In 1768 the General Assembly in
Philadelphia put upon record, in a message to the Governor, a high
opinion of Croghan, referring to "the eminent services he has rendered
to the Nation and its Colonies in conciliating the affections of the
Indians to the British interest."

At the end of a stormy voyage from America, being shipwrecked on the
Norman coast, Croghan reached England in February, 1764, bearing an
important letter on Indian affairs from Sir William Johnson to the Lords
of Trade. One might expect to find Croghan gratified by the comforts of
London life as compared with the rough hardships of America. A scout
under Washington's command, a captain of Indians under Braddock, a
border ranger upon the western frontier, a trader upon the banks of the
Ohio, a pioneer in many a wilderness, Croghan had seen all kinds of
hard service in the twenty-three years since he left Ireland. But in the
midst of metropolitan splendors he grew homesick for the wild life of
the New World. Writing in March, and again in April, to American
friends, he expressed his disgust with the city's pride and pomp,
declared that he was sick of London and its vanities, and set forth as
his chief ambition a desire to live on a little farm in America. In the
autumn of the same year Croghan shipped for the long journey across the
Atlantic. It is five years later that he appears at the foot of Otsego
Lake, apparently in fulfillment of his desire to make a home and to be
the founder of a settlement.

In 1769 Richard Smith came to the Susquehanna region from Burlington,
New Jersey. The immediate purpose of his tour was to make a survey of
the Otsego patent in which he, as one of the proprietors, was
interested. Smith traveled up the Hudson River to Albany, thence along
the Mohawk to Canajoharie, from which point his carefully kept
journal[30] abounds in interesting allusions to Otsego:

"13th. May. ... Pursuing a S. W. Course for Cherry Valley
[from Canajoharie]. We met, on their Return, Four Waggons,
which had carried some of Col. Croghan's Goods to his Seat at
the Foot of Lake Otsego.... Capt. Prevost ... is now improving
his Estate at the Head of the Lake; the Capt. married
Croghan's Daughter....

"14th. ... Distance from Cherry Valley to Capt. Prevost's is 9
miles.

"15th. ... We arrived at Capt. Prevost's in 4 Hours, the Road
not well cleared, but full of Stumps and rugged, thro' deep
bl