Hi,
in 52m.2 I see pe-tioned.
I wonder if he meant petitioned, but lost a couple of letters underway?! 
Best regards,
Karen
that would sound logical, especially at the end of a (margins) line and keeping in mind the faulty spelling of the diary, but the context is disagreement between »I« and »they«, because »they« wanted just a bit of scalp from the child to settle an old feud. »I« (Jenkins) could of course not agree to that.
so I keep it on the
unsolved list for now.
But thank you anyway for your input.