Ohio Company permission to build a fort and settle one hundred families on in today's Western Pennsylvania. Immediately after the conference, a French force led by Charles Langlade made a Raid on Pickawillany, killing a few British traders and 13 Miami, including Old Briton. Early in the spring of 1753, Canada's Governor Duquesne "opened his campaign to drive the English out of the Ohio Valley." That October during a conference held at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Scarouady officially appointed Croghan as the representative of the Ohio Confederation in communications to and from Pennsylvania, and authorized him to receive its gifts for the tribes. His biographer Wainwright says this suggests that he organized his own appointment. When the year ended with 21-year-old George Washington making his diplomatic journey to the French at Fort Le Boeuf, Croghan, about 35, had been operating in Ohio Country for twelve years, and was the leading figure among its British traders, Native American tribes and bands, and colonial agents. Soon after Washington returned from delivering Virginia Governor Dinwiddie's summons to the French, Croghan was in Ohio Country gathering intelligence for Pennsylvania, helping to build the Ohio Company stockade commanded by William Trent, and supplying the Indians with food, rum, and weapons. When the French reached the Forks of the Ohio early that spring, Croghan's half-brother Ensign Edward Ward was in charge of the garrison and forced to surrender. Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) in North America, or French and Indian War as this