Thrust land-hungry newcomers into confrontation with long-settled native peoples and you have a recipe for conflict.

This was the situation in much of colonial North America in the 18th century and it often did erupt into bloody conflict. Yet, the diplomacy of one man in Pennsylvania was largely responsible for maintaining a level of peace between the settlers and the Indians from 1731 until his death in 1760.

The name Conrad Weiser is familiar throughout Pennsylvania's Susquehanna Valley, though even there the extent of his role in fairly negotiating for both sides is not as widely appreciated as it should be.

This second edition of Arthur D. Graeff's 1945 biography sheds light on Weiser's importance as a diplomat for Pennsylvania's colonial government as well as his lesser-known similar duties for the neighboring colonies of New York, Maryland and Virginia.

Born in Germany, Weiser came with his family and other Palatine immigrants to New York in 1709. There, as a youth, Weiser went to live with the Iroquois for nearly a year, learning their language and customs, factors which would prove invaluable in his later years.

In 1729, Weiser relocated to the Tulpehocken region of what is now Berks County, Pennsylvania. The Iroquois had overpowered the Delaware and other tribes of the commonwealth and Shikellamy had been appointed governor over them at Shamokin (present-day Sunbury, Northumberland County).

Weiser's acquaintance with Shikellamy in their New York days led to his being appointed as an interpreter for the Pennsylvania colonial authorities. In the book, Graeff explains how it proved beneficial to both the English officials and the Native Americans to have this German serve in this capacity.

The success of his early efforts cemented the relationship and it became an important cog in keeping bloodshed to a minimum despite some examples of chicanery and treachery on both sides. He and Benjamin Franklin were responsible for building the chain of forts that protected settlers during the French & Indian War, and Weiser engineered the treaties that ended massacres in the region, though it was not binding on the Delaware and Shawnee in western Pennsylvania.

In addition to his career as a diplomat, Weiser's list of achievements in other fields reveals him to have been a man of many talents. Those aspects of his life are denoted in the chapters of this book and in the epilogue by Lawrence Knorr, Graeff's great-grandnephew, who edited the volume and added the valuable index.

If you're a lover of history, you may want to add this volume to your shelves.