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1 2 3

THE WORKS

FRANCIS PARKMAN^.

CHAMPLATN EDITION.
Vol. XIII.

Twenty-Jive Copies of the Cbampiain Edition have
been printed for Presentation.

w^ ii m. 7

'nr'iiir'ifiitiiiiiiiiiliMlnii

■ ■rjy'ir jSoiU lull, Sr^an. Shi: f

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M^Jrqids de Montcalm.

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MONTCAi.M AND WOLFE.

FRANCE AND ENGLAND t^
NORTH AMERICA.

Part S venth.

FRANCIS PARKMAN.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

Vol. I.

BOSTON:

IJTTLE, IJROWN, AND COMPANY.

1897.

Flhliotheque,

^. Scrninairo de Qu6be-:

3, rue de rUniversile,

/.^^"'^i^.

81ntbcrstt]D Press:
John Wilson and Son, CAJinuinGK, U.S.A.

*'«*«*M|H

IlifiiiMiMlH

HARVARD COLLEGE,

TKE ALMA MATER UNDER WHOSE INFLUENCE THE
PURPOSE OF WRITING IT WAS CONCEIVED,

THIS BOOK

IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

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PREFACE.

The names on the titlepage stand as repre-
sentative of the two nations whose final contest
for the control of North America is the subject
of the book.

A very large amount of unpublished material
has been used in its preparation, consisting for
the most part of documents copied from the
archives and libraries of France and England,
especially from the Archives de la Marine et des
Colonies, the Archives de la Guerre, and the
Archives Nationales at Paris, and the Public
Record Office and the British Museum at Lon-
don. The papers copied for the present work
in France alone exceed six thousand folio pages
of manuscript, additional and supplementary'^to
the " P^ris Documents " procured for the State
of New York under the agency of Mr. Brodhead.
The copies made m England form ten volumes,
besides many English documents consulted in

a^^MJiiitlkfliiM

VUl

PREFACE.

■

the original manuscript. Great numbers of
autograph letters, diaries, and other writings
of persons engaged in the war have also been
examined on this side of the Atlantic.

I owe to the kindness of the present Marquis
de Montcalm the permission to copy all the let-
ters written by his ancestor, General Montcalm,
when in America, to members of his family in
France. General Montcalm, from his first ar-
rival in Canada to a few days before his death,
also carried on an active correspondence with
one of his chief officers, Bourlamaque, with
whom he was on terms of intimacy. These
autograph letters are now preserved in a private
collection. I have examined them, and obtained
copies of the whole. They form an interesting
complement to the official correspondence of the
writer, and throw the most curious side-lights
on the persons and events of the time.

Besides manuscripts, the printed matter in the
form of books, pamphlets, contemporary news-
papers, and other publications relating to the
American part of the Seven Years' War, is
varied and abundant ; and I believe I may safely
say that nothing in it of much consequence has
escaped me. The liberality of some of the older
States of the Union, especially New York and

PREFACE. ix

Pennsylvania, in printing the voluminous records
of their colonial history, has saved me a deal of
tedious labor.

The whole of this published and unpublished
mass of evidence has been read and collated with
extreme care, and more than common pains have
been taken to secure accuracy of statement.
The study of books and papers, however, could
not alone answer the purpose. The plan of the
work was formed in early youth ; and though
various causes have long delayed its execution,
it has always been kept in view. Meanwhile, I
have visited and examined every spot where
events of any importance in connection with the
contest took place, and have observed with at-
tention such scenes and persons as might help to
illustrate those I meant to describe. In short,
the subject has been studied as much from life
and in the open air as at the library table.

These two volumes are a departure from chro-
nological sequence. The period between 1700
and 1748 has been passed over for a time.
When this gap is filled, the series of « France
and England in North America " will form a
continuous history of the French occupation of
the continent.

The portrait in the first volume is from a

X PREFACE.

photograph of the original picture in possession
of the Marquis de Montcalm ; that in the second,
from a photograph of the original picture in
possession of Admiral Warde.

Boston, Sfcptember 16, 1884.

CONTENTS.

Introduction

Page
3

CHAPTER I.
1745-1755.

THE COMBATANTS.

England in the Eighteenth Century : her Political and Social
Ao'pects; her Military Condition. — France : her Power
and Importance. — Sig'is of Decay. - The Court, the Nobles,
the Clergy, the People. — The King and Pompadour. —The
Philosophers. — Germany. — Prussia. — Frederic II. — Rus-
sia.— State of Europe.- War of the Austrian Succession.
— American Colonies of France and England. — Contrasted
Systems and their Results. - Canada : its Strong Military

. Position. — French Claims to the Continent. — British Colo-
mes. -New England. — Virginia. - Pennsylvania. - New
York. — Jealousies, Divisions, Internal Disputes. — Miiitary
Weakness •'

CHAPTER II.
1749-1752.

CilLORON DE BIENVILTjB.

La Galissonifere. - English Encroachment. - Mission of Celoron.
-The Groat West: its European Claimants; its Indian
Population. -English Fur-traders. - Celoron on the Alle-
ghany: his Reception; his Difficulties. - Descent of the
Ohio. -Covert Hostility. - Ascent of the Miami. -La
Demoiselle. -Dark Prospects for France. - Christopher
Gist, George Croghan: their Western Mission. — Picka-
willany.- English Ascendency. - English Dissension and
Rivalry. — The Key of the Great West ... 39

Xll

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER III.

1749-1753.

CONFMCT FOR THE WEST.

The Five Nations.— Caughimw.igft.— Abbe Piquet : his Schemes ;
his Journey. — Fort Frontenac. — Toronto. — Niagara. —
Oswego. — Success of Piquet. — Detroit. — La Jonquifere :
his Intrigues; his Trials; his Death. — English Intrigues.—
Critical State of the West. — Pickawillany destroyed. —
Duquesne : his Grand Enterprise

Page

fpi

CHAPTER IV.
1710-1754.

CONFLICT FOR ACADIA.

Acadia ceded to England. — Acadians swear Fidelity. — Halifax
founded.— French Intrigue. — Acadian Priests. — Mildness
of English Rule. — Covert Hostility of Acadians. — The New
Oath.— Treachery of Versailles. — Indians incited to War.
— Clerical Agents of Revolt. — Abbfe Le Loutre. — Acadians
impelled to emigrate. — Misery of the Emigrants. — Humanity
of Cornwallis and Hopson. — Fanaticism and Violence of Le
Loutre. — Capture of the "St. Francois." — The English at
Beaubassin. — Le Loutre drives out the Inhabitants. — Mur-
der of Howe. — Beaus^jour. — Insolence of Le Loutre: his
Harshness to the Acadians. — The Boundary Commission :
its Failure. — Approaching War 94

CHAPTER V.
1753, 1754.

WASHINGTON.

The F»ench occupy the Sources of the Ohio : their Sufferings. —
Fort Le Bceuf. — Legardeur de Saint-Pierre. — Mission of
Washington. — Robert Diiiwiddie : ho opposes the French;
his Dispute with the Burgesses; his Energy; his Ap-
peals for Help. — Fort Duquesne. — Death of Jumonville. —
Washington at the Great Meadows. — Conlon de Villiers. —
Fort Necessity , 183

CONTENTS.

xui

CHAFi^R VI.
1754, 1755,

THE SIGNAL OF BATTLB.

Troubles of Dinwiddio. — Gathering of the Burgesses. — Vir-
ginian Society. — Refractory Legislators. — The Quaker As-
sembly: it refuses to resist the French. — Apathy of Now
York.— Shirley and the General Court of Massachusetts.—
Shortsighted Policy. — Attitude of Royal Governors. — In-
dian Allies waver. — Convention at Albany. — Scheme of
Union: it fails. — Dinwiddle and Glen. — Dinwiddio calls
on England for Help. — The Duke of Newcastle. — Weak-
ness of the British Cabinet. — Attitude of France. — Mutual
Dissimulation.- Both Powers send Troops to America.—
Collision. — Capture of the "Alcide" and the "Lis" .

Pagb

168

CHAPTER VIL
1755.

BRADDOCK.

Arrival of Braddock : his Character. — Council at Alexandria.

— Plan of the Campaign. —Apathy of the Colonists. — Rage
of Braddock. — Franklin. — Fort Cumberland. — Composi-
tion of the Army. — Offended Friends. — The March. — The
French Fort. — Savage Allies —The Captive. — Beaujeu :
he goes to meet the English. — Passage of the Monongahela.

— The Surprise.- The Battle.— Rout of Braddock: his
Death. — Indian Ferocity. — Reception of the 111 News.—
Weaknessof Dunbar. — The Frontier abandoned .... 194

CHAPTER vm.
1755.

REMOVAL OF THE ACADIAN8.

State of Acadia. — Threatened Invasion. — Peril of the English •
their Plans.— French Forts to be attacked. _ Beausejour
and Its Occupants. — French Treatment of the Acadians —
John Winslow. — Siege and Capture of Beausejour. — Atti-

xiy

CONTENTS.

Paob

tilde of AcaciianB. — Influence of their Priertf. : thoy refuse
the Oath of Allegiance ; their Condition and Character. —
I'rotended Neutrals. — Moderation of English Authorities. —
The Acadians persist in their Hefusal. — Knoinies or Suh-
jects ? — Choice of the Acadians. — The Consequence. — Their
Kemoval determined. — Winslow at Grand Prd. — Conference
with Murray. — Summons to the Inhabitants: their Sci/.ure;
their Embarkation ; their Fate ; their Treatment in Canada!
— Misapprehensiou concerning them 243

CHAPTER IX.
1755.

DIE8K.VU.

Expedition against Crown Point. — William Johnson. — Vau-
dreuil. — Dieskau — Johnson and the Indians. — The Pro-
vincial Army. — Doubts and Delays. — March to Lake
George. — Sunday in Camp. — Advance of Dieskau : he
changes Plan. -*- Marches against Johnson. — Ambush. —
Rout of Provincials. — Battle of Luke Gef)r^o. — Rout of the
French.— Rage of the Mohawks. — Peril of Diesk.iu. — In-
action of Johnson. — The Homeward March. — Laurels of
Victory

206

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

OLUME ONE.

Loiis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm-Gozon de

SAiNT-VrfRAN Frontispiece

From the orlgtakl painting in tlie possession of Uie Marquis de Montcalm.

Bkitisii Colonies and Nouthebn New France.
''''-'''^ Page 9

COMTE DE GaUSSONiIsrb (i ^q

From an engraving by Barin, in the Biblioth6que Nation ale.

Facsimile op the Inscription on a Lead Plate

HtlRIED BY Cl^LORON DE BlENVILLE « sj

After a photograpli of the original.

Governor James Hamilton « go

From the painting by Benjamin West, in the State House, PhUadelphla.

Acadia, with Adjacent Islands, 1755 « 34

Robert Dinwiddie ...

" 142

From the painting belonging to Mias Mary Dtawiddio, London.

Chevalier de lAyis

From the painting by Mme. Haudebourt, in the Versailles Gallery. '

Admiral Edward Boscawen "109

''"' J. Reynolds!"^ '"^'"^"^ ^^ ''■ ^^'^'^'^^^ '^^^ <» Pointing by

A Sketch of the Field op Battle, July 9, 1755 . « 221

Sir Peter Halket . .

„ "224

The Region of Lake George from Surveys made
IN 1762 ....

"296

Israel Putnam .... „ „^

"802

From a mezzotint engravirg after a painting by J, Wilkinson.

"m'tM'-iy.-

MONTCALM AND WOLFE.

3au,-^.i)iMM«£,M«

AND

17SO - 1760.

Ch erdkeii ^

Attrikn'ln

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MONTCALM AND WOLFE.

INTKODUCTION.

It is the nature of great events to obscure the great
events that came before them. The Seven Yeara'
War in Europe is seen but dimly through revolution^
ary convulsions and Napoleonic tempests; and the
same contest in America is half lost to sight behind
the storm-cloud of the War of Independence. Few
at this day see the momentous issues involved in it,
or the greatness of the danger that it averted. The
strife that armed all the civilized world began here.
"Such was the complication of political interests,"
says Voltaire, "that a cannon-shot fired in America
could give the signal that set Europe in a blaze."
Not quite. It was not a cannon-shot, but a volley
from the hunting-pieces of a few backwoodsmen, com-
manded by a Virginian youth, George Washington.

To us of this day, the result of the American part
of the war seems a foregone conclusion. It was far
from being so; and very far from being so regarded
by our forefathers. The numerical superiority of the
British colonies was offset by organic weaknesses

4 INTRODUCTION.

fatal to vigorous and united action. Nor at the out-
set did they, or the mother-country, aim at conquer-
ing Canada, but only at pushing back her boundaries.
Canada — using the name in its restricted sense —
was a position of great strength ; and even when her
dependencies were overcome, she could hold her own
against forces far superior. Armies could reach her
only by three routes, — the Lower St. Lawrence on
the east, the Upper St. Lawrence on the west, and
Lake Champlain on the south. The first access was
guarded by a fortress almost impregnable by nature,
and the second by a long chain of dangerous rapids ;
while the third offered a series of points easy to
defend. During this same war, Frederic of Prussia
held his ground triumphantly against greater odds,
though his kingdom was open on all sides to attack.

It was the fatuity of Louis XV. and his Pompadour
that made the conquest of Canada possible. Had
they not broken the traditionary policy of France,
allied themselves to Austria, her ancient enemy, and
plunged needlessly into the European war, the whole
force of the kingdom would have been turned, from
the first, to the humbling of England and the defence
of the French colonies. The French soldiers left
dead on inglorious Continental battle-fields could
have saved Canada, and perhaps made good her claim
to the vast territories of the West.

But there were other contingencies. The posses-
sion of Canada was a question of diplomacy as well
as of war. If i^^ngland conquered her, she might

INTRODUCTION. 5

restore her, as she had lately restored Cape Breton.
She had an interest in keeping France alive on the
American continent. More than one clear eye saw,
at the middle of the last century, that the subjection
of Canada would lead to a revolt of the Biitish
colonies. So long as an active and enterprising
enemy threatened their borders, they could not break
with the mother-country, because they needed her
help. And if the arms of France had prospered in
the other hemisphere; if she had gained in Europe
or Asia territories with which to buy back what she
had lost in America, then, in all likelihood, Canada
would have passed again into her hands.

The most momentous and far-reaching question
ever brought to issue on this continent was: Shall
France remain here, or shall she not? If, by diplo-
macy or war, she had preserved but the half, or less
than the half, of her American possessions, then a
barrier would have been set to the spread of the Eng-
lish-speaking races; there would have been no Revo-
lutionary War; and for a long time, at least, no
independence. It was not a question of scanty popu-
lations strung along the banks of the St. Lawrence;
it was — or under a government of any worth it would
have been — a question of the armies and generals of
France. America owes much to the imbecility of
Louis XV. and the ambitious vanity and personal
dislikes of his mistress.

The Seven Years' War made England what she is.
It crippled the commerce of her rival, ruined France

INTRODUCTION.

in two continents, and blighted her as a colonial
power. It gave England the control of the seas and
the mastery of North America and India, made her
the first of commercial nations, and prepared that
vast colonial system that has planted new Englands
in every quarter of the globe. And while it made
England what she is, it supplied to the United States
the indispensable condition of their greatness, if not
of their national existence.

Before entering on the story of the great contest,
we will look at the parties to it on both sides of the
Atlantic.

CHAPTER I.

1746-.756.

THE COMBATANTS.

EmLAHD IN THB EiaHTEENTH CbNTORV : HER POLITICAL AWT>

Social Aspects; her Military Conditio>,.- SS^ tZ
Power and Importance. -Signs op Decay. - The Court
Pompa;:;"? t1 p'"°'' ™^ ^— -The Kino To
FredeT tT I Pn'^««o™BR8. _ Germany. - Pbussia. -
*REDE„ic II. - Russia. - State op Europe.- War of the
Austrian Succession. - American Colonies of France Z

clslT ~ ^r'"*"'^'' •^^^^^"^ ^-- -«-H Results -
Canada: ITS Strong Military Position. - French ClaJT
TO the Cont^nent.- British Colonies. -New ^0.1^
— ViRoiNJA. — Pennsylvania. — Npw Ynp,r ''"I^ngland.
Divisions. Internal Disputes. -MiuTA^RTwrAirs'^""'

The latter half of the reign of George II. was one
ot the most prosaic periods in English histonr. The
civil wars and the Restoration had had their enthusi-
asms, religion and liberty on one side, and loyalty
on the other; but the old fires declined when William
111. came to the throne, and died to ashes under the
House of Hanover. Loyalty lost half its inspiration
when It lost the tenet of the divine right of kings-
and nobody could now hold that tenet with any con-
sistency except the defeated and despairing Jacobites.
JNor had anybody as yet proclaimed the rival dogma

f f

THE COMBATANTS.

[1746-1765.

of the divine right of the people. The reigning
monarch held his crown neither of God nor of the
nation, but of a parliament controlled by a ruling
claas. The Whig aristocrBcy had done a priceless
service to English liberty. It was full of political
capacity, and by no means void of patriotism ; but it
was only a part of the national life. Nor was it at
present moved by political emotions in any high
sense. It had done its great work when it expelled
the Stuarts and placed William of Orange on the
throne; its ascendency was now complete. The
Stuarts had received their death-blow at CuUoden;
and nothing was left to the dominant party but to
dispute on subordinate questions, and contend for
office among Uiemselves. The Tory squires sulked
in their country-houses, hunted foxes, and grumbled
against the reigning dynasty, yet hardly wished to
see the nation convulsed by a counter-revolution and
another return of the Stuarts.

If politic^ had run to commonplace, so had morals ;
and so too had religion. Besponc'^nt writers of the
day even complained that British courage had died
out. There was little sign to the common eye that,
under a dull and languid surface, forces were at work
preparing a new life, material, moral, and intel-
lectual. As yet, Whitefield and Wesley had not
wakened the drowsy conscience of the nation, nor
the voice of William Pitt roused it like a trumpet-
peal.

It was the unwashed and unsavory England of

I i

1745-1755.] ENGLAND. 9

Hogarth, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterae; of Tom
Jones, Squire Western, Lady Bellaston, and Paraon
Adams; of the "Rake's Progress "and "Marriage &
la Mode; " of the lords and ladies who yet live in the
undying gossip of Horace Walpole, be-powdeied,
be-patched, and l)e-rouged, flirting at masked Imllsi
playing cards till daylight, rettiiling scandal, and
exchanging double meanings. Beau Nash reigned
king over the gaming-talles of Bath; tlie ostrich-
plumes of great ladies mingled with the peacock-
feathers of courtesans in the rotunda at Ranelagh
Gardens; and young lords in velvet suits and em-
broidered ruffles played away their patrimony at
Wliite's Chocolate-House or Arthur's Club. Vice
was bolder than to-day, and manners more courtly,
perhaps, but far more coarse.

The humbler clergy were thought — sometimes
with reason — to be r.o fit company for gentlemen,
and country pareons drank their ale in the squire's
kitchen. The passenger-wagon spent the better part
of a fortnight in creeping from London to York.
Travellei^ carried pistols against footpads and
mounted highwaymen. Dick Turpin and Jack
Sheppard were popular heioes. Tyburn counted its
victims by scores; and as yet no Howard had ap-
peared to reform the inhuman abominations of the
prisons.

The middle class, though fast rising in importance,
was feebly and imperfectly represented in Parliament.
The boroughs were controlled by the nobility and

1^ THE COMBATANTS. [1745-1755.

gentry, or by corporations open to influence or
bribery. Parliamentary corrnption had been reduced
to a 8yr.:3m; and offices, sinecures, pensions, and
gifts of money were freely used to keep ministers in
power. The great offices of State were held by men
sometimes oi high ability, but of whom not a few
divided their lives among politics, cards, wine, horse-
racing, and women, till time and the gout sent them
to the waters of Bath. The dull, pompous, and
irascible old King had two ruling passions, — money,
and his Continental dominions of Hanover. His
elder son, the Prince of Wales, was a centre of oppo-
sition to him. His younger son, the Duke of Cum-
berland, a character far more pronounced and vigorous,
had won the day at Culloden, and lost it at Fontenoy';
but whether victor or vanquished, had shown the
same vehement bull-headed courage, of late a little
subdued by fast-growing corpuhncy. The Duke of
Newcastle, the head of the government, had gained
power and kept it by his rank and connections, his
wealth, his county influence, his control of boroughs,
and the extraordinary assiduity and devotion with
which he practised the arts of corruption. Henry
Fox, grasping, unscrupulous, with powerful talents,
a warm friend after his fashion, and a most indulgent
father; Carteret, with his strong, versatile intellect
and jovial intrepidity; the two Townshends, Mans-
field, Halifax, and Chesterfield, — were conspicuous
figures in the politics of the time. One man towered
above them all. Pitt had many enemies and many

1745-1755.]

FRANCE.

critics. They called him ambitious, audacious, arro-
gant, theatrical, pompous, domineering; but what he
has left for posterity is a loftiness of soul, undaunted
courage, fiery and passionate eloquence, proud incor-
ruptibility, domestic virtues rare in his day, un-
bounded faith in the cause for which he stood, and
abilities which without wealth or strong connections
were destined to place him on the height of power.
The middle class, as yet almost voiceless, looked to
him as its champion ; but he was not the champion of
a class. His patriotism was as comprenensive as it
was haughty and unbending. He lived for England,
loved her with intense devotion, knew her, believed
in her, and made her greatness his own; or rather,
he was himself England incarnate.

The nation was not then in fighting equipment.
After the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the army within
the three kingdoms had been reduced to about eigh-
teen thousand men. Added to these were the gar-
risons of Minorca and Gibraltar, and six or seven
independent companies in the American colonies.
Of sailors, less than seventeen thousand were left in
the Royal Navy. Such was the condition of England
on the eve of one of the most formidable wars in
which she was ever engaged.

Her rival across the Channel was drifting slowly
and unconsciously towards the cataclysm of the
Revolution; yet the old monarchy, full of the germs
of decay, was still imposing and formidable. The

THE COMBATANTS.

[1745-1755.

House of Bourbon held the three thrones of France,
Spain, and Naples; and their threatened union in a
family compact was the terror of European diplomacy.
At home France was the foremost of the Continental
nations; and she boasted herself second only to
Spain as a colonial power. She disputed with Eng-
land the mastery of India, owned the islands of
Bourbon and Mauritius, held important possessions
in the West Indies, and claimed all North America
except Mexico and a strip of sea-coast. Her navy
was powerful, her army numerous and well appointed ;
but she lacked the great commanders of the last reign.
Soubise, Maillebois, Contades, Broglie, and Clermont
were but wea' successors of Cond^, Turenne, Ven-
dome, and Villars. Marshal Richelieu was supreme
in the arts of gallantry, and more famous for con-
quests of love than of war. The best generals of
Louis XV. were foreigners. Lowendal sprang from
the royal house of Denmark; and Saxe, the best of
all, was one of the three hundred and fifty-four bas-
tards of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and
King of Poland. He was now, 1750, dying at Cham-
bord, his iron constitution ruined by debaucheries.

The triumph of the Bourbon monarchy was com-
plete. The government had become one great ma-
chine of centralized administration, with a king for
its head; though a king who neither could nor would
direct it. All strife was over between he Crown
and the nobles ; feudalism was robbed of its vitality,
and left the mere image of its former self, with noth-

1745-1755.]

FRANCE.

ing alive but its abuses, its caste privileges, its ex-
actions, its pride and vanity, its power to vex and
oppress. In England, the nobility were a living part
of the nation, and if they had privileges, they paid
for them by constant service to the State ; in France,
they had no political life, and were separated from
the people by sharp lines of demarcation. From
warrior chiefs, they had changed to courtiers. Those
of them who could afford it, and many who could
not, left their estates to the mercy of stewards, and
gathered at Versp.illes to revolve about the throne as
glittering satellites, paid in pomp, empty distinctions,
or rich sinecures, for the power they had lost. They
ruined their vassals to support the extravagance by
which they ruined themselves. Such as stayed at
home were objects of pity and scorn. " Out of your
Majesty's presence," said one of then , "we are not
only wretched, but ridiculous."

Versailles was like a vast and gorgeous theatre,
where all were actors and spectators at once; and all
played their parts to perfection. Here swarmed by
thousands this silken nobility, whose ancestors rode
cased in iron. Pageant followed pageant. A picture
of the time preserves for us an evening in the great i
hall of the Chateau, where the King, with piles of
louis d'or before him, sits at a large oval green table,
throwing the dice, among princes and princesses,
dukes and duchesses, ambassadors, marshals of
France, and a vast throng of courtiers, like an ani-
mated bed of tulips; for men and women alike wear

THE COMBATANTS.

[1745-1755.

''i
I

■

bright and varied colors. Above are the frescoes of
Le Brun ; around are walls of sculptured and inlaid
marbles, with miiTors that reflect the restless splendors
of the scene and the blaze of chandeliers, sparkling
with crystal pendants. Pomp, magnificence, profu-
sion, were a business and a duty at the Court.
Versailles was a gulf into which the labor of France
poured its earnings; and it was never full.

Here the graces and charms were a political power.
Women had prodigious influence, and the two sexes
were never more alike. Men not only dressed in
colors, but they wore patches and carried muffs.
The robust qualities of the old nobility still lingered
among the exiles of the provinces, while at Court
they had melted into refinements tainted with corrup-
tion. Yet if the butterflies of Versailles had lost
virility, they had not lost courage. They fought as
gayly as they danced. In the halls which they
haunted of yore, turned now into a historical picture-
gallery, one sees them still, on the canvas of Lenfant,
Lepaon, or Vernet, facing death with careless gal-
lantry, in their -mall three-cornered hats, powdered
perukes, embroidered coats, and lace ruffles. Their
valets served them with ices in the trenches, under
the cannon of besieged towns. A troop of actors
formed part of the army-train of Marshal Saxe. At
night there was a comedy, a ballet, or a ball, and in
the morning a battle. Saxe^ however, himself a
sturdy German, while he recognized their fighting
value, and knew well how to make the best of it,

1745-1755.] FRANCE. I5

sometimes complained that they were volatile, excit-
able, and difficult to manage.

The weight of the Court, with ite pomps, luxuries,
and wars, bore on the classes least able to support
it. The poorest were taxed most; the richest not at
all. The nobles, in the main, were free from imposts.
The clergy, who had vast possessions, were wholly
free, though they consented to make voluntary gifts
to the Crown; and when, in a time of emergency,
the minister Machault required them, in common
with all others hit^ -to exempt, to contribute a
twentieth of their .v . -.. to the charges of govern-
ment, they passior c.^lj 1 'used, declaring that they
would obey God ru ' ■ than the King. The culti-
vators of the soil were ground to the earth by a
threefold extortion, — the seigniorial dues, the tithes
of the Church, and the multiplied exactions of the
Crown, enforced with merciless rigor by the farmers
of the revenue, who enriched themselves by wring-
ing the peasant on the one hand, and cheating the
King on the other. A few great cities shone with
all that is most brilliant in society, intellect, and
concentred -^^alth; while the country that paid tho
costs lay in ignorance and penury, crushed and
despairing. On the inhabitants of towns, too, the
demands of the tax-gatherer were extreme; but here
the immense vitality of the French people bore up
the burden. While agriculture languished, and
mtolerable oppression turned peasants into beggars
or desperadoes; while the clergy were sapped by cor-

ill

THE COMBATANTS.

[1745-1755.

ruption, and the nobles enervated by luxury and
ruined by extravagance, — the middle class was grow-
ing in thrift and strength. Arts and commerce pros-
pered, and the seaports were alive with foreign trade.
Wealth tended from all sides towards the centre.
The King did not love his capital; but he and his
f;iv rites amused themselves with adorning it. Some
o' tie chief embellishments that make Paris what it
is to-day — the Place de la Concorde, the Champs
:6lys^es, and many of the palaces of the Faubourg
St. Germain — date from this reign.

One of the vicious conditions of the time was the
separation in sympathies and interests of the four
great classes of the nation, — clergy, nobles, burghers,
and peasants ; and each of these, again, divided itself
into incoherent fragments. France was an aggregate
of disjointed parts, held together by a meshwork of
arbitrary pov/er, itself touched with decay. A dis-
astrous blow was struck at the national welfare when
the government of Louis XV. revived the odious
persecution of the Huguenots. The attempt to scour
heresy out of France cost her the most industrious
and virtuous part of her population, and robbed her
of those most fit to resist the mocking scepticism and
turbid passions that burst out like a deluge with the
Revolution.

Her manifold ills were summed up in the King.
Since the Valois, she had had no monarch so worth-
less. He did not want understanding, still less the
graces of person. In his youth the people called him

1745-175.3.]

FRANCE.

the "Well-beloved;" but by the middle of the cen-
tury they so detested him that he dared not pass
through Paris, lest the mob should execrate him.
He had not the vigor of the true tyrant; but his
languor, his hatred of all effort, his profound selfish-
ness, his listless disregard of public duty, and his
effeminate libertinism, mixed with superstitious devo-
tion, made him no less a national curse. Louis XIII.
was equally unfit to govern; but he gave the reins to
the Great Cardinal. Louis XV. abandoned them to
a frivolous mistress, content that she should rule on
condition of amusing him. It was a hard task; yet
Madame de Pompadour accomplished it by methods
infamous to liim and to her. She gained and long
kept the power that she coveted: filled the Bastille
with her enemies; made and unmade ministers;
appointed and removed generals. Great questions of
policy were at the mercy of her caprices. Through
her frivolous vanity, her personal likes and dislikes,
aU the great departments of government — army,'
navy, war, foreign affairs, justice, finance — changed
from hand to hand incessantly, and this at a time of
crisis when the kingdom needed the steadiest and
surest guidance. Few of the officers of State, excep;
perhaps, D'Argenson, could venture to disregard
her. She turned out Orry, the comptroller-general,
put her favorite, Machault, into his place, then made
him keeper of the seals, and at last minister of
marine. The Marquis de Puysieux, in the ministry
of foreign affairs, and ".a Comte de Saint-Florentin

VOL. I.

^5^^i^|^!ai-

THE COMBATANTS.

[1745 1755.

charged \vith the affairs of the clergy, took their cue
from her. The King stinted her in nothing. First
and last, she is reckoned to have cost him thirty-
six million francs, — answering now to more than as
many dollars.

The prestige of the monarchy was declining with
the ideas that had given it life and strength. A
growing disrespect for king, ministry, and clergy
was beginning to prepare the catastrophe that was
still some forty years in the future. While the
valleys and low places of the kingdom were dark
with misery and squalor, its heights were bright with
a gay society, — elegant, fastidious, witty, — craving
the pleasures of the mind as well as of the senses,
criticising eyerything, analyzing everything, believ-
ing nothing. Voltaire was in the midst of it, hating,
with all his vehement soul, the abuses that swarmed
about him, and assailing them with the inexhaustible
shafts of his restless and piercing intellect. Montes-
quieu was showing to a despot-ridden age the prin-
ciples of political freedom. Diderot and D'Alembert
were beginning their revolutionary Encyclopaedia.
Rousseau was sounding the first not3s of his mad
eloquence, — the wild revolt of a passionate and dis-
eased genius against a world of falsities and wrongs.
The salons of Paris, cloyed with other pleasures,
alive to all that was racy and new, welcomed the
pungent doctrines, and played with them as children
play with fire, thinking no danger; as time went on,
even embraced them in a genuine spirit of hope and

I !

1715-1755.] THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE.

good-will for humanity. The Revolution began at
lihe top, — in the world of fashion, birth, and intel-
lect, — and propagated itself downwards. " We
walked on a carpet of flowers," Count S^gur after-
wards said, "unconscious that it covered an abyss;"
till the gt yawned at last, and swallowed them.

Eastward, beyond the Rhine, lay the heterogeneous
patchwork of the Holy Roman, or Germanic, Empire.
The sacred bonds that throughout the Middle Ages
had held together its innumerable fragments had lost
their strength. The empire decayed as a whole ; but
not so the parts that composed it. In the south the
House of Austria reigned over a formidable assem-
blage of States; and in the north the House of
Brandenburg, promoted to royalty half a century
before, had raised Prussia into an importance far
beyond her extent and population. In her dissevered
rags of territory lay the destinies of Germany. It
was the late King, that honest, thrifty, dogged, head-
strong despot, Frederic William, who had made his
kingdom what it was, trained it to the perfection of
drill, and left it to his son, Frederic II., the best
engine of war in Europe. Frederic himself had
passed between the upper and nether millstones of
paternal discipline. Never did prince undergo such
an apprenticeship. His father set him to the work
of an overseer, or steward, flung plates at his head
in the family circle, thrashed him with his rattan in
public, bulliea him for submitting to such treatment,

THE COMBATANTS.

[1745-1755.

and iniprisoiied him for tryinjr to run away from it.
Ho camo at last out of purgatoiy; and Europe felt
him to her fartliest bounds. This l)()okiHlj, phihiso-
phizing, vei-se-niaking cynic and profligate was soon
to approve himscilf the lirat warrior of his time, and
one of the iirst of all time.

Anotlier power had lately risen on the European
world. Peter the Great, half hero, half savage, had
roused the inert barbarism of Russia into a iitjinic
life. His daughter Elizabeth had succeeded to his
throne, — heiress of his sensuality, if not of liis
talents.

Over all the continent the aspect of the times was
the same. l\nver had everywliere left the plains and
the lower slopes, and gathered at the sunmiits.
Popular life was at a stand. No great idea stirred
the nations to their depths. The religious convul-
sions of the sixteenth and seventeentli centuries were
over, and the earthquake of the French Revolution
had not begun. At the middle of the eighteenth
century the history of Europe turned on the balance
of power; the observance of treaties; inheritance and
succession; rivalries of sovereign houses struggling
to win power or keep it, encroach on neighbors, or
prevent neighbors from encroaching; bargains, in-
trigue, force, diplomacy, and the musket, in the
interest not of peoples but of rulers. Princes, great
and small, brooded over some real or fancied wrong

17ir)-1765.] THE STATE OF EUROPE.

nuraed some dubioiiH cl.-iim bom of a marriage, a will,
or an ancient cov(;nant fis^ out of the abyss of
time, and vvatclied their moment to make it good.
Tlie general o{)portunity came wlien, in 1740, the
Emperor Charles VI. died and bequeathed his per-
sonal dominions of the House of Austria to his
duugliter, Maria Theresa. The chief Powers of
Kiiropo had Ixien pledged in advance to sustjiin the
will; and pending the event, the vetdan Prince
Eugene had said that two hundred thousand soldiers
would 1)6 worth all their guaranties together. The
two hundred thousand were not there, and not a sov-
ereign kept liis word. Tliey flocked to share the
spoil, and parcel out the motley heritage of the
young Queen. Frederic of Prussia led the way,
invaded her province of Silesia, seized it, and kept
it. The Elector of Bavaria and the King of Spain
claimed their share, and the Elector of Saxony and
the King of Sardinia prepared to follow the example.
France took part with Bavaria, and intrigued to set
the imperial crown on the head of the Elector, think-
ing to ruin her old enemy, the House of Austria, and
rule Germany through an emperor too weak to dis-
pense with her support. England, jealous of her
designs, trembling for the balance of power, and
anxious for the Hanovprian possessions of her Kino-,
threw hei-self into the strife on the side of Austria.
It was now that, in the Diet at Presburg, the beauti-
ful and distressed Queen, her infant in her arms,
made her memorable appeal to the wild chivalry of

■"««6**4-'Sg,k/i

THE COMBATANTS.

[174&-1765.

It!

her Hungarian nobles; and, clashing their swords,
tliey shouted with one voice: "Let us die for our
king, Maria Theresa ; " Moriamur pro rcge nostro,
Mario, Theresia^ — one of the most dramatic scenes in
history; not quite true, perhaps, bm- near the truth.
Then came that confusion worse confounded called
the war of the Austrian Succession, w'th its MoUwitz,
its Dettingen, its Fontenoy, and its Scotch episode
of Culloden. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle closed
the strife in 1748. Europe had time to breathe ; but
the germs of discord remained alive.

THE AMERICAN COMBATANTS.

The French claimed all America, from the Alle-
ghanies to the Rocky Mountains, and from Mexico
and Florida to the North Pole, except only the ill-
defined possessions of the English on the borders of
Hudson Bay; and 1^ these vast regions, with adja-
cent islands, they gave the general name of New
France. They controlled the highways of the con-
tinent, for they held it^ two great rivers. First, they
had seized the St. Lawrence, and then planted them-
selves at the mouth of the Mississippi. Canada at
the nortn, and Louisiana at the soath, were the keys
of a boundless interior, rich with incalculable possi-
bilities. The English colonies, ranged along the
Atlantic coast, had no royal road to the great inland,
and were, in a manner, shut between the mountains
and the sea. At tha middle of the century they

|!-

1745-1755.] FRENCH COLONIES. 28

numbered in all, from Ocnrcria to Maine, about eleven
hundred and sixty thou.sand white inhal a >tb. By
the census of 1754 Canada had but fifty-five txiou-
sand.i Add those of Louisiana and Acadia, and the
whole whil. population under the French flag might
be something more than eighty thousand. ITere is
an enormous disparity; and hence it has been argued
that the success of the English colonies and the
failure of the French was not due to difference of
religious and political syst. . .. ^>ut simply to numeri-
cal preponderance. But i preponderance itself
grew out of a difference of syst-ms. We have said
before, and it cannot be said too often, that in mak-
ing Canada a citadel of the State religion, — a holy
of holies of exclusive Roman Catholic orthodoxy, —
the clerical monitors of the Crown robbed their coun-
tiy of a transatlantic empire. New France could
not grow with a pries; on guard at the gato to let in
n '.le but such as pleased him. One of the ablest of
Canadian governors, La Galissonifere, sooing the
feebleness of the colony compared with the vastness
of Its claims, advised the King to send ten thousand
peasants to occupy the valley of the Ohio, and hold
back the British swarm that was just then pushing
Its advance-guard over the Aileghanies. It needed
no effort of the King to people his waste domain,
nor with ten thousand peasants, but with twenty

'C^ensuses of Canada, iv. 01. Kameau (La France an. Colonies,

anirl-T " ^'"''^''" population, in 1755, at dxty-six thou-

sand, besulos vo,,a<feurs, Indian traders, etc. Vaudreuil, in 1700
places It at seventy thousand. . "» i.u",

ni'.S

^^^pfm/mm^mmM

I if

•A

THE COMBATANTS.

[1745-1755.

times ten thousand Frenchmen of every station, —
the most industrious, roost instructed, most dis-
ciplined by adversity and capable of self-rule, that
the country could boast. While La Galissoniere was
^asking for colonists, the agents of the Crown, set
on by priestly fanaticism, or designing selfishness
masked with fanaticism, were pouring volleys of
musketry into Huguenot congregations, imprisoning
for life those innocent of all but their faith, — the
men in the galleys, the women in the pestiferous
dungeons of Aigues Mortes, — hanging their ministers,
kidnapping their children, and reviving, in short,
the dragonnades. Now, as in the past century, many
of the victims escaped to the British colonies, and
became a part of them. The Huguenots would have
hailed as a boon the permission to emigrate under
the fleur-de-lis, and build up a Protestant France in
the vallpys of the West. It would have been a bane
of ab atism, but a national glory; would have set
bounds to English colonization, and changed the face
of the continent. The opportunity was spurned.
The dominant Church clung to its policy of rule and
ruin. France built its best colony on a principle of
exclusion, and failed; England reversed the system,
and succeeded.

I hpve shown elsewhere the aspects of Canada,
where a rigid scion of the old European tree was set
to grow in the wilderness. The military governor,
holding his miniature court on the rock of Quebec ;
the feudal proprietors, whose domains lined the

oniere was

1745-1755.J

CANADA.

shores of the St. Lawrence; the peasant; the roving
bushranger; the half-tamed savage, with crucifix and
ecalping-knife; priests; friars; nuns; and soldiers,
— mingled to form a society the most picturesque
on the continent. What distinguished it from the
France that produced it was a total absence of revolt
against the laws of its being, —an absolute conser-
vatism, an unquestioning acceptance of Church and
King. The Canadian, ignorant of everything but
what the priest saw fit to teach him, had never heard
of Voltaire ; and if he had known him, would have
thought him a devil. He had, it is true, a spirit of
insubordination born of the freedom of the forest;
but if his instincts rebelled, his mind and soul were
passively submissive. The unchecked control of a
hierarchy robbed him of the independence of intellect
and character, without which, under the conditions
of modern life, a people must resign itself to a posi-
tion of inferiority. Yet Canada had a vigor of her
own. It was not in spiritual deference only that she
differed from the country of her birth. Whatever
she had caught of its corruptions, she had caught
nothing of its effeminacy. The mass of her people
lived in a rude poverty, — not abject, like the peasant
of old France, nor ground down by the tax-gatherer;
while those of the higher ranks — all more or less en-
gaged in pursuits of war or adventure, and inured
to rough journeyings and forest exposures — were
rugged as their climate. Even the French regular
troops, sent out to defend the colony, caught its

.. r.:Vi«*'-T'«**tP.?B

I i

2® THE COMBATANTS. [1745-1755.

hardy spirit, and set an example of stubborn fight-
ing wliich their comrades at home did not always
emulate.

Canada lay ensconced behind rocks and forests.
All along her southern boundaries, between her and
her English foes, lay a broad tract of wilderness,
shaggy with primeval woods. Innumerable streams
gurgled beneath their shadows; innumerable lakes
gleamed in the fiery sunsets; innumerable mountains
bared their rocky foreheads to the wind. These
wastes were ranged by her savage allies, — Micmacs,
Etechdmins, Abenakis, Caughnawagas ; and no
enemy could steal upon her unawares. Through the
midst of them stretched Lake Champlain, pointing
straight to the heart of the British settlements, — a
watery thoroughfare of mutual attack, and the only
approach by which, without a long detour by wilder-
ness or sea, a hostile army could come within striking
distance of the colony. The French advanced post
of Fort Frederic, called Crown Point by the English,
barred the narrows of the lake, which thence spread
northward to the portals of Canada guarded by Fort
St. Jean. South westward, some fourteen hundred
miles as a bird flies, and twice as far by the prac-
ticable routes of travel, was Louisiana, the second of
the two heads of New France; while between lay the
realms of solitude where the Mississippi rolled its
sullen tide, and the Ohio wound its belt of silver
through the verdant woodlands.

To whom belonged this world of prairies and

1745-1755.]

NEW ENGLAND.

forests ? France claimed it by right of discovery and
occupation. It was her explorers who, after De
Soto, first set foot on it. The question of right, it is
true, mattered little; for, right or wrong, neither
claimant would yield her pretensions so long as she
had strength to uphold them ; yet one point is worth
a moment's notice. The French had established an
excellent system in th listribution of their American
lands. Whoever received a grant from the Crown
was required to improve it, and this within reasonable
time. If he did not, the land ceased to be his, and
was given to another more able or industrious. An
international extension of her own principle would
have destroyed the pretensions of France to all the
countries of the West. She had called them hers for
three-fourths of a century, and they were still a howl-
ing waste, yielding nothing to civilization but beaver-
skins, with here and there a fort, trading-post, or
mission, and three or four puny hamlets by the Mis-
sissippi and the Detroit. We have seen how she
might have made for heraelf an indisputable title,
and peopled the solitudes with a host to maintain it.
She would not; others were at hand who both would
and could; and the late claimant, disinherited and
forlorn, would soon be left to count the cost of her
bigotry.

The thirteen British colonies were alike, insomuch
as they all had rej^)resentative governments, and a
basis of English law. But the differences among

THE COMBATANTS.

[1745-1755.

them were great. Some weio purely English; others
were made up of various races, though the Anglo-
Saxon was always predominant. , Some had one pre-
vailing religious creed; others had many creeds.
Some had charters, and some had not. In most cases
the governor was appointed by the Crown ; in Penn-
sylvania and Maryland he was appointed by a feudal
proprietor, and in Connecticut and Rhode Island he
was chosen by the people. The differences of dispo-
sition and character were still greater than those of
form.

The four northern colonies, known collectively as
New England, were an exception to the general rule
of diversity. The smallest, Rhode Island, had feat-
ures all its own; but the rest were substantially one
in nature and origin. The principal among them,
Massachusetts, may serve as the t}'pe of all. It was
a mosaic of little village republics, firmly cemented
together, and formed into a single body politic through
representatives sent to the " General Court " at Boston.
Its government, originally theocratic, now tended to
democracy, ballasted as yet by strong traditions of
respect for established worth and ability, as well as
by the influence of certain families prominent in
affairs for generations. Yet there were no distinct
class-lines, and popular power, like popular educa-
tion, was widely diffused. Practically Massachusetts
was almost indepen^lent of the mother-country. Its
people were purely English, of sound yeoman stock,
with an abundant leaven drawn from the best of the

■'■"*»*,

:i745-1755.

h; others
le Anglo-
one pre-
Y creeds,
lost cases
in Penn-
' a feudal
Island he
of dispo-
L those of

jtively as
leral rule
had feat-
dally one
ig them,
It was
cemented
s through
t Boston,
ended to
itions of
5 well as
inent in
distinct
r educa-
Lchusetts
bry. Its
m stock,
5t of the

1745-1755.]

NEW ENGLAND.

Puritan gentry; but their original character had
been somewhat modified by changed conditions of
hfe. A harsh and exacting creed, with its stiff for-
malism and its prohibition of wholesome recreation ;
excess in the pursuit of gain, — the only resource left
to energies robbed of their natural play; the struggle
for existence on a hard and barren soil; and the iso-
lation of a narrow village life, — joined to produce,
in the meaner sort, qualities which were unpleasant,
and sometimes repulsive. Puritanism was not an
unmixed blessing. Its view of human nature was
dark, and its attitude towards it one of repression.
It strove to crush out not only what is evil, but much
that is innocent and salutary. Human nature so
treated will take its revenge, and for every vice that
it loses find another instead. Nevertheless, Avhile
New England Puritanism bore its peculiar crop of
faults, it produced also many good and sound fruits.
An uncommon vigor, joined to the hardy virtues of
a masculine race, marked the New England type.
The sinews, it is true, were hardened at the expense
of blood and flesh, — and this literally as well as
figuratively; but the staple of character was a sturdy
conscientiousness, an undespairing courage, patriot-
ism, public spirit, sagacity, and a strong good sense.
A great change, both for better and for worse, has
since come over it, due largely to reaction against the
unnatural rigors of the past. That mixture, which
is now too common, of cool emotions with excitable
brains, was then rarely seen. The New England

'\ i

j J

I ;

30 THE COMBATANTS. [1745-1756.

colonies abounded in high examples of public and
private virtue, though not always under the most
prepossessing forms. They were conspicuous, more-
over, for intellectual activity, and were by no means
without intellectual eminence. Massachusetts had
produced at least two men whose fame had crossed
the sea, — Edwards, who out of the grim theology of
Calvin mounted to sublime heights of mystical specu-
lation; and Franklin, famous already by his discov-
eries in electricity. On the other hand, there were
few genuine New Englanders who, however person-
ally modest, could divest themselves of the notion
that they belonged to a people in an especial manner
the object of divine approval; and this self -righteous-
ness, along with certain other traits, failed to com-
mend the Puritan colonies to the favor of their
fellows. Then, as now, New England was best
known to her neighbors by her worst side.

In one point, however, she found general applause.
She was regarded as the most military among the
British colonies. This reputation was well founded,
and is easily explained. More than all the rest, she
lay open to attack. The long waving line of the
New England border, with its lonely hamlets and
scattered farms, extended from the Kennebec to
beyond the Connecticut, and was everywhere vulner-
able to the guns and tomahawks of the neighboring
French and their savage allies. The colonies towards
the south had thus far been safe from danger. New
York alone was within striking distance of the Cana-

1745-1765.]

VIRGINIA.

dian war-parties. That province then consisted of a
line of settlements up the Hudson and the Mohawk,
and was little exposed to attack except at its northern
end, which was guarded by the fortified town of
Albany, with its outlying posts, and by the friendly
and warlike Mohawks, whose "castles" were close
at hand. Thus New England had borne the heaviest
brunt of the preceding wars, not only by the forest,
but also by the sea; for the French of Acadia and
Cape Breton confronted her coast, and she was often at
blows with them. Fighting had been a necessity with
her, and she had met the emergency after a method
extremely defective, but the best that circumstances
would permit. Having no trained officers and no
disciplined soldiers, and being too poor to maintain
either, she borrowed her warriors from the workshop
and the plough, and officered them with lawyers,
merchants, mechanics, or farmers. To compare them
with good regular troops would be folly; but they
did, on the whole, better than could have been ex-
pected, and in the last war achieved the brilliant
success of the capture of Louisbourg. This exploit,
due partly to native hardihood and partly to good
luck, greatly enhanced the military repute of New
England, or rather was one of the cliief sources of it.
The great colony of Virginia stood in strong con-
trast to New England. In both the population was
English; but the one was Puritan with Roundhead
traditions, and the other, so far as concerned its gov-
erning class, Anglican, with Cavalier traditions. In

f 1

S.';l

82 THE COMBATANTS, [1745-1755.

the one, every man, woman, and child could read
and write; in the other, Sir William Berkeley once
thanked God that there were no free schools, and no
prospect of any for a centuiy. The hope had found
fniition. The lower classes of Virginia were as un-
taught as the warmest friend of popular ignorance
could wish. New England had a native literature
more than respectable under the circumstances, while
Virginia had none; numerous industries, while
Virginia was all agriculture, with but a single crop;
a homogeneous society and a democratic spirit, while
her rival was an aristocracy. Virginian society was
distinctly stratified. On the lowest level were the
negro slaves, nearly as numerous as all the rest to-
gether; next, the indented servants and the poor
whites, of low origin, good-humored, but boisterous,
and sometimes vicious ; next, the small and despised
class of tradesmen and mechanics ; next, the farmers
and lesser planters, who were mainly o"" j-ood English
stock, and who merged insensibly into the ruling
class of the great landowners. It was these last who
represented the colony and made the laws. They
may be described as English country squires trans-
planted to a warm climate and turned slave-masters.
They sustained their position by entails, and con-
stantly undermined it by the reckless profusion which
ruined them at last. Many of them were well born,
with an immense pride of descent, increased by the
habit of domination. Indolent and energetic by
turns ; rich in natural gifts and often poor in book-

jre as un-

1745-1755.] PENNSYLVANIA.

learning, though some, in the lack of good teaching
at home, had been bred in the English universities;
high-spirited, generous to a fault; keeping open house
in their capacious mansions, among vast tobacco-fields
and toiling negroes, and living in a rude pomp where
the fashions of St. James were somewhat oddly
grafted on the roughness of the plantation, — what
they wanted in schooling was supplied by an educa-
tion which books alone would have been impotent to
give, the education which came with the possession
and exercise of political power, and the sense of a
position to maintain, joined to a bold spirit of inde-
pendence and a patriotic attachment to the Old
Dominion. They were few in number; they raced,
gambled, drank, and swore; they did eveiything that
in Puritan eyes was most reprehensible; and in the
day of need they gave the United Colonies a body of
statesmen and orators which had no equal on the
continent. A vigorous aristocracy favors the growth
of personal eminence, even in those who are not of
it, but only near it.

The essential antagonism of Virginia and New
England was afterwards to become, and to remain for
a centuiy, an element of the first influence in Ameri-
can history. Each might have learned much from
the other; but neither did so till, at last, the strife
of their contending principles shook the continent.
Pennsylvania difiPered widely from both. She was a
conglomerate of creeds and races, — English, Irish,
Germans, Dutch, and Swedes; Quakei-s, Lutherans!

VOL. I. — 3 '

THE COMBATANTS.

[1745-1765.

Presbyterians, Romanists, Moravians, and a variety
of nondescript sects. The Quakera prevailed in the
eastern districts; quiet, industrious, virtuous, and
serenely obstinate. The Germans were strongest
towards the centre of the colony, and were chiefly
peasants; successful farmers, but dull, ignorant, and
superstitious. Towards the west were the Irish, of
whom some were Celts, ah\ays quarrelling with their
German neighbors, who detested them; but the
greater part Avere Protestants of Scotch descent, from
Ulster; a vigorous border population. Virginia and
New England had each a strong distinctive character.
Pennsylvania, with her heterogeneous population,
had none but tnat which she owed to the sober
neutral tints of Quaker existence. A more thriving
colony there was not on the continent. Life, if
monotonous, was smooth and contented. Trade and
the arts grew. Philadelphia, next to Boston, was
the largest town in British America ; and was, more-
over, the intellectual centre of the middle and southern
colonies. Unfortunately, for her credit in the ap-
proaching war, the Quaker influence made Pennsyl-
vania non-combatant. Politically, too, she was an
anomaly ; for, though utterly unfeudal in disposition
and character, she was under feudal superiors in the
persons of the representatives of William Penn, the
original grantee.

New York had not as yet reached the relative
prominence which her geographical position and
inherent strength afterwards gave her. The English,

i n

M'^l

NEW YORK.

1745-1756.]

joined to the Dutch, the original settlers, were the
dominant population; but a half -score of other lan-
guages were spoken in the province, the chief among
them being that of the Huguenot French in the
southern parts, and that of the Germans on the
Mohawk. In religion, the province was divided
between the Anglican Church, with government
support and popular tUslike, and numerous dissenting
sects, chiefly Lutherans, Independents, Presbyterians,
and mtmbers of the Dutch Reformed Church. The
little city of New York, 'ike its great successor, was
the most cosmopolitan place on the continent, and
probably the gayest. It had, in abundance, balls,
concei-ts, theatricals, and evening clubs, with plenti-
ful dances and other amusements for the poorer
classes. Thither in the winter months came the
great hereditary proprietors on the Hudson; for the
old Dutch feudality still held its own, and the manors
of Van Rensselaer, Cortland, and Livingston, with
their seig;iiorial privileges, and the great estates and
numerous tenantry of the Schuylers and other leading
families, formed the basis of an aristocracy, some of
whose membei-s had done good service to the prov-
ince, and were destined to do more. Pennsylvania
was feudal in form, and not in spirit; Virginia in
spirit, and not in form; New England in neither;
and New York largely in both. This social ciystal-
hzation had, it is true, many opponents. In politics,
as in religion, there were sharp antagonisms and fre-
quent quarrels. They centred in the city; for in the

THE COMBATANTS.

it f

[1745-1755.

well-stocked dwellings of the Dutch farmers along
the Hudson there reigned a tranquil and prosperous
routine ; and the Dutch border to mi of All)any had
not its like in America for nniiitiled conservatism and
quaint picturesqueness.

Of the other colonies, the briefest mention will
suffice: New Jersey, with its wholesome population
of farmers; tobacco-growing Maryland, which, but
for its proprietary government and numerous Roman
Catholics, might pass for another Virginia, inferior in
growth, and less decisive in features; Delaware, a
modest appendage of Pennsylvania; Wild and rude
North Carolina; and, farther on. South Carolina and
Georgia, too remote from the seat of war tc take a
noteworthy part in it. The attitude of these various
colonies towards each other is hardly conceivable to
an American of the present time. They had no
political tie except a common allegiance to the British
Crown. Communication between them was difficult
and slow, by rough roads traced often through
primeval forests. Between some of them there was
less of sympathy than of jealousy kindled by con-
flicting interests or perpetual disputes concerning
boundaries. The patriotism of the colonist was
bounded by the lines of his government, except in
the compact and kindred colonies of New England,
which were socially united, though politically dis-
tinct. The countiy of the New Yorker was New
York, and the country of the Virginian was Virginia.
The New England colonies had once confederated;

^■■:^

V A-

[1745-1753.

mere along

prosperous

Albany had

rvatism and

ention will
population
which, but
'ous Roman
, irJerior in
)elaware, a
1 and rude
iarolina and
r tc take a
lese various
iceivable to
ey had no
the British
'■as difficult
m through
I there was
ed by con-
concerning
lonist was
, except in
^ England,
tically dis-
• was New
IS Virginia,
nfederated;

1745-1755] COLONIAL DISCORD.

%''$

but, kindred as they were, they had long ago dropped
apart. William Pemi proposed a plan of colonic'
union wholly fruitless. James II. tried to unite all
the northern colonies under one government; but the
attempt came to naught. Eaoh stood aluof, jealously
independ i. Ai rare intervals, under the pressure
of an emergency, some of them would tiy to ^ct in
concert; and, except in New England, the results
had been most discouraging. Nor was it this segre-
gation only that unfitted them for war. They were
all subject to popular legislatures, through whom
alone money and men could be rais- .- and these
elective bodies were sometimes factious and selfish
and not always ■'fhei- far-dghted or reasonable!
Moreover, they were m a state of ceaseless friction
with their governors, who represented the King, or,
what was worse, the feudal proprietary. These dis-
putes, though varying in inters'' , were found every-
where excspt in the two smaU colonies which c^-^-se
their own governors; and they were premonitions of
the movement towards independence which ended in
the war of Revolution. The ocnasion of d:<Terence
mattered little. Active or latent the quarrel was
always present. In New York it turned on a ques-
tion cf the governor's salary; in Pcnnsylvpnia on the
taxation of the proprietary estates, in Virginia on a
tee exacted for the issue of land patents. It was
sure to ..nse whenever some public crisis gave the
representatives of the people an opportunity of extort-
mg concessions from the representative of the Crown

£3

THE COMBATANTS.

[1745-1755.

or gave the representative of the Crown an oppor-
tunity to gain a point for prerogative. That is to
say, the time when action was most needed was the
time chosen for obstructing it.

In Canada there was no popular legislature to
embarrass the central power. The people, like an
army, obeyed the word of command, — a military
advantage beyond all price.

Divided in government; divided in origin, feel-
ings, and principles; jealous of each, other jealous of
the Cr'wn; the people at war with the executive,
and, by the fermentation of internal politics, blinded
to an outward dange that seemed remote and vague,
— such were the conditions under which the British
colonies drifted into a war that was to decide the fate
of the continent.

This war was the strife of a united and concentred
few against a divided and discordant many. It was
the strife, too, of the past against the future ; of the
old against the new; of moral and intellectual torpor
against moral and intellectual lue ; of barren absolut-
ism against a liberty, crude, incoherent, and chaotic,
yet full of prolific vitality.

CHAPTER II.

1749-1752.

CELORON DE BIENVILLE.

RON. -The Great W-.st: its European Claimants- its
Indian Population. - English Eor-Traders. - c/loro^ on
THE Alleghany: his Reception; his Difficulties. -D^s^

CENT OF THE OHIO - CoVERT HOSTILITV. - ASOENT OF THE

Miami. -La Demoiselle. -Dark Prospects for France !!

-p'o'^ArLLANT' %iT ^'^r"^^ = '^^'^ ^-™-' ^--o-

l-icKAwiLLANY.- English Ascendency. — English Dissen
8I0N AND Rivalry. -The Key of the Great We«t.

When the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed
the Marquis de la Galissoniere ruled over Canada'
Like all the later Canadian governors, he was a naval
officer; and, a few years after, he made himself
famous by a victoiy, near Minorca, over the English
admiral Byng, -an achievement now remembered
chiefly by the fate of the defeated commander, judi-
cially murdered as the scapegoat of an imbecile
ministry. La Galissoniere was a humpback; bu<- Lis
deformed person was animated by a bold it and a
strong and penetrating intellect. He Avas the chief
representative of the American policy of France. He
felt that, cost what it might, she must hold fast to
Canada, and link her to Louisiana by chains of forts

: ) ,

40 C]6L0R0N DE BIENVILLE. [1749-1752.

strong enough to hold back the British colonies, and
cramp their growth by confinement within narrow
limits ; while French settlers, sent from the mother-
countiy, should spread and multiply in the broad
valleys of the interior. It is true, he said, that
Canada and her dependencies have always been a
burden; but they are necessary as a barrier against
English ambition; and to abandon them is to abandon
ourselves; for if we suffer our enemies to become
masters in America, their trade and naval power will
grow to vast proportions, and they will draw from
their colonies a wealth that will make them pre-
ponderant in Europe. 1

The treaty had done nothing to settle the vexed
question of boundaries between France and her rival.
It had but staved off the inevitable conflict. Mean-
while, the English traders were crossing the moun-
tains from Pemisylvania and Virginia, poaching on
the domain which France claimed as hers, ruining
the French fur-trade, seducing the Indian allies of
Canada, and stirring them up against her. Worse
still, English land spec- iators were beginning to
follow. Something must be done, and that promptly,
to drive back the intruders, and vindicate French
rights in the valley of the Ohio. To this end the
governor sent C^loron de Bienville thither in the
summer of 1749.

He was a chevalier de St. Louis and a captain in

* La Galissoni^re, M€moire sur les Colonies de la France dans
l'Am€rique septentrionale.

[1749-1752.

)nies, and
n narrow
3 mother-
bhe broad
said, that
s been a
!r against
) abandon
) become
ower will
raw from
hem pre-

Comte lie Galissoniere.

n^i

i' ,1

-tt."-^:j.

"4ii I

1749-1752.]

ERRAND OF C^LORON.

,il

the colony troops. Under him went fourteen officers
and cadets, twenty soldiers, a hundred and eighty
Canadians, and a band of Indians, all in twenty-three
birch-bark canoes. They left La Chine on the fif-
teenth of June, and pushed up the rapids of the St.
Lawrence, losing a man and damaging several canoes
on the way. Ten days brougnt them to the mouth
of the Oswegatchie, where Ogdensburg now stands.
Here they found a Sulpitian priest, Ahh6 Piquet,
busy at building a fort, and lodging for the present
under a shed of bark like an Indian. This enterpris-
ing father, ostensibly a missionary, was in reality a
zealous political agent, bent on winning over the red
allies of the English, retrieving French prestige, and
restoring French trade. Thus far he had attracted
but two Iroquois to his new establishment; and these
he lent to C^loron.

Reaching Lake Ontario, the party stopped for a
time at the French fort of Frontenac, but avoided
the rival English post of Oswego, on the southern
shore, where a trade in beaver-skins, disastrous to
French interests, was carried on, and whither many
tribes, once faithful to Canada, now made resort.
On the sixth of July C^loron reached Niagara. This,
the most important pass of al' the western wilderness,
was guarded by a small fort of palisades on the point
where the river joins the lake. Thence, the party
carried their canoes over the portage road by the
cataract, and launched them upon Lake Erie. On
the fifteenth they landed on the lonely shore where

42 C^LORON DE BIENVILLE. [1719-1752.

the town of Portland now fitiinds; and for the next
seven days were ],uHied in Hhouldering canoes and
baggage u,) and down the steep hills, throngh the
dense forest of l,eeeh, oak, ash, and elm, to the
waters of Chautauqua Lake, eight or nine miles dis-
tant. Here they embarked again, steering southward
over tlie sunny watei>., in the stillness and solitude of
the leafy hills, till they came to the outlet, and glided
down the peaceful current in the shade of the tjili
forests that overarched it. This prosperity was short.
Ihe stream was low, in spite of lieavy rains that
had drenched them on the carrying place. Father
Bonnecamp, chaplain of the expedition, wrote in his
Journal: "In some places -and they were but too
frequent -the water was only two or three inches
deep; and we were reduced to the sad necessity of
dragging our canoes over the sharp pebbles, which,
with all our care and precaution, stripped off larffe
s ivei-s of the bark. At last, tired and worn, and
almost m despair of ever seeing La Belle RiviOre we
entered it at noon of the 29th." The part of' the
Ohio or «La Belle Rivic^re," which they liad thus
happily reached, is now called the Alleghany. The
Great West lay outspread before them, a realm of
wild and waste fertility.

French America had two heads, -one among the
snows of Canada, and one among the canebrakes of
Louisiana ; one communicating with the world through
tlie Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the other through the
Gulf of Mexico. These vital points were feebly

1749-1752.] INDIANS OF THE WEST.

connected by a chain of military poHtw, —slender,
and often interrupted, —circling through the wilder-
ness nearly three thousand miles. Midway between
Canada and l^-ouisiana lay the valley of the Ohio.
If the English should seize it, they would sever the
chain of posts, and cut French America asunder. . If
the French held it, and intrenched themselves well
along its eastern liniita, they would shut their rivals
between the Alleghanies and the sea, control all the
tril>es of the West, and turn them, in case of war,
against the English borders, —a frightful and insup-
portable scourge.

The Indian population of the Ohio and its noi">em
tributaries was relatively considerable. The upper
or eastern half of the valley was occupied by mingled
hordes of Delawares, Shawanoes, Wyandots, and
Iroquois, or I. dians of the Five Nations, who had
migrated thither from their ancestral abodes within
the present limits of the State of New York, and who
were called Mingoes by the English traders. Along
with them were a few wandering Abenakis, Nipissings,
and Ottawas. Farther west, on the waters of the
Miami, the Wabash, and other neighboring streams,
was the seat of a confederacy formed of the various
bands of the Miamis and their kindred or affiliated
tribes. Still farther west, towards the Mississippi,
were the remnants of the Illinois.

France had done but little to make good her claims
to this grand domain. East of the Miami she had
no military post whatever. Westward, on the

Ifl

IaL-.s

..il

44 CfiLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1740-1752.

Maumee, there was a small wooden fort, another ou
the St. Joseph, and two on the Wabash. On the
meaflows of the Mississippi, in the Illinois country,
stood tort Chartres, — a much stronger work, and
one of the chief links of the chain that connecteJ
Quebec with New Orleans. Its four stone bastions
were impregnable to muskf.trj-; and, here in the
depths of the wilderness, there was no fear that
cannon would be brought against it. It was .oe
centre and citadel of a curious little forest settlement,
the only vestige of civilization through all this
region. At Kaskaskia, extended along the borders
of the stream, were seventy or eighty French houses;
thirty or forty at Cahokia, opposite the site of St.'
Louis; and a few more at the intervening hamlets of
St. Philippe and Prairie k la Roche, — a nicturesque
but thriftless population, mixed with Indians, totaLy
ignor,iit, busied partly with the fur-trade, and partly
with the raising of corn for the market of New
Orleans. They communicated with ii by means of a
sort of row galley, of eighteen or twenty oars, which
made ^Iie voyage twice a year, and usually spent ten
weeks on the return up the river. ^

The Pope and the Bour' ms had claimed this wil-
derness for seventy years, and had done scarcely
more for it than the Indians, its natural owners.

» Gordon, Journal, 1766, appended to Pownall, Topographical
Description. In the D^p6t des Cartes de la Marine at Paris, C.
4,040, are two curious maps of the Illinois Colony, made a little
after the middle of the century. In 1753 the Marquis Duquesne
denounced the colonists as debauched and lazy.

1749-1752.] ENGLISH FUR-TRADERS.

Of the western iribes, even of those ving at the
Fr'uch p^ts, the Hurons or Wyandots alone were
('imPc^Pii.^ The devote'l zeal of the early niission-
r I ud the politic efforts of their successors had
iixi ' ^ ilike. The savages oi the Ohio and t'x-
Mis^ ssippi, instead of being tied to France by the
I uiii nonds of the faith, were now in a state wliich
the French called defection or revolt; that is, they
received and welcomed the English traders.

These traders came in part from Virginia, but
chiefly from Pennsylvania. Dinwiddle, governor of
Virginia, sayr. of them: "They appear to me to he in
general a set of abaruoned wretches; " and Hamilton,
governor of Pennsylvania, replies: "I concur with
you in opinion that they are a very licenlx )U8
people. "2 Indian traders, of whatever natiuu, are
rarely models of virtue; and these, without loubt,
were rough and lawless men, with abundant black-
guardism and few scruples. Not all of them, how-
ever, are to be thus qualified. Some were of a better
stamp; among whom were C" dstopher Gist, William
Trent, and George Croghan. These and other chief
traders hired men on the frontiers, crossed the Alle-
ghanies with goods packed on the backs of hoi-ses,
descended into the valley of the Ohio, and journeyed

^ " De toutes les nations domiciliees dans les postes des pays
d'en haut, il n'y a que '"s hurons du detroit qui aient embrasse
la Kuligion chretienne." — Memoire du Roy pour servir d' instruction au
Si Marquis de Lajonquiire.

" Diuwiddie to Hamilton, 21 May, 1753. Hamilton to Dinwiddie, —
May, r.0.3.

i ('i

\i ;»

i I f!

I m

46 C^LORON DE BIENVILLE. fi74p.

from stream to stream and village to village along
the Inaian trails, with whi.h all this wilderness was
seamed, and which the traders widened to make them
practicable. More rarely, they carried their goods
on horses to the upper waters of the Ohio, and em-
barked them in large wooden canoes, in which they
descended the main river, and ascended sunh of its
numerous tributaries as were navigable. They were
oold and enterprising; and French writei-s, with
alarm and indignation, declare that some of them had
crossed the Mississippi and traded Avith the distent
Usages. It IS said that about three hundred of them
came over the mountains eveij year.

On reaching the Alleghany, Cdloron de Bien-ille
entered upon the work assigned him, and began by
takmg possession of the country. The men were
drawn up in order; Louis XV. was proclaimed lord
ot all that region, the arms of France, stamped on a
sheet of tm, were nailed to a tree, a plate of lead was
buried at its foot, and the notary of the expedition
drew up a formal act of th' ,diole proceeding. The
leaden plate was inscribed as follows: "Year 1749
:n the reign of Louis Fifteenth, King of France.'
We, Cdloron, commanding the detachment sent by
the Marquis de la Galissoni^re, commander-general
of New France, to restore tranquillity in certain
villages of these cantons, have buried this plate at
the confluence of the Ohio and the Kanaouagon
[Coneunngo], this 29th July, as a token of renewal
of possession heretofore taken of the aforesaid River

1749.]

POSSESSION OF THE OHIO.

Ohio, of all streams that fall into it, and all lands on
both sides to the source of the aforesaid streams, as
the preceding Kings of France have enjoyed or ought
to have enjoyed it, and which they have upheld by
force of arms and by treaties, notably by those of
Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle."

This done, the party proceeded on its way, mov-
ing downward with the current, and passing from
time to time rough openings in the forest, with
clusters of Indian wigwams, the inmates of which
showed a strong inclination to run off at their
approach. To prevent this, Chabert de Joncaire was
sent in advance, as a messenger of peace. He was
himself half Indian, being the son of a French officer
and a Seneca squaw, speaking fluently his maternal
tongue, and, like his father, holding an important
place in all dealings between the French and the
tribes who spoke dialects of the Iroquois. On this
occasion his success was not complete. It needed
all his art to prevent the alarmed savages from tak-
ing to the woods. Sometimes, however, C^loron
succeeded in gaining an audience; and at a village
of Senecas called La Faille Couple he read them a
message from La Galissoniere couc led in terms suffi-
ciently imperati\ e : " My children, since I was at war
with the English, I have learned that they have
seduced you ; and not content with corrupting your
hearts, have taken advantage of my absence to invade
lands which are not theirs, but mine ; and therefore
I have resolved to send you Monsieur de Ctiloron to

48 C^LORON DE BIENVILLE. [174.0.

tell you my intentions, which are that I will not
^^idure the English on my land. Listen to me, chil-
:u.en; mark well the word that I send you; follow
my advice, and iLe sky will always be calm and clear
over your villages. I expect from you an answer
worthy of true children." And he urged them to
stop all trade with the intruders, and send them back
to whence they came. They promised compliance;
and says the chaplain, Bonnecamp, "we should all
have been satisfied if we had thought them sincere ; .at
nobody doubted that fear had extorted their answer "
Four leagues below French Creek, by a rock
scratched with Indian hieroglyphics, they buried
another leaden plate. Three days after, they'reached
the Delaware village of Attiqud, at the site of
Kittannmg, whose twenty-two wigwams were all
empty, the owners having fled. A little farther on
at an old abandoned village of Shawanoes, they found
SIX English traders, whom they warned to begone
and return no more at their peril. Being holpless to
resist, the traders pretended obedience; and Cdloron
charged them with a letter to the governor of Penn
sylvania, in which he declared that he was 'Vreatlv
surprised "to find Englishmen trespassing on thi
dc^nain of France. "I know," concluded the lette.
that our Commandant-General would be very sorry
to be forced to use violence; but his orders are r pre-
cise, to leave no foreign traders within the limits of
his government." ^

Cnl ^'^''''''':f "'""[■ Compare the letter as translated in N Y
Col. Docs., VI. 5.32 ; also Colonial Records of Pa., y. 425

* •■.,.-

[1740.

1749.]

LOGSTOWN.

On the next day they j.'eaehed a village of Iroquois
under a female chief, called Queen Alequippa by
the English, to whom she was devoted. Both queen
and subjects had fled; but among the deserted wig-
wams were six more Englishmen, whom Cdloron
warned off like the othei-s, and who, like them, pre-
tended to obey. At a neighboring town they found
only two withered ancients, male and female, whose
united ages, in the judgment of the chaplain, were
full two centuries. They passed the site of the
future Pittsburg; and some seventeen miles below
approached Chiningue, called Logstown by the Eng-
lish, one of the chief places on the river. ^ Both
English and French flags were flying over the town,
and the inhabitants, lining the shore, greeted their
visitors with a salute of musketry, — not wholly wel-
come, as the guns were charged with ball. C^loron
threatened to fire on them if they did not cease. The
French climbed the steep bank, and encamped on the
plateau above, betwixt the forest and the village,
which consisted of some fifty cabins and wigwams,
grouped in picturesque squalor, and tenanted by a
mixed population, chiefly of Delawares, St iwan -es,
and Mingoes. Here, too, were gathered many fugi-
tives from, tl 3 deserted town^ above. C^bron feared
a :nght attack. The camp was encircled by a rin?
of ser tries; the officers walked the rounds till mom-
mg: a part of the men were kept under arm'^ ;M»d

^ There was another Chiningu^, the Shenango of the Euglish, on
the Alleghany.

VOL. I.— 4 4

j .■;

CELORON DE BIENVILLE.

I ,4

[1749.

the rest ordered to sleep in their clothes. Jr icaire
discovered through some women of his acquaintance
that an attack was intended. Whatever the danger
may have been, the precautions of the French averted
It; and instead of a battle, there was a council
Cdloron delivered to the assembled chiefs a message
from the governor more conciliatory than the former-
"Through the love I bear you, my children, I send
you Monsieur de Cdloron to open your eyes to the
designs of the English against your lands. The
estabhshments they mean to make, and of which you
are certainly ignorant, tend to your complete ruin.
They hiae from you their plans, which are to settle
here and drive you away, if I let them. As a good
father who tenderly loves his children, and though
far away from them bears them always in his heart
I must warn you of the danger that threatens you'
Ihe English intend to rob you of your country ; and
that they may succeed, they begin by corrupting
your minds. As ^^ey mean to seize the Ohio, which
belongs to me, "■ to warn them to retire. "

The reply of iefs, though sufficiently humble

was not all that comd be wished. They begged that
the intruders might stay a little longer, since the
goods they brought were necessary to them. It was
m fact, these gocds, cheap, excellent, and abundant
as they were, which formed the only true bond
between the English and the western tribes. Logs-
town was one of the chief resorts of the 'English
traders; and at this moment there were ten of them

[1749.

Jf icaire
juaiiitance
the danger
ch averted
I council,
a message
le former:
!n, I send
es to the
ds. The
i^hich you
lete ruin,
to settle
■s a good
I though
is heart,
ens you.
try; and
rrupting
3, which

humble,
^ed that
nee the
It was,
jundant
e bond
Logs-
English
f them

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fj< simile of the inscription on one of the lead plates
biirieil hv Ccloron de Bienville.

liili

ir
w

Uii

lif

ri(

re!

thi

ot]

pii

on
of

Th
in8(
pla

1740.]

C^LORON BURIES PLATES.

in the place. Cdloron warned them off. "Tliey
agreed," Hays the chaplain, " to all tliat was demanded*
well resolved, no doubt, to do the co ny as ooon
as our backs were turned."

Having distributed gifts among the Indians, the
French proceeded on their way, and at or near the
mouth ol Wlieeling Creek buried another plate of
lead. They repeated the smne ceremony at the
mouth of the Muskingum. Here, half a century
later, when this region belonged to the United States,
a party of boys, bathing in the river, saw the plate
I)rotruding from the bank where the freshets had laid
it bare, knocked it down with a long stick, melted
half of it into bullets, and gave what remained to a
neighbor from Marietta, who, hearing of this myste-
rious relic, inscribed in an unknown tongue, came to
rescue it from their hands. ^ It is now in the
cabinet of the American Antiquarian Society. ^ On
the eighteenth of August, Cdloron buried yet an-
other plate, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha.
This, too, in the course of a century, was unearthed
by the floods, and was found in 1846 by a boy at
play, by the edge of the water. » The inscriptions
on all these plates were much alike, with variations
of date and place.

^ 0. H. Marshall, in Magazine of American History, March, 1878.

" For papers relating to it, see Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc, ii.

8 For a facsimile of the inscription on this plate, see Olden
Time, i. 288. Celoron calls the Kanawha, Chinodahichetha. The
inscriptions as given in his Journal correspond with those on the
plates discovered.

IMAGE EVALUATION
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23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 872-4503

C^LORON DE BIENVILLE.

mt 'I >

, St

[1749.

The weather was by tuma rainy and hot; and the
men, tired and famished, were fast falling ill On
the twenty-second they approaehed Scioto, ealled by
the French St. Yotoc, or Sinioto, a large .Shawan^
town at the mouth of the river which beam theTam^
name. Greatly doubting what welcome awated
them, they mied their powder-horns and preparedtr
to worst. Joncaire was sent forward to propitiate
to .nhabltants; but they shot bullets thro'ug^ the
flag that he carried, and surrounded him, yelling and
brandashmg their knives. Some were for tiUinf Wm
at once; others for burning him alive. The inter
position of a friendly Iroquois saved him- and at
ength they let him go. C«o™n was very unety a
the reception of his messenger. "I feew "be
™tes, "the weakness of my parfy, two-thir;is of
wmch were young men who had never left home
before, and would all have run at the sight of ten
Indi^. Still, there wa. nothing for me but to ke^p
on for I wa^ short of provisions, my canoes were
Wly damaged, and I had no pitch or bark to mend
them So I embarked again, ready for whatever
™.ght happen I had good officers, .nd about 8%
men who could be trusted." ^

As they near^d the town, the lu .ns swarmed to
to shore, and began the usual salute of musketiy.

fo^t^^ : u'"^' ^"''™°' "f""" thousand shots;
for the En^nsh give them powder for nothing." He
prudently pitched his camp on the farther side of the
nver, posted guards, and kept close watch. Each

'Hi

1.749.]

ASCENT OF THE MIAMI.

party distrusted and feared the other. At length,
after much ado, many debates, and some threatening
moyements on the part of the alarmed and excited
Indians, a council took place at the tent of the
French commander; the chiefs apologized for the
rough treatment of Joncaire, and Cdloron replied
with a rebuke, which would doubtless have been
less mild, had he felt himself stronger, He gave
them also a message from the governor, modified,
apparently, t(i suit the circumstances; for while
warning them of the wiles of the English, it gave
no hint that the King of France claimed mastery of
their lands. Their answer was vague and unsat-
isfactory. It was plain that they were bound to the
enemy by interest, if not by sympathy. A party
of English traders were living in the place; and
C^Joron summoned them to withdraw, on pain of
what might ensue. "My instructions," he says,
"enjoined me to do this, and even to pillage the
English; but I was not strong enough; and as
these traders were established in the village and
well supported by the Indians, the attempt would
have failed, and put the French to shame." The
assembled chiefs having been regaled with a cup
of brandy each, — the only part of the proceeding
which seemed to please them, — C^loron re-embarked,
and continued his voyage.

On the thirtieth they reached the Great Miami,
called by the French, Riviere k la Roche; and here
C^loron buried the last of his leaden plates. They

54 C^ORON DE BIENVILLE. [I749.

now bade farewell to the Ohio, or, in the words of
the chaplain, to "La Belle Risd^re, - that river so
httle known to the French, and unfortunately too
well known to the English. " He speaks of the multi-
tude of Indian villages on its shores, and still more
on Its northern branches. "Each, great or small,
has one or more English traders, and each of these
has hired men to carry his furs. Behold, then, the
English well advanced upon our lands, and, what is
worse, under the protection of a crowd of savages
whom they have drawn over to them, and whose
number increases daily."

The course of the party lay up the Miami; and
they toiled thirteen days against the shallow current
before they reached a village of the Miami Indians
lately built at the mouth of the rivulet now called
Loramie Creek. Over it ruled a chief to whom the
French had given the singular name of La Demoiselle
but whom the English, whose fast friend he was'
called Old Britain. The English trader who lived
here had prudently withdrawn, leaving only two
hired men in the place. The object of Ctoon was
to induce the Demoiselle and his band to leave this
new abode and return to their old villages near the
French fort on the Maumee, where they would be
safe from English seduction. To this end, he called
them to a council, gave them ample gifts, and made
them an harangue in the name of the governor The
Demoiselle took the gifts, thanked his French father
for his good advice, and promised to follow it at a

ill

1749.]

LA DEMOISELLE.

words of
b river so
ately too
)he multi-
till more
3r small,

of these
hen, the
, what is

savages
i whose

mi; and
current
Indians,
jv called
lom the
loiselle,
le was,
10 lived
ly two
:on was
ive this
Bar the
uld be
I called
I made
The
father
it at a

more convenient time.i In vain C^loron insisted
that he and his tribesmen should remove at once.
Neither blandishments nor threats would prevail,
and the French commander felt that his negotiation
had failed.

He was not deceived. Far from leaving his
village, the Demoiselle, who was Great Chief of the
Miami Confederacy, gathered his followers to the
spot, till, less than two years ufter the visit of
Cdloron, its population had increased eightfold.
Pique Town, or Pickawillany, as the English called
it, became one of the greatest Indian towns of the
West, the centre of English trade and influence,
and a capital object of French jealousy.

C^loron burned his shattered canoes, and led his
party across the long and difficult portage to the
French post on the Maumee, where he found Ray-
mond, the commander, and all his men, shivering
with fever and ague. They supplied him with
wooden canoes for his V( yage down the river; and,
early in October, he reached Lake Erie, where he
was detained for a time by a drunken debauch of his
Indians, who are called by the chaplain "a species
of men made to exercise the patience of those who
have the misfortune to travel with them." In a
month more he was at Fort Frontenac; and as he
descended thence to Montreal, he stopped at the

1 Celoron, Journal. Compare A Message from the Twightwees
(Miamis) in Colonial Records of Pa., v. 437, where they say that
they refused the gifts.

6« CfiLORON DE BIEXVILLE. [1749.

Oswegatchie, in obedience to tI>o governor, who had
directed him to report the progress made by the
Sulpitian, AbU Piquet, at his new mission. Piquet's
new fort had been burned by Indians, prompted, as
he thought, by the English of Oswego; but the
pnes , buoyant and undaunM, was still resolute for
the glory of God and the confusion of the hectics.

At length Caoron reached Montreal; and, closing
h.s Journal, wrote thus.- "Father Bonnecamp, who
Zl T ""f *««"" mathematician, reckons that
ri! 1 r"l'^''"^ hundred leagues; I and my
offlcei. think we have travelled more. All I can say
18, that the nations of these countries are very iU-
disposed tc,wards aie French, and devoted entii^y to

It had at least revealed clearly the deplorable conl
dition of French interests in the West

f>.7^^' "^^'r" ™' ™™'"S English 'traders from
the Ohio, apian was on foot in Virginia for a new
invasion of the French domain. An association Z
fonned to settle the Ohio countiy; and a gi^nt of
five hundred thousand acres . « procured from the
Kmg on condition that a hundred families should be
established upon it within seven yea.^, a fort built,
and a garnson maintained. The Ohio Company

RdaUon d'un voyage dans la Belle Riviere sous les ordres de M d.
C!€loron, par le Pere Bonnecamp, en 1749. ^' '^^

' ! 1

1750.]

THE OHIO COMPANY.

numbered among its members some of the chief men
of Virginia, including two brothers of Washington;
and it had also a London partner, one Hanbury, a
person of influence, who acted as its agent in Eng-
land. In the year after the expedition of C^loron,
its governing committee sent the trader Christopher
Gist to explore the country and select land. It
must be "good level land," wrote the committee;
"we had rather go quite down to the Mississippi
than take mean, broken land. " ^ In November Gist
reached Logstown, the Chiningu^ of Cdloron, where
he found what he calls a "parcel of reprobate Indian
traders." Those whom he so stigmatizes were
Pennsylvanians, chiefly Scotch-Irish, between whom
and the traders from Virginia there was great
jealousy. Gist was told that he "should never go
home safe." He declared himself the bearer of a
message from the King. This imposed respect, and
he was allowed to proceed. At the Wyandot village
of Muskingum he found the trader George Croghan,
sent to the Indians by the governor of Pennsylvania,
to renew the chain of friendsbip.2 "Croghan," he
says, "is a mere idol among his countrymen, the
Irish traders; " yet they met amicably, and the Penn-
sylvanian had with him a companion, Andrew
Montour, the interpreter, who proved of great service

1 Instructions to Gist, in appendix to Pownall, Topographical

Description of North America.

2 Mr. Croghan' s Transactions with the Indians, in N. Y. Col. Docs.
vii. 267; Croghan to Hamilton, 16 December, 1750.

58 CfiLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1750.

to Gist. As Montour was a conspicuous peraon in
his time, and a type of his class, he merit, a passinc^
notice. He was the reputed grandson of a French
governor and an Indian squaw. His half-breed
mother, Catharine Montour, was a native of Canada
whence she was carried off by the Iroquois, and
adopted by them. She lived in a village at the head
of Seneca Lake, and still held the belief, inculcated
by the guides of her youth, that Christ was a
l-renchman crucified by the English. 1 Her son
Andrew is thus described by the Moravian Zinzendorf
who knew him : "His face is like that of a European'
but marked with a broad Indian ring of bear's-grease
and paint drawn completely round it. He weare a
coat of fine cloth of cinnamon color, a black necktie
with silver spangles, a red satin waistcoat, trousers
over which hangs his shirt, shoes and stockings, a
hat, and brass ornaments, something like the hardle
of a basket, suspended from his eara."a He was an
excellent interpreter, and held in high account by
his Indian kinsmen.
After leaving Muskingum, Gist, Croghan, and

Montour went t^

ler to a

village

on White

Woman s Creek, - so jailed from one Mary Harris,

1 This is stated by Count Zinzendorf, who visited her amonr the
Senecas Compare " Frontenac and New France under Louis xfv"

Inland f ^^^\"^ '^" "^°"*' "^ *''^ ^^^^*^™ ^"^y" ™ade i'n
1779 and of which a tracing is before me, the village where she
lived IS still called " Frencii Catharine's Town "

-'Journal of Zinzendorf, quoted in Schweinitz, Life of David
Zeisbcrger, 112, note. ' J j

1750, 1751.]

PICKAWILLANY.

who lived here. She was born in New England,
was made prisoner when a child forty years before,
and had since dwelt among her captors, finuing such
comfort as she might in an Indian husband and a
family of young half-breeds. " She still remembers, "
says Gist, "that they used to be very religious in
New England, and wonders how white men can be
so wicked as she has seen them in these woods." He
and his companions now journeyed southwestward to
the Shawanoe town at the mouth of the Scioto, where
they found a reception very different from that which
had awaited C^loron. Thence they rode northwest-
ward along the forest path that led to Pickawillany,
the Indian town on the upper waters of the Great
Miami. Gist was delighted with the country, and
reported to his employers that " it is fine, rich, level
land, well timbered with large walnut, ash, sugar
trees and cherry trees; well watered with a great
number of little streams and rivulets ; full of beauti-
ful natural meadows, with wild rye, blue-grass, and
clover, and abounding with turkeys, deer, elks, and
most sorts of game, particularly buffaloes, thirty or
forty of which are frequently seen in one meadow."
A little farther west, on the plains of the Wabash
and the Illinois, he would have found them by
thousands.

They crossed the Miami on a raft, their horses
swimming after them ; and were met on landing by
a crowd of warriors, who, after smoking with thv i,
escorted them to the neighboring town, where they

C^LORON DE BIENVILLE.

[176L

were greeted by a fusillade of welcome. "We en-
tered with English colors before us, and were kindly
received by their king, who invited us into his own
house and set our colors upon the top of it; then all
the white men and traders that were there came and
welcomed us." This "king " was Old Brit^tin, or La
Demoiselle. Great were the changes here since
Cdloron, a year and ., half before, had vainly enticed
him to change his abode, and dwell in the shadow of
the fleur-de-lis. The town had grown to four hun-
dred famihes, or about two thousand souls; and the
English traders had built for themselves and their
hosts a fort of pickets, strengthened with logs.

There was a series of councils in the long house
or town-hall. Croghan made the Indians a present
from the governor of Pennsylvania; and he and
Gist delivered speeches of friendship and good advice
which thP auditors received with the usual monosyl-
labi" — • . , » - J

thrt

bot\
all wu^
from Deti >.

8, ejected from the depths of their

^aty of peace was solemnly made

-lish and the confederate tribes, and

nd joy; till four Ottawas, probably
rived with a French flag, a gift of
brandy and tobacco, and a message from the French
commandant inviting the JVIiamis to visit him.
Whereupon the great war-chief rose, and, with "a
fierce tone and very warlike air/' said to the envoys-
"Brothers the Ottawas, we let you know, by these
four strings of wampum, that we will not hear any.
thing the French say, nor do anything they bid us."

1761.]

MTAMIS AND ENGJJSH.

Then addressing the French as if actually present:
** Futheis, we huve made a road to the sun-rising, and
have ])een taken by the hand by our brothers the
English, the Six Nations, the Del; ,vares, Shavvanots,
and Wyandots.i \\re assure you, in that road we
will go; and as you threaten us with war in the
spring, we tell you that we are ready to receive you."
Then, turning again to the four envoys : " Brothers
the Ottawas, you hear wnat I say. Tell that to your
fi'thers the French, for we speak it fron^ our hearts."
The chiefs then took down the French flag which
the Ottawas had planted in the town, and dismissed
the envoys witli their answer of defiance.

On the next day the town-crier came with a mes-
sage from he Demoiselle, inviting his English guests
to a "feather dance," which Gist dius describes: "It
was performed by three dancing-masters, who were
painted all or . of various colors, v/ith long sticks in
their hands, xpon the ends of which were fastened
long feathers of swans and other birds, neatly woven
in the shape of a fowl's wing; in this disguise they
performed many antic tricks, waving their sticks and
feathers about with great skill, to imitate the flying
and fluttering of birds, keeping exact time with their
music." This music was the measured thumping of
an Indian drum. From time to time a warrior would
leap up, and the drum and the dancers would cease

i\\

1 Compare Message of Miamis and Hurons to the Governor of
Pennsylvania m N. Y. Col. Docs., vi. 594; and Report of Croghan in
Colonial Records of Pa., v. 522, 523.

Cl8l >RON DE r-ENVILLE.

■Ik

■fi

[1761.

as ae stnick a post with hi. ..r.ahawk, and in a loud
vcce recounted hi« exploits. Then he ZVZ,
the dance began anew till nn,fK
♦r.^ ^- 1 .. ' another warrior cauzht

t'.e ,..rt,a! hre, and bounded into the oirele to bin-
dish 1„8 tomahawk and vaunt his prowess

On the Hrst of March Gist took leave of Pickawil-
any, and returned towards the Ohio. He wTld
l.ave gone to the Falls, where Uuiavillo now sZd ?
but for a tend of French Indians reported to te
the e. who would protably have killed hin, Aftel
visuing a deposit of n.amraoth hones on the south
*o«, long the wonder of the trade™, h tuTned
««tward, crossed with toil and difficult; the ZZ.
tarns about the sources of the Kuiawha, and after an
absence of seven months reached his Aontler h 1"
on the Yadhn, wh ..„ :e p„ceeded to Roanole
with the report of his journey.'

All looked well for the English in the West; but
under tte fa.r outside lurked hidden danger. xTe
M-am,s were hearty i„ the Knglish cans!, and"„
?e hap, were the Shawanoes; but the Delawlres hi
^o forgotten the wrongs that drove them from thet
ohi abodes east of the AUeghanies, while the Mingoe

York felt the mfluenoe of Joncaire and other FrenI
agents, who spared no efforts to seduce them.^ Sail

l'-r.Ccl.Poc.Jii''w ^™»»«.«.. mU, ,h, /w;™/i„

'Oonoaire „'.<,e .nti.E.g,i.h sp..<:he, ,„ the Ohio I.dl.„.

I! I

1 i>;

1750-1752.]

ENGLISH APATHY.

more baneful to British interests were the apathy and
dissensions of the British colonies themselves. The
Ohio Company had built a trading-house at Will's
Creek, a branch of the Potomac, to which the Indians
resorted in great numbers; whereupon the jealous
traders of Pennsylvania told them that the Virginians
meant to steal aAvay their lands. This confirmed
what they had been taught by the French emissaries,
whose intrigues it powerfully aided. The governors
of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia saw the
importance of Indian alliances, and felt their own
responsibility in regard to them; but they could do
nothing without their assemblies. Those of New
York and Pennsylvania were largely composed of
tradesmen and farmers, absorbed in local interests,
and possessed by two motives, — the saving of the
people's money, and opposition to the governor, who
stood for the royal prerogative. It was Hamilton,
of Pennsylvania, who had sent Croghan to the
Miamis to "renew the chain of friendship;" and
when the envoy returned, the Assembly rejected his
report. "I was condemned," he says, "for bringing
expense on the Government, and the Indians were
neglected." i In the same year Hamilton again sent
him over the mountains, with a present for the
Mingoes and Delawares. Croghan succeeded in

under the eyes of the English themselves, who did not molest him
Journal of Geonje Croghan, 1751, in Olden Time, i. 136.

^ Mr. Croghan's Transactions with the Indians, N. Y Col Doro
vii. 267. '

!:•!

i»!

64 C^LORON DE BIENVILLE. [1750-1752.

persuading them that it would be for their good if
the English should build a fortified trading-house at
the fork of the Ohio, where Pittsburg now stands;
and they made a formal request to the governor that
It should be built accordingly. But, in the words of
Croghan, the Assembly "rejected the proposal, and
condemned me for making such a report." Yet thi^
post on the Ohio Avas vital to English inlerestsl'
Even the Penns, proprietaries of the province, never
lavish of their money, ofPered four hundred pounds
towards the cost of it, besides a hundred a year
towards Its maintenance; but the Assembly wouM
not listen.1 The Indians were so well convinced
that a strong English trading-station in their country
would add to their safety and comfort, that when
Pennsylvania refused it, they repeated the proposal
to Virginia; but here, too, it found for the present
little favor.

The question of disputed boundaries had much to
do with this most impolitic inaction. A large part
of the valley of the Ohio, including the site of the
proposed establishment, was claimed by both Penn-
sylvania and Virginia; and each feared that whatever
money it might spend there would turn to the profit

t nwwtr^n 1'"%^'/ ^«-' ^- 515, 529, r47. At a council at Logs-
town (1751), the Indians said to Croghan: "The French want to
d.eatus out of our country; but we will stop them, and. Brothers
the English, you must help us. We expect that you w il S "
strong house on the River Ohio, that in case of war we may have a
place to secure our wives r.nd children, likewise our brothersThat
come to trade with u.."- Report of Treaty at Lo.sto.n, ij y 538

1750-1752.]

ENGLISH APATHY.

of the other. This was not the only evil that sprang
from uncertain ownership. "Till the line is run
between the two provinces," says Dinwiddle, gov-
ernor of Virginia, "I cannot appoint magistrates to
keep the traders in good order. "^ Hence they did
what they pleased, and often gave umbrage to the
Indians. Clinton, of New York, appealed to his
Assembly for means to assist Pennsylvania in "secur-
ing the fidelity of the Tndians on the Ohio," and the
Assembly refused. ^ "We will take care of our
Indians, and they may take care of theirs : " such was
the spirit of their answer. He wrote to the various
provinces, inviting them to send commissioners to
meet the tribes at Albany, "in order to defeat the
designs and intrigues of the French." All turned
a deaf ear except Massachusetts, Connecticut, and
South Carolina, who sent the commissioners, but
supplied them very meagrely with the indispensable
presents. 3 Clinton says further: "The Assembly of
this province have not given one farthing for Indian
affairs, nor for a year past have they provided for
the subsistence of the garrison at Oswego, which
is the key for the commerce between the colonies
and the inland nations of Indians." ^

In the heterogeneous structure of the British

1 Dinwiddie to the Lords of Trade, 6 October, 1752.

2 Journals of New York Assembly, ii. 283, 284. Colonial Records
of Pa., V. 466.

3 Clinton to Hamilton, 18 December, 1750. Clinton to Lords of
Trade, 13 June, 1751 ; Ibid., 17 July, 1751.

* Clinton to Bedford, 30 July, 1750.

VOL. I. — 6

■J ij

* (

U-:^

66 CISLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1750-1762.

colonies, their clashing interests, their internal dis-
putes, and the misplaced economy of penny-wise and
short-sighted assembly-men, lay the hope of France.
The rulers of Canada knew the vast numerical pre-
ponderance of their rivals; but with their centralized
organization they felt themselves more than a match
for any one English colony alone. They hoped to
wage war under the guise of peace, and to deal with
the enemy in detail; and they at length perceived
that the fork of the Oliio, so strangely neglected by
the English, formed, together with Niagara, the key
of the Great West. Could France hold firmly these
two controlling passes, she might almost boast herself
mistress of the continent.

Note. — The Journal of Celoron (Archives de la Marine) is very
long and circumstantial, including the proces verbaux, and reports
of councils with Indians. The Journal of the chaplain, Bonne-
camp (Depot de la Marine), is shorter, but is tlie work of an intelli-
gent and observing man. The author, a Jesuit, was skilled in
mathematics, made daily observations, and constructed a map of
the route, still preserved at the Depot de la Marine. Concurrently
with these French narratives, one may consult the English letters
and documents bearing on the same subjects, in thr Colonial
Records of Pennsylvania, the Archives of Pennsylvania, and the
Colonial Documents of New York.

Three of Ce'loron's leaden plates have been found, — the two
mentioned in the text, and another which was never buried, and
which the Indians, who regarded these mysterious tablets as " bad
medicine," procured by a trick from Joncaire, or, according to
Governor Clinton, stole from him. A Cayuga chief brought it to
Colonel Johnson on the Mohawk, who interpreted the "Devilish
writing "in such a manner as best to inspire horror of French
designs.

CHAPTER III.

1749-1753.

CONFLICT FOR THE WEST.

The Five Nations. - Cauoiinawaoa. — ABnij Piqpet- his
bCHEMEs; HIS JoLRNET. — Fort Frontenac. - Toronto —
Niagara. — Oswego.— Success of Piquet. - Detroit —La
JoNQuiiRE : HIS Intrigues ; his Trials • his Death —
English Intrigues. — Critical State o* the West -Pick-
awillany destroyed. — Duquesne : kxs Grand Enterprise.

The Iroquois, or Five Nations, sometimes called
Six Nations after the Tuscaroras joined them, had
been a power of high importance in American inter-
national politics. In a certain sense they may be
said to have held the balance between their French
and English neighbors; but their relative influence
had of late declined. So many of them had emi-
grated and joined the tribes of the Ohio, that the
centre of Indian population had passed to that region.
Nevertheless, the Five Nations were still strong
enough in their ancient abodes to make their alliance
an object of the utmost consequence to both the
European rivals. At the western end of their " Long
House," or belt of confederated villages, Joncaire
intrigued to gain them for France; while in the east
he was counteracted by the young colonel of militia,

\\l

CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1749-1758.

Iff

William Johnson, who lived on the Mohawk, and
was already well skilled in managing Indians.
Johnson sometimes lost his temper; and once wrote
to Governor Clinton to compliiin of the " confounded
wicked things the French had infused into the Indians'
heads; among the rest that the English were deter-
mined, the first opportunity, to destroy them all. I
assure your Excellency I had hard work to beat these
and several other cursed villanous things, told them
by the French, out of their heads. "*

In former times the French had hoped to win over
the Five Nations in a body, by wholesale conversion
to the Faith ; but the attempt had failed. They had,
however, made within their own limits an asylum for
such converts as they could gain, whom they collected
together at Caughnawaga, near Montreal, to the
number of about three hundred warriors. ^ These
could not be trusted to fight their kinsmen, but
willingly made forays against the English borders.
Caughnawaga, like various other Canadian missions,
was divided between the Church, the army, and the
fur-trade. It had a chapel, fortifications, and store-
houses; two Jesuits, an officer, and three chief
traders. Of these last, two were maiden ladies, the
Demoiselles Desauniers ; and one of the Jesuits, their
friend Father Tournois, was their partner in busi-
ness. They carried on by means of the Mission

1 Johnson to Clinton, 28 April, 1740.

3 The estimate of a Irench official report, 1736, and of Sir
William Johnson, 1763.

1749-1763.]

PIQUET.

Indians, and in collusion with influantial persons in
the colony, a trade with the Dutch at Albany, illegal,
but very profitable.*

Besides this Iroquois mission, which was chiefly
composed of Mohawks and Oneidas, another was
now begun farther westward, to win over the Onon-
dagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. This was the estab-
lishment of Father Piquet, which Cdloron had visited
in its infancy when on his way to the Ohio, and
again on his return. Piquet was a man in the prime
of life, of an alert, vivacious countenance, by no
means unprepossessmg ; 2 an enthusiastic schemer,
with great executive talents ; ardent, energetic, vain,
self-confident, and boastful. The enterprise seems
to have been of his own devising; but it found warm
approval from the government. ^ La Presentation,
as he called the new mission, stood on the bank of
the river Oswegatchie where it enters the St.
Lawrence. Here the rapids ceased, and navigation
was free to Lake Ontario. The place commanded
the main river, and could bar the way to hostile war-
parties or contraband traders. Rich meadows, forests,
and abundance of fish and game, made it attractive

1 La Jonquiere au Ministre, 27 F^vrier, 1750. Ibid., 29 Octobre,
1751. Ordres du Roy et Dgpeckes des Ministres, 1751. Notice bio'
graphique de La Jonquiere. La Jonquifere, governor of Canada, at
last broke up their contraband trade, and ordered Toumois to
Quebec.

^ I once sa'v a contemporary portrait of him at the mission of
Two Mountains, where he had been stationed.

3 Rouille a La Jonquiere, 1749. The intendant Bigot gave hini
money and provisions. N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 204.

I«>'

T^f

TO CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1749-1763.

to Indians, and the Oswegatchie gave access to the
Iroquois towns. Piquet liad chosen his site with
great skill. His activity was admirable. His first
stockade was Imrneu by Indian incendiaries; but it
rose quickly from its ashes, and within a year or two
the mission of La Prdsentation had a fort of palisades
flanked with blockhouses, a chapel, a storehouse, a
bam, a stable, ovens, a saw-mill, broad fields of corn
and beans, and three villages of Iroquois, containing,
in all, forty -nil u; bark lodges, each holding three or
four families, more or less converted to the Faith;
and, ae time went on, this number increased. The
governor had sent a squad of soldiers to man the
fort, and five small cannon to mount upon it. The
place Wiis as safe for the new proselytes as it was
convenient and agreeable. The Pennsylvanian inter-
preter, Conrad Weiser, was told at Onondaga, the
Iroquois capital, that Piquet had made a hundred
converts from that place alone; and that, "having
clothed them all in v fine clothes, laced with
silver and gold, he took then, down and presented
them to the French governor at Montreal, who re-
ceived them very kindly, and made them large
presents." ^

Such were some of the temporal attractions of La
Prdsentation. The nature of the spiritual instruc-
tion bestowed by Piquet and hit, rellow-priests may
be partly inferred from the words of a proselyte
warrior, who declared with enthusiasm that he had

1 Journal of Conrad Weiser, 1750.

1740-1753.1 BOASTS OF PIQTJET 71

learned from the Sulpitian missionary thit the King
of France was tlie eldest son of the wife of Jesus
Christ. 1 This he of course took in a literal sense,
the mystic idea of the Church as the spouse of Christ
beingr beyond his savage comprehension. The eflfect
w.s (-) stimulate his devotion to the Great Onontio
beyoi:d the set;, and to the lesser Onontio who repre-
sented liini as governor of Canada.

Piquet was elated by his success; and early in
1752 he wrote to the governor and intendant: "It is
a great miracle that, in .«Yite of envy, contradiction,
and opposition from nearly all the Indian villages, I
have formed in less than three years one of the most
flourishing missions in Canada. I find myself in a
position to extend the empire of my good mast«ra,
Jesus Christ and the King, even to ibe extreiaities
of this new worid; and, with some little help from
you, to do more than France and England have been

able to do with millions of money and all their
troops. "2

The letter from which thi3 is taken was written to
urge upon the government a scheme in which the
zealous priest could see nothing impra- ' able. He
proposed to raise a war-party of thirty-eight hundred

»i ' Y""^ ■' f''' ^' ^'"^^^^ ^'■?"^'' ''' ^«"'" ^dijiantes. See
also Tas m Reuae Canadienne, 1870, p. 9.

2 Piquet d . x Jonquicre et Bigot, 8 Ffvrier, 1752. See Appendix

A In spite of Piquet's seh-i.udation, and in spite also of the

detraction of the author of the ' Umoires sur h Canada, 1749-1760

there can be no doubt of his pra .tical capacity and his fertility of

resource. Duquesne, when governor of the colony, highly praises

ses talents et soa activity pour le service de Sa Majesty."

ill

CONFLICT FOR THE WEST.

[1751.

Indians, eighteen hundred of whom were to be drawn
from the Canadian missions, the Five Nations, and
the tribes of the Ohio, while the remaining two
thousand were to be furnished by the Flatheads, or
Choctaws, who were at the same time to be supplied
with missionaries. The united force was first to
drive the English from the Ohio, and next attack
the Dog Tribe, or Cherokees, who lived near the
borders of Virginia, with the people of which they
were on friendly terms. "If," says Piquet, "the
English of Virginia give any help to this last-named
tribe, — which will not fail to happen, — they [the
loar-party] will do their utmost against them, through
a grudge they bear them by reason of some old
quarrels." In other words, the missionary hopes to
set a host of savages to butchering English settlers
in time of peace l^ His wild project never took
effect, though the governor, he says, at first approved
it.

In the preceding year the " Apostle of the Iroquois,"
as he was called, made a journey to muster recruits
for his mission, and kept a copious diary on the way.
By accompanying him, one gets a clear view of an
important part of the region in dispute between the
rival nations. Six Canadians paddled him up the
St. Lawrence, and five Indian converts followed in
another canoe. Emerging from among the Thousand
Islands, they stopped at Fort Frontenac, where
Kingston now stands. Once the place was a great

^ Appendix A.

1751.]

PIQUET AT TORONTO.

resort of Indians; now nono were here, for the Eng-
lish post of Oswego, on the other side of the lake,
had greater attractions. Piquet and his company
found the pork and bacon very bad, and he com-
plains that "there was not brandy enough in the fort
to wash a wound." They crossed to a neighboring
island, where they were soon visited by the chaplain
of the fort, the storekeeper, his wife, and three
young ladies, glad of an excursion to relieve the
monotony of the garrison. "My hunters," says
Piquet, "had supplied me with means of giving
them a pretty good entertainment. We drank, with
all our hearts, the health of the authorities, temporal
and ecclesiastical, to the sound of our musketry,
which was very well fired, and delighted the islandere. "
These islanders were a band of Indians who lived
here. Piquet gave them a feast, then discoursed of
religion, and at last persuaded them to remove to
the new mission.

During eight days he and his party coasted the
northern shore of Lake Ontario, with various inci-
dents, such as an encounter between his dog Cerberus
and a wolf, to the disadvantage of the latter, and the
meeting with "a very fine negro of twenty-two years,
a fugitive from Virginia." On the twenty-sixth of
June they reached the new fort of Toronto, which
offered a striking contrast to their last stopping-
place. " The wine here is of the best; there is noth-
ing wanting in this fort; everything is abundant,
fine, and good." There was reason for this. The

i
V

■I

«* » i

74 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1751.

northern Indians were flocking with their beaver-
skins to the English of Oswego; and in April, 1749
an officer named Portneuf had been sent with soldiers
and workmen to build a stockaded trading-house at
Toronto, in order to intercept them, —not by force
which would have been ruinous to French interests'
but by a tempting supply of goods and brandy. 1
Thus the fort was kept well stocked, and with excel-
lent effect. Piquet found here a band of Mississagas,
who would otherwise, no doubt, have carried their
furs to the English. He was strongly impelled to
persuade them to migrate to La Presentation; but
the governor had told him to confine his efforts to
other tribes; and lest, he says, the ardor of his zeal
should betray him to disobedience, he re-embarked,
and encamped six leagues from temptation.

Two days more brought him to Niagara, where he
was warmly received by the commandant, the chap-
lam, and the storekeeper, — the triumvirate who
ruled these forest outposts, and stood respectively for
their three vital principles, war, religion, and trade.
Here Piquet said mass; and after resting a day, set
out for the trading-house at the portage of the cata-
ract, recently built, like Toronto, to stop the Irdians
on their way to Oswego.^ Here he found Joncaire,
and here also was encamped a large band of Senecas;

,! On Toronto. La Jonquiere et Bigot an Ministre, 1749. La Jon-
qucereau Ahmstre, 30 Aoiit, 1760. N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 201 246

Co~7f-7n ^r"'^'23 Fevrier, 1750. Ibid.,Q Octohre, 1751.
tompare Colonial Records of Pa., v. 508.

1751.]

PIQUET AT NIAGARA.

though, being all drunk, men, women, and children,
they were in no condition tc receive the Faith, or
appreciate the temporal advantages that attended it.
Or the next morning, finding them partially sober,
he invited them to remove to La Presentation; "but
as they had still something left in their bottles, I
could get no answer till the following day." "I
pass in silence," pursues the missionary, "an infinity
of talks on this occasion. Monsieur de Joncaire for-
got nothing that co-'ld help me, and behaved like a
great servant of God and the King. My recruits
increased every moment. I went to say my breviary
while my Indians and the Senecas, without loss of
time, assembled to hold a council with Monsieur de
Joncaire." The result of the council was an entreaty
to the missionary not to stop at Oswego, lest evil
should befall him at the hands of the English. He
promised to do as they wished, and presently set out
on his return to Fort Niagara, attended by Joncaire
and a troop of his new followers. The journey was
a triumphal progress. " Whenever we passed a camp
or a wigwam, the Indians saluted me by firing their
guns, which happened so often that I thought all the
trees along the way were chai-ged with gunpowder;
and when we reached the fort. Monsieur de Becan-
cour received us with great ceremony and the firing
of cannon, by which my savages were infinitely
flattered."

His neophytes were gathered into the chapel for
the first time in their lives, and there rewarded with

i/il

■Itl

T6 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1751.

a few presents. He now prepared to turn homeward,
his flock at the mission being left in his absence
without a shepherd; and on the sixth of July he
embarked, followed by a swarm of canoes. On the
twelfth they stopped at the Genesee, and went to
visit the Falls, where the city of Rochester now
stands. On the way, the Indians found a populous
resort of rattlesnakes, and attacked the gregarious
reptiles with great animation, to the alarm of the
missionary, who trembled for his bare-legged retainers.
His fears proved needless. Forty-two dead snakes,'
as he avers, requited the efforts of the sportsmen,
and not one of them was bitten. When he returned
to camp in the afternoon he found there a canoe
loaded with kegs of brandy. "The English," he
says, "had sent it to meet us, well knowing that this
was the best way to cause disorder among my new
recruits and make them desert me. The Indian in
charge of the canoe, who had the look of a great
rascal, offered some to me first, and then to'' my
Canadians and Indians. I gave out that it was very
probably poisoned, and immediately embarked again."
He encamped on the fourteenth at Sodus Bay, and
strongly advises the planting of a French fort there
"Nevertheless," he adds, " it would be still better to
destroy Oswego, and on no account let the English
build it again." On the sixteenth he came in sight
of this dreaded post. Several times on the way he
had met fleets of canoes going thither or returning,
in spite of the rival attractions of Toronto and

\ ^

1751.]

PIQUET AT OSWEGO.

Niagara. No English establishment on the conti-
nent was of such ill omen to the French. It not only-
robbed them of the fur-trade, by which they lived,
but threatened them with military and political, no
less than commercial, ruin. They were in constant
dread lest ships of war should be built here, strong
enough to command Lake Ontario, thus separating
Canada from Louisiana, and cutting New France
asunder. To meet this danger, they soon after built
at Fort Frontenac a large three-masted vessel,
mounted with heavy cannon; thus, as usual, fore-
stalling their rivals by promptness of action. ^ The
ground on which Oswego stood was claimed by the
Province of New York, which alone had control of it ;
but through the purblind apathy of the Assembly,
and their incessant quarrels with the governor, it
was commonly left to take care of itself. For some
time they would vote no money to pay the feeble
little garrison; and Clinton, who saw the necessity
of maintaining it, was forced to do so on his own
personal credit.^ "Why can't your governor and
j'-our great men [the AssemUy] agree?" asked a
Mohawk chief of the interpreter, Conrad Weiser.*^
Piquet kept his promise not to land at the English
fort; but he approached in his canoe, and closely
observed it. The shores, now covered by the city of
Oswego, were than a desolation of bare hills and

1 Lteutena) t Lindesay to Johnson, July, 1751.

2 Clinton to Lords of Trr.de, 30 July, 1750.

3 Journal of ti^vrad Weiser, 1760.

t^l

ir .

li"

78 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. ^751.

fields, studded with the stumps of felled trees, and
hedged about with a grim border of forests. Near
the strand, by the mouth of the Onondaga, were the
houses of some of the traders; and on the higher
ground behind them stood a huge blockhouse with
a projeetmg upper story. This building was sur-
rounded by a rough wall of stone, with flankers
at the angles, forming what was called the fort.i
Piquet reconnoitred it from his canoe with the eye
of a soldier. "It is commanded," he says, "on
almost every side; two batteries, of three * twelve-
pounders each, would be more than enough to reduce
it to ashes." And he enlarges on the evils that arise
from it. "It not only spoils our trf^de, but puts the
English into communication with a vast number of
our Indians, far aftd near. It is true that they like
our brandy better than English rum; but they prefer
English goods to ours, and can buy for two beaver-
skins at Oswego a better silver bracelet than we sell
at Niagara for ten."

The burden of these reflections was lightened
when he approached Fort Frontenac. "Never was
reception more solemn. The Nipissings and Algoii-
quins, who were going on a war-party with Monsieur
Beletre, formed a line of their own accord, and
saluted us with three volleys of musketry, and cries
of joy without end. All our little- bark vessels
replied in the same way. Monsieur de Vercheres
and Monsieur de Valtry ordered the cannon of the

1 Compare Doc. Hist. N. Y., i. 463.

1751.]

SUCCESS OF riQUET.

fort to be fired; and my Indians, transported with
joy at the honor done thera, shot off their guns inces-
santly, with cries and acclamations that delighted
everybo-V-" A g. Hy band of recruits joined him,
and he pursued his voyage to La Presentation, while
the canoes of his proselytes followed in a swarm to
their new home ; " that establishment " — thus in a
burst of enthusiasm he closes his Journal — "that
establishment which I began two years ago, in the
midst of opposition; that establishment which may
be regarded as a key of the colony; that establish-
ment which officers, interpreters, and traders thought
a chimera, — that establishment, I say, forms already
a mission of Iroquois savages whom I assembled at
first to the number of only six, increased last year to
eighty-seven, and this year to three hundred and
ninety-six, without counting more than a hundred
and fifty whom Monsieur Chabert de Joncaire is to
bring me this autumn. And I certify that thus far
I have received from His Majesty — for all favor,
grace, and assistance — no more than a half pound
of bacon and two pounds of bread for daily rations ;
and that he has not yet given a pin to the chapel,
which I have maintained out of my own pocket, for
the greater glory of my masters, God and the
King."i

1 Journal qui pent servir de M€moire et de Relation du Voyage que
j'aijfait sur le Lac Ontario pour attirer au nouvel ^tablissement de La
Presentation les Sauvages Iroquois des Cinq Nations, 1751. The last
passage given above is condensed in the rendering, as the original
is extremely involved and ungrainraatical.

CONFLICT FOR THE WEST

[1751.

In his late journey he had made the entire circuit
of Lake Ontario. Beyond lay four other inland
oceans, to which Fort Niagara was the key. As that
all-essential post control 13d the passage from Ontario
to Erie, so did Fort Detroit control that from Erie to
Huron, and Fort Michilimackinac that from Huron
to Michigan; while Fort Ste. Marie, at the outlet of
Lake Superior, had lately received a garrison, and
changed from a mission and trading-station to a post
of war.i This immense extent of inland navigation
was safe in the hands of Fi-ance so long as she held
Niagara. Niagara lost, not only the lakes, but also
the Valley of the Ohio was lost with it. Next in
importance was Detroit. This was not a military-
post alone, but also a settlement; and, except the
hamlets about Fort Chartres, the only settlement
that France owned in all the West. There were, it
is true, but a few families ; yet the hope of growth
seemed good; for to such as liked a wilderness home,
no spot in Americr. had more attraction. Father
Bonnecamp stopped here for a day on his way back
from the expedition of Celeron. "The situation,"
he says, "is charming. A fine river flows at the foot
of the fortifications; vast meadows, asking only to
be tilled, extend beyond the sight. Nothing can be
more agreeable than the climate. Winter lasts hardly
two months. European grains and fruits grow here
far better than in many parts of France. It is the
Touraine and Beauce of Canada. "2 Xhe white flag

1 La Jonquiere au Ministre, 24 Aout, 1750.

2 Relation du Voiage de la Belle Riviere, 1749.

1750, 1751.]

DETROIT.

of the Bourbons floated over the compact little pali-
saded town, with its population of soldiers and fur-
tradere; and from the blockhouses which served as
bastions, one saw^ on either hand the small solid
dwellings of the habitants^ ranged at intervals along
the margin of the water; while at a little distance
three Indian villages — Ottawa, Pottawatoamie, and
Wyandot — curled their wigwam smoke into the pure
summer air.^

When C^loron de Bienville returned from the
Ohio, he went, with a royal commission, sent him a
year before, to command at Detroit. ^ His late chap-
lain, the very intelligent Father Bonnecamp, speaks
of him as fearless, energetic, and full of resource;
but the governor calls him haughty and insubordinate.
Great efforts were made, at the same time, to build
up Detroit as a centre of French power in the West.
The methods employed were of the debilitating,
paternal character long familiar to Canada. All
emigrants with families were to be carried thither at
the King's expense ; and every settler was to receive
in free gift a gun, a hoe, an axe, a ploughshare, a
scythe, a sickle, two augers, large and small, a sow,
six hens, a cock, six pounds of powder, and twelve
pounds of lead; while to these favors were added
many others. The result was that twelve families

1 A plan of Detroit is before me, made about this time by the
engineer Lery.

2 Le Ministre a La Jonquiere et Bigot, 14 Mat, 1749. Le Ministre a
C^/oron, 23 Mai, 1749.

VOL. I. — 6

31'''. !'

82 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1750. 1761.

were persuaded to go, or about a twentieth part of
the number wanted. » ,>etroit was expected to fur-
nish supplies to the other posts for five hundred
miles around, control the neighboring Indians,
thwart English machinations, and drive off English
interlopers.

La GalissoniSre no longer governed Canada. He

had been honorably recalled, and the Marquis de la

Jonqui^re sent in his stead. 2 La Jouquifere, like his

predecessor, w"s a naval officer of high repute; he

was tall and imposing in person, and of undoubted

capacity and courage ; but old and, according to his

enemies, veiy avaricious.^ The colonial minister

gave him special instructions regarding that thorn in

the side of Canada, Oswego. To attack it openly

would be indiscreet, as the two nations were at

peace; but there was a way of dealing with it less

hazardous, if not more lawful. This was to attack it

vicariously by means of the Iroquois. "If Abbd

Piquet succeeds in his mission," wrote the minister

to the new governor, " we can easily persuade these

* Ordonnance du 2 Janvier, 1760. La Jonquiere et Bigot au Mi-
niatre, 1750. Forty-six persons of all ages and both sexes had bejn
induced by La Galissoniere to go the year before. Lettres communes
de La Jonquiere et Bigot, 1749. The total fixed population of Detroit
and its neighborhood in 1760 is stated at four hundred and eighty-
three souls. In the following two years, a considerable number of
young men came of their own accord, and Celoron wrote to Mont-
real to ask for girls to marry them,

* Le Ministre a La Galissoniere, 14 Mai, 1749.

« M€moires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. The charges made here
and elsewhere are denied, somewhat faintly, by a descendant of La
Jonquiere in his elaborate Notice biographique of his ancestor.

1760, 17fti.] CLINTON AND LA JONQUlilRE. 88

savages to destroy Oswego. This is of the utmost
importance; but act with great caution." » In the
next year the minister A^rote again: "The only
means that can be used for such an operation in time
of peace are those of the Iroquois. If by making
these savages regard such an establishment lOswego']
as opposed to their liberty, and, so to speak, a usur-
pation by which the English mean to get possession
of their lands, they could be induced to undertake its
destruction, an operation of the sort is not to be
neglected; but M. le Marquis de la Jonquicire should
feel with what circumspection such an affair should
be conducted, and he should labor to accomplisii it
in a manner not to commit himself. "^ Xo this La
Jonquiere replies that it will need time; but that he
will gradually hrhxg the Iroquois to attack and
destroy the English post. He received stringent
orders to use every means to prevent the English
from encroaching, but to act towards them at the
same time "with the greatest politeness." 3 This
last injunction was scarcely fulfilled in a correspond-
ence which he had with Clinton, governor of New
York, who had written to complain of the new post
at the Niagara portage as an invasion of English
territory, and also of the arrest of four English

1 Le Ministre a La Jonquiere, Mai, 1749. The instructions given
to La Jonquifere before leaving France also urge the necessity of
destroying Oswego.

« Ordres du Roy et D^peches des Ministres ; a MM. de La Jonquiire
et Biyot, 15 Avril, 1750. See Appendix A for original.
* Ordres du P-^u et Depeches des Ministres, 1750.

CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1750, 1751.

\ii

t \

f ,

traders in the country of the Miamis. Niagara, like
Oswego, was in thf, oountry of the Five Nations,
whom the treaty of Utrecht declared "subject to the
dominion of Great Britain." i This declaration, pre-
posterous in itself, was binding on France, whose
plenipotentiaries had signed the treaty. The treaty
also provided that the subjects of the two Crowns
"shall enjoy full liberty of going and coming on
account of trade," and Clinton therefore demanded
that La Jonquifire should disavow the arrest of the
four traders and punish its authors. The French
governor replied with great asperity, spumed the
claim tliat the Five Nations were British subjects,
and justified the ar-est.^ He presently went further.
Rewards were offered by his officers for the scalps
of Croghan and of another trader named Lowry.^
When this reached the ears o^ William Johnson, on
the Mohawk, he wrote to Clinton in evident anxiety
for his own scalp : " If the French go on so, there is
no man can be safe in his own house; for I caa at
any time get an Indian to kill any man for a small
matter. Their goir..^ on in that manner is worse
than open war."

The French on their side made counter-accusa-
tions. The captive traders were examined en oath
before La Jonquidre, and one of them, John Patton,

1 C •aers, Collection of Treaties, i. 382.

" La Jonquiere a Clinton, 10 AoiU, 1751.

« Deposition of Morris Turner and Ralph Kilgore, in Colonial
Records of Pa., v. 482. The deponents had been prisoners at
Detroit.

I it

1780, 1751.] La JONQUifeRES TllOUBLES. 86

is reported to have said thet Croghan had instigated
Indians to kiL Frenchmen. ^ French officials declared
that other English traders were guilt}' of the same
practices; and there is very little doubt that the
charge was true.

The dispute with the English was not the only
80 irce of trouble to the governor. His superiors at
Vereailles would not adopt his viuvvs, and ooked on
him with distrust. He advised the building of f jrtd
near Lake Erie, and his advice was rejected.
"Niag,.m and Detroit," he was told, "will secure
forever our communications with Louisiana. " ^ " His
Majesty," again wrote the colonial minister, "thought
that expenses would diminish after the peace; but,
on the contrary, they have increased. There must
be great abuses. You and the intendanc must look
to H " 3 Great abuses ther'i were ; and of Jho money
«out to Canada for the sei ice of the King the larger
part fo ind its way into the pockets of peculators.
The co'ony was eaten to the heart with official cor-
ruptioi.-; r-nd the centre of it was Francois Bigot,
the intendant. The minister 'lirected La Jonquidre's
attention to certain malpractices which had been
rep-n-ted to him; and clie old man, d'- -.ly touched,
replied: "I have reached the age of sixty-six vjars,
and there is not a drop of blood in my veins the.t does
not thrill for the service of my King. I will not

1 Precis ues Faits, avec leurs Pieces fustificatvH^, 100.
** Ordres du Roy et D€peches des Ministres, 1750.
8 ill i., 6 Jidn, 1751.

rm»

CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1750-1752.

conceal from you that the slightest suspicion on your
part against me would cut the thread of my days."^

Perplexities increased; affairs in the West grew
worse and worse. La Jonqui^re ordered Cdloron to
atta,ck the English at Pickawillany; and Cdloron
could not or would not obey. "I cannot express,"
writes the governor, " how much this business troubles
me; it robs me of sleep; it makes me ill." Another
letter of rebuke presently came from Versailles.
" Last year you wrote that you would soon drive the
English from the Ohio ; but private letters say that
you have done nothing. This is deplorable. If not
expelled, they will seem to acquire a right against
us. Send force enough at once to drive them off,
and cure them of all wish to return." ^ La Jonquifere
answered with bitter complaints against C^loron,
and then begged to be recalled. His health, already
shattered, was ruined by fatigue and vexation; and
he took to his bed. Before spring he was near his
end.^ It is said that, though very rich, his habits of
thrift so possessed his last hours that, seeing wax
candles burning in his chamber, he ordered others of
tallow to be brought instead, as being good enough
to die by. Thus frugally lighted on it<i way, his
spirit fled; and the Baron de Longueuil took his
place till a new governor should arrive.

' La Jonquiere au Ministre, 19 Octobre, 1751.

2 Ordres du Roy et D€peches des Ministres, 1761.

8 He died on the sixth of March, 1762 {Bigot au Ministre, 6 Mai) ;
not on the seventeenth of May, as stated in the Me'moires sur le
Canada, 1749-1760.

S f

m -

1751, 1752.] PERIL OF THE FRENCH.

Sinister tidings came thick from the West. Ray-
mond, commandant at the French fort on the
Maumee, close to the centre of intrigue, wrote;
"My people are leaving me for Detroit. Nobody
wants to stay here and have his throat cut. All the
tribes who go to the English at Pickawillany come
back loaded with gifts. I am too weak to meet the
danger. Instead of twenty men, I need five hundred.
. . . We have made peace with the English, yet they
try continually to make war on us by means of the
Indians; they intend to be masters of all this upper
country. The tribes here are leaguing together to
kill all the French, that they may have nobody on
their lands but their English brothers. This T am
told by Coldfoot, a great Miami chief, whom I think
an honest man, if there is any sue thing among
Indians. ... If the English stay in this country we
are lost. We must attack, and drive them out."
And he tellr of war-belts sent from tribe to tribe,
and rumors of plots and conspiracies far and near.

Without doubt, the English traders spared no
pains to gain over the Indians by fair means or foul;
sold them goods at low rates, made ample gifts, and
gave gunpowder for the asking. Saint-Ange, who
commanded at Vincennes, wrote that a storm would
soon burst on the heads of the French. Joncaire
reported that all the Ohio Indians sided with the
English. Longueuil informed the minister that the
Miamis had scalped two soldiers ; that the Piankishaws
had killed seven Frenchmen; and that a squaw who

h '

? ^

CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1751, 1752.

had lived with one of the slain declared that the
tribes of the Wabash and Illinois were leaguing with
the Osages for a combined insurrection. Every
letter brought news of murder. Small-pox had
broken out at Detroit. "It is to be wished," says
Longueuil, " that it would spread among our rebels ;
it would be fully as good as an army. . . . We are
menaced with a general outbreak, and even Toronto
is in danger. . . . Before long the English on the
Miami will gain over all the surrounding tribes, get
possession of Fort Chartres, and cut our communica-
tions with I'Ouisiana."^

The moving spirit of disaffection was the chief
called Old Britain, or the Demoiselle, and its focus
was his town of Pickawillany, on the Miami. At
this place it is said that English traders sometimes
mustered to the number of fifty or more. It is
they," wrote Longueuil, "who are the instigators of
revolt and the source of all our woes." ^ Whereupon
the colonial minister reiterated his instructions to
drive them off and plunder them, which he thought
would "effectually disgust them," and bring all
trouble to an end.^

La Jcuqui^re's remedy had been more heroic, for
he had ordered C^loron to attack the English and
their red allies alike; and he charged that officer

i D^peches de Longueuil; Lettres de Raymond; Benoit de Saint-
Cltrc a La Jonquiere, Octobre, 1751.

' Longueuil au Ministre, 21 Avril, 1762.

^ Le Ministre a La Jonquiere, 1752. Le Ministre a Duquesne, 9
JuiUet, 1752.

1752.]

CHARLES LANGLADE.

with arrogance and disobedience because he had not
done so. It is not certain that obedience was easy;
for though, besides the garrison of regulars, a strong
body of militia wa^ sent up to Detroit to aid the
stroke, 1 the Indians of that post, whose co-operation
was thought necessary, proved half-hearted, intract-
able and even touched with disaffection. Thus the
enterprise languished till, in June, aid came from
another quarter. Charles Langlade, a young French
trader married to a squaw at Green Bay, and strong
in influence with the tribes of that region, came down
the lakes from Michilimackinac with a fleet of canoes
manned by two hundred and fifty Ottawa and Ojibwa
warriors; stopped a while at Detroit; then embarked
again, paddled up the Maumee to Raymond's fort at
the portage, and led his greased and painted rabble
through the forest to attack the Demoiselle and his
English friends. They approached Pickawillany at
about nine o'clock on the morning of the twenty-
first. The scared squaws fled from the cornfields into
the town, where the wigwams of the Indians clustered
about the fortified warehouse of the traders. Of
these there were at the time only eight in the place.
Most of the Indians also were gone on their summer
hunt, though the Demoiselle remained with a band of
his tribesmen. Great was the screeching of war-whoops
and clatter of guns. Three of the traders were
caught outside the fort. The remaining five closed
the gate, and stood on their defence. The fight was

' La Jonquiere d Cdoron, 1 Octobre, 1751,

•Y

CONFLICT FOR THE WEST.

[1752.

' 1^

soon over. Fourteen Miamis were shot down, the
Demoiselle among the rest. The five white men held
out till the afternoon, when three of them surrendered,
and two, Thomas Burney and Andrew McBryer, made
their escape. One of the English prisoners being
wounded, the victors stabbed him to death. Seventy
years of missionaries had not weaned them from can-
nibalism, and they boiled and ate the Demoiselle. ^

The captive traders, plundered to the skin, were
carried by Langlade to Duquesne, the new governor,
who highly praised the bold leader of the enterprise,
and recommended him to the minister for such
reward as befitted one of his station. "As he is not
in the King's service, and has married a squaw, I
will ask for him only a pension of two hundred
francs, which will flatter him infinitely."

The Marquis Duquesne, sprung from the race of
the great naval commander of that name, had arrived
towards midsummer; and he began his rule by a
general review of troops and militia. His lofty
bearing offended the Canadians; but he compelled
their respect, and, according to a writer of the time,
showed from the first that he was born to command.
He presently took in hand an enterprise which his
predecessor would probably have accomplished, had
the home government encouraged him. Duquesne,
profiting by the infatuated neglect of the British

1 On the attack of Pickawillany, Longueuil au Ministre, 18 Aout,
1752 ; Duquesne au Ministre, 25 Octobre, 1752 ; Colonial Records of
Pa., V. 699 ; Journal of William Trent, 1762. Trent was on the spot
a few days after the affair.

1753.]

DUQUESNE.

provincial assemblies, prepared to occupy the upper
waters of the Ohio, and secure the passes with forts
and garrisons. Thus the Virginian and Pennsyl-
vanian traders would be debarred all access to the
West, and the tribes of that region, bereft henceforth
of English guns, knives, hatchets, and blankets, Eng-
lish gifts and English cajoleries, would be thrown
back to complete dependence on the French. The
moral influence, too, of such a movement would be in-
calculable ; for the Indian respects nothing so much
as a display of vigor and daring, backed by force.
In short, the intended enterprise was a master-stroke,
and laid the axe to the very root of disaffection. It
is true that, under the treaty, commissioners had
been long in session at Paris to settle the question of
American boundaries; but there was no likelihood
that they would come to agreement; and if France
would make good her western claims, it Taehooved
her, while there was yet time, to prevent her rival
from fastening a firm grasp on the countries in
dispute.

Yet the colonial minister regarded the plan with
distrust. " Be on your guard, " he wrote to Duquesne,
"against new undertakings; private interests are
generally at the bottom of them. It is through these
that new posts are established. Keep only such as
are indispensable, and suppress the others. The
expenses of the colony are enormous ; and they have
doubled since the peace." Again, a little later:
"Build on the Ohio such forts as are absolutely

1^^

CONFLICT FOR THE WEST.

[1753.

necessary, but no more. Remember that His Majesty
suspects your advisers of interested views." ^

No doubt there was justice in the suspicion.
Every military movement, and above all the establish-
ment of every new post, was an opportunity to the
official thieves with whom the colony swarmed.
Some bands of favored knaves grew rich; while a
much greater number, excluded from sharing the
illicit profits, clamored against the undertaking, and
wrote charges of corruption to Versailles. Thus the
minister was kept tolerably well informed, but was
scarcely the less helpless, for with the Atlantic
between, the disorders of Canada defied his control.
Duquesne was exasperated by the opposition that
met him on all hands, and wrote to the minister:
" There are so many rascals in this country that one
is forever the butt of their attacks. "2

It seems that unlawful gain was not the only secret
spring of the movement. An officer of repute says
that the intendant. Bigot, enterprising in his pleasures
as in his greed, was engaged in an intrigue wi^-h the
wife of Chevalier Pdan; and wishing at once tc con-
sole the husband and to get rid of him, sou^ ' v
him a high command at a distance from the colony .
Therefore while Marin, an able officer, was made
•st in rank, P^an was made second. The same
welter hints that Duquesne himself was influenced by
similar motives in his appointment of leaders.^

1 Ordres du Roy et Dgpeches des Ministres, 1753.

2 Duquesne au Ministre, 29 Septembre, 1754.

8 Pouchot, M€vioire sur la derniere Guerre de I'Am&ique septen-
trionale (<;rf. 1781) i. 8.

'(ft

1753.]

THE OHIO ENTERPRISE.

He mustered the colony troops, and ordered out
the Canadians. With the former he was but half
satisfied; with the latter he was delighted; and he
praises highly their obedience and alacrity. " I had
not the least trouble in getting them to march.
They came on the minute, bringing their own guns,
though many people tried to excite them to revolt;
for the whole colony opposes my operations." The
expedition set out early in the spring of 1753. The
whole force was not much above a thousand men,
increased by subsequent detachments to fifteen hun-
dred; but to the Indians it seemed a mighty host;
and one of their orators declared that the lakes and
rivtiS were covered with boats and soldiers from
Montreal to Presqu'isle.* Some Mohawk hunters by
the St. Lawrence saw them as they passed, and
hastened home to tell the news to Johnson, whom
they wakened at midnight, "whooping and hollow-
ing in a frightful manner. "^ Lieutenant Holland at
Oswego saw a fleet of canoes upon the lake, and was
told by a roving Frenchman that they belonged to
an army of six thousand men going to the Ohio, " to
cause all the English to quit those parts." ^

The main body of the expedition landed at
Presqu'isle, on the southeastern shore of Lake Erie,
where the town of Erie now stands ; and here for a
while we leave them.

^ Duquesne au Ministre, 27 Octobre, 1753.

" Johnson to Clinton, 20 April, 1753, in N. Y. Col. Dons., vi. 778.

» Holland to Clinton, 15 May, 1753, in N. Y. Col. Docs., ri. 780,

CHAPTER IV.

1710-1754.

CONFLICT FOR ACADIA.

Acadia okded to England. — Acadianb swear Fidemtt. —
Halifax founded. — French Intrigue.- Acadian Priests.—
Mildness of English RuLa. — Covert Hostility op Aca-
DiANS. — Tub New Oath, — Treachery of Versailles —
Indians incited to War. — Clerical Agents of Revolt.
— AHnfe Le Loutre. — Acadians impelled to emigrate.—
Misery of the Emigrants. — Humanity op Cornwallis and
HopsoN. — Fanaticism and Violence of Le Loutre. — Cap-
ture of the "St, Franjjois." — The English at Beau-
BAssiN. — Lb Loutre drives out the Inhabitants. — Murder
of Howe. — Beausejour. — Insolence of Le Loutre : his
Harshness to the Acadians. — The Boundary Commission :
ITS Failure. — Approaching War.

While in the West all the signs of the sky fore-
boded storm, another tempest was gathering in the
East, less in extent, but not less in peril. The con-
flict in Acadia has a melancholy interest, since it
ended in catastrophe which prose and verse have
joined to commemorate, but of which the causes
have not been understood.

Acadia — ^-hat is to say, the peninsula of Nova
Scotia, with the addition, as the English claimed, of
the present New Brunswick and some adjacent
country — was conquered by General Nicholson in

,- ^"v-

me^xijux,

^ V '^..

WITH

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CriAlTKH TV.

V CADI A.

IDKUTV. —

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> OK TUB Kvil.iHAM8.-~ lIlMlANirV OF ( "oK vau.l.US ANI>
lIui-auN. — FaNAHOISM ASO ViOLBNOE OF I.I k — CaP

TUKK ..' r.M «,. FnANfoH."-TnK En<,i,j.h a'i" Hpa..
"'^'*'^'''' ■ ^^ iMtivr-* or , TiiK iNiUhit ANTi'rt. - McKiu.i;

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have not befi., ,. i.

Acadia — that ;],(, poninsiua of Nova

Scotia, with ,he Eiiglisli claimed, of

.resent New Brunswick and sotrfe adjacent

■ MaitiT — was conquered by General Nich.irton in

»{

nia-1740.]

OATH OF FIDEF.ITY.

1710, and formally tninHfcrrod by France ta the
Jiritii-ih C^'own, throe ywirn liuc by Mio treaty of
Utrechi,. Hy Ihut troai-y it wuh " oxj oHsly provided ^'
that Huoh of tho French iiili .its ua "are willing
to remain there and to h h ibjoLl to the Kingdom of
Great liri' lin, a:o to enjuy the five exe .iejo of their
relij^ion a(A'ordijig to Uiu g,v> of the Church of
Home, aH far uh the Liwh of Great Hritain ao aUow
the samo;" but that any who chooito may remove,
with their effectw, if they do no within a year. Very
fow availed themHelves of *'\n^ r^-rht; and after the
end of the yeav those wh iems ^leU were reijuired
to Uiiw an oath of allegiance m l\'v\g George. There
Ih no donliu that in a little time they wf)uld Imvo
complied, hail they lK;en let alone; but the French
authori'JcH vi Canada and Cape Hretou did their
utmost to prevent them, and employed agents to ^^eep
them hosUic to ICnghu; 1. Of tln'se the most ellicwnt
-wfbiv, the French priests, who, in spite of the treaty,
persuaded ^'leir flocks that they were still ei'bjects of
King Louis. Mence rose endless perplexity to the
Fnglish convmandei"-' 't Anmipolis, who more than
suspected thi»t the ' id.an attucks with which they
were L.trassei \vf;re due Miainly to P^rench instiga-
tion.^ It was ,.t till seventeen yeai-s after the treaty
that the A dirxv dd ' brought to take the oith
without qui'Ufioi>tions which made it almost useless.

' See the numerous papers in Selections frvn thz Put.. Docu-
ments of the Promnce of Nova Scotia (Halifax, 1809), pp. 1-165; a
government publieation of great value.

w^mm

il'

CONFLICT FOR ACADIA.

[1749.

The Ei.jlish authorities seem to have shown through-
out an unusual patience and forbearance. At length,
about 1730, nearly all the inhabitants signed by
crosses, since few of them could write, an oath recog-
nizing George II. as sovereign of Acadia, and promis-
ing fidelity and ooedience to him.^ This restored
comparative quiet f'.l the war of 1745, when some of
the Acadians remained neutxal, while some took
arms against the English, and many others aided the
enemy with information and supplies.

English power in Acadia, hitherto limited to a
feeble garrison at Annapolis and a feebler one at
Canseau, received at this time a great accession.
The fortress of Louisbourg, taken by the English
during the war, had been restored by the treaty;
and the French at once prepared to make it a mili-
tary and naval station more formidable than ever.
Upon this the British ministry resolved to establish
another station as a counterpoise ; and the harl)or of
Chebucto, on the south coast of Acadia, was chosen
as the site of it. Thither in June, 1749, came a fleet
of transports loaded with emigrants, tempted by
offers of land and a home in the New World. Some
were mechanics, tradesmen, farmers, and laborers;
others were sailors, soldiers, and subaltern officei-s
thrown out of employment by the peace. Including

1 The oath was literatim as follows : " Je Promets et Jure Sincere-
ment en Foi de Chretien que Je serai entiereinent Fldele, et Obeierai
Vraiment Sa Majeste' Le Roy George Second, qui [sic] Je reconnoi
pour Le Souvrain Seigneur de I'Accadie ou Nourelle Ecosse.
Ainsi Dieu me Soit en Aide."

'^^h,.^n,f

1749-1754.]

HALIFAX.

women and children, they counted in all about
twenty-five hundred. Alone of all the British
colonies on the continent, this new settlement was
the offspring, not of private enterprise, but of royal
authority. Yet it was free like the rest, with the
same popular representation and local self-govern-
ment. Edward Cornwallis, uncle of Lord Cornwallis
of the Revolutionary War, was made governor and
commander-in-chief. Wolfe calls him "a man of
approve' -.rage and fidelity;" and even the caustic
Horace Walpole speaks of him as " a brave, sensible
young man, of great temper and good nature. "

Before summer was over, the streets were laid out,
and the building-lot of each settler was assigned to
him; before winter closed, the whole were under
shelter, the village was fenced with palisades and
defended by redoubts of timber, and the battalions
late^ in garrison at Louisbourg manned the wooden
ramparts. Succeeding years broi. ,ht more emigrants,
till in 1752 the population was above four thousand.
Thus was born into the world the city of Halifax.
Along with the crumbling old fort and miserably
disciplined garrison at Annapolis, besides six or seven
small detached posts to watch the Indians and
Acadians, it comprised the whole British force on the
peninsula; for Canseau had been destroyed by the
French.

The French ha I never reconciled themselves to
the loss of Acadia, and were resolved, by diplomacy
or force, to win it back again; but the building of

VOL. I. — 7

f ,

CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.

I 1

if 1

Halifax showed that this was to be no easy task, and
filled them at the same time with alarm for the safety
of Louisbourg. On one point, at least, they saw
their policy clear. The Acadians, though those of
them who were not above thirty-five had been born
under the British flag, must be kept French at
heart, and taught that they were still French sub-
jects. In 1748 they numbered eighty-eight hundred
and fifty communicants, or from twelve to thirteen
thousand souls; but an emigration, of which the
causes will soon appear, had reduced them in 1752
to but little more than nine thousand. ^ These were
divided into six principal parishes, one of the largest
being that of Annapolis. Other centres of popula-
tion were Grand Prd, on the Basin of Mines ; Beau-
bassin, at the head of Chignecto Bay ; Pisiquid, now
Windsor; and Cobequid, now Truro. Their priests,
who were missionaries controlled by the diocese of
Quebec, acted also as their magistrates, ruling them
for this world and the next. Being subject to a
French superior, and being, moreover, wholly French
at heart, they formed in this British province a wheel
within a wheel, the inner movement always opposing
the outer.

Although, by the twelfth article of the treaty of
Utrecht, France had solemnly declared the Acadians

1 Description de I'Acadie, avec le Norn des Paroisses et le Nomhre
des Habitants, 1748. M€moire a presenter a la Cour sur la Necessity
de fixer les Limites de I'Acadie, par I'Abb^ de I'lsle-Dleu, 1753
(1754?). Compare the estimates in Censuses of Canada (Ottawa,
1876).

1749-1754.]

ACADIAN PRIESTS.

to be British subjects, the government of Louis XV.
intrigued continually to turn them from subjects into
enemies. Before me is a mass of English documents
on Acadian affairs from the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle
to the catastrophe of 1755, and above a thousand
pages of French official papers from the archives of
Paris, memorials, reports, and secret correspondence,
relating to the same matters. With the help of
these and some collateral lights, it is not difficult to
make a correct diagnosis of the political disease that
ravaged this miserable country. Of a multitude of
proofs, only a few can be given here , but these will
suffice.

It was not that the Acadians had been ill-used by
the English; the reverse was the case. They had
been left in free exercise of their worship, as stipu-
lated by treaty. It is true that, from time to time,
there were loud complaints from French officials that
religion was in danger, because certain priests had
been rebuked, arrested, brought before the Council
at Halifax, suspended from their functions, or
required, on pain of banishment, to swear that they
would do nothing against the interests of King
George. Yet such action on the part of the pro-
vincial authorities seems, without a single exception,
to have been the consequence of misconduct on the
part of the priest, in opposing the government and
stirring his flock to disaffection. La Jonquiere, the
determined adversary of the English, reported to the
bishop that they did not oppose the ecclesiastics in

100

CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.

' ;

the exercise of their functions, and an order of Louis
XV. admits that the Acadians have enjoyed liberty
of religion.^ In a long document addressed in 1750
to the colonial minister at Versailles, Roma, an
officer at Louisbourg, testifies thus to the mildness
of British rule, though he ascribes it to interested
motives. " The fear that the Acadians have of the
Indians is the controlling motive which makes them
side with the French. The English, having in view
the conquest of Canada, wished to give the French
of that colony, in their conduct towards the Acadians,
a striking example of the mildness of their govern-
ment. Without raising the fortune of any of the
inhabitants, they have supplied them for more than
thirty-five years with the necessaries of life, often on
credit and with an excess of confidence, without
troubling their debtors, without pressing them, with-
out wishing to force them to pay. They have left
them an appearance of liberty so excessive that they
have not intervened in their disputes or even punished
their crimes. They have allowed them to refuse with
insolence certain moderate rents payable in grain
and lawfully due. They have passed over in silence
the contemptuous refusal of the Acadians to take
titles from them for the new lands which they chose
to occupy. '^

-f ?i . 'f

1 La Jonquikre a I'^veque de Quebec, 14 Juin, 1750. M^moire du
Roy pour servir d' Instruction au Comte de Raymond, commandant pour
Sa Majesty a I'lsle Royale [Cape Breton], 24 Avril, 1761,

2 See Appendix B.

y 11

j. I

1749-1754.]

ACADIA., HOSTILITY.

101

"We know very well," pursues Roma, "the fruits
of this conduct in the last war; and the English
know it also. Judge then what will be the wrath
and vengeance of this cruel nation." The fruits to
which Roma alludes were the hostilities, open or
secret, committed by the Acadians against the Eng-
lish. He now ventures the prediction that the
enraged conquerors will take their revenge by draft-
ing all the young Acadians on board their ships-of-
war, and there destroying them by slow starvation.
He proved, however, a false prophet. The English
governor merely required the inhabitants to renew
their oath of allegiance, without qualification or
evasion.

It was twenty years since the Acadians had taken
such an oath ; and meanwhile a new generation had
grown up. The old oath pledged them to fidelity
and obedience; but they averred that Phillips, then
governor of the province, had given them, at the
same time, assurance that they should not be required
to t-^^r arms against either French or Indians. In
fact, such service had not been demanded of them,
and they would have lived in virtual neutrality, had
not many of them broken their oaths and joined the
French war-parties. For this reason Cornwallis
thought it necessary that, in renewing the pledge,
they should bind themselves to an allegiance as com-
plete as that required of other British subjects. This
spread general consternation. Deputies from the
Acadian settlements appeared at Halifax, bringing a

102

CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.

;.»

paper signed with the marks of a thousand persons.
The following passage contains the pith of it. " The
inhabitants in general, sir, over the whole extent of
this country are resolved not to take the oath which
your Excellency requires of us; but if your Excel-
lency will grant us our old oath, with an exemption
for ourselves and our heirs from taking i\^ arms, we
will accept it. "^ The answer of Cornwallis was by
no means so stern as it has been represented.^ After
the formal reception he talked in private with the
deputies; and "they went home in good humor,
promising great things. "^

The refusal of the Acadians to take the required
oath was not wholly spontaneous, but was mainly
due to influence from without. The French officials
of Cape Breton and Isle St. Jean, now Prince
Edward Island, exerted themselves to the utmost,
chiefly through the agency of the priests, to excite
the people to refuse any oath that should commit
them fully to British allegiance. At the same time
means were used to induce them to migrate to the
neighboring islands under French rule, and efforts
were also made to set on the Indians to attack the
English. But the plans of the French will best
appear in a despatch sent by La Jonqui^re to the
colonial minister in the autumn of 1749.

" Monsieur Cornwallis issued an order on the tenth

1 Public Documents of Nova S-.otia, 173.

* See Ibid., 174, where the answer is printed.

8 Cornwallis to the Board of Trade, 11 September, 1749.

1749-1754.]

COVERT WAR.

108

of the said month [Auffust], to the effect that if th^
inhabitanbs will remain faithful subjects of the King
of Great Britain, he will allow them priests and
public exercise of their religion, with the under-
standing that no priest shall officiate without his
permission or before taking an oath of fidelity to the
King of Great Britain. Secondly, that the inhabit-
ants shall not be exempted from defending their
houses, their lands, and the Government. Thirdly,
that they shall take an oath of fidelity to the King
of Great Britain, on the twenty-sixth of this month,
before officers sent them for that purpose."

La Jonqui^re proceeds to say that on hearing these
conditions the Acadians were filled with perplexity
and alarm, and that he, the governor, had directed
Boishdbert, his chief officer on the Acadian frontier,
to encourage them to leave their homes and seek
asylum on French soil. He thus recounts the steps
he has taken to harass the English of Halifax by
mf ;;>i3 of their Indian neighbors. As peace had been
declared, the operation was delicate ; and when three
of these Indians came to him from their missionary,
Le Loutre, with letters on the subject, La Jonquidre
was discreetly reticent. "I did not care to give
them any advice upon the matter, and confined my-
self to a promise that I would on no account abandon
them; and I have provided for supplying them with
everything, whether arms, ammunition, food, or
other necessaries. It is to be desired that these
savages should succeed in thwarting the designs of

ri, ^ -

'\ f

i ^^1.

104

CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.

the English, and even their settlement at Halifax.
They are bent on doing so; and if they can carry
out their plans, it is certain that they will pive the
English great trouble, and so harass them that they
will be a great obstacle in their path. These savages
are to act alone ; neither soldier nor French inhabit-
ant is to join them ; everything will be done of their
own motion, and without showing that I had any
knowledge of the matter. This *is very essential;
therefore I have written to the Sieur de Boishdbert to
observe great prudence in his measures, and to act
very secretly, in order that the English may not
perceive that we are providing for the needs of the
said savages.

"It will be the missionaries who will manage all
the negotiation, and direct the movements of the
savages, who are in excellent hands, as the Reverend
Father Germain and Monsieur I'Abbd Le Loutre are
very capable of making the most of them, and using
them to the greatest advantage for our interests.
They will manage their intrigue in such a way as
not to appear in it."

La Jonquiere then recounts the good results which
he expects from these measures: first, the English
will be prevented from making any new settlements ;
secondly, we shall gradually get the Acadians out
of their hands ; and lastly, they will be so discour-
aged by constant Indian attacks that they will
renounce their pretensions to the parts of the
country belonging to the King of France. "I feel,

1750.]

COVERT WAR.

105

Monseigneur,"— thus the governor concludes his
despatch, — "all the delicacy of this negotiation; be
assured that I will conduct it with such precaution
that the English will not be able to say that my
orders had any part in it."^

He kept his word, and so did the missionaries.
The Indians gave great trouble on the outskirts of
Halifax, and murdered many ha- '3 settlers; yet
the English authorities did not at- Crst suspect that
they were hounded on by theii iests, under the
direction of the governor of Canada, and with the
privity of the minister at Versailles. More than
this; for, looking across the sea, we find royalty
itself lending its august countenance to the machina-
tion. Among the letters read before the King in his
cabinet in May, 1750, was one from Desherbiers, then
commanding at Louisbourg, saying that he was advis-
ing the Acadians not to take the oath of alkgiance
to the King of England; another from Le Loutre,
declaring that he and Father Germain were consult-
ing together how to disgust the English with their
enterprise of Halifax ; and a third from the intendant,
Bigot, announcing that Le Loutre was using the
Indians to harass the new settlement, and that he
himself was sending them powder, lead, and mer-
chandise, "to confirm them in their good designs. "^

To this the minister replies in a letter to Desher-
Uers: "His Majesty is well satisfied with all you

1 La Jonquiere au Ministre, 9 Octohre, 1749. See Appendix B.
* R€sum^ des Lettres lues au Travail du Roy, Mai, 1750.

: t

A. i

I .

Id]

if.

■i . .

!!■

106 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1750, 1751.

have done to thwart the English in their new estab-
lishment. If the dispositions of the savages are such
as they seem, there is reason to hope that in the
course of the winter they will succeed in so harassing
the settlers that some of them will become disheart-
ened." Desherbiers is then told that His Majesty
desires him to aid English deserters in escaping from
Halifax. 1 Supplies for the Indians are also promised ;
and he is informed that twelve medals are sent him
by the frigate "La Mutine," to be given to the chiefs
who shall most distinguish themselves. In another
letter Desherbiers is enjoined to treat the English
authorities with great politeness. ^

When Count Raymond took command at Louis-
bourg, he was instructed, under the royal hand, to
give particular attention to the affairs of Acadia,
especially in two points, — the management of the
Indians, and the encouraging of Acadian emigration
to countries under French rule. "His Majesty,"
says the document, "has already remarked that the
savages have been most favorably disposed. It is
of the utmost importance that no means be neglected
to keep them so. The missionaries among them are
in a better position than anybody to contribute to
this end, and His Majesty has reason to be satisfied
with the pains they take therein. The Sieur de

^ In 1750 nine captured deserters from Phillips's regiment de-
clared on their trial that the French had aided them and supplied
them all witli money. Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 193.

» Le Ministre a Desherbiers, 23 Mai, 1750 ; Ibid., 31 Mai, 1760.

\ I

1749-1764.]

COVERT WAR.

107

Kayiv. nd will excite these missionaries not to slacken
their efforts; but he will warn theui at the «ame time
80 to contain their zeal as not to compromise them-
selves with the English, and give just occasion of
complaint." * That is, the King orders his representa-
tive to encourage the missionaries in instigating their
flocks to butcher English settlers, but to see that
they take care not to be found out. The injunction
was hardly needed. "Monsieur Desherbiers, " says a
letter of earlier date, " has engaged Abb^ Le Loutre
to distribute the usual presents among the savages,
and Monsieur Bigot has placed in his hands an addi-
tional gift of cloth, blankets, powder, and ball, to be
given them in case they harass the Englitu at
Halifax. This missionary is to indu-^e them to do
80."^ In spite of these efforts, the Indians began to
relent in their hostilities; and when Longueuil
became provisional governor of Canada, he com-
plained to the minister that it was very diflficult to
prevent them from making peace with the English,
thoiigh Father Germain was doing his best to keep
them on the war-path.^ La Jonqui^re, too, had done
his best, even to the point of departing from his
original policy of allowing no soldier or Acadian to
take part with them. He had sent a body of troops
under La Corne, an able partisan officer, to watch

1 Memoirs du Roy pour servir d' Instruction au Comte de Raymond,
24 Avril, 1761.

3 Lettre commune de Desherbiers et Bigot au Ministre, 15 AoOt,
1749.

8 Longueuil au Ministre, 26 Avril, 1752.

,3 J

■J
(

\ 'n

MMM

CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1764.

the English frontier; and in the same vessel wiu* sent
a supply of " merchandise, guns, and munitioas for
the savages and the Acadians who may take up arms
vith tliem; and the whole is sent under pietext of
trading in furs with the savages." ^ On another ooch-
sion La Jonquifere wiotc. *ln order that the 8a\ ^ s
may do their part courageously, a few Aci» .ns,
dressed and painted in their way, could join t'
strike the English. I cannot help consenting co
what these savages do, because we have our hands
tied [hi/ the peace], and co can do ning ou -selves.
Besides, I do not think that any inconvenience will
come of letting the Acadians mingle among them,
because if they [the Acadians] are captured, we shall
say that they acted of their own accord. "^ in other
words, he will Encourage t'i'-ia to break the peace;
and then, by means of a falss^i, »od, have them pun-
ished as felons. Many disgur'ed Acadians did in
fact join the Indian war-parties ; and their doing so
was no secret to the English. " Wha •< we call here
an Indian war," wrote Hopson, successor of Com-
wallis, "is no other ihan a pretence fnr the Trench
to commit hostilities on His Majesty s subjects."

At length the Indians made peace,, mt jretended
to do so. The chief of Le Loutre's misri'aii. who
called himself Major Jean-Baptiste Cor-, came to
Halifax with a deputation of his tribe, and liey ali
affixed their totems to a solemn treaty. In the next

1 Biffot. an Ministre, 1749.

2 D^p'ches de La Jonquiere, 1 Mai, 1751.

See Appendix B.

^ik\

1749-1754]

LE LOUTRE.

109

ounimer thoy returned \/ifh ninety or a h\»nd.'ed
warriors, were well enterta led, Presented with gifts,
and sent homeward in a school "jr. On the way they
8oi7<»d the vessel and murdered the orew. This is
told hy Prdvost, intendant at Louisbourg, who does
not say that Fiench instigation had any part in tl a
treachery.^ It is nevertheless certain that the IndJms
were paid fo»' this <«r some '^ontempoiary mnrt.ei-;
for Prlvost, writing just fo' r weeks later, say.i :
"Las*, month the snA'ages took eighteen English
scalps, and Monsieur Le Loutre was obliged to pay
them eighteen hunditd livres, Acadian money,
which [ have reimbursed him."*

From the first, the services of thw zealous mis-
sionary had been be ond price. Provost testifies
that, though Cornwa'ilis does his best to induce the
Acadians to swear fidelity to King George, Le Loutre
keep» them in allegiance to King L-^uis, and
threatens to set his Indiaiw upon them unless they
declare against th'; English. "I have already," adds
Prdvost, "paid him 11,18^ ^ivres for his daily
expenses; ynd I never aase au.ising him to be as
economical as possible, and always to take care not
to compromise himself with the English Govern-
ment." 3 In consequence of " good service to religion
r .^ the state," Le Loi^tre received a pension of eight

» Provost c 1 Mintstre, 12 ilfars,1753 ; Ibid., 17 Juillet, 1753. Pre-
vo9t was ordonnateur, or intendant, at Louisbourg. The treaty will
be found in full in Public Documeu ? of Nova Scotia, 683.

" . 'revost au Ministre, 16 Aout, 1753.
Ibid., 22 Juillet, nm.

CONILICT FOR ACADIA.

h , f

?, til 'A
Ill", I i

I* 'f

, ill

[1749-1754.

hundred livres, as did also Maillard, his brother mis-
sionary on Cape Breton. "The fear is," writes the
colonial minister to the governor of Louisbourg, "that
their zeal may carry them too far. Excite them to
keep the Indians in our interest, but do not let them
compromise us. Act always so as to make the
English appear as aggressors. " i

All the Acadian clergy, in one degree or another,
seem to have used their influence to prevent the
inhabitants from taking the oath, and to persuade
them that they were still French subjects. Some
were noisy, turbulent, and defiant; others were too
tranquil to please the officers of the Crown. A mis-
sionary at Annapolis is mentioned as old, and there-
fore inefficient; while the cur^ at Grand Prd, also an
elderly man, was itoo much inclined to confine himself
to his spiritual functions. It is everywhere apparent
that those who chose these priests, and sent them as
missionaries into a British province, expected them
to act as enemies of the British Crown. The maxim
is often repeated that duty to religion is insei. arable

1 Le Mlnistre au Comte de Raymond, 21 Juillet, 1752. It is curious
to compare these secret instructions, given by the minister to the
colonial officials, with a letter which tlie same minister, Rouille',
wrote ostensibly to La Jonquiere, but which was really meant for
the eye of the British minister at Versailles, Lord Albemarle, to
whom it was shown in proof of French good faith. It was after-
wards printed, along with other papers, in a small volume called
P^(fcis des Fails, avec lews Pieces justijicatives, which was sent by
the French government to all the courts of Europe to show that
the English alone were answerable for the war. The letter, it is
needless to s.iy, breathes the highest sentiments of internatif nal
honor.

1749-1754.] RESENTMENT OF CORNWALLIS. Ill

from duty to the King of France. The Bishop of
Quebec desired the Abb^ de I'lsle-Dieu to represent
to the Court the need of more missionaries to keep
the Acadians Catholic and Fiench; but, he adds,
there is danger that they (the missionaries) will be
required to take an oath to do nothing contrary to
the interests of the King of Great Britain. i It is a
wonder that such a pledge was not always demanded.
It was exacted in a few cases, notably in that of
Girard, priest at Cobequid, who, on charges of insti-
gating his flock to disaffection, had been sent prisoner
to Halifax, but released on taking an oath in the
above terms. Thereupon he wrote to Longueuil at
Quebec that his parishioners wanted to submit to the
English, and that he, having sworn to be true to the
British King, could not prevent them. " Though I
don't pretend to be a casuist," writes Longueuil, "I
could not help answering him that he is not obliged
to keep such an oath, and that he ought to labor in
all ..eal to preserve and increase the number of the
faithful." Girard, to his credit, preferred to leave
the colony, and retired to Isle St. Jean.^

Cornwallis soon discovered to what extent the
clergy stirred their flocks to revolt; and he wrote
angrily to the Bishop of Quebec : " Was it you who
sent Le Loutre as a missionary to the Micmacs? and
is it foi' their good that he excites these wretches to

■:i

H}\

^ L'Isle-Dieu, Memoire sur l'£tat actuel des Missions, 1753
(1754?).

2 Lcngueuil au Ministre, 27 4.jril, 1752.

t i-

"■if

-f -F

it *

CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.

practise their cruelties against those who have sliown
them every kindness? The conduct of the priests of
Acadia has been sucli that by command of Ilia
Majesty I have pubiialied an Ordur dechiring that if
any one of them presumes to exercise his functions
without my express permission he shnll be dealt
with according to the laws of England. "^

The English, bound by treaty to allow the Acadians
the exercise of their religion, at length conceived the
idea of replacing the French priests by others to l)e
named by the Pope at the request of the British gov-
ernment. This, becoming known to the French,
greatly alarmed them, and the intendant at Louis-
bourg wrote to the minister that the matter required
srrious attention.^ It threatened, in fact, to rob
them of their ohief agents of intrigue; but their
alarm proved needless, as the plan was not carried
into execution.

The French officials would have been oetter pleased
had the conduct of Cornwallis been such as to aid
their efforts to alienate the Acadians ; and one writer,
while confessing the "favorable treatment" of the
English towards the inhabitants, denounces it as a
snare. 3 If so, it was a snare intended simply to
reconcile them to English rule. Nor was it without
effect. "We must give up altogether the idea of an

. , H\ ,

' Cornwallis to the Bishop of Quebec, 1 December, 1749.
2 Daitdin />;. e, it PrSvost, 23 Octobre, 1753. Provost au Ministre
24 iVot'em6r«, 1753. '

» Memoire a prersnter a la Cour, 1753.

1749-1754.] UNWILLINCx EMIGRANTS.

118

insun'ection in Acadia," writes an officer of Cape
Breton. "The Acadiiins cannot be trusted; they are
controlled by fear of the Indians, which leads them
to breathe French sentiments, even when their inclina-
tions are P^nglish. They will yield to their interests ;
and tlie English will make it impossible that they should
either hurt them or serve us, unless we take measures
different from those we have hitherto pursued." ^

During all this time, constant efforts were made to
stimulate Acadian emigration to French territory,
and tlius to strengthen the French frontier. In
this work the chief agent w?8 Le Loutre. "This
priest," says a French writer of the time, "urged the
people of Les Mines, Port Royal [Annapolis], and
other places, to come and join the French, and
promised to all, in the name of the governor, to settle
and support them for three years, and even indemnify
them for any losses they might incur ; threatening if
tliey did not do as he advised, to abandon them,
deprive them of their priests, have their wives and
children carried off, and their property laid waste bv
the Indians."'^ Some passed over the isthmus to the
shores of the gulf, and others made their way to the
Strait of Canseau. Vessels were provided to convey
them, in the one case to Isle St. Jean, now Prince
Edward Island, and in the other to Isle Royale,
called by the English, Cape Breton. Some were
eager to goj some went with reluctance; some would

VOL. I. — 8

1 Roma au Ministre, 11 Mars, 1750.
'^ Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.

114

CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.

scarcely be persuaded to go at all. "They leave
their homes with great regret," reports the governor
of Isle St. Jean, speaking of the people of Cobequid,
"and they began to move their luggage only when
the savages compelled them. " i These savages were
the flock of Abbd Le Loutre, who was on the spot to
direct the emigration. Two thousand Acadians are
reported to have left the peninsula before the end of
1751, and many more followed within the next two
years. Nothing could exceed the misery of a great
part of these emigrants, who had left pertorce most
of their effects behind. They became disheartened
and apathetic. The intendant at Louisbourg says
that they will not take the trouble to clear the land,
and that some of them live, like Indians, under huts
of spruce-branches. 2 The governor of Isle St. Jean
declares that they are dying of hunger. ^ Girard, the
priest who had withdrawn to this island rather than
break his oath to the English, writes: "Many of
them cannot protect themselves day or night from
the s verity of the colo. Most of the children are
entirely naked ; and when I go into a house they are
all crouched in the ashes, close to the fire. They
run off and hide themselves, without shoes, stock-
ings, or shirts. They are not all reduced to this
extremity, but nearly all are in want."* Mortality

\ i

* Bonaventure a Desherbiers, 26 Juin, 1751.
2 Provost au Mintstre, 25 Novembre, 1750.

* Bonaventure, tit supra,

* Girard a {Bonaventure?), 27 Octobre, 1753.

\ \.i

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1749-1754.] FOUBEARANCE OF CORNWALLIS. 115

among them was great, and would Lave been greater
but for rations supplied by the French government.

During these proceedings, the English governor,
Comwallis, seems to have justified the character of
good temper given him by Horace Walpole. His
attitude towards the Acadians remained on the
whole patient and conciliatory. "My friends," he
replied to a deputation of them asking a general per-
mission to leave the province, "I am not ignorant of
the fact that every means has been used to alienate
the hearts of the French subjects of His Britannic
Majesty. Great advantages have been promised you
elsewhere, and you have been made to imagine that
your religion was in danger. Threats even have
been resorted to in order to induce you to remove to
French territory. The savages are made use of to
molest you; they are to cut the throats of all who
remain in their native country, attached to their own
interests and faithful to the Government. You know
that certain officers and missionaries, who came from
Canada last autumn, have been the cause of all our
trouble during the winter. Their conduct has been
horrible, without honor, probity, or conscience.
Their aim is to embroil you with the Government.
I will not believe that they are authorized to do so
by the Court of France, that being contrary to good
faith and the friendship established between the two
Crowns."

What foundation there was for this amiable confi-
dence in the Court of Versailles has been seen already.

CONFLICT FOR "JADIA. [1749-1754.

"When you declared your desire *o submit your-
selves to another Government," pursues Cornwallis,
" our determination was to hinder nobody from fol-
lowing what he imagined to be his interest. We
know that a forced service is worth nothing, and that
a subject compelled to be so against his will is not
far from being an enemy. We confess, however,
that your determination to go gives us pain. We
are aware of your industry and temperance, and that
you are not addicted to any vice or debauchery.
This province is your country. You and your
fathei's have cultivated it; naturally you ought your-
selves to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Such was
the design of the King, our master. You know that
we have followed his orders. You know that we
have done everything to secure to you not only the
occupation of your lands, but the ownership of them
forever. We have given you also every possible
assurance of the free and public exercise of the
Roman Catholic religion. But I declare to you
frankly that, according to our laws, nobody can pos-
sess lands or houses in the province who shall refuse
to take the oath of allegiance to his King when
required to do so. You know very well that theii
are ill-disposed and mischievous persons among you
who corrupt the others. Your inexperience, your
ignorance of the affairs of government, and your habit
of following the counsels of those who have not your
real interests at heart, make it an easy matter to
seduce you. In your petitions you ask for a general

1749-1764.]

HOPSOX.

117

\H :

leave to quit the province. The only manner in which
you can do so is to follow the regulations already
established, and provide yourselves with our pass-
port. And we declare that nothing shall prevent us
from giving such passports to all who ask for them,
the moment peace and tranquillity are re-estab-
lished. "^ He declares as his reason for not giving
them at once, that on crossing the frontier " you will
have to pass the French detachments and savages
assembled there, and that they compel all the inhabit-
ants who go there to take up arms" against the
English. How well this reason was founded will
soon appear.

Hopson, the next governor, described by the
French themselves as a "mild and peaceable officer,"
was no less considerate in his treatment of the
Acadians ; and at the end of 1752 he issued the fol-
lowing order to his military subordinates : " You are
to look on the French inhabitants in the same light
as the rest of His Majesty's subjects, as to the pro-
tection of the laws and government; for which reason
nothing is to be taken from them by force, or any
price set upon their goods but what they themselves
agree to. And if at any time the inhabitants should
obstinately refuse to comply with what His Majesty's
service may require of them, you are not to redress

( .1*.
• I

^ The above passages are from two addresses of Cornwallis,
read to the Acadian deputies in April and May, 1750. The com-
bined extracts here givon convey the spirit of the whole. See
Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 185-190.

ill

iSS

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118 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.

yourself by military force or in any unlawful manner,
but to lay the case before the Governor and wait his
orders thereon."^ Unfortunately, the mild rule of
Cornwallis and Hopson was not always maintained
under their successor, Lawrence.

Louis Joseph Le Loutre, vicar-general of Acadia
and missionary to the Micmacs, was the most con-
spicuous person in the province, and more than any
other man was answerable for the miseries that over-
whelmed it. The sheep of which he was the shepherd
dwelt, at a day's journey from Halifax, by the banks
of the river Shubenacadie, in small cabins of logs,
mixed with wigwams of birch-bark. They were not
a docile flock ; and to manage them needed address,
energy, and money, — with all of which the mis-
sionary was provided. He fed their traditional dis-
like of the English, and fanned their fanaticism, born
of the villanous counterfeit of Christianity wli>h he
and his predecessors had imposed on them. Thus he
contrived to use them on the one hand to murder the
English, and on the other to terrify the Acadians;
yet not without cost to the French government ; for
they had learned the value of money, and, except
when their blood was up, were slow to take scalps
without pay. Le Loutre was a man of boundless
egotism, a violent spirit of domination, an intense
hatred of the English, and a fanaticism that stopped
at nothing. Towards the Acadians he was a despot;
and this simple and superstitious people, extremely

^ Public Documentu of Nova Scotia, 197.

-1754.

1749-1764.]

LE LOUTRE.

119

susceptible to the influence of their priests, trembled
before hira. He was scarcely less masterful in his
dealings with the Acadian clergy; and, aided by his
quality of the bishop's vicar-general, he dragooned
even the unwilling into aiding his schemes. Three
successive governors of New France thought him
invaluable, yet feared the impetuosity of his zeal,
and vainly tried to restrain it within safe bounds.
The bishop, while approving his objects, thought his
medicines too violent, and asked in a tone of reproof:
" Is it right for you to refuse the Acadians the sacra-
ments, to threaten that they shall be deprived of the
services of a priest, and that the savages shall treat
them as enemies? "i "Nobody," says a French
Catholic contemporary, "was more fit than he to
carry discord and desolation into a country. " » Com-
wallis called him "a good-for-nothing scoundrel,"
and offered a hundred pounds for his head.^

The authorities at Halifax, while exasperated by
the perfidy practised on them, were themselves not
always models of international virtue. They seized
a French vessel in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on the
charge — probably true — that she was carrying arms
and ammunition to the Acadi'ans and Indians. A
less defensible act was the capture of the armed brig

1 L'^veque de Quebec a Lc Loutre ; translation in Public Docu-
ments of Nova Scotia, 240.

2 Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.

8 On Le Loutre, compare Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 178-
180, note, with authorities there cited ; N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 11 ;
Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1700 (Quebec, 1838).

■j'

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HMMMM

120

CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-17W.

^i -»J

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"St. Francois," laden with supplies for a fort lately
re-established by the French, at the mouth of the
river St. John, on ground claimed by both nation'
Captain Rous, a New England officer commanding «,
frigate in the royal navy, opened fire on the "St.
Francois," took her after a short cannonade, aid
carried her into Halifax, where she was condemned
by the court. Several captures r * small craft, accused
of illegal acts, were also made by the English.
These proceedings, being all of an overt nature, gave
the officers of Louis XV. precisely what they wanted,
— an occasion for uttering loud complaints, and
denouncing the English as breakers of the peace.

But the movement most alarming to the French
was the English occupation of Beaubassin, — an act
perfectly lawful In itself, since, without reasonable
doubt, the place was within the limits of Acadia, and
therefore on English ground.^ Beaubassin was a
considerable settlement on the isthmus that joins the
Acadian paninsula to the mainland. Northwest of
the settlement lay a wide marsh, through which ran
a stream called the Missaguash, some two miles
beyond which rose a hill called Beausdjou j. On and
near this hill were stationed the troops and Cana-
dians sent under Boishdbert and La Corne to watch
the English frontier. This French force excited
disaffection among the Acadians through all the

1 La Jonquifere himself admits that he thought so. " Cette partie
Ik ^tant, k ce que je crois, dependante de I'Acadie." — £a Jonquiere
au Ministre, 3 Octobre, 1750.

1749-1764.]

BEAUBASSIN.

121

neighboring districts, and constantly helped them to:
emigrate. Cornwallis therefore resolved to send an
English force to the spot; and accordingly, towards
the end of April, 1750, Major Lawrence landed at
Beaubassin with four hundred men. News of their
approach had come before them, and Le Loutre was
here with his Micmacs, mixed with some Acadians
whom he had persuaded or bullied to join him.
Resolved thao the people of Beaubassin should not
live under English influence, he now with his own
hand set fire to the parish church, while his white
and red adherents burned the houses of the inhabit-
ants, and thus compelled them to cross to the French
side of the river, i This was the first forcible removal
of the Acadians. It was as premature as it was
violent; since Lawrence, being threatened by La
Come, whose force was several times greater than
his own, presently re-embarked. In the following
September he returned with seventeen small vessels
and about seven hundred men, and again attempted
to land on the strand of Beaubassin. La Jonquiere
says that he could only be resisted indirectly, because
he was on the English side of the river. This

' 1 ,-

^ It has been erroneously stated that Beaubassin was burned
by its own inhabitants. " Laloutre, ayant vu que les Acadiens ne
paroissoient pas fort presse's d'abandonner leurs biens, avoit lui-
meme mis le feu k I'^glise, et I'avoit fait mettre aux maisons des
habitants par quelques-uns de ceux qu'il avoit gagn^s," etc.
M€moires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. "Les sauvages y mirent le
feu." Precis des Fails, 85. "Les sauvages mirent le feu aux
maisons." Provost au Ministre, 22 Juillet, 1750.

I; . 1

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122 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1764.

indirect resistance was undertaken by Le Loutro,
Tvho had thrown up a breastwork along the sliore
a: id manned it with his Indians and his painted and
befeathered Acadians. Nevertheless tlie English
landed, and, with some loss, drove out the defendei.^.
Le Loutre himself seems not to have been among
them ; but they kept up for a time a helter-skelter
fif ht, encouraged by two other missionaries, Germain
and Lalorne, who were near being caught by the
English. 1 Lawrence quickly routed them, took
possession of the cemetery, and prepared to fortify
himself. The village of Beaubassin, consisting, it
is said, a hundred uiid forty houses, had been
burned in the spring; but there were still in the
neighborhood, on the English side, many hamlets
and farms, Mith barns full of grain and hay.
Le Loutre 's Indians now threatened to plunder
and kill the inhabitants if they did not take
arms against the English. Few complied, and the
greater part fled to the woods. 2 On this the Indians
and their Acadian allies set the houses and barns on
fire, and laid waste the whole district, leaving the
inhabitants xxo choice but to seek food and shelter
with the French. 3

* La Valli^re, Journal de ce qui s'est passe a Chsnitou [Chiffnecto]
et autres parties des Frontieres de I'Acadie, 1750-1751. La V. Uiere
was an officer on the spot.

^ PrSvost att Ministre, 27 Septembre, 1750.

' "Les sauvages et Accadiens mirent le feu dans toutes les
maisons et granges, pleines de bled et de fourrages, ce qui a caus^
une grande disette."— La Valliere, ut supra.

174»-1754.] MURDER OF '.(.'WS.

The Engl is! I fortified themselves (»n a low hill by
the edge of iche marsh, planted palisades, built bar-
racks, and named ';he new work Fort Lawrence.
Sli<(ht skirmishes between them and the French were
fxequent. Neither p^uty respected the dividing line
of the Missaguash, and a petty warfare ot aggression
and repr ia1 began, and became chronic. Bafore the
<;nd of tlu* autumn theio wf* an atrocious act oi
treachery- A.raong the Fugiish officers was Captain
Edward Howe, an intelligent and agreeable person
who spoke French fluently, and had been long sta-
tioned in the province. Le Loutve detested him,
dreading his influence over t^c Acadians, by many
of whon>. he was known and liked. One morning,
.it about eight o'clo' k, the inmates of Fort Lawrence
saw what seemed an officer from Beaurjjour, carrying
h flag, and followed by seveiai men in uniform., wad-
ing through the sea of g'-ass that sfcr^tcl od beyond
the Missaguash. When the tide was out, this river
was but .-xn ugly trench of reddish mud gashed across
the face of the marsh, with a thread of half -fluid,
slime lazily crawling along the bottom ; but at high
tide it was filled to the brim with an opaque torrent
that would have overflowed, but foi- the dikes thrown
up to confine it. Behind the dike on the farther
bank stood the seeming officer, waving his ilag in
sign that he desired a parley. He was in reality no
officer, but one of Le Loutre's Indians in disguise,
"Stienne Le Batard, or, as others say, the great chief,
Jean-Baptiste Cope. Howe, carrying a white flag,

\ 1

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•?

' '^'4

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MmmuM

'■""-"^■■^

11119 1 !<^l

124 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.

and avcompanied by a few officers and men, went
tov/ards the river to hear what he had to say. As
they drew near, his looks and language excited their
suspicion. But it was too late; for a number of
Indians, who had hidden behind the dike during the
night, fired upon Howe across the strep i, and mor-
tally wounded him. They continued their fire on his
companions, but could not prevent them from carry-
ing the dying man to the fort. The French officers,
indignant at this villany, did not hesitate to charge
it upon Le Loutre; "for," says one of them, "what is
not a wicked priest capable of doing?" liut Le
Loutre's brother missionary, Mailkrd, declares that
it was purely an effect of religious zeal on the part of
the Micmacs, who, according to him, bore a deadly
grudge against Howe because, fourteen years before,
he had spoken words disrespectful to the Holy
Virgin. 1 Maillard adds that the Indians were mucli
pleased with what they hid done. Finding, how-
ever, that they could effect little against the English
troops, they changed their field of action, repaired to
the outskirts of Halifax, murdered about thirty
settlers, and carried off eight or ten prisoners.
Strong reinforcements came from Canada. The

llii

* Maillard, Les Missions Micmaques. On the mvrder of Howe
Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 194, 195, flO ; Me'moires sur le
Canada, 1749-1760, where it is said that Le Loutre was present at
the deed j La Vallifere, Journal, wlio says that some Acadians took
part in it ; Depeches de La Jongniere, who says " les sauvages de
I'A ' (be le Loutre I'ont tue' par trahison;" and Provost au Ministre
27 Octobre, 1760. '

1749-1754.] HARSHNESS OF LE LOUTRE.

125

French began a fort on the hill of Beausi^jour, aud
the Acadians were required to work at it with no
compensation but rations. Thfy were thinly clad,
some had neither shoe^ nor stockings, and winter was
begun. They became so dejected that it was found
absolutely necessary to give them wages enough to
supply their most pressing needs. In the following
season Fort Beausdjour was in a state to receive a
garrison. It stood on the crown of the hill, and a
vast panorama stretched below and around it. In
front lay the Bay of Chignecto, winding along the
fertile shores of Chipody and Memeramcook. Far
on the right spread the great Tantemar marsh; on
the left lay the marsh of the Missaguash ; and on a
knoll beyond ii, not three miles distant, the red flag
of England waved over the palisades of Fort
Lawrer, e, while hills wrapped in dark forests
bounded the horizon.

How the homeless Acadians from Beaubassin lived
through the winter is not very clear. They probably
found sheh'^r at Chipody and its neighborhood,
where there were thriving settlements of their
countr;yxnen. Le Loutre, fearing that they would
return to their lands and submit to the English, sent
some of them to Isle St. Jean. "They refused to
go," says a French writer; "but he compelled them
at last, by threatening to make the Indians pillage
them, caii'y off their wives and children, and even
kill them before their eyes. Nevertheless he kept
about him such as were most submissive to his

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126 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.

\vill."i In the spring after the English occupied
Bcaubassin, La Jonqui^re issued a strange proclama-
tion. It commanded all Acadians to take forthwith
an oath of fidelity to the King of France, anr" to
enroll themselves in the French militia, on pain of
being treated as rebels. 2 Three years after, Law-
rence, who then governed the province, proclaimed
in his turn that all Acadians who had at any time
sworn fidelity to the King of England, and who
should be found in arms against him, would be
treated as cri ainals.^ Thus were these unfortunates
ground 1 otween the r.pper and nether mill-stones.
Le Loutre replied to this proclamation of Lawrence
by a letter in which he outdid himself. He declared
thao any of the inhabitants who had crossed to the
French [.ide of the line, and who should presume to
return to the English, would be treated as enemies
by his Micmacs ; and in the name of these, his Indian
adherents, he demanded that the entire eastern half
of the Acadian peninsula, including the ground on
which Fort Lawrence stood, should be u,c once made
over to their sole use and sovereign ownership,* —
"which being read nnd considered," says the record
of the Halifax Council, "the contents appeared too
insolent and absurd to be answered."

f f?

1 M^moires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.

2 O'donnance du 12 Avril, 1751.

8 ^crit donn€aux Habitants r^fugi^s a Beaus€jour, 10 Aout, 1754.

* Copie de la Lett'' le MA'Ahh€Le Loutre, Pretre Missionnaire
des Sauvages de I'Accadie, a M. Lawrence a Halifax, 26 Aout, 1764.
There is a translation in PuJic Documents of Nova Scotia.

1749-1754.] COMPLAINTS OF ACADIANS.

127

The number of Aeadians who had crossed the line
and were collected about Beausdjour was now large.
Their countrymen of Chipody began to find them a
burden, and they lived chiefly on government rations.
Le Loutre had obtained fifty thousand livres from
the court in order to dike in, for their use, the fertile
marshes of Memeramcook ; but the relief was distant,
and the misery pressing. They complained that they
had been lured ov^r the line by false assurances, and
they applied secretly to the English aul/horities to
learn if they would be allowed to return to their
homes. The answer was that they might do so with
iuil enjoyment of religion and property, if they
woukl take a simple oath of fidelity and loyalty to
the Kinp[ of Great Britain, qualifted by an oral inti-
mation that they would not be required for the
present to bear arms.^ Vhen Le Loutre heard this,
he mounted the pulpit, broke into fierce invectives,
threatened the terrified people with excommunica-
tion, and preached himself into a state of exhaustion.^
The military commandant at Beausdjour used gentler
means of pre mention; and the Aeadians, unused for
generations to think or act for themselves, remained
restless, but indecisi>fe, waiting till fate should settle
for them the question, under which king ?

Meanwhile, for the past three years, the cominis-
sioners appointed under the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle

1 Public Documents of \ova Scotia, 205, 209.
!* Compare M€inoires, 174&-1760, and Public Documents of Nova
Scotia, 229, 230.

id.

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128

CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.

to settle the question of boundaries between France
and England in America had been in session at Paris,
waging interminable war on paper; La Galissoniere
and Silhouette for France, Shirley and Mildmay for
England. By the treaty of Utrecht, Acadia belonged
to England; but what was Acadia? According to
the English commissioners, it comprised not only the
peninsula now called Nova Scotia, but all the im-
mense tract of land between the river St. Lawrence
on the north, the gulf of the same name on the east,
the Atlantic on the south, and New England on the
west.i The French commissioners, on their part,
maintained that the name Acadia belonged of right
only to about a twentieth part of this territory, and
that it did not even cover the whole of the Acadian
peninsula, but only its southern coast, with an
adjoining belt of barren wilderness. When the
French owned Acadia, they gave it boundaries as
comprehensive as those claimed for it by the English
commissioners ; now tnat it belonged to a rival, they
cut it down to a paring of its former self. The
denial that Acadia included the whole peninsula was
dictated by the need of a winter communication
between ''^^uebec and Cape Breton, which was pos-
sible only with the eastern portions in French hands.
So new was this denial that even La Galissoniere

1 The commission of De Monts, in 1608, defines Acadia as ex-
tending from the fortieth to tho forty-sixth degrees of latitude, —
that is, from central New Brunswick to i-oathern Pennsylvania.
Neither party cared to produce the document.

1740-1754.] THE BOUNDARY COMMISSION.

129

himself, the foremost in making it, had declared
without reservation two years before that Acadia was
the entire peninsula. ^ "If," says a writer on the
question, " we had to do with a nation more tractable,
less grasping, and more conciliatory, it would be
well to insist also that Halifax should he given up to
us." He thinks that, on the whole, it would be well
to make the demand in any case, in order to gain
some other point by yielding this one.^ It is curious
that while denying that the country was Acadia, the
French invariably called the inhabitants Acadians.
Innumerable public documents, commissions, grants,
treaties, edicts, signed by French kings and minis-
ters, had recognized Acadia as extending over New
Brunswick and a part of Maine. Four censuses of
Acadia while it belonged to the French had recog-
nized the mainland as included in it ; and so do also
the early French maps. Its prodigious shiinkage
was simply the consequence of its possession by an
alien.

Other questions of limits, more important and
equally perilous, called loudly for solution. What
line should separate Canada and her western depend-
encies from the British colonies ? Various principles
of demarcation were suggested, of which the most
prominent on the French side was a geographical

^ " L'Aeadie suivant ses anciennes limites est la presquisle
bomee par son isthme." La Galissonniere au Ministre, 25 Juillet,
1749. The English commissioners were, of course, ignorant of
this admission.

2 M^moire de l'Abb€de I'Isle-Dieu, 1763 (1754?).

VOL. I, — 9

ill.

Mui'

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VS;

180

CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.

ill :

one. All countries watered by streams f-^Uing ini-o
the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the Miysissippi
were to belong to her. This would have planted her
in the heart of New York and along the crests of the
AUeghanies, giving her all the interior of the conti-
nent, and leaving nothing to England but a strip of
sea-coast. Yet in view of what France had achieved ;
of the patient gallantry of her explorei-s, the zeal of
her missionaries, the adventurous hardihood of her
bushrangers, revealing to civilized mankind the
existence of this wilderness world, while her rivals
plodded at their workshops, their farms, or their
fisheries, — in view of all this, her pretensions were
moderate and reasonable compared with those of
England. The treaty of Utrecht had declared the
Iro-nois, or Five Nations, to be British subjects;
therefore it was insisted that all countries conquered
by them belonged to the British Crown. But what
was an Iroquois conquest? The Iroquois rarely
occupied the countries they overran. Their military
expeditions were mere raids, great or small. Some-
times, as in the case of the Hurons, they made a soli-
tude and called it peace ; again, as in the case of the
Illinois, they drove off the occupants of the soil, who
returned after the invaders were gone. But the
range of their war-parties was prodigious; and the
English laid claim to every mountain, forest, or
prairie where an Iroquois had taken a scalp. This
would give them not only the country between the
AUeghanies and the Mississippi, but also that

1749-1754.] FAILURE OF COMMISSION.

131

between Lake Huron and the Ottawa, thus reducing
Canada to the patch on the American map now
represented by the province of Quebec, — or rather,
by a part of- it, since the extension of Acadia to the
St. Lawrence would cut off the present counties of
Gaspd, Rimousid, and Bonaventure. Indeed, among
the advocates of British claims there were those who
denied that France had any rights whatever on the
south side of the St. Lawrence.^ Such being the
attitude of the two contestants, it was plain that
there was n<\ resort but the last argument of kings.
Peace must be won with the sword.

The commissioners at Paris broke up their ses-
sions, leaving as the monument of their toils four
quarto volumes of allegations, arguments, and docu-
mentary proofs. 2 Out of the discussion rose also a
swarm of fugitive publications in French, English,
and Spanish; for the question of American bounda-

1 The extent of British claims is best shown on two maps of
the time, Mitchell's Map of the British and French Dominions in
North America and Huske's New and Accurate Map of North
America ; both are in the British Museum. Dr. John Mitchell, in
his Contest in America (London, 1767), pushes the English claim to
its utmost extreme, and denies that the French were rightful
owners of anything in North America except the town of Quebec
and the trading-post of Tadoussac Besides the claim founded
on the subjection of the Iroquois to the British Crown, the Eng-
lish somewhat inconsistently advanced others founded on titles
obtained by treaty from these same tribes, and others still, founded
ou the original grants of some of the colouies, which ran indefi-
nitely westward across the continent.

2 M€moires des Commissaire^ de Sa Majesty Tres Chr€tienne et de
ceux de Sa Majesty Brittaniq'xe. Paris, 1755. Several editions
appeared.

i !|i '

CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.

ries had become European. There was one among
them worth notice from its amusing absurdity. It is
an elaborate disquisition, under the title of Roman
politique, by an author faithful to the traditions of
European diplomacy, and inspired at the same time
by the new philosophy of the school of Rousseau.
He insists that the balance of power must be pre-
served in America as well as in Europe, because
"Nature," "the aggrandizement of the human soul,"
and the "felicity of man" are unanimous in demand-
ing it. The English colonies are more populous and
wealthy than the French; therefore the French
should have more land, to keep the balance. Nature,
the human soul, and the felicity of man require that
France should own all the country beyond the AUe-
ghanies and all Acadia but a strip of the south coast,
according to the "sublime negotiations" of the
French commissioners, of which the writer declares
himself a "religious admirer." ^

We know already that France had used means
sharper than negotiation to vindicate her claim to the
interior of the continent ; had marched to the sources
of the Ohio to intrench herself there, and hold the
passes of the West against all comers. It remains to
see how she fared in her bold enterprise.

1 Roman politique sur I'^tat present des Affaires de I'Am^rique
(Amsterdam, 1756). For extracts from French Documents, see
Appendix B.

CHAPTER V.

1753, 1764.

WASHINGTON.

The French occdpy the Sources of the Ohio : their Suf-
ferings. — Fort Le Bceuf. — Leoardeur de Saint-Pierre. —
Mission of Washington. — Robert Dinwiddie : he op-
poses THE French ; his Disput ■: with the Burgesses ;
HIS Energy ; his Appeals for Help. — Fort Duquesne.
— Death of Jumonville. — Washington at the Great
Meadows. — Coulon db Villiehs, — Fort Necessity.

Towards the end of spring the vanguard of the
expedition sent by Duquesne to occupy the Ohio
landed at Presqu'isle, where Erie now stands. This
route to the Ohio, far better than that which Cdloron
had followed, was a new discovery to the French;
and Duquesne calls the harbor "the finest in nature.''
Here they built a fort of squared chestnut logs, and
when it was finished they cut a road of several
leagues through the woods to Riviere aux Bceufs,
now French Creek. At the farther end of this road
they began another wooden fort and called it Fort Le
Bceuf. Thence, when the water was high, they
could descend French Creek to the Alleghany, and
follow that stream to the main current of the Ohio.

184

WASHINGTON.

[1758.

I, I IP I

It was heavy work to cany the cumbrous load of
baggage across the portages. Much of it is said to
have been superfluous, consisting of velvets, silks,
and other useless and costly articles, sold to the King
at enormous prices as necessaries of the expedition.*
The weight of the task fell on the Canadians, who
worked with cheerful hardihood, and did their part
to admiration. Marin, commander of the expedition,
a gruff, choleric old man of sixty-three, but full of
force and capacity, spared himself so little that he
was struck down with dysentery, and, refusing to be
sent home to Montreal, was before long in a dying
state. His place was taken by P^an, of whose
private character there is little good to be said, but
whose conduct as an officer was such that Duquesne
calls hin; a prodigy of talents, resources, and zeal.'
The subalterns deserve no such praise. They dis •
liked the service, and made no secret of their discon-
tent. Rumuirt of it filled Montreal; and Duquesne
wrote to Marin : " I am surprised that you ha-e not
told me of this change. Take note of the sullen and
discouraged faces about you. This sort are worse
than useless. Rid ycurself of them lit once; send
them to Montreal, that I may make an example of
them." 3 Pdan wrote at the end of September that
Marin was in extremity; and the governor, disturbed

1 Pouchot, Memoires sur la derniere Guerre de I'Ame'rique Septen-
tn'onale, i. 8.

2 Duguem au Ministre, 2 Novembre, 1753 j compare Memoire pour
Michel-Jean Hugues Peait.

' Puquesne a Marin, 27 Aout, 1763.

1 I

1758.] EFFECTS OF EXPEDITION. 186

and alarmeu, for he knew the value of the sturdy old
officer, looked anxiously for a successor. He chose
another veteran, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, who had
just returned from a journey of exploration towards
the Kocky Mountains,! and wl )m Duquesne now
ordered to the Ohio.

Meanwhile the effects of the expedition had already
justified it. At first the Indians of the Ohio had
shown a bold front. One of them, a chief whom the
English called the Half-King, came to Fort Le Boeuf
and ordered the French to leave the countiy, but
was received by Marin with such contemptuous
haughtiness that he went home shedding tears of
rage and mortification. The western tribes were
daunted. The Miamis, but yesterday fast friends of
the English, made humble submission to the French,
and offered them two English scalps to signalize their
repentance; while the Sacs, Pottawattamies, and
Ojibwas were loud in professions of devotion, a Even
the Iroquois, Delawares, and Shawanoes on the Alle-
ghany had come to the French camp and offered their
help in carrying the baggage. It needed but perse-
verance and success in the enterprise to win over
every tribe from the mountains to the Mississippi.
To accomplish this and to curb the English, Duquesne
had planned a tliird fort, at the junction of French/

1 Memoire au Journal sommaire dti Voyage de Jacques Legardeur de
oamt-Pierre.

2 Rappons de Conseils avec les Sauvages h Montreal, Juillet 1753
Z)«7«esne au Ministre, 31 Octohre, 1753. Letter of Dr. Shuckburgl- in
iV. r. Col. Docs., vi. 806. '

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Creek with the AUeghai^y, or at some point lower
down ; then, leaving the thrtre posts well garrisoned,
Pdan was to descend the Ohio with the whole remain-
ing lorce, impose terror on the wavering tribes, and
complete their conversion. Both plans were thwarted ;
die fort was not built, nor did P^an descend the
Ohio. Fevers, lung diseases, and scurvy made such
deadly havoc among troops and Canadians that ^he
dying Marin saw with bitterness that his work must
be left half done. Three hundred of the best men
were kept to garrison Forts Presqu' isle and Le Boeuf;
and then, as winter approached, the rest were sent
back to Montreal. When they arrived, the gov-
ernor was shocked at their altered looks o "I
reviewed them, and could not help being touched
by the pitiable state to which fatigues and expos-
ures had reduced them. Past all doubt, if these
emaciated tigures had gone down the Ohio as in-
tended, the river would have been strewn with
corpses, and the evil-disposed savages would not have
failed to attack the survivors, seeing that they were
but spectres."^

Legardeur de Saint-Pierre arrived at the end of
autumn, and made his quarters at Fort Le Bceuf.
The surrounding forests had dropped their leaves,
and in gray and patient desolation bided the coming
winter. Chill rains drizzled over the gloomy " clear-

1 Duquesne au Ministre, 29 Novembre, 1753. On this expedition,
compare the letter of Duquesne in N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 265, and the
deposition of Stephen Coffen, Ibid., vi. 835.

1753.]

FORT LE BCEUF.

137

ing," and drenched the palisades and log-built bar-
racks, raw from the axe. Buried in the wilderness,
the mUitary exiles resigned themselves as they might
to months of monotonous solitude; when, just after
sunset on the eleventh of December, a tall youth
came out of the forest on horseback, attended by a
companion much older and rougher than himself
and followed by several Indians and four or five
white men with pack-horses. OflScera from the
fort, went out to meet the strangers; ai.d, wading
through mud and sodden sno^, they entered at the
gate. On the next day the young leader of the
party, with the help of an interpreter, for he spoke
no French, had an interview with the commandant,
and gave him a letter from Governor Dinwiddle
Saint-Pierre and the officer next in rank, who knew
a little English, took it to another room to study
It at their ease; and in it, all unconsciously, they
read a name destined to stand one of the noblest
in the annals of mankind; for it introduced xvlajor
George Washington, Adjutant-General of the Vir-
ginia militia. 1

Dinwiddle, jealously watchful of French aggres-
sion, had learned through traders and Indians that a
strong detachment from Canada had entered the
territories of the King of England, and built orts on
Lake Erie and on a branch of the Ohio. He wrote
to challenge the invasion and summon the invadera
to withdraw; and he could find none so fit to bear

1 Journal of Major Washington. Journal of Mr. Christopher Giit

I 1'

.I:,.,

138

WASHINGTON.

[1753.

: ,'

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his message as a young man of twenty-one. It was
this rough Scotchman who launched Washington on
his illustrious career.

Washington set out for the trading-station of the
Ohio Company on Will's Creek; and thence, at the
middle of November, struck into +^e wilderness with
Christopher Gist as a guide, Vanbraam, a Dutchman,
as French interpreter, Davison, a trader, as Indian
interpreter, and four woodsmen as servants. They
went to the forks of the Ohio, and then down the
river to Logstown, the Chiningud of C^loron de
Bienville. There Washington had various parleys
with the Indians ; and thence, after vexatious delays,
he continued his journey towards Fort Le Bceuf,
accompanied by the friendly chief called the Half-
King and by three of his tribesmen. For several
days they followed the traders' path, pelted with
unceasing rain and snow, and came at last to the old
Indian town of Venango, where French Creek enters
the Alloghany. Here there was an English trading-
house ; but the French had seized it, raised their flag
over it, and turned it into a military outpost. ^ Jou-
caire was in command, with two subalterns; and
nothing could exceed their civility. They invited
the strangers to supper; and, says Washington, "the
wine, as they dosed themselves pretty plentifully

1 Marin had sent sixty men in August to seize the house, which
belonged to the trader Fraser. De'peches de Duquesne. They car-
ried off two men whom they found here. Letter of Eraser in
Colonial Records of Pa., v. 659.

!1 .

h -I I

1753.]

DINWIDDIE'S LETTER.

139

with it, soon banished the restraint which at first
appeared in their conversation, and gave a license to
their tongues to reveal their sentiments more freely.
They told me that it was their absolute design to
take possession of the Ohio, and, by G— , they
would do it; for that although they were sensible the
English could raise two men for their one, yet they
knew their motions were too slow and dilatory to
prevent any undertaking of theirs." i

With all their civility, the French officers did
their best to entice away Washington's Indians ; and
it was with extreme difficulty that he could persuade
them to go with him. Through mars! > !\« and swamps,
forests choked with snow, and drenched with inces-
sant rain, they toiled on for four days more, till the
wooden walls of Fort Le Boeuf appeared at last, sur-
rounded by fields studded thick with stumps, and
half-encircled by the chill current of French Creek,
along the banks of which lay more than two hundred
canoes, ready to carry troops in the spring. Wash-
ington describes Legardeur de Saint-PieiTe as "an
elderly gentleman with much the air of a soldier."
The letter sent him by Dinwiddle expressed astonish-
ment that his troops should build forts upon lands
"so notoriously known to be the property of the
Crown of Great Britain." "I must desire you,"
continued the letter, "to acquaint me by whose
authority and instructions you have lately marched

1 Journal of Washington, as printed at Williamsbur , just after
his return.

140

WASHINGTON.

[1758.

from Canada with an armed force, and invaded the
King of Great Britain's territories. It becomes ray-
duty to require your peaceable departure; and that
you would forbear prosecuting a purpose so inter-
ruptive of the harmony and good understanding
which His Majesty is desirous to continue and culti-
vate with the Most Christian King. I persuade
myself you will receive and entertain Major Washing-
ton with the candor and politeness natural to your
nation ; and it will give me the greatest satisfaction
if you return him with an answer suitable to my
wishes for a very long and lasting peace between us."
Saint-Pierre took three days to frame the answer.
In it he said that he should send Dinwiddle's letter
to the Marquis Duquesne and wait his orders ; and
ihat meanwliile he should remain at his post, accord-
ing to the commands of his general. "I made it my
particular care," so the letter closed, "to receive Mr.
Washington with a distinction suitable to your dig-
nity as well as his own quality and great merit. "^
No form of courtesy had, in fact, been wanting.
"He appeared to be extremely complaisant," says
Washington, " though he was exerting every artifice
to set our Indians at variance with ijs. I saw that
every jatagem was practised to win the Half-King
to their interest." Neither gifts nor brandy were
spared; and it was only by the utmost pains that

1 " La Distinction qui convient a votre Dignitt^ k sa Qualite et k
son grand M^rite." Copy of original letter sent by Dinwiddie to
Governor Hamilton.

1754.]

ON THE ALLEGHANY.

141

Washington could prevent his red allies from staying
at the fort, conquered by French blandishments.

After leaving Venango on his return, he found the
horses so weak that, to arrive the sooner, he left
them and their drivers in charge of Vanbraam and
jjushed forward on foot, accompanied by Gist alone.
Each was wrapped to the throat in an Indian " match-
coat," with a gun in his hand and a pack at his back.
Passing an old Indian hamlet called Murdering
Town, they had an adventure which threatened to
make good the name. A French Indian, whom they
met in the forest, fired at them, pretending that his
gun had gone off by chance. They caught him, and
Gist would have killed him ; but Washington inter-
posed, and they let him go.^ Then, to escape pur-
suit from his tribesmen, they walked all night and all
the next day. This brought them to the banks of
the Alleghany. They hoped to have found it dead
frozen ; but it was all alive and turbulent, filled with
ice sweeping down the current. They made a raft,
shoved out into the stream, and were soon caught
helplessly in the drifting ice. Washington, pushing
hard with his setting-pole, was jerked into the freez-
ing river, but caught a log of the raft, and dragged
himself out. By no efforts could they reach the
farther bank, or regain that which they had left; but
they were driven against an island, where they
landed, and left the raft to its fate. The night was

1 Journal of Mr. Christopher Gist, in Mass. Hist. Coll. 3rd
Series, v.

Ill

142

WASHINGTON.

[1768.

f.; «

excessively cold, and Gist's feet and hands were
badly frost-bitten. In the morning, the ice had set,
and the river was a solid floor. They crossed it, and
succeeded in reaching the house of the trader Eraser,
on the Monongahela. It was the middle of January
when Washington arrived at Williamsburg and made
his report to Dinwiddle.

Robert Dinwiddle was lieutenant-governor of
Virginia, in place of the titular governor, Lord
Albemai.j, whose post was a sinecure. He had been
clerk in a government office in the West Indies;
then surveyor of customs in the "Old Dominion,"
— a position in which he made himself cordially dis-
liked; and when he rose to the governorship he
carried his unpopularity with him. Yet Virginia
and all the British colonies owed him much; for,
though past sixty, he was the most watchful sentinel
against French aggression and its most strenuous
opponent. Scarcely had Marin's vanguard appeared
at Presqu'isle. when Dinwiddle warned the home
government of the danger, and urged, what he had
before urged in vain on the V^irginian Assembly, the
immediate building of forts on the Ohio. There
came in reply a letter, signed by the King, authoriz-
ing him to build the forts at the cost of the colony,
and to repel force by force in case he was molested
or obstructed. Moreover, the King wrote: "If you
shall fmd that any number of persons shall presume
to erect any fort or forts within the limits of our
province of Virginia, you are first to require of them

14.

[1768.

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Gov. Robert Diinciddie.

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1763.]

DISPUTE WITH BURGESSES.

148

peaceably to depart; and if, notwithstanding your
admonitions, they do still endeavor to carry out any
such unlawful and unjustifiable designs, we do hereby
strictly charge anr" command you to drive them off
by force of arms.''^

The order was easily given ; but to obey it needed
men and money, and for these Dinwiddle was
dependent on his Assembly, or House of Burgesses.
He convoked them for the first of November, sending
Washington at the same time with the summons to
Saint-Pierre. The burgesses met. Dinwiddle ex-
posed the danger, and asked for means to meet it.^
They seemed more than willing to comply; but
debates presently arose concerning the fee of a pistole,
which the governor had demanded on each patent of
land issued by him. The amount was trifling, but
the principle was doubtful. The aristocratic republic
of Virginia was inteneely jealous of the slightest
encroachment on its rights by the Crown or its repre-
sentative. The governor defended the fee. The
burgesses replied that "subjects cannot be deprived
of the least part of their property without their con-
sent," declared the fee unlawful, and called on Din-
widdle to confess it to be so. He still defended it.
They saw in his demand for supplies a means of
bringing him to terms, and refused to grant money
unless he would recede from his position. Dinwiddle

1 Instructions to Our Trusty and Well^eloved Robert Dinwiddle, Esq.,
28 August, 1763.

2 Address of Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie to the Council and Bur-
gesses, 1 November, 1763.

144

WASHINGTON.

[1753.

^ 1

rebuked them for "disregarding the designs of the
French, and disputing the rights of the Crown; " and
he "prorogued them in some anger. "^

Thus he was unable to obey the instructions of the
King. As a temporary resource, he ventured to
order a draft of two hundred men from the militia.
Washington was to have command, with the trader,
William Trent, as his lieutenant. His orders ware
to push with all speed to the forks of the Ohio, and
there build a fort; "but in case any attempts are
made to obstruct the works by any persons whatso-
ever, to restrain all such offenders, and, in case of
resistance, to make prisoners of, or kill and destroy
them. "2 The governor next sent messengers to the
Catawbas, Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Iroquois of
the Ohio, inviting them to take up the hatchet against
the French, "who, under pretence of embracing
you, mean to squeeze you to death." Then he wrote
urgent letters to the governors of Pennsylvania, the
Carolinas, Maryland, and New Jersey, begging for
contingents of men, to be at Will's Creek in March at
the latest. But nothing could be done without
money; and trusting for a change of heart on the
part of the burgesses, he summoned them to meet
again on the fourteenth of February. "If they come
in good temper," he wrote to Lord Fairfax, a noble-
man settled in the colony, "I hope they will lay a
fund to qualify me to send four or five hundred men

* Dinwiddie Papers.

« Ibid. Instructions to Major George Washington, January, 1764.

1753.] DINWIDDIE TO HANBURY. 145

more to the Ohio, which, with the assistance of oui*
neighboring colonies, may make some figure."

The session began. Again, somewhat oddly, yet
forcibly, the governor set before the Assembl- the
peril of the situation, and begged them to postpone
less pressing questions to the exigency of the hour.^
This time they listened, and voted ten thousand
pounds in Virginia currency to defend the frontier.
The grant was frugal, and they jealously placed its
expenditure in the hands of a committee of their
own.2 Dinwiddle, writing to the Lords of Trade,
pleads necessity as his excuse for submitting to their
terms. "I am sorry," he says, "to find them too
much in a republican way of thinking." What
vexed him still more was their sending an agent to
England to complain against him on the irrepressible
question of the pistole fee; and he writes to his
London friend, the merchant Hanbuiy: "I have had
a great deal of trouble from the factious disputes and
violent heats of a most impudent, troublesome party
here in regard to that silly fee of a pistole. Surely
every thixiking man will make a distinction between
a fee and a tax. Poor people! I pity their igno-
rance and narrow, ill-natured spirits. But, my
friend, consider that I could by no means give up
this fee without affronting the Board of Trade and
the Council here who established it." His thoughte

» Sp^^rh of Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie to the Council and Bur-
gesses, 14 February, 1754.

2 See the bill in Hening, Statutes of Virginia, vi. 417
VOL. I. — 10

146

WASHINGTON.

[1754.

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were not all of this harassing nature, and he ends his
letter with the following petition : " Now, sir, as His
Majesty is pleased to make me a military officer,
please send for Scott, my tailor, to make me a proper
suit of regimentals, to be here by His Majesty's
birthday. I do not much like gayety in dress, but I
conceive this necessary. I do not much care for lace
on the coat, but a neat embroidered button-hole;
though you do not deal that way, I know you have a
good taste, that I may show my friend's fancy in that
suit of clothes ; a good laced hat and two pair stock-
ings, one silk, the other fine thread." ^

If the governor and his English sometimes provoke
a smile, he deserves admiration for the energy with
which he opposed the public enemy, under circum-
stances the most discouraging. He invited the
Indians to meet him in council at Winchester, and,
as bait to attract them, coupled the message with a
promise of gifts. He sent circulars from the King
to the neighboring governors, calling for supplies,
and wrote letter upon letter to rouse them to effort.
He wrote also to the more distant governor, Delancey
of New York, and Shirley of Massachusetts, begging
them to make what he called a " faint " against
Canada, to prevent the French from sending so large
a force to the Ohio. It was to the nearer colonies,
from New Jersey to South Carolina, that he looked
for direct aid ; and their several governors were all
more or less active to procure it ; but as most of them

1 Dinwiddie to Hanbury, 12 March, 1764 ; Ibid., 10 May, 1764.

1754.]

PROVINCIAL APATHY.

147

had some standing dispute with their assemblies,
they could get nothing except on terns with which
they would not, and sometimes could not, comply.
As the lands invaded by the French belonged to one
of the two rival claimants, Virginia and Pennsyl-
vama, the other colonies had no mind to vote money
to defend them. Pennsylvania herself refused to
move. Hamilton, her governor, could do nothing
against the placid obstinacy of the Quaker non-
combatants and the stolid obstinacy of the German
farmers who chiefly made up his Assembly. North
Carolina alone answered the appeal, and gave money
enough to raise three or four hundred men. Two
independent companies maintained by the King in
New York, and one in South Carolina, had received
orders from England to march to the scene of action;
and in these, with the scanty levies of his own and
the adjacent province, lay Dinwiddle's only hope.
With men abundant and willing, there were no
means to put them into the field, and no commander
whom they would all obey.

From the brick house at Williamsburg pompously
called the Governor's Palace, Dinwiddle despatched
letters, orders, couriers, to hasten the tardy rein-
forcements of North Carolina and New York, and
push on the raw soldiers of the Old Dominion, who
now numbered three hundred men. They were
called the Virginia regiment; and Joshua Fry, an
English gentleman, bred at Oxford, was made their
colonel, with Washington as next in command.

i :

148

WASHINGTON.

[1754.

Fry was at Alexandria with half the so-called regi-
ment, trying to get it into marching order ; Washing-
ton, with the other half, had pushed forward to the
Ohio Company's storehouse at Will's Creek, which
was to form a base of operations. His men were
poor whites, brave, but hard to discipline; without
tents, ill armed, and ragged as Falstaff's recruits.
Besides these, a band of backwoodsmen under Cap-
tain Trent had crossed the mountains in February to
build a fort at the forks of the Ohio, where Pittsburg
now stands, — a spot which Washington had ex-
amined when on his way to Fort Le Boeuf, and which
he had reported as the best for the purpose. The
hope was that Trent would fortify himself before the
arrival of the; French, and that Washington and Fry
would join him in time to secure the position. Trent
had begun the fort, but for some unexplained reason
had gone back to Will's Creek, leaving Ensign Ward
with forty men at work upon it. Their labors were
suddenly interrupted. On the seventeenth of April
a swarm of bateaux and canoes came down the Alle-
ghany, bringing, according to Ward, more than a
thousand Frenchmen, though in reality not much
above five hundred, who landed, planted cannon
against the incipient stockade, and summoned the
ensign to surrender, on pain of what might ensue.*
He complied, and was allowed to depart with his
men. Retracing his steps over the mountains, he
reported his mishap to Washington ; while the French

1 See the summons in Precis des Faits, 101.

1764.]

DINWIDDIE'S VEXATION.

149

demolished his unfinished fort, began a much larger
and better one, and named it Fort Duquesne.

They had acted with their usual promptness.
Their governor, a practised soldier, knew the value
of celerity, and had set his troops in motion with
the first opening of spring. He had no refractorjr
assembly to hamper him; no lack of money, for the
King supplied it; and all Canada must march at his
bidding. Thus, while Dinwiddle was still toiling
to muster his raw recruits, Duquesne 's lieutenant,
Contrecoeur, successor of Saint-Pierre, had landed at
Presqu'isle with a much greater force, in part regu-
lars, and in part Canadians.

Dinwiddle was deeply vexed when a message from
Washington told him how his plans were blighted;
and he spoke his mind to his friend Hanbury: "If
our Assembly had voted the money in November
which they did in February, it 's more than probable
the fort would have been built and garrisoned before
the French had approached; but these things cannot
be done without money. As there was none in our
treasury, I have advanced my own to forward the
expedition; and if the independent companies from
New York come soon, I am in hopes the eyes of the
other colonies will be opened; and if they grant a
proper supply of men, I hope we shall be able to
dislodge the French or build a fort on that river. I
congratulate you on the increase of your family.
My wife and two girls join in our most sincere
respects to good Mrs. Hanbury." i

1 Dinwiddle to Hanhury, 10 May, 1754,

150

WASHINGTON.

[1754.

The

of a king's fort by planti

seizure oi a King s ion oy planting cannon
against it and threatening it with destruction was in
his eyes a beginning of hostilities on the part of the
French; and henceforth both he and Washington
acted much as if war had been declared. From their
station at Will's Creek, the distance by the traders'
path to Fort Duquesne wtis about a hundred and
forty miles. Midway was a branch of the Monon-
gahela called Redstone Creek, at the mouth of which
the Ohio Company had built another storehouse.
Dinwiddle ordered all the forces to cross the moun-
tains and assemble at this point, until they should be
strong enough to advance against the French. The
movement was critical in presence of an enemy as
superior in discipline as he was in numbers, while
the natural obstacles were great. A road for cannon
and wagons must be cut through a dense forest and
over two ranges of high mountains, besides countless
hills and streams. Washington set all his force to
the work, and they spent a fortnight in making
twenty miles. Towards the end of May, however,
Dinwiddle learned that he had crossed the main ridge
of the AUeghanies, and was encamped with a hundred
and fiftj'- men near the parallel ridge of Laurel Hill,
at a place called the Great Meadows. Trent's back-
woodsmen had gone off in disgust; Fry, with the
rest of the regiment, was still far behind; and
Washington was daily expecting an attack. Close
upon this, a piece of good news, or what seemed
such, came over the mountains and gladdened the

1754.]

A BLOW STRUCK.

161

heart of the erovemor. He heard that a French
detachment had tried to surprise Washington, and
that he had killed or captured the whole. The facts
were as follows.

Washmgton was on the Youghiogany, a branch of
the Monongahela, exploring it in hopes that it might
prove navigable, when a raossengor came to him from
his old comrade, the Half-King, who was on the way
to join him. The message was to the effect that the
French had marched from their fort, and meant to
attack the first English they should meet. A report
came soon after that they were already at the ford of
the Youghiogany, eighteen miles distant. Washing-
ton at once repaired to the Great Meadows, a level
tract of grass and bushes, bordered by wooded hills,
and traversed in one part by a gully, which with a
little labor the men turned into an intrenchment, at
the same time cutting away the bushes and clearing
what the young commander called "a charming field
for an encounter." Parties were sent out to scour
the woods, but they found no enemy. Two days
passed; when, on the morning of the twenty-seventh,
Christopher Gist, who had lately made a settlement
on the farther side of Laurel Hill, twelve or thirteen
miles distant, came to the camp with news that fifty
Frenchmen had been at his house towards noon of
the day before, and would have destroyed everything
but for the intervention of two Indians whom he had
left in charge during his absence. Washington sent
seventy-five men to look for the party; but the

■ (
1 1 .

162

V7ASIIINGT0N.

[1754

I I

search was vain, the French having hiddc*. them-
selves so well as to escape any eye but that of an
Indian. In the evening a runner came from the
Half-King, who was encamped with a few warriors
some miles distant. He had sent to tell Washington
that he had found the tracks of two men, and traced
them towards a dark glen in the forest, where in his
belief all the French were lurking,

Washington seems not to have hesitated a moment.
Fearing a stratagem to surprise his camp, he left his
main force to guard it, and at ten o'clock set out for
the Half-King's wigwams at the head cf forty men.
The night was rainy, and the forest, to use his own
words, "as black as pitch." "The path," he con-
tinues, "was hardly wide enough for one man; we
often lost it, and could not find it again for fifteen or
twenty minutes, and we often tumbled over each
other in the dark. " * Seven of his men were lost in
the woods and left behind. The rest groped their
way all night, and reached the Indian camp at sun-
rise. A council was held with the Half-King, and
he and his warriors agreed to join in striking the
French. Two of them led the way. The tracks of
the two French scouts seen the day before were again
found, and, marching in single file, the party pushed
through the forest into the rocky hollow where the

1 Journal of Washington in Precis des Faits, 109, This Journal,
■whicli is entirely distinct from that befo;e cited, was found by the
French among the baggage left on the field after the defeat of
Braddock in 1755, and a translation of it was printed by them as
above. The original has disappeared.

1764.]

.TUMONVILLE.

168

French were supposed to be concealed. They were
there in fact; and they snatched their guns the
moment they saw the English. Washington gave
the word to fire. A short fight ensued. Coulon de
Jumc iville, an ensign in command, was killed, with
nine others; twenty-two were captured, and none
escaped but a Canadian who had fled at the beginning
of the fray. After it was over, the prisoners told
Washington that the party had been sent to bring
him a summons from Contrecoeur, the commandant
at Fort Duquesne.

Five days before, Contrecoeur had sent Jumonville
to scour the country as far us the dividing ridge of
the Alleghanies. Under him were another officer,
three cadets, a volunteer, an interpreter, and twenty-
eight men. He was provided with a written sum-
mons, to be delivered to any English he might find.
It required them to withdraw from the domain of
the King of France, and threatened compulsion by
force of arms in case of refusal. But before deliver-
ing the summons Jamonville was ordered to send
two couriers back with all speed to Fort Duquesne
to inform the commandant that he had found the
English, and to acquaint him when he intended to
communicate with them.i It is difficult to imagine
any object for such an order except that of enabling
Contrecoeur to send to the spot whatever force might
be needed to attack the English on their refusal to

^ The summons and th? instructions to Jumonville are in Pr€cis
des Faits.

154

WASHINGTON.

[I7n4.

■%

»f

withdraw. Jumonville had sent the two couriers,
and had hidden himself, apparently to wait the
result. He lurked nearly two days within five miles
of Washington 8 camp, sent out scouts to reconnoitre
it, but gave no notice of his presence; played to
perfection the port of a skulking enemy, and brought
destruction on hiraselt by conduct which can only be
ivscribed to a sinister motive on the one hand, or to
extreme folly on the other. French deserters told
Washington that the party came as spies, and were
to show the summons on'}- if threatened by a superior
force. Thib last assertion is confirmed by the French
officer Pouchot, who says that Jumonville, seeing
himself the weaker party, tried to show the letter he
had brought. ^

French writers say that, on first seeing the English,
Jumonville '8 interpreter called out that he had some-
thing to say to them; but Washington, who was at
the head of his men, affirms this to be absolutely
false. The French say further that Jumonville was
killed in the act of reading the summons. This is
also deraed by Washington, and rests only on the
assertion of the Canadian who ran off at the outset,
and on the alleged assertion of Indians who, if
present at all, which is unlikely, escaped like the
C inadian before the fray began. Druillon, an officer
with J'j moil villa, wrote two letters to Dinwiddie
after h-s , v.tn.re, to jialm the privileges of the
beare^ l^ ^ summons; but while bringing forward

J Pouchot, Memoire sur la derniire Guerre.

1754.] WASHINGTON'S CHAKACTERISTICS. 166

every other circumstance in favor of the claim, he
does not pretend that tlie summons was read or shown
either before or during the action. The French
account of the conduct of Washington's Indians is no
less erroneous. "This murder," suys a chronicler of
the time, "produced on the minds of the Huvages an
effect very different from that wiiich the cruel
Vvasinghton had promi'^pd himself. They have a
horror of crime ; and they were so indignant at that
which had just been perpetrated before their eyes,
that they abandoned him, and offered themselves to
us in order to take vengeance."* Instead of doing
this, they boasted of their part in the fi^ht, scalped
all the dead Frenchmen, sent one scalp to the Dela-
wares as an invitation to take up the hatchet for the
English, and distributed the rest among the various
Ohio tribes to the same end.

Coolness of judgment, 'x profound sense of public
duty, and a strong self-control, were even then the
characteristics of Washington; but ho was scarcely
twenty-two, was full of military ardor, and was
vehement and fiery by nature. Yet it is far from
certain that, even when age and experience had
ripened him, he would have forborne to act as he did,
for there was every reason for believing that the
designs of the French were hostile; and though by
passively waiting the event he would have thrown
upon them the responsibility of striking the first
blow, he would have exposed his small party to

^ Poulin de Lumina, Ilistoire de la Guerre contre lea Anglois, 15.

( I

156

WASHINGTON.

[1754.

capture or destruction by giving them time to gain
reinforcements from Fort Duquesne. It was inevi-
table that the killing of Jumonville should be greeted
in France by an outcry of real or assumed horror;
but the Chevalier de L^vis, second in command to
Montcalm, probably expresses the true opinion of
Frenchmen best fitted to judge when he calls it "a
pretended assassination." ^ Judge it as we may, this
obscure skirmish began the war that set the world
on fire. 2

Washington returned to the camp at the Great
Meadows; and, expecting soon to be attacked, sent
for reinforcements to Colonel Fry, who ^^^as lying
dangerously ill at Will's Creek. Then he set his
men to work at an intrenchment, which he named
Fort Necessity, and which must have been of tne
slightest, as they finished it within three days. 3 The

1 Levis, M€moire sur la Guerre du Canada.

'^ On this affair Sparks, Writings of Washington, 11. 25-48, 447.
Dinwiddie Papers. Letter of Contrecmir in Precis des Faits. Journal
of Washington, Ibid. Washington to Dinwiddie, 3 June, 1754. Dus-
sieux, Le Canada sous la Domination Fran^aise, 118. Gaspd, Anciens
Canadiens, Appendix, 396. The assertion of Abbd de l'Is!e-Dieu,
that Jumonville showed a flag jf truce, is unsupported. Adam
Stephen, who was in the fight, says that the guns of the English
were so wet that they had to trust mainly to the bayonet. The
Half-King boasted that he killed Jumonville with his tomahawk.
Dinwiddie highly approved Washington's conduct.

In 1755 the widow of Jumonville received a pension of one hun-
dred and fifty francs. In 1' .'5, his (<aughter, Charlotte Aimable,
wishing to become a nun, was given by the King six hundred francs
for her "trousseau" en entering the convent. Dossier de Jumon-
ville et de sa Veuve, 22 Mars, 1755. M€moire pour Mile, de Jumonville.,
10 Juillet, 1775, Re'ponse du Garde des Sceaux, 25 Juillet, 1775.
8 Journal of Washington in Precis des Faits.

[1754.

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i754.]

THE GREAT MEADOWS.

167

Half-King now joined him, along with the female
potentate known as Queen Alequippa, and some
thirty Indian families. A few days after, Gist came
from Will's Creek with news that Fry was dead.
Washington succeeded to the command of the regi-
ment, the remaining three companies of which pres-
ently appeared and joined their comrades, raising the
whole number to three hundred. Next arrived the
independent company from South Carolina; and
the Great Meadows became an animated scene, with
the wigwams of the Indians, the camp-sheds of the
rough Virginians, the cattle grazing on the tall
grass or drinking at the lazy brook that traversed
it; the surrounding heights and forests; and over
all, four miles away, the lofty green ridge of Laurel
Hill.

The presence of the company of regulars was a
doubtful advantage. Captain Mackay, its com-
mander, holding his commission from the King,
thought himself above any officer commissioned by
the governor. There was great courtesy between
him and Washington; but Mackay would take no
orders, nor even the countersign, from the colonel of
volunteers. Nor would his men work, except for an
additional shilling a day. To give this was impos-
sible, both from want of money, and from the discon-
tent it would have bred in the Virginians, who
worked for nothing besides their daily pay of eight-
pence. Washington, already a leader of men, pos-
sessed himself in a patience extremely difficult to

158

WASHINGTON.

[1754.

Ili

>.<'

I J i

his passionate temper; but the position was untenable,
and the presence of the military drones demoralized
his soldiers. Therefore, leaving Mackay at the
Meadows, he advanced towards Gist's settlement,
cutting a wagon road as he went.

On reaching the settlement the camp was formed
and an intrenchment thrown up. Deserters had
brought news that strong reinforcements were ex-
pected at Fort Duquesne, and friendly Indians
repeatedly warned Washington that he would soon
be attacked by overwhelming numbers. Forty
Indians from the Ohio came to the camp, and several
days were spent in councils with them; but they
proved for the most part to be spies of the French.
The Half-King stood fast by the English, and sent
out three of his young warriors as scouts. Reports
Oi attack thickened. Mackay and his men were sent
for, and they arrived on the twenty-eighth of June.
A council of war was held at Gist's house; and as
the camp was commanded by neighboring heights, it
was resolved to fall back. The horses were so few
that Ihe Virginians had to carry much of the baggage
on their backs, and drag nine swivels over the broken
and rocky road. The regulars, though they also
were raised in the provinces, refused to give the
slightest help. Toiling on for two days, they reached
the Great Meadows on the first of July. The posi-
tion, though perhaps the best in the neighborhood,
was very unfavorable, and Washington would have
retreated farther, but for the condition of his men.

1754.J

COULON DE VILLIERS.

169

They were spent with fatigue, and there was ho
choice but to stay and fight.

Strong reinforcements had been sent to Fort
Duquesne in the spring, and the garrison now con-
sisted of about fourteen hundred men. When njws
of the death of JumonviUe reached Montreal, Coulon
de Villiers, brother of the slain officer, was sent to
the spot with a body of Indians from all the tribes in
the colony. He made such speed that at eight
o'clock on the morning of the twenty-sixth of June
he reached the fort with his motley following. Here
he found that five hundred Frenchmen and a few
Ohio Indians were on the point of marching against
the English, under Chevalier Le Mercier; but in
view of his seniority in rank and his relationship to
JumonviUe, the command was now transferred to
Villiers. Hereupon, the march was postponed; the
newly-arrived warriors were called to council, and
<^ontrecceur thus harangued them: "The English
have murdered my children; my heart is sick; to-
morrow I shall send my French soldiers to take
revenge. And now, men of the Saut St. Louis, men
of the Lake of Two Mountains, Hurons, Abenakis,
Iroquois of La Presentation, Nipissings, Algonquins,
and Ottawas, —I invite you all by this belt of wam-
pum to join your French father and help him to
crush the assassins. Take this hatchet, and with it
two barrels of wine for a feast." Both hatchet and
wine wero cheerfully accepted. Then Contrecceur
turned to the Delawares, who were also present:

160

WASHINGTON.

[1764.

" By these four strings of wampum I invite you, if
you are true children of Onontio, to follow the
example of your brethren; " and with some hesitation
they also took up the hatchet.

The next day was spent by the Indians in making
moccasons for tlie march, and by the French in pre-
paring for an expedition on a larger .^cale than had
been at first intended. Contrecceur, Villiers, Le
Mercier, and Longueuil, after deliberating together,
drew up a paper to the effect that " it was fitting
(convenaUe) to march against the English with the
greatest possible number of French and savages, in
order to avenge ourselves and chastise them iur
having violated the most sacred laws of civilized
nations;" that, though their conduct justified the
French in disregarding the existing treaty of peace,
yet, after thoroughly punishing them, and compelling
them to withdraw from the domain of the King, they
should be told that, in pursuance of his royal orders,
the French looked on them as friends. But it was
further agreed that should the English have with-
drawn to their own side of the mountains, "they
should be followed to their settlements to destroy
them and treat them as enemies, till that nation
should give ample satisfaction and completely change
its conduct."!

^ 1 Journal d- Campagne de M. de Villiers depuis son Arrivee au
Jf'ort Duquesne jusqu'a son Retour au dit Fort. These and other pas-
sages are omitted in the Journal as printed in Prods des Faits.
Before me is a copy from the original in the Archives de la
Marine.

[1754.

1754.]

MARCH OF VILLIERS.

161

The pai-ty set at on the next morning, paddled
their canoes up the Monongahela, encamped, heard
mass; and on the thirtieth reached the deserted store-
house of the Ohio Company at the mouth of Redstone
Creek. It was i building of solid logs, well loop-
holed for musketiy. To please the Indians by
asking their advice, YWliera called all the chiefs to
council; which being r-ncluded to their satisfaction,
he left a se.^eant's guard at the storehouse to watoh
the canoes, and began his march through the forest.
The path was so rough that at the first halt the chap-
lain declared he could go no farther, and turned
back for the storehouse, though not till he had
absolved the whole company in a body. Thus light-
ened of their sins, they journeyed on, constantly
sending out scouts. On the second of July they
reached the abandoned camp of Washington at Gist's
settlement; and here they bivouacked, tired, and
drenched all night by rain. At daybreak' they
marched again, and passed through the gorge of
Laurel Hill. It rained without ceasing; but Villiera
pushed his way through the dripping forest to see
the place, half a mile from the road, where his
brother had been killed, and where several bodies
still lay unburied. They had learned from a deserter
the position of the enemy, and Villiers filled the
woods in front with a swarm of Indian scouts. The
crisis was near. He formed his men in column, and
ordered every officer to his place.

Washington's men had had a full day at Fort

TOL. I. — 11 '

162

WASHINGTON.

ri754.

Necessity; but they spent it less in resting from their
fatigue than in strengthening their rampart with
logs. The fort was a simple square enclosure, with
a trench said by a French writer to bo only knee
deep. On the south, and partly on the west, there
was an exterior embankment, wliich seems to have
been made, like a rifle-pit, with the ditch inside.
The Virginians had but little ammunition, and no
bread whatever, living chiefly on fresh beef. They
knew the approach of the French, who were reported
to Washington as nine hundred strong, besides
Indians. Towards eleven o'clock a wounded sentinel
came in with news that they were close at hand ; and
they presently appeared at the edge of the woods,
yelling, and ^firing from such a distance that their
shot fell harmless. Washington drew up his men
on the meadow before the fort, thinking, he says,
that the enemy, being greatly superior in force, would
attack at once ; and choosing for some reason to meet
them on the open plain. But Villiers had other
v" ^ws. " We approached the English, " he writes, " as
near as possible, without dselessly exposing the lives
of the King's subjects;" and he and his followers
made their way through the forest till they came
opposite the fort, where they stationed themselves on
two densely wooded hills, adjacent, though sepa-
rated by a small brook. One of these was about a
hundred paces from the English, and the other about
sixty. Their position was such that the Frencl; and
Indians, well sheltered by trees and bushes, and with

1754.]

FORT NECESSITY.

168

the advantage of higher ground, could cross their
fire upon tlie fort and enfih.de a part of it. Wash-
ington had meanwhile drawn his followera within the
intrenchraent; and the firing now l)egan on both
sides. Rain fell all d.y. The .aw earth of the
embankment was turned to soft mud, and the men in
^le ditch of the outwork ,stood to the knee in water.
The swivels brought back from the cnmp at Gist's
farm were mounted on the rampart; but the gunnera
were so ill protected that the pieces were almost
silenced by the French musketry. The fight lasted
nine hours. At times the fire on both sides was
nearly qvcnched by the showera, and the bedrenched
combatants could do litt'o but gaze at each other
through a gray veil of mist and rain. Towards
night, however, the fusillade revived, and became
sharp again until dark. At eight o'clock the French
called out to propose a Darley.

^^ Villiers thus gives his reasons for thase overtures.
"As we had been wet all day by the rain, as the
soldiers were very tired, as the savages said that they
would leave us the next morning, and as there was
a report that drums and ihe firing of cannon had
been heard in the distance, I proposed to M. Le
Mercier to offei the English a conference." He says
further that ammunition was falling shoi., ..nd that
he thought the enemy might sally in a body and
attack him.i The English, on their side, were in a

'Journal de Villiers, original. Omitted in tl7^. Journal as printed
by the French government. A short and very incorrect abstract
01 this Journal will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., x.

l V.

I'f,

i: lU

liii

164

WASHINGTON.

[1754.

woi-se plight. They were half starved, their powder
was nearly spent, their guns were foul, and among
them all they had but two screw-rods to clean them.
In spite of his desperate position, Washington
declined the parley, thinking it a pretext to introduce
a spy; but when the French repeated their proposal
and requested that he would send an officer to them,
he could hesitate no longer. There were but two
men with him who knew French, Ensign Feyroney,
who was disabled by a wound, and the Dutchman,
Captain Vanbraam. To him the unpalatable errand
was assigned. After a long absence he returned with
articles of capitulation offered by Villiers ; and while
the officers gathered about him in the rain, he read
and interpreted the paper by the glimmer of a sput-
tering candle kept alight mth difficulty. Objection
was made to some of the terms, and they were
changed. Vanbraam, however, apparently anxious
to get the capitulation signed and the affair ended,
mistranslated several passages, and rendered the
words Vassassinat du Sieur de Jumonville as the death
of the Sieur de Jumonmlle.^ As thus understood, the
articles were signed about midnight. They provided
that the English should march out with drums beat-
ing and the honors of war, carrying with them one
of their swivels and all their other property; that

1 See Appendix C. On the fight at Great Meadows, compare
Sparks, Writings of Washington, ii. 456-468 ; also a letter of Colonel
Innes to Governor Hamilton, written a week after the event, in
Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 50, and a letter of Adam Stephen, in
Pennsylvania Gazette, 1764.

[175i.

1754.]

CAPITULATION.

165

they should be protected against insult from French
or Indians; that the prisoners taken in the affair of
Jumonville should be set free; and that two officers
should remain as hostages for their safe return to
Fort Duquesne. The hostages chosen were Van-
braam and a brave but eccentric Scotchman, Robert
Stobo, an acquaintance of the novelist Smollett, said
to be the original of his Lismahago.

Washington reports that twelve of the Virginians

were killed on the spot, and forty-three wounded,

while of the casualties in Mackay's company no

returns appear. Villiers reports his own loss at only

twenty in all.i The numbers engaged are uncertain.

The six companies of the Virginia regiment counted

three hundred and five men and officers, and Mackay's

company one hundred; but many were on the sick

list, and some had deserted. About three hundred

and fifty may have taken part in the fight. On the

side of the French, Villiere says that the detachment

as originally formed consisted of five hundred white

men. These were increased after his arrival at Fort

Buquesne, and one of the party reports that seven

hundred marched on the expedition.2 The number

1 Dinwiddle writes to the Lords of Trade that thirty in all were
killed, and seventy wounded, on the English side ; and the commis-
sary Varin writes to Bigot that the French lost seventy-two killed
and wounded.

2 A Journal had from Thomas Forbes, lately a Private Soldier in the
Kinff of France's Service. (Public Record Office.) Forbes was one
of Villiers's soldiers. The commissary Varin puts the number of
French at six hundred, besides Indians.

<« i

1 t

166

WASHINGTON.

[1754.

of Indians joining them is not given; but as nine
tribes and communities contributed to it, and as two
barrels of wine were required to give the warriors a
parting feast, it must have been considerable. White
men and red, it seems clear that the French force
was more than twice that of the English, while they
were better posted and better sheltered, keeping all
day under cover, and never showing themselves on
the open meadow. There were no Indians with
Washington. Even the Half-King held aloof;
though, being of a caustic turn, he did not spare his
comments on the fight, telling Conrad Weiser, the
provincial interpreter, that the French behaved like
covards, and the English like fools. ^

In the early morning the fort was abandoned and
the retreat began. The Indians had killed all the
horses and cattle, and Washington's men were so
burdened with the sick and wounded, whom they
were obliged to carry on their backs, that most of the
baggage was perforce left behind. Even then they
could march but a few miles, and then encamped to
wait for wagons. The Indians increased the con-
fvsion by plundering, and threatening an attack.
They knocked to pieces the medicine-chest, thus

1 Journal of Conrad Weiser, in Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 150.
The Half-King also remarked that Washington " was a good-
natured man, but had no experience, and would by no means take
advice from tlie Indians, but was always driving them on to fight
by his directions ; that he lay at one lace from one full moon to
the other, and made no fortifications ai all, except that little thing
upon the meadow, where he thought the French would come up to
him in open field."

1754.]

SUCCESS OF VILLIERS.

167

causing great distress to the wounded, two of whom
they murdered and scalped. For a time there was
danger of panic; bi- order was restored, and the
wretched march began along the forest road that led
over the Alleghanie., fifty-two miles to the station
at Will's Creek. Whatever may have been the feel-
mgs of Washington, he has left no record of them
His immense fortitude was doomed to severer trials
in the future; yet perhaps this miserable morning
was the darkest of his life. He was deeply moved
by sights of suffering; and all around him were
*vounded men borne along in torture, and weaiy men
staggering under the living load. His pride was
humbled, and his young ambition seeme^i blasted in
the bud. It was the fourth of July. He could not
foresee that he was to make that day forever glorious
to a new-born nation hailing him as its father.

The defeat at Fort xs'ecessity was doubly disastrous
to the English, since it was a new step and a long
one towards the ruin of their interest with the
Indians; and when, in the next year, the smoulder-
ing war broke into flame, nearly all the western tribes
drew their scalping-knives for France.

Villiers went back exultant to Fort Duquesne,
burmng on his way the buildings of Gist's settlement
and the storehouse at Redstone Creek. Not
English flag now waved beyond the Alleghanies.i

* See Appendix 0.

fr\i

CHAPTER VI.

1754, 1755.

THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.

Troubles of Dinwiddie. — Gathering of the Bdbgessbs. —
Virginian Society. — Refractory Legislators. — The Qda-
KER Assembly : it refuses to resist the French. — Afathy^
of New York. — Shirley and the General Court of
Massachusetts. — Short-sighted Policy. — Attitude of
Royal Governors. — Indian Allies waver. — Convention
AT Albany. — Scheme of Union: it fails. — Dinwiddie
AND Glen. — Dinwiddie calls on England fob Help. —
The Duke 6f Newcastle. — Weakness of the British
Cabinet. — Attitude of France. — Mutual Dissimulation.
— Both Powers send Troops to America. — Collision. —
Capture of the " Alcide " and the " Lis."

The defeat of Wa.'^hington was a heavy blow to
the governor, and he angrily ascribed it to the delay
of the expected reinforcements. The King's com-
panies from New York had reached Alexandria, and
crawled towards the scene of action with thin ranks,
bad discipline, thirty women and children, no tents,
no blankets, no knapsacks, and for munitions one
barrel of spoiled gunpowder. ^ The case was still
worse with the regiment from North Carolina. It
was commanded by Colonel Innes, a countryman and

1 Dinwiddie to the Lords of Trade, 24 July, 1764. Ibid, to Delancey,
20 June, 1754.

: ',t

1754.] THE VIRGINIAN CAPITAL. 169

friend of Dinwiddie, who wrote to him: "Dear
James, I now wish that we had none from your
colony but yourself, for I foresee nothing but con-
fusion among them." The men were, in fact, utterly
unmanageable. They had been promised three shil-
hngs a day, while the Virginians had only eightpence;
and when they heard on the march that their pay was
to be reduced, they mutinied, disbanded, and went
home.

"You may easily guess," says Dinwiddie to a
Lonc^on correspondent, "the great fatigue and trouble
I ' ^ad, which is more than I ever went through
ir ny l ." He rested his hopes on the session of
h.<! \ jmbly, which was to take place in August,
for he thought that the late disaster would move'
them to give him money for defending the colony.
These meetings of the burgesses were the great social
as well as political event of the Old Dominion, and
gave a gathering signal to the Virginian gentry scat-
tered far and wide on their lonely plantations. The
capital of the province was Williamsburg, a village
of about a thousand inhabitants, traversed by a
straight and very wide street, and adorned with
various public buildings, conspicuous among which
was William and Mary College, a respectable struc-
ture, unjustly likened by Jefferson to a brick kiln
with a roof. The capitol, at the other end of the
town, had been burned some years before, and had
just risen from its ashes. Not far distant was the
so-called Governor's Palace, where Dinwiddie with

ilj

170

THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.

[1754.

his wife and two daughters exercised such official
hospitality as his moderate salary and Scottish thrift
would permit.^

In these seasons of festivity the dull and quiet
village was transfigured. The broad, sandy street,
scorching under a southern sun, was thronged with
coaches and chariots brought over from London at
heavy cost in tobacco, though soon to be bedimmed
by Virginia roads and negro care ; racing and hard-
drinking planters; clergymen of the Establishment,
not much more ascetic than their boon companions
of the laity ; ladies, with manners a little rusted by
long seclusion ; black coachmen and footmen, proud
of their masters and their liveries; young cavaliers,
booted and spurred, sitting their thoroughbreds with
the careless grace of men whose home was the saddle.
It was a proud little provincial society, which might
seem absurd in its lofty self-appreciation, had it not
soon approved itself so prolific in ability and worth. ^

The burgesses met, and Dinwiddle made them an
opening speech, inveighing against the aggressions
of the French, their "contempt of treaties," and
"ambitious views for universal monarchy;" and he
concluded: "I could expatiate very largely on these

1 For a contemporary account of Williamsburg, Burnaby,
Travels in North America, 6. Smyth, Tour in America, i. 17, de-
scribes it some years later.

2 The English traveller Smyth, in his Tour, gi es a curious and
vivid picture of Virginian life. For the social condition of this
and other colonies before the Revolution, one cannot do better
than to consult Lodge's Short History of the English Colonies,

1754.]

TROUBLES OF DINWIDDIE.

171

affairs, but my heart bums with resentment at their
insolence. I think there is no room for many argu-
ments to induce you to raise a considerable supply to
enable me to defeat the designs of these troublesome
people and enemies of mankind." The burgesses in
their turn expressed the " highest and most becoming
resentment," and promptly voted twenty thousand
pounds; but on the third reading of the bill they
added to it a rider which touched the old question of
the pistole fee, and which, in the view of the gov-
ernor, was both unconstitutional and offensive. He
remonstrated in vain ; the stubborn republicans would
not yield, nor would he; and again he prorogued
them. This unexpected defeat depressed him greatly.
"A governor," he wrote, "is really to be pitied in the
discharge of his duty to his king and country, in
having to do with such obstinate, self-conceited
people. ... I cannot satisfy the burgesses unless I
prostitute the rules of government. I have gone
through monstrous fatigues. Such wrong-headed
people, I thank God, I never had to do with before." i
A few weeks later he was comforted; for, having
again called the burgesses, they gave him the money,
without trying this time to humiliat'^ him. 2

In straining at a gnat and s -wing a camel,
aristocratic Virginia was far outdone by democratic
Pennsylvania. Hamilton, 'ler governor, had laid

1 Dinwiddle to Hamilton, 6 September, 1754. Ibid, to J. Abercrom-
bie, 1 September, 1754.
- F- .ng, vi. 435.

i;T

172

THE SIGNAL OF BATTI i:.

[1764.

It'

before the Assembly a circular letter from the Earl
of Holdernesse, directing him, in common with other
governors, to call on his province for means to repel
any invasion which might be made "within the
undoubted limits of His Majesty's dominion." * The
Assembly of Pennsylvania way curiously unlike that
of Virginia, as half and often more than half of its
members were Quaker tradesmen in sober raiment
and broad-])rimmed hats; while of the rest, the
greater part were Germans who cared little whether
they lived under English rule or French, provided
that they were left in peace upon their faims. The
House replied to the governor's call : " It would be
highly presumptuous in us to pretend to judge of the
undoubted limits of His Majesty's dominions ; " and
they added: "the Assemblies of this province are
generally composed of a majority who are constitu-
tionally principled against war, and represent a well-
meaning, peaceable people. "2 They then adjourned,
telling the governor that, " As those our limits have
not been clearly ascertained to our satisfaction, we
fear the precipitate call upon us as the province
invaded cannot answer any good purpose at this
time."

In the next month they met again, and again
Hamilton asked for means to defend the country.
The question was put. Should the Assembly give

^ The Earl of Holdernesse to the Governors in America, 28 Awjust,
1753.

2 Colonial Records of Pa., v. 748.

1754.] CONDUCT OF THE QUAKERS.

173

money for the King's use? and the vote was feebly
affirmative. Should the sum be twenty thousand
pounds ? The vote was overwhelming in the nega-
tive. Fifteen thousand, ten thousand, and five
thousand were successively proposed, and the answer
was always, No. The House would give nothing but
five hundred pounds for a present to the Indians;
after which they adjourned "to the sixth of the
month called May."i At their next meeting they
voted to give the governor ten thousand pounds; but
under conditions which made them for some time
independent of his veto, and which, in other respects,
were contraiy to his instructions from the King, as
well as from the proprietaries of the province, to
whom he had given bonds to secure his obedience.
He therefore rejected the bill, and they adjourned.
In August they passed a similar vote, with the same
result. At their October meeting they evaded his
call for supplies. In December they voted twenty
thousand pounds, hampered with conditions which
were sure to be refused, since Morris, the new gov-
ernor, who had lately succeeded Hamilton, v -is under
the same restrictions as his predecessor, xhey told
him, however, that in the present case they felt
themselves bound by no Act of Parliament, and
added: "We hope the Governor, notwitlist^nding
any penal bond he may have entered into, will on
reflection think himself at liberty and find it con-

* Pennsylvania Archives, ii. 235. Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 22-
26. Works of Franklin, in. 265.

'iv sjii

(I?

: 1

, i

174

THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.

[1754.

sistent with his safety and honor to give his assent
to this bill." Morris, who had taken the highest
legal advice on the subject in England, declined to
compromise himself, saying: "Consider, gentlemen,
in what light you will appear to His Majesty while,
instead of contributing towards your own defence,
you are entering into an ill-timed controvei-sy con-
cerning the validity of royal instructions which may
be delayed to a more convenient time without the
least injury to the rights of the people."^ They
would not yield, and told him " that they had rather
the French should conquer them than give up their
privileges. " ^ " Truly, " remarlis Dinwiddle, " I think
they have given their senses a long holiday."

New York was not much behind her sisters in con-
tentious stubbornness. In answer to the governor's
appeal, the Assembly replied: "It appears that the
French have built a fort at a place called French
Creek, at a considerable distance from the River
Ohio, which may, but does not by any evidence or
information appear to us to be an invasion of any of
His Majesty's colonies. "3 So blind were they as yet
to "manifest destiny!" Afterwards, however, on
learning the defeat of "Washington, they gave five
thousand pounds to aid Virginia.* Maiyland, after
long delay, gave six thousand. New Jersej felt

^ Colonial Records 0/ Pa., vi. 215.
2 Morris to Penn, 1 January, 1755.

" Address of the Assembly to Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, 23
April, 1764. Lords of Trade to Delancey, 5 July, 1764.
* Delancey to Lords of Trade, 8 October, 1764.

<f !.*

1754.]

COLONIAL DISSENSIONS.

176

liei-self safe behind the other colonies, and would
give nothing. New England, on the other hand, and
especially Myr . ■ husetts, had suffered so much from
French war-parties that they were always ready to
light. Shirley, the governor of Massachusetts, had
returned from his bootless enaud to settle the boun-
dary question at Paris. His leanings were strongly
monarchical; yet he believed in the New Englanders,
and was more or less in sympathy with them. Both
he and they were strenuous against the French, and
they had mutually helped each other to reap laurels
in the last war. Shirley was cautious of giving
umbrage to his Assembly, and rarely quarrelled with
it, except when the amount of his salary was in
question. He was not averse to a war with France;
for though bred a lawyer, and now past middle life,
he flattered himself with hopes of a high military
command. On the present occasion, making use of
a rumor that the French were seizing the cariying-
place between the Chaudi^re and the Kennebec, he
drew from the Assembly a large grant of money, and
induced them to call upon him to march in person to
the scene of danger. He accordingly repaired to
Falmouth (now Portland); and, though the rumor
proved false, sent eight hundred men under Captain
John Winslow to build two forts on the Kennebec
as a measure of precaution. ^

» Massachusetts Archives, 1754. Hutchinson, iii. 26. Conduct
of Major- General Shirley briefiy stated. Journals of the Board of
Trade, 1764. "^

),/

iMlii

176

"■(

ti'

»>

TIE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.

[1754.

While to these northern provinces Canada was an
old and pestilent enemy, those towards the south
scarcely know her by name ; and the idea of French
aggression on their bordors was so novel and strange
that they admitted it with difliculty. Mind and
heart were engrossed i strife with their governors:
the univei-sal struggle for virtual self-rule. But the
war was often waged v ith a passionate stupidity.
The colonist was not then an American; he was
simply a provincial, and a narrow one. The time
was yet distant when these dissevered and jealous
communities should weld themselves into one broad
nationality, capable, at need, of the mightiest efforts
to purge itself of disaffection and vindicate its com-
manding unity.

In the interest of that practical independence which
they had so much at heart, two conditions were
essential to the colonists. The one was a field for
expansion, and the other was mutual help. Tlieir
first necessity was to rid themselves of the French,
who, by shutting them between the Alleghanies and
the sea, would cramp them into perpetual littleness.
With France on. their backs, growing while they had
no room to grow they must remain in helpless ward-
ship, dependent on England, whose aid they would
always need; but witb the West open before them,
their future was their own. King and Parliament
would respect perforce the will of a people spread
from the ocean to the Mississippi, and united in
action as in aims. But in the middle of the last

.1 A

1754.) ATTITUDE OF ROYAL GOVERNORS. 177

century the vision of the ordinary colonint rarely
reached so far. The i. . diate victory over a gov-
ernor, however slight the poin. at issue, was more
precious in his eyes than the remote though decisive
adva'^tage which he saw but dimly.

The governora, representing the central power
saw the situation from the national point of view'
Several of them, notably Dinwiddle and Shirley, were
filled with wrath at the proceedings of the French;
and the f n^^^ was exasperated beyond measure at
the supih .8 of the provin, ,8. He had spared no
effort, to rcase them, and had failed. His instincte
were on the side of authority; but, under the cir-
cumstances, it is hardly to be imputed to him as a
very deep offence against human liberty that he
advised the compelling of the colonies to raise men
and money for their own defence, and proposed,
m virw of their "intolerable obstinacy and disobedi-
ence to his Majesty's commands," that Parliament
should tax them half-a-crown a head. The approach-
mg war offered to the party of authority tempta-
tions from which the colonies might have saved it
by opening their purse-strings without waiting to be
told.

The home government, on its part, was but half-
hearted in the wish that they should unite in oppo-
sition to the common enemy. It was veiy willing
that the several provinces should give money and
men, but not that they should acquire military h bits
and a dangerous capacity of acting together. There

"OL. I. — 12

ill

178

THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.

.i\

i^i

[1754.

was one kind of union, however, so obviously neces-
sary, and at the same time so little to be dreaded,
that the British Cabinet, instructed by the governors,
not only assented to it, but urged it. This was joint
action in making treaties with the Indians. The
practice of separate treaties, made by each province in
its own interest, had bred endless disordei-s. The
adhesion of all the tribes had been so shaken, and the
efforts of the French to alienate them were so vig-
orous and effective, that not a moment was to be lost.
Joncaire had gained over most of the Senecas, Piquet
was drawing the Onondagas more and more to his
mission, and the Dutch of Albany were alienating
their best friends, the Mohawks, by encroaching on
their lands. Their chief, Hendrick, came to New
York with a deputation of the tribe to complain of
their wrongs; and finding no redress, went off in
ai.ger, declaring that the covenant chain was broken. ^
The authorities in alarm called William Johnson to
their aid. He succeeded in soothing the exasperated
chief, and then proceeded to the confederate council
at Onondaga, where he found the assembled, sachems
full of anxieties, and doubts. " We don't know what
you Christians, English and French, intend," said
one of their orators. " We are so hemmed in by you
both that we have hardly a hunting-place lei^ In a
little while, if we find a bear in a tree, there will
immediately appear an owner of the land to claim the
property and hinder us from killing it, by which

1 N. Y. Col, Docs., Yi. 788. Colonial Re<.ords of Pa., v. 625.

1754.] CONVENTION AT ALBANY. ; I79

we live We ai^ so perplexed between you that we
hardly know what to say or think."i No man had
such power over the Five Nations as Johnson. His
dealings with them were at once honest, downright
and sympathetu3. They loved and trusted hTm '
much as they detested the Indian commissioner, at
Albany, whom the province of New York had charged
mth heir affan., and who, being trader., grossly
abused their office. s^"»»iy

It was to remedy this perilous state of things that
the Lords of Trade and Plantations directed the
several governoi. to urge on their assemblies the
sending of commissionei. to make a joint treaty witii
the wavering tribes.^ Seven of the provinces; New
York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the four New
England colonies, acceded to the plan, and sent to
Albany, the appointed place of meeting, a body of
men who for character and ability had never had an
equal on the continent, but whose powers from their
respective assemblies were so cautiously limited as
to preclude decisive action. They met in the court-
house of the little frontier city. A large "chain-
belt of wampum was provided, on which the Kins
was sjonbolically represented, holding in his embrace
the colonies, the Five Nations, and all their allied
tribes. This was presented to the assembled war-

^ a: Y. Col. Docs., vi. 813.

W^'r"'T.r^o'"''/-^ ^"'^^ '-^ ^^'^^ '^ Go'^rnors in America IS"
September, 1763. Lords of Tradp /« <?,v n ^ , America, l»

Col Docs., Ti. 800. "'*'■" ^'^'"■'''' ^° ^- ^-

1 >i

i^m

180

THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.

[1754.

'1^

riors, with a speech in which the misdeeds of the
French were not forgotten. The chief, Hendrick,
made a much better speech in reply. " We do now
solemnly renew and brighten the covenant chain.
We shall take the chain-belt to Onondaga, where
our council-fire always burns, and keep it so safe
that neither thunder nor lightning shall break it."
The commissioners had blamed them for allowing so
many of their people to be drawn away to Piquet's
mission. "It is true," said the orator, "that we live
disunited. We have tried to bring back our brethren,
but in vain; for the Governor of Canada is like a
wicked, deluding spirit. You ask why we are so
dispersed. The reason is that you have neglected us
for these three years past." Here he took a stick
and threw it behind him. " You have thus thrown
us behind your back; whereas the French are a
subtle and vigilant people, always using their utmost
endeavors to seduce and bring us over to them."
He then told them that it was not the French alone
who invaded the country of the Indians. "The
Governor of Virginia and the Governor of Canada
are quarrelling about lands which belong to us, and
their quarrel may end in our destruction." And he
closed with a burst of sarcasm. "We would have
taken Crown Point [in the last war], but you pre-
vented us. Instead, you burned your own fort at
Saratoga and ran away from it, — which was a shame
and a scandal to you. Look about your country and
see : you have no fortifications ; no, not even in this

1764.]

SCHEMES OF UNION.

181

City. It 18 but a step from Canada hither, and the
French may come and turn you out of doora. You
desire us to speak from the bottom of our hearts, and
we shall do it. Look at the French: they are men-
they are fortifying everywhere. But you are all like'
women, bare and open, without fortifications "i

Hendrick's brother Abraham now took up the
wo, ., and begged that Johnson might be restored to
the management of Indian affairs, which he had
fonnerly held; "for," said the chief, "we love him
and he us, and he has always been our good and
trusty friend." The commissioners had not power
to grant the request, but the Indians were assured
that it should not be forgotten; and they returned to
their villages soothed, but far from satisfied. Nor
were the commissioners empowered to take any
effective steps for fortifying the frontier.

The congress now occupied itself with another
matter. Its members were agreed that great danger
was impending; that without wise and just treat-
ment of the tribes, the French would gain them all
bmld forts along the back of the British colonies,'
and, by means of ships and troops from France,'
master them one by one, unless they would combine
for mutual defence. The necessity of some form of
union had at length begun to force itself upon the
colonial mind. A rough woodcut had lately appeared

1 Proceedings of the Congi-ess at Albany, N. Y. Col. Docs, vi 863

i>.

182

THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.

[1754.

I ri

in the "Pennsylvania Gazette," figuring the provinces
under the not very flattering image of a snake cut to
pieces, with the motto, "Join, or die." A writer of
the day held up the Five Nations for emulation,
oheerving that if ignorant savages could confederate,
British colonists might do as much.* Franklin, the
leading spirit of the congress, now laid before it his
famous project of union, which has been too often
described to need much notice here. Its fate is well
known. The Crown rejected it because it gave too
much power to the colonies ; the colonies, because it
gave too much power to the Crown, and because it
required each of them to transfer some of its func-
tions of self-government to a central council. An-
other plan was afterwards devised by the friends of
prerogative, perfectly agreeable to the King, since it
placed all power in the hands of a council of gov-
ernors, and since it involved compulsory taxation of
the colonists, who, for the same reasons, would have
doggedly resisted it, had an attempt been made to
carry it into effect. ^

Even if some plan of union had been agreed upon,
long delay must have followed before its machinery
could be set in motion; and meantime there was

1 Kennedy, Importance of gaining and preserving the Friendship of
the Indians.

^ Or. ;he Albany plan of union, Franklin's Works, i. 177. Shir-
ley thought it " a great strain upon the prerogative of the Crown,"
and was for requiring the colonies to raise money and men " with-
out farther consulting them upon any points whatever." Shirley to
Robinson, 24 December, 1754.

1754.]

DINWIDDIE AND GLEN.

183

need of immediate action. War-parties of Indians
from Canada, set on, it was thought, by the governor,
were already burning and murdering among the
border settlements of New York and New Hampshire.
In the south Dinwiddle grew more and more alarmed,
"foi the French are like so many locusts; they are
collected in bodies in a most surprising manner;
their number now on the Ohio is from twelve hun-
dred to fifteen hundred." He writes to Lord Gran-
ville that, in his opinion, they aim to conquer the
continent, and that "the obstinacy of this stubborn
generation" exposes the country "to the merciless
rage of a rapacious enemy." What vexed him even
more than the apathy of the assemblies was the con-
duct of his brother-governor, Glen of South Carolina,
who, apparently piqued at the conspicuous part
DinwMdie was acting, wrote to him in a "very dic-
tatorial style," found fault with his measures, jested
at his activity in writing letters, and even questione.i
the right of England to lands on the Ohio; till he
was moved at last to retort: "I cannot help observ-
ing that your letters and arguments would have been
more proper from a French officer than from one of
His Majesty's governors. My conduct has met with
His Majesty's gracious approbation; and I am sorry
it has not received yours." Thus discouraged, even
in quarters where he had least reason to expect it,
he turned all his hopes to the home government;
again recommended a tax by Act of Parliament, and
begged, in repeated letters, for arms, munitions, and

184

THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.

[1754.

1^'

,!:'

f'v

I; i:

two regiments of infantry.^ His petition was not
made in vain.

England at this time presented the phenomenon of
a prime minister who could not command the respect
of his own servants. A more preposterous figure
than the Duke of Newcastle never stood at the head
of a great nation. He had a feverish craving for
place and power, joined to a total unfitness for both.
He was an adept in personal politics, and was so
busied with the arts of winning and keeping office
that he had no leisure, even if he had had ability, for
the highei work of government. He was restless,
quick in movement, rapid and confused in speech,
lavish of worthless promises, always in. a hurry, and
at once headlong, timid, and rash. "A borrowed
importance and real insignificance," says Walpole,
who knew him well, "gave him the perpetual air of
a solicitor. . . . He had no pride, though infinite
self-love. He loved business immoderately; yet was
only always doing it, never did it. When left to
himself, he always plunged into difficulties, and then
shuddered for the consequences." Walpole gives an
anecdote showing the state of his ideas on colonial
matters. General Ligonier suggested to him that
Annapolis ought to be defended. "To which he
replied with his lisping, evasive hurry: 'Annapolis,
Annapolis! Oh, yes, Annapolis must be defended;
to be sure, Annapolis should be defended, — where

1 Dinwiddie Papers; letters to Granville, Albemarle, Halifax,
Fox, HoldernesBe, Horace Walpole, and Lords of Trade.

1764.]

THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.

185

is Annapolis ? '" » Another contemporary, Smollett,
ridicules him in his novel of "Humphrey Clinker,"
and tells a similar story, which, founded in fact or
not, shows in what estimation the minister was held:
"Captain C. treated the Duke's character without
any ceremony. 'This wiseacre,' said he, 'is still
abed; and I think the best thing he can do is to
sleep on till Christmas ; for when he gets up he does
nothing but expose his own folly. In the beginning
of the war he told me in a great fright that thirty
thousand French had marched from Acadia to Cape
Breton. Where did they find transports? said I. —
Transports! cried he, I tell you they marched by
land. — By land to the island of Cape Breton ! — What,
is Cape Breton an island ? — Certainly. — Ha ! are you
sure of that?— When I pointed it out on the map,
he examined it earnestly with his spectacles ; then,
taking me in his arms, — My dear C, cried he, you
always bring us good news. Egad ! I '11 go directly
and tell the King that Cape Breton is an island.' "

His wealth, county influence, flagitious use of
patronage, and long-practised skill in keeping majori-
ties in the House of Commons by means that would
not bear the light, made his support necessary to
Pitt himself, and placed a fantastic political jobber
at the helm of England in a time when she needed a
patriot and a statesman. Newcastle was the growth
of the decrepitude and decay of a great party, which
had fulfilled its mission and done its work. But if

1 Walpole, George II., i. 344.

h \

: ■

186

THE SrGNAL OF BATTLE.

[1754.

the Whig soil had become poor for a wholesome
crop, it was never so rich for toadstools.

Sir Thomas Robinson held the Southern Depart-
ment, charged with the colonies; and Lord Mahon
remarks of him that the duke had achieved the feat
of finding a secretary of state more incapable than
himself. He had the lead of the House of Commons.
" Sir Thomas Robinson lead us ! " said Pitt to Henry-
Fox; "the Duke might as well send his jackboot to
lead us." The active and aspiring Halifax was at
the head of the Board of Trade and Plantations.
The Duke of Cumberland commanded the army,
— an indifferent soldier, though a brave one; harsh,
violent, and headlong. Anson, the celebrated navi-
gator, was First Lord of the Admiralty, —a position
in which he disappointed everybody.

In France the true ruler was Madame Pompadour,
once the King's mistress, now his procuress, and a
sort of feminine prime mi .ster. Machault d' Amou-
ville was at the head of the Marine and Colonial
Department. The diplomatic representatives of the
two Crowns were more conspicuous for social than
for political talents. Of Mirepoix, French ambassa-
dor at London, Marshal Saxe had once observed:
"It is a good appointment; he can teach the English
to dance." Walpole says concerning him: "He
could not even learn to pronounce the names of our
games of cards, — which, however, engaged most of
the hours of his negotiation. We were to be bullied
out of our colonies by an apprentice at whist ! " Lord

1754.] ENGLAND AND FRANCE C3MPARED. 187

Albemarle, English ambassador at Versailles, is held
up by Chesterfield as an example to encourage his
son in the pursuit of the graces: "What do you
think made our friend Lord Albemarle colonel of a
regiment of Guards, Governor of Virginia, Groom of
the Stole, and ambassador to Paris, — amounting in
all to sixteen or seventeen thousand pounds a year?
Was it his birth? No; a Dutch gentleman only.
Was it his estate? No; he had none. Was it his
learning, his parta, his political abilities and appli-
cation? You can answer these questions as easily
and as soon as I can ask them. What was it then?
Many people wondered; but I do not, for I know,
and will tell you, — it was his air, his address, his
manners, and his graces."

The rival nations differed widely in military and
naval strength. England had afloat more than two
hundred ships -of- war, some of them of great force;
while the navy of France counted little more than
half the number. On the other hand, England had
reduced her army to eighteen thousand men, and
France had nearly ten times as many under arms.
Both alike were weak in leadership. That rare son
of the tempest, a great commander, was to be found
in neither of them since the death of Saxe.

In respect to the approaching crisis, the interests
of the two Powers pointed to opposite courses of
action. What France needed was time. It was her
policy to put off a rupture, wreathe her face in
diplomatic smiles, and pose in an attitude of peace

I 1

III

f ' '=i

188

THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.

[1764.

and good faith, while increasing her navy, reinfor-
cing her garrisons in America, and strengthening her
positions there. It was the policy of England to
attack at once, and tear up the young encroachments
while they were yet in the sap, before they could
strike root and harden into stiff resistance.

When, on the fourteenth of November, the King
made his opening speech to the Houses of Parliament,
he congratulated them on the prevailing peace, and
assured them that he should improve it to promote
the trade of his subjects, "and protect those posses-
sions which constitute one great source of their
wealth." America was not mentioned; but his
heu^ers understood him, and made a liberal grant for
the service of the year.i Two regiments, each of
five hundred men, had already been ordered to sail
for Virginia, where their numbers were to be raised
by enlistment to seven hundred. 2 Major-General
Braddock, a man after the Duke of Cumberland's
o^vn heart, was appointed to the chief command.
The two regiments — the forty-fourth and the forty-
eighth — embarked at Cork in the middle of January.
The soldiers detested the service, and many had
deserted. More would have done so had they fore-
seen what awaited them.

This movement was no sooner known at Versailles

1 Entick, Late War, i. 118,

a Robinson to Lords of the Admiralty, 30 September, 1754. Ibid to
Board of Ordnance, 10 October, 1754. Ibid., Circular Letter to Ameri-
can Governors, 26 October, 1754. Instructions to our Trusty and Well-
beloved Edtvard Braddock, 25 November, 1754.

1755.J

THE FRENCH EXPEDITION.

189

than a counter expedition wao prepared on a larger
scale. Eighteen ships-of-war were fitted for sea at
Brest and Rochefort, and the six battalions of La
Reine, Bourgogne, Languedoc, Guienne, Artois,
and Bdarn, three thousand men in all, were ordered
on board for Canada. Baron Dieskau, a German
veteran who had served under Saxe, was made their
general; and with him went the new governor of
French America, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, destined
to succeed Duquesne, whose health was failing under
the fatigues of his office. Admiral Dubois dc la
Motte commanded the fleet; and lest the English
should try to intercept it, another squadron of nine
ships, under Admiral Macnamara, was ordered to
accompany it to a certain distance from the coast.
There was long and tedious delay. Doreil, com-
missary of war, who had embarked with Vaudreuil
and Dieskau in the same ship, wrote from the harbor
of Brest on the twenty ninth of April: "At last I
think we are off. We should have been outside by
four o'clock this morning, if M. de Macnamara had
not been obliged to ask Count Dubois de la Motte to
wait till noon to mend some important part of the
rigging (I don't know the name of it) which was
broken. It is precious time lost, and gives the Eng-
lish the advantage over us of two tides. I talk of
these things as a blind man does of colors. What is
certain is that Count Dubois de la Motte is very
impatient to get away, and that the King's fleet
destined for Canada is in ver)- able and zealous hands.

;

' t,

190

THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.

I *;' I i

j':

'• I

[1766.

It is now half-past two. In half an hour all may be
ready, and we may get out of the harbor before
night." He was aguin disappointed ; it was the third
of May beforo the fleet put to sea.*

During these preparations ther^ was active diplo-
matic correspondence between the U\o courts.
Mirepoix demanded why British troopu -'Are sent to
America. Sir Thomas Robinson answered that there
was no intention to disturb the peace or offead any
Power whatever; yet the seciet ordei-s to Braddock
were the reverse of pacific. Robinson asked on his
part the purpose of the French armament at Brest
and Rochefort; and the answer, like his own, was a
protestation that no hostility \.a8 meant. At the
same time Mirepoix in the name of the King proposed
that orders should be given to the Americ n governors
on both sides to refrain from all acts of aggres-
sion. But while making this proposal the French
Court secretly sent orders to Duquesne to attack and
destroy Fort Halifax, one of the two forts lately
built by Shirley on the Kennebec, -- a river which,
by the admission of the French themselves, belonged
to the English. But, in making this attack, the
French governor was expressly enjoined to pretend
that he acted without orders.^ He was "Iso told

1 Lettres de Cremille, de Rostaing, et de Doreil au j » . ,, //
18, 24, 28, 29, 1755. Listc des Vaisseaux de Guerre t^ui i^ompoient
VEscadre arm€e a Brest, 1765. Journal of M. de Vaudreuil's Voyage
to Canada, in N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 297. Pouchot, i. 25.

a Machault a Duquesne, 17 F^vrier, 1755. The letter of Mirepoix
proposing mutual abstinence Tiom aggression is dated on the sixth

1766.]

BOSCAWEN'S EXPEDITION.

191

that, if necessary, he might make use of the Indians
to harass the English. ^ Thus there was good faith
on neither part; but it is clear th*.. Ji all the corre-
spondence that the English expected to gain by pre-
cipitating an open rupture, and the French by
postponing it. Projects of convention were proposed
on both sides, but there vas no agreement. The
English insisted as a preliminary condition that the
French should evacuate all the v/estern country as
far as the Wabash. Then ensued a long discussion
of their respective claims, as futile as the former dis-
oubsion at Paris on \cadian boundaries. *

The British Court knew perfectly the naval and
»nilitary preparations of the French. Lord Albemarle
hau died at Paris in December; but the secretary of
the embassy, De Cosne, sent to London full informa-
tion concerning the fleet at Brest and Rochefort.^
On this, Ar'miral Boscawen, with eleven ships-of-
the-lina and one frigate, was ordered to intercept
it; and as his force was plainly too small. Admiral
Holbourne, with seven m.re ships, was sent, nearly
three weeks after, to join him if he could. Their
orders were similar, — to capture or destroy any
French vessels bound to North America.* Boscawen,

of the same month. The French dreaded Fort Halifax, becauBe
they thought it prepared the way for an advance on Quebec by way
of the Chaudi^re.

1 Machault a Duquesne, 17 F€vrier, 1755.

8 This correspondence is printed among the Pieces justificatives
of the PrScis des Fails.

« Particulars in Entick, i. 121.

* Secret Instructions fv,- our T nsty and Well-beloved Edward Bos-

192

THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.

[1755.

, I'

I 4

who got to sea before La Motte, stationed himself
near the southern coast of Newfoundland to 3ut him
off; but most of the French squadron eluded him,
and safely made their way, some to Louisbourg, and
the others to Quebec. Thus the English expedition
was, in the main, a failure. Three of the French
ships, however, lost in fog and rain, had become
separateo from the rest, and lay rolling and tossing
on an angry sea not far from Cape Race. One of
them was the "Alcide," commanded by Captain
Hocqiart; the othars were the "Lis" and the
"Dauphin." The wind fell; but the fogs continued
at ini'srvals; till, on the afternoon of the seventh of
June, the weather having cleared, the watchman on
the maintop saw the distant ocean studded with
ships. It was the fleet of Boscawen. Hocquart,
who gives the account, says that in the morning th'^y
were within three leagues of him, crowding all s..il
in pursuit. Towards eleven o'clock one of them, the
"Dunkirk," was abreast of him to windward, within
short speaking distance ; and the ship of the adniiral,
displaying a red flag as - signal to engage, was not
far off. Hocquart called out: "Are we at peace, or
war?" He declares that Howe, captain of the
"Dunkirk," replied in French: "La paix, la paix."
Hocquart then asked the name of the British admiral ;
and on hearing it said : "I know him; he is a friend

cawen, Esq,, Vtce-Admiral of the Blue, 16 April, 1755. Most secret
Instructions for Francis Holhourne, Esq., Rear-Admiral of the Blue, 9
May, 1755. Robinson to Lords of the Admiralty, 8 May, 1766.

[1755.

Ailniiiiil F.JwirJ Hosun,','!!

^■1

4>>

■ 1

X. (

A J'

k\f

t I

1755.] THE ALCIDE AND THE LIS. 198

Of mine." Being asked his own name in return, he

had scarce^^ uttered it when the batteries of the

Dunkirk belched flame and smoke, and volleyed a

!f ITf ,?^ T "P"'' '^'' ^^"^^^d d««ks of the
Alcide. She returned the fire, but was forced at
length to strike her coloi^. Rostaing, second in
cmnmand of the troops, was killed; and six other
officers, with about eighty men, were killed or
wounded.1 At the same time the " Lis " was attacked
and ove^owered. She had on board eight companies
of the battehons of La Reine and Languedoc. The
third French ship, the "Dauphin," escaped under
cover of a rising fog. 2

Here at last was an enrl to negotiation. The sword
was drawn and brandished in the eyes of Europe.

^ J Lhte des Ojficiers tu€s et bkss€s dans le Combat de V Alcide et du

J" Hocquart'8 account is given in full by Pichon. Lettres et
M,rno^res pour servir a VHistoire du Cap-Breton The «h;rt a coun

Al8o Boscawen toRohnson, 22 June, 1755. Vaudreuil au MiniH^e
24 Juillet, 1755. Entick, i. 137. ^^intnre,

question Are we at peace, or war ? " returned, "I don't know
but you had better prepare for war." Boscawen places Jheactirn
on the tenth, instead of the eighth, and puts the English lossat
seven kiUed and twenty-seven wounded.

VOL. I.— 13

f ' *a* ■A^l'i

^\M

'Vm

, ^ , \

J^ 'S

•4 ;

!■ i

CHAPTER VII.

1756.

BRADDOCK.

Aerival of Bbaddock : ins Chabactbb. — Council at Alex-
andria. —Plan OP THE Campaign. — Apathy op the Colo-
NI8TS. — Rage of Bbaddock.— Fbanklin. — Fort Cdmbebland.

— Composition op the Army. — Offended Fbiends. — The
Mabch. — The French Fort. — Savage Allies. — The Cap-
tive. — Beaujec : HE GOES to meet the English. — Pas-
sage op the Monongahela. — The Surprise. — The Battle.

— Rout of Bbaddock : his Death. — Indian Ferocity. —
Reception op the III News. — Weakness of Dunbar.—
The Frontier abandoned.

" I HAVE the pleasure to acquaint you that General
Braddock came to my house last Sunday night, " writes
Dinwiddie, at the end of February, to Governor
Dobbs of North Carolina. Braddock had landed
at Hampton from the ship "Centurion," along with
your.v Commodore Keppel, who commanded the
American squadron. "I am mighty glad," again
writes Dinwiddie, "that the General is arrived,
which I hope will give me some easer for these
twelve months past I have been a perfect slave."
He conceived golden opinions of his guest. "He
is, I think, a very fine officer, and a sensible, con-
siderate gentleman. He and I live in great harmony. "

1755.] WALPOLE'S SKETCH OF BRADDOCK. 195

Had he known him better, he might have praised
him less. William Shirley, son of the governor of
Massachusette, was Braddock's secretory; and after
an acquaintance of some months wrote to his friend
Governor Morris: "We have a general most judi-
ciously chosen for being disqualified for the service
he IS employed in in almost every respect. He may
be brave for aught I know, and he is honest in pecu-
niaiy matters. '> i The astute Franklin, who also had
good opportunity of knowing him, says: "This
general was, I think, a brave man, and might prob-
ably have made a good figure in some European war.
i!ut he had too much self -confidence; too high an
opinion of the validity of regular troops; too mean a
one o both Americans .ad Indians." ^ Horace
Walpole, in his function of gathering and immorteliz-
mg the gossip of his time, has left a sharply drawn
sketch of Braddock in two letters to Sir Horace
Mann, written in the summer of this year: "I love
to give you an idea of our characters as they rise
upon the stage of history. Braddock is a very Iro-
quois in disposition. He had a sister who, having
gamed away all her little fortune at Bath, hanged
hei^elf with a truly English deliberation, lea4g
only a note upon the table with those lines: ' To die
IS landing on some silent shore,' ete. When Brad-
dock was told of it, he only said: ' Poor Fanny! I
always thought she would play till she would be

1 'S'/«>% the younger to Morris, 23 May, 1755.

2 Franklin, Autobiography.

. t

iff

'Hp

196

BRADDOCK.

[1755.

forced to tuck herself up.' " Under the name of Miss

Sylvia S , Goldsmith, in his life of Nash, tells

the story of this unhappy woman. She was a rash
but warm-hearted creature, reduced to penury and
dependence, not so much by a passion for cards as
hy her lavish generosity to a lover ruined by his own
follies, and with whom her relations are said to have
been entirely innocent. Walpole continues : " But a
more ridiculous story of Braddock, and which is
recorded in heroics by Fielding in his ' Covent
Garden Tragedy,' was an amorous discussion he
had, formerly with a Mrs. Upton, who kept him. He
had gone the greatest lengths with her pin-money,
and was still craving. One day, that he was ven
pressing, she pulled out her purse and showed him
that she had but twelve or fourteen shillings left.
He twitched it from her: ' Let me see that.' Tied
up at the other end, he found five guineas. He took
them, tossed the empty purse in her face, saying,
' Did you mean to cheat me ? ' and never went near
her more. Now you are acquainted with General
Braddock."

"He once had a duel with Colonel Gumley, Lady
Bath's brother, who had been his great friend. As
they were going to engage, Gumley, who had good-
humor and wit (Braddock had the latter), said,
'Braddock, you are a poor dog! Here, take my
purse; if you kill me, you will be forced to run
away, and then you will not have a shilling to sup-
port you.' Braddock refused the purse, insisted on

,■; >■

1756.] ANECDOTES OF BRADDOCK. : 197

the dud, was disarmed, and would not even ask his

ife. However, with all his brutality, he has lately

been governor of Gibmltar, where he made himself

Lw'i ""^'''''^''^ any governor was endured

acttroT ZV 't' '' '^" '^ ^" accomplished
Braddock had known from girlhood, and with whom
his present relations seem to have been those of an
elderly adviser and friend. ''As we were walking
m the Park one day, w. heard a poor fellow was to
be chastised; when I reque«^^d the General to beg
off the offender. Upon his application to the general
officer, whose name was Dury, he asked Braddock
how long since he had divested himself of the brutal-
ity and insolence of his manners? To which the
other replied: 'You n.ver knew me insolent to my
inferiors It is ouly to such rude men as yourself
that I behave with the spirit which I think thev
deserve. '" '"

Braddock made a visit to the actress on the even-
ing before he left London for America. "Before we
parted," she says, "the General told me that he
should never see me more; for he was going with a
iiandful of men to conqi-r whole nations; and to do
this they must cut their way through unknown
woods. He produced a map of the country, saying

BrL?"r "^^"'•"^ ^«'/"''« (1866). ii. 459. 461. It is doubtful if
Braddock was ever governor of Gibraltar; though as Mr Sarlnt
ehowB. he once commanded a regiment there ^ '

1\ !

198

BRADDOCK.

[1765.

at the same time : * Dear Pop, we aie sent like sacri-
fices to the altar, '" ^ — a strange presentiment for i
man of liis sturdy temper.

Whatever were his failings, he f^^arect nothing, 9r,x
his fidelity and honor in the disci orge of p .hlic
trusts were nover questioned. "Desperate in his
fortune, brutal in his behavior, obstinate in his seia.-
ments," again writes Walpole, "^ ^ was still intrepid
and capable.'"'^ He was a veteran in years and in
service, having entered the Coldstream Guards as
ensign in 1710.

The transports bringing the two regiments from
Ireland all arrived safely at Hampton, and were
ordered to proceed up the Potomac to Alexandria,
where a camp was to be formed. Thither, towards
the end of March, went Braddock himself, along
with Keppel and Dinwiddle, m the governor's coach ;
while his aide-de-camp, Omie, his secretary, Shirley,
and the servants of tLe party followed on horseback.
Braddock had sent for the elder Shirley and other
provincial governors to meet him in council; and on
the fourteenth of April they assembled in a tent of
the newly ^ormed encampment. Here was Dinwiddle,
who thought his troubles at an end, and saw in the
red-coated soldiery the near fruition of his "^opes.
Here, too, was his friend and ally, Dobbs of North
Carolina; with Morris of Pennsylvania, fresh from

1 Apology for the Life of George Anne Bellamy, written by herself, ii,
204 (London, 1786).

2 Walpole, George II., i. 390.

w W. .1

""•] THE COUNCIL, ; ^99

Assembly quarre.8, Sharpe „: Ma-yUnd, who. hav-
ng onco been a ,oWior, had been made a e^t of
pro™,o„al commander-in-chief before the arrival
of Brad, oek, and the amWio™ Delancey of New
York, who had lately led the opposition against Z

hmself,- a position that needed all his manifold
adroitness. But, next to Bradd.ek, the most not

chusetts. There was a fountain of youth in this old
lawyer. A few yeai. tefore, when he w- boundary
eomm.ss.oner in Paris, he had had the indisctio^
to marry a young Catholie Freneh girl, the daughter
ot h.s andlorf; and now. when more than ^ixty
yearn old he thi«ted ,. military honors, and
dehghted in eontriving -nerations of war. He waa
one ofave.y few in th. eolonies who at this time
enterta.ned the idea of expelli.,g the Kreneh from
the eonhnent. He held that CarU.age must be
d^troyed; and. in spite o^ his Parisian maniagt
was the .o.^most advocate of the root-ana-braneh
poI.cy. He and Lawrence, governor of Nova Seotia.
Lad concerted an attack on the French fort of
Beaus^jour; a.id. jointly with otliers in New Ens-
and he had planned the eapt.,re of Crown Point

nd bw .■^"'' ^'"'P'^'"- ^^ ""^^^ t-o «t™kes
■Id by fortify.ng the portage between the Kennebec

and tl,e Chandi.re, he thought that the nor^er^

colon.es would be saved from invasion, and placed

m a pos.tion to become themselves invaders. Then,

I '

200

BRADDOCK.

[1755.

by driving the enemy from Niagara, securing that
important pass, and thus cutting off the communica-
tion between Canada and her interior depenclsncies,
all the French posts in the West would die of inani-
tion. ^ In order to commend these schemes to the
home government, he had painted in gloomy colors
the dangers that beset the British colonies. Our
Indians, he said, will all desert us if we submit to
French encroachment. Some of the provinces are
full of negro slaves, ready to rise against their
mas*«rs, and of Roman Catholics, Jacobites, indented
servants, and other dangerous persons, who would
aid the French in raising a servile insurrection.
Pennsylvania is in the hands of Quakers, who will
not fight, and of Germans, who are likely enough to
join the enemy. The Dutch of Albany would do
anything to save their trade. A strong force of
French regulars might occupy that place without
resistance, then descend the Hudson, and, with the
help of a ■'■ ^val force, capture New York and cut the
British colonies asunder.'-*

The plans against Crown Point and Beaus^jour
had already found the approval of the home govern-
ment and the energetic support of all the New
England colonies. Preparation for them was in full
activity; and it was with great difficulty that Shirley
had disengaged himself from these cares to attend
the Council at Alexandria. He and Dinwiddle stood

!l1

1 Correspondence of Shirley, 1764, 1755.
'■^ Shirley to Hobinson, 24 January, 1755.

[1755.
that

1755.]

PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN.

201

in the front of opposition to French designs. As
they both defended the royal prerogative and were
strong advocates of taxation by Parliament, they
have found scant justice from American writers.
Yet the British colonies owed them a debt of grati-
tude, and the American States owe it still.

Braddock laid his instructions before the Council,
and Shirley found them entirely to his mind; while
the generjil, on his part, fully approved the schemes
of the governor. The plan of the campaign was
settled. The French were to be attacked at four
points at once. The two British regiments lately
arrived were to advance on Fort Duquesne; two
new regiments, known as Shirley's and Pepperrell's,
just raised in the provinces, and taken into the King's
pay, were to reduce Niagara; a body of provincials
from New England, New York, and New Jersey was
to seize Crown Point; and another body of New
England men to capture Beausdjour and bring
Acadia to complete subjection. Braddock himself
was to lead the expedition against Fort Duquesne.
He asked Shirley, who, though a soldier only in
theory, had held the rank of colonel since the last
war, to charge himself with that against Niagara; and
Shirley eagerly assented. The movement on Crown
Point was intrusted to Colonel William Johnson, by
reason of his influence over the Indians and his repu-
tation for energy, capacity, and faithfulness. Lastly,
the Acadian enterprise was assigned to Lieutenant-
Colonel Monckton, a regular officer of merit.

: i-W

202

BRADDOCK.

[1755.

To strike this fourfold blow in time of peace was
a scheme worthy of Newcastle and of Cumberland.
The pretext was that the positions to be attacked
were all on British soil; that in occupying them the
French had been guilty of invasion; and that to
expel the invaders would be an act of self-defence.
Yet in regard to two of these positions, the French
if they had no other right, might at least claim one
of prescnption. Crown Point h^ : been twenty-four
years in their undisturbed possession, while it was
three quarters of a century since they first occu-
pied Niagara; and, though New York claimed the
ground, no serious attempt had been made to dis-
lodge them.

Other matters now engaged the Council. Brad-
dock, m accordance with his instructions, asked the
governors to urge upon their several assemblies the
estabhshment of a general fund for the service of
the campaign; but che governors were all of opinion
that the assemblies would refuse, — each being
resolved to keep the control of its money in its own
hands; and all present, with one voice, advised that
the colonies should be compelled by Act of Parlia-
ment to contribute in due proportion to the Gupport
of the war. Braddock next asked if, in the judg-
in.;nt ox the Council, it would not be well to send
Colonel Johnson with full powers to trer.t witi the
Five Nations, who had been driven to the ver:,e of
an outbreak by the misconduct of the Dutch Tnuif! i
commissioners at Albany. The measiuo was cor-

1755.]

PREPARATION.

203

dially approved, as was also another suggestion of
the general, that vessels should be built at Oswego
to command Lake Ontario. The Council then
dissolved.

Shirley hastened back to New England, burdened
with the preparation for three expeditions and the
command of one of them. Johnson, who had been in
the camp, though not in the Council, went back to
Albany, provided with a commission as sole s iperin-
tendent of Indian affairs, and chargea, besides, with
the enterprise against Crown Point i while aii express
was despatched to Monckton at Halifax, with orders
to set at once to his work of capture. g BeauRjjour.^

In regard to Braddock's part of the campaign,
there had been a serious error. If, instead of landing
in Virginia and moving on Fort Duquesne by the
long and circuitous route of Will's Creek, the two
regiments had disembarked at Philadelphia and
marched westward, the way would have been short-
ened, and would huve lain through one of the richest
and most populous districts on the continent, filled
with supplies of every kind. In Virginia, on the
other hand, and in the adjoining province of Mary-

^ Mindtes of a Cuncil held at the Camp at Alexandria, in Virginia,
April 14, 1765, Instructions to MaJor-Gen?^-al Braddock, 25 November,
1754. Secret Luitructions to Major-G„aeral Braddock, same date.
Napier to Braddock, written b/i Order of 7ie Duke of Cumberland 25
November, 1754, in Precis des Fa'''\ ^il es justijicatioes, 168. Cntu^,
Journal of Braddock's Expeditio . / 1, struct/ or ■> to Governor Shirley.
Correspondence of Shirk/. Vorrfspondence of Braddock (Public
Record Office). Johnson Papers. Dinwiddle Papers. Pennsylvania
Archives, ii.

,* f "

I ■'

I-

•'■ ■ f.>

204

BRADDOCK.

[1755.

land, wagons, horses, and forage were scarce. The
enemies of the Administration ascribed this blunder
to the influence of the Quaker merchant, John
Hanbuiy, whom the Duke of Newcastle had con-
sulted as a person familiar with American affairs.
Hanbuiy, who was a prominent stockholder in the
Ohio Company, and who traded largely in Virginia,
saw it for his interest that the troops should pass
that way, and is said to have brought the duke to
this opinion.! A writer of the time thinks that if
they had landed in Pennsylvania, forty thousand
pounds would have been saved in money, and six
weeks in time.^

Not only were supplies scarce, but the people
showed such unwillingness to furnish them, and
such apathy in aiding the expedition, that even
Washington was provoked to declare that "they
ought to be chastised. "3 Many of them thought
that the alarm about French encroachment was a
'' -^e of designing politicians; and they did not
-•a ) to a full consciousness of the peril till it was
-- 1 upon them by a deluge of calamities, produced
by the purblind folly of their own representatives,
who, nstead of frankly promoting the expedition,

^ Shehbeare's Tracts, Letter I. Dr. Shebbeare was a political
pamphleteer, pilloried by one xniniatry, and rewarded by the nTxt

'^ Gentleman's Magazine, August, 1755

1755.]

HIS DIFFICULTIES.

205

displayed a perverse and exasperating narrowness
which chafed Braddock to fury. He praises the
New England colonies, and echoes Dinwiddie's
declaration that they have shown a "fine martial
spirit," and he commends Virginia as having done
far better than her neighbors; but for Pennsylvania
he finds no words to express his wrath. ^ He knew
nothing of the intestine war between proprietaries
and people, and hence could see no palliation for a
conduct which threatened to ruin both the expedition
and the colony. Everything depended on speed,
and speed was impossible; for stores and provisions
were not ready, though notice to furnish them had
been given months before. The quartermaster-
general. Sir John Sinclair, "stormed like a lion
rampant," but with small efPect.a Contracts broken
or disavowed, want of horses, want of wagons, want
of forage, want of wholesome food, or sufficient food
of any kind, caused such delay that the report of it
reached England, and drew from Walpole the com-
ment that Braddoch was in no hurry to be scalped.
In reality he was maddened with impatience and
vexation.

A powerful ally presently came to his aid in the
shape of Benjamin Franklin, then postmaster-general
of Pennsylvania. That sagacious personage, — the
sublime of common-sense, about equal in his instincts

> Braddock to Robinson, 18 March, 19 April, 5 June, 1755, etc. On
the attitude of Pennsylvania, Colonial Records of Pa., vi., passim.
* Colonial Records of Pa., vi.SaS.

■Hi

206

BBADDOCK.

[1765.

¥' I

I -.i

and motives of character to the respectable average
of the New England that produced him, but gifted
with a versatile power of brain rarely matched on
earth, —was then divided between his strong desire
to repel a danger of which he saw the imminence,
and his equally strong antagonism to the selfish
claims of the Penns, proprietaries of Pennsylvania.
This last motive had determined his attitude towards
their representative, the governor, and led him into
an opposition as injurious to the military good name
of the province as it was favorable to its political
longings. In the present case there was no such
conflict of inclinations i he could help Braddock
withou.t hurting Pennsylvania. He and his son had
visited the camp, and found the general waiting
restlessly for the report of the agents whom he had
sent to collect wagons. "I stayed with him," says
Franklin, "several days, and dined with him daily.
When I was about to depart, the returns of wagons
to be obtained were brought in, by which it appeared
that they amounted only to twenty-five, and not all
of these were in serviceable condition." On this the
general and his officers declared that the expedition
was at an end, and denounced the ministry for send-
ing them into a country void of the means of trans-
portation. Franklin remarked that it was a pity
they had not landed in Pennsylvania, where almost
everv farmer hart his wagon. Braddock caught
eagerly at his words, and begged that he Wiul^ use
his influence to enable the troops to move. Franklin

1755.] WILL'S CREEK. 207

went back to Pennsylvania, issued an address to the
farmei-s appealing to their interest and their fears,
and in a fortnight procured a hundred and fift^
wagons, with a large number of horses.^ Braddock,
grateful to his benefactor, and enraged at everybody
else, ,Dronounced him "Almost the only instance of
ability and honesty I have known in these provinces." 2
More wagons and more horses gradually arrived, and
at the eleventh hour the march began.

On the tenth of May Braddock reached Will's
Creek, where the whole force was now gathered,
having marched thither by detachments along the
banks of the Potomac. This old trading-station of
the Ohio Company had been transformed into a
military post and named Fort Cumbe..and. During
the past winter the independent companies which
had failed Washington in his need had been at work
here to prepare a base of operations for Braddock.
Their axes had been of more avail than their muskets.
A broad wound had been cut in the bosom of the
forest, and the murdered oaks and chestnuts turned
into ramparts, barracks, and magazines. Fort Cum-
berland was an enclosure of logs set upright in the
ground, pierced with loopholes, and armed with ten
small cannon. It stood on a rising ground near the
point where WiU's Creek joined the Potomac, and

1 Franklin, Autobiography. Advertisement of B. Franklin for
Wagons; Address to the Inhabitants of the Counties of York, Lancas.

ter, and Cumberland, in Pennsylvania Archives, ii. 294.

2 Braddock to Robinson, 6 June, 1755. The letters of Braddock
here cited are the originals in the Public Record Office.

If^i

11 ','

' !

208 BRADDOCK. [1755.

•

the forest girded it like a mighty hedge, or rather
like a paling of gaunt brown stems upholding a
canopy of green. All around spread illimitable
woodg, wrapping hill, valley, and mountain. The
spot was an oasis in a desert of leaves, — if the name
oasis can be given to anything so rude and harsh. In
this rugged area, or "clearing," all Braddock's force
was now assembled, amounting, regulars, provincials,
and sailors, to about twenty-two hundred men. The
two regiments, Halket's and Dunbar's, had been
completed by enlistment in Virginia to seven hun-
dred men each. Of Virginians there were nine
companies of fifty men, who found no favor in the
eyes of Braddock or his officers. To Ensign Allen
of Halket's regiment was assigned the duty of "mak-
ing them as much like soldiers as possible," ^ — that
is, of drilling them like regulars. The general had
little hope of them, and informed Sir Thomas Rob-
inson that "th ir slothful and languid disposition

renders them very unfit for military service," a

point on which he lived to change his mind. Thirty
sailors, whom Commodore Keppel had lent him, were
more to his liking, and were in fact of value in many
ways. He had no;v about six hundred baggage-
horses, besides those of the artillery, all weakening
daily on their diet of leaves ; for no grass was to be
found. There was great show of discipline, and little
real order. Braddock's executive capacity seems to
have been moderate, and his dogged, imperious

1 Orme, Journal,

M H

.1^

1755.]

HIS ILL-HUMOR.

209

temper, rasped by disappointments, was in constant
irritation. "He looks upon the countiy, I believe,"
writes Washington, "as void of honor or honesty.
We have frequent disputes on this head, which are
maintained with warmth on both sides, especially on
his, as he is incapable of arguing without it, or
giving up any point he asserts, be it ever so incom-
patible with reason or common sense."! Braddock's
secretary, the younger Shirley, writing to his friend
Governor Morris, spoke thus irreverently of his
chief: "As the King said of a neighboring governor
of yours [Sharpe], when proposed for the command
of the American forces about a twelvemonth ago,
and recommended as a very honest man, though not
remarkably able, ' a little more ability and a little
less honesty upon the present occasion might serve
our turn better. ' It is a joke to suppose that second-
ary officers can make amends for the defects of the
first; the mainspring must be the mover. As to the
others, I don't think we have much to boast; some
are insolent and ignorant, others capable, but rather
aiming at showing their own abilities than making a
proper use of them. I have a very great love for my
friend Orme, and think it uncommonly fortunate for
our leader that he is under the influence of so honest
and capable a man; but I wish for the sake of the
public he had some more experience of business, par-
ticularly in America. I am greatly disgusted at see-
ing an expedition (as it is called), so iU-concerted

1 Writings of Washington, ii. 77.
VOL. I, — 14 J '

■if i!

210

BRADDOCK.

',K

[1755.

originally in England, so improperly conducted since
in America."^

Captain Robert Orme, of whom Shirley speaks,
was aide-de-camp to Braddock, and author of a copi-
ous and excellent Journal of the expedition, now in
the British Museum. 2 His portrait, painted at full
length by Sir Joshua Reynolds, hangs in the National
Gallery at London. He stands by his horse, a gallant
young figure, with a face pale, yet rather Ir^ndsome,
booted to the knee, his scarlet coat, ample waistcoat,
and small three-cornered hat all heavy with gold lace.
The general had two other aides-de-camp, Cap^iin
Roger Morris and Colonel George Washington,
whom he had invited, in terms that do him honor,
to become one of his military family.

It has been said that Braddock despised not only
provincials, but Indians. Nevertheless, he took
some pains to secure their aid, and complained that
Indian affairs had been so ill conducted by the prov-
inces that it was hard to gain their conlidence.
This was true; the tribes had been alienated by
gross neglect. Had they been protected from
injustice and soothed by attentions and presents, the
Five Nations, Delawares, and Shawanoes would have
been retained as friends. But their complaints had
been slighted, and every gift begrudged. The trader

» Shirley the younger to Morris, 23 May, 1755, in Colonial Records
of Pa., vi. 404.

2 Printed by Sargent, in his excellent monograph of Braddock's
Expedition.

si,
n

1766.]

INDIAN ALLIES.

211

Croghan brought, however, about fifty warriors,
with as many women and cliildren, to the camp at
Fort Cumberlar They were objects of great
curiosity to the soldiers, who gazed with astonish-
ment on their faces, painted red, yellow, and black,
their ears slit and hung with pendants, and their
heads close shaved, except the feathered soalp-lock
at the c ,wn. "In the day," says an officer, "they
are in our camp, and in the night they go into their
own, where they dance and make a most horrible
noise." Braddcck received them several times in
his tent, ordered the guurd to salute them, made
them speeches, caused cannon to be fired and drums
and fifes to play in their honor, regaled them with
rum, and gave them a bullock for a feast; whereupon,
being much pleased, they danced a war-dance, de-
scribed by one spectator as "droll and odd, . liowing
how they scalp and fight; " after which, says an-
other, "they set up the most horrid song or cry that
ever I heard, "i These warriors, with a few others,
promised the general to join him on the march; but
he apparently grew tired of them, for a famous chief,
called Scarroyaddy, afterwards complained: "He
looked upon us as dogs, and would never hear any-
thing that we said to him." Only eight of them
remained with him to the end.^

Another ally appeared at the camp. This was

1 Journal of a Naval Officer, in Sargent. The Expedition of Major-
General Braddock, being Extracts of Letters from an Officer (London
1765). '

2 Statement of George Croghan, in Sargent, Appendix III.

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BRADDOCK.

[1755.

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a personage long known in ^^T-estem fireside story as
Captain Jack, the Black Hunter, or the Black Rifle.
It was said of him that having been a settler on the
farthest frontier, in the Valby of the Juniata, he
returned one evening to his cabin and found it burned
to the ground by Indians, and the bodies of his wife
and children lying among the ruins. He vowed
undying vengeance, raised a band of kindred spirits,
dressed and painted like Indiana, and became the
scourge of the red man and the champion of the
white. But he and his wild crew, useful as they
might have been, shocked Braddock's sense of
military fitness; and he received them so coldly that
they left him.^

It was the tenth of June before the army was weU
on its march. Three hundred axemen led the way,
to cut and clear the road; and the long train of pack-
horses, wagons, and cannon toiled on behind, over
the stumps, roots, and stones of the narrow track,
the regulars and provincials marching in the forest
close on either side. Squads of men were thrown
out on the flanks, and scouts ranged the woods to
guard against surprise; for, with all his scorn of
Indians and Canadians, Braddock did not neglect
reasonable precautions. Thus, foot by foot, they
advanced into the waste of lonely mountains that
divided the streams flowing to the Atlantic from
those flowing to the Gulf of Mexico, - a realm of

1 See several traditional accounts and contemporary letters in
Hazard s I^ennsylvania Register, iv. 389, 390, 416; v. lyl.

1756.]

THE MARCH.

213

foreste ancient as the world. The road was but
twelve feet wide, and the line of march often extended
four miles. It was like a thin, long party-colored
snake, red, blue, and brown, trailing slowly through
the depth of leaves, creeping round inaccessible
heights, crawling over ridges, moving always in
dampness and shadow, by rivulets and waterfalls
crags and chasms, gorges and shaggy steeps. In
glimpses only, through jagged boughs and flickering
leaves, did this wild primeval world reveal itself
with Its dark green mountains, fle.ked with the
morning mist, and its distant summits pencilled in
dreamy blue. The army passed the main Alleghany
Meadow Mountain, and Great Savage Mountain!
and traversed the funereal pine-forest afterwards
called the Shades of Death. No attempt was made
to interrupt their march, though the commandant of
Fort Duquesne had sent out parties for that purpose
A few French and Indians hovered about them, now
and then scalping a straggler or inscribing filthy
insults on trees; while others fell upon the border
settlements which the advance of the troops had left
defenceless. Here they were more successful, butcher-
ing about thirty persons, chiefly women and children
It was the eighteenth of June before the army
reached a place called the Litde Meadows, less than
thirty miles from Fort Cumberland. Fevpr and
dysentery among the men, and the weakness and
worthlessness of many of the horses, joined to the
extreme difficulty of the road, so retarded them that

■::

214

BRADDOCK.

[1765.

i .■ ,5-

fe ■

they could move scarcely more than three miles a
day. liraddock consulted with Wasliington, who
advised him to leave the heavy haggage to follow as
it could, and push forward with a body of chosen
troops. This coursel was given in view of a report
that five hundred regulars were on t^ ^ way to rein-
force Fort Duquesne. It was adopted. Colonel
Dunbar was left to command the rear division, whose
powers of movement were now reduced to the lowest
point. The advance corps, consisting of about twelve
hundred soldiei-s, besides officers and drivei-s, began
its march on the nineteenth with such artillery as
was thought indispensable, thirty wagons, and a
large number of pack-hoi-ses. " The prospect, " writes
Washington to his brother, " conveyed infinite delight
to my mind, though I was excessively ill at the
time. But this prospect was soon clouded, and my
hopes brought very low indeed when I found that,
instead of pushing on with vigor without regarding
a little rough road, they were halting to level every
mole-hill, and to erect bridges over every brook, by
which means we were four days in getting twelve
miles." It was not till the seventh of July that
they neared the mouth of Turtle Creek, a stream
entering the Monongahela about eight miles from
the French fort. The way was direct and short, but
would lead them through a difficult country and a
defile so perilous that Braddock resolved to ford
t'-e Monongahela to avoid this danger, and then
ford it again to reach his destination.

1755.]

THE FRENCH FORT.

215

Fort Duquesne stood on the point of land where
the Alleghany and the Monongahela join to form the
Ohio, and wliere now stands Pittsburg, with its
swarming population, its restless industries, the
clang of its forges, and its chimnevs vomiting foul
smoke into the face of heaven. At" that early day a
white flag fluttering over a cluster of palisades and
embankments betokened the first intrusion of civilized
men upon a scene which, a few months before,
breathed the repose of a virgin wilderness, voiceless
but for the lapping of waves upon the pebbles, or
the not^ of some lonely bird. But now the sleep of
ages was broken, and bugle and drum told the
astonished forest that its doom was pronounced and
its days numbered. The fort was a compact little
wor , solidly built and strong, compared with others
on the continent. It was a square of four bastions,
with the water close on two sides, and the other two
protected by ravelins, ditch, glacis, and covered
way. The ramparts on these sides were of squared
logs, filled in with earth, and ten feet or more thick.
Tlie two water sides were enclosed by a massive
stockade of upright logs, twelve feet high, mortised
together and loopholed. The armament consisted of
a number of small cannon mounted on the bastions.
A gate and drawbridge on the east side gave access
to the area within, which was surrounded by bar-
racks for the soldiers, officers' quarters, the lodgings
of the commandant, a guard-house and a storehou: e,
all built partly of logs and partly of boards. There

216

BRADDOCK.

[1755.

f ■

\\fJ

were no casements, and the place was commanded
by a high woody hill beyond the Monongahela. The
forest had Ijeen cleared away to the distance of more
than a musket-shot from the ramparts, and the
stumps were hacked level with the ground. Here,
just outside the ditch, bark cabins had been built for
such of the troops and Canadians as could not find
room within; and the rest of the open space was
covered with Indian corn and other crops. ^

The garrison consisted of .i few companies of the
regular troops stationed permanently in the colony,
and to these were added a considerable number of
Canadians. Contrecceur still held the command. =*
Under him were three other captains, Beaujeu,
Dumas, and Ligneris. Besides the troops and Cana-
dians, eight hundred Indian warriors, mustered
from far and near, had built their wigwams and
camp-sheds on the open ground, or under the edge of
the neighboring woods, — very little to the advantage
of the young corn. Some were baptized savages
settled in Canada, — Caughnawagas from Saut St.
Louis, Abenakis from St. Francis, and Hurons from
Lorette, whose chief bore the name of Anastase, in
honor of thai Father of the Church. The rest were

a I

^ M'Kinney's Descriptwn of Fort Durjuesnp, 1756, in Rasard'x
Pennsylvania Ref,hter, viii. 318. Letters of Robert Stoho, Hostage at
Fort Daquesne, 1754, in Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 141, 161. Stobo's
Plan of Fort Duquesne, 1754. Journal of Thomas Forbes, 1755 Lette-
of Captain Haslet, 1768, in Olden Time, i. 184. Plan of Fort Duquesne
in Public Record Office.

^ See Appendix D.

". '< If

iil^'Mi i

was

1755.]

A YOUNG CAPTIVE.

217

unmitigated heathen, — Pottawattaraies and Ojibwas
■ from the northern lakes under Charles Langlade, the
same bold partisan who had led them, three years
before, to attack the Miamis at Pickawillany ;
Shawanoes and Mingoes from the Ohio; and Ottawas
from Detroit, commanded, it is said, by that most
redoubtable of savages, Pontiac. The law of the
survival of the fittest had wrought on this hetero-
geneous crew through countless generations; and
with the primitive Indian, the fittest was the hardiest,
fiercest, most adroit, and most wily. Baptized and
heathen alike, they had just enjoyed a diversion
greatly to their taste. A young Pennsylvaniaa
named James Smith, a spirited and intelligent boy of
eighteen, had been waylaid by three Indians on the
western borders of the province and led captive to
the fort. When the party came to the edge of tlie
clearing, his captors, who had shot and scalped his
companion, raised the scalp-yell; whereupon a din
of responsive whoops and firing of guns rose from all
the Indian camps, and their inmates swarmed out
like bees, while the French in the fort shot off
muskets and cannon to honor the occasion. The
unfortunate boy, the object of this obstreperous
rejoicing, presently saw a multitude of sa^^ages,
naked, hideously bedaubed v/ith red, blue, black,
and brown, and armed with sticks or clubs, ranging
themselves in two long parallel lines, between which
he was told that he must run, the faster the better,
as they would beat him all the way. He ran with

'r»

218

BRADDOCK.

[1765.

his best speed, under a shower of blows, and had
nearly reached the end of the course, when he was
knocked down. He tried to rise, but was blinded by
a handful of sand thrown into his face; and then
they beat him till lie swooned. On coming to his
senses he found himself in the fort, with the surgeon
opening a vein in his arm and a crowd of French and
Indians looking on. In a few days he was able to
walk with th- help of a stick; and, coming out from
his quarters one morning, he saw a memorable
scene. ^

Three days before, an Indian had brought the
report that the English were approaching; and the
Chevalier de la Perade was sent out to reconnoitre."
He returned on the next day, tlie seventh, with news
that they were not far distant. On the eighth the
brpthers NormanviUe went out, and found that they
were within six leagues of the fort. The French
were in great excitement and alarm; but Contrecoeur
at length took a resolution, which seems to have
been inspired by Beaujeu.^ It was determined to
meet the enemy on the march, and ambuscade them
if possible at the crossing of the Monongahela, or
some other favorable spot. Beaujeu proposed the

^l-ff'""^! "■^f^'^'^'-^f' Occurrences in the Life of Colonel James

t^ll . ■' '^''"''•^ ^''^^^' '^' ''^"* ^^ ^'1 the numerous

narratives of captives among the Indians.

hellf '^'''"'" "^^ <^^orf?/-'o//, in Shea, Bataille du Malangueul^ (Monong&.

« Dumas, however, declares that Beaujeu adopted the plan at
his suggestion. Dumas au Minlstre,MJuillet, 1766.

1755.J

BEAUJEU.

219

plan to the Indians, and offered them the war-
hatchet; but they would not take it. "Do you want
to die, my father, and sacrifice us besides?" That
night they held a council, and in the morning again
refused to go. Beaujeu did not despair. "I am
determined," he exclaimed, "to meet the English.
What! will you let your father go alone ?*'i The
greater part c^.ught fire at his words, promised to
follow him, and put on their war-paint. Beaujeu
received the communion, then dressed himself like a
savage, and joined the clamorous throng. Open
barrels of gunpowder and bullets were set before the
gate of the fort, and James Smith, painfully climbing
the rampart with the help of his stick, looked down
on the warrior rabble as, huddling together, wild
with excitement, they scooped up the contents to fill
their powder-horns and pouches. Then, band after
band, they filed off along the forest track that led to
the ford of the Monongahela. They numbered six
hundred and thirty-seven; and with them went
thirty-six French officers and cadets, seventy-two
regular soldiers, and a hundred and forty-six Cana-
dians, ov about nine hundred in all.2 At eight
o'clock the tumult was over. The broad clearing
lay lonely and still, and Contrecceur, with what was

1 Relation depuis le Depart des Trouppes de Quebec jusqu'au 30 du
Alois d". Seplembre, 1755.

2 Liste des Officiers, Cadets, Soldals, Miliciens, et Sauvages qui com.
posaient le Daacliement qui a €t€au devant d'un Corps de 2,000 Angiois
« 3 Lieues du Fort Duquesne, le 9 Juillet, 1765; joint a la Lettre de M
Bigot du 6 Aout, 1755.

220

BRADDOCK.

[1766.

,■ i

left of his garrison, waited in suspense for the
isHue.

It was near one o'clock when Braddock crossed
the Monongahela for the second time. If the French
made a stand anywhere, it would be, he thought, at
the fording-place; but Lieutenant-Colonel Gage,
whom he sent across with a strong advance-party,'
found no enemy, and quietly took possession of the
farther shore. Then the main body followed. To
impose on the imagination of the French scouts, who
were doubtless on the watch, the movement was
made with studied regularity and order. The sun
was cloudless, and the men were inspirited by the
prospect of near triumph. Washington afterwards
spoke with admiration of the spectacle. ^ The
musi-^, the banners, the mounted officers, the troop
of light cavalry, the naval detachment, the red-
coated regulars, the blue-coated Vii^ginians, the
wagons and tumbrils, cannon, howitzera, and coe-
horns, the train of packhorses, and the droves of
cattle, passed in long procession through the rippling
shallows, and slowly entered the bordering forest.
Hero, when all were over, a short halt was ordered
for rest and refreshment.

Why had not Beaujeu defended the ford? This
was his intention in the morning; but he had been
met by obstacles, the nature of which is not wholly
clear. His Indians, it seems, had proved refractory.

1 Compare the account of another eye-witness, Dr. Wa'^-r in
Hazard's Pennsylvania Register vi. 104.

[1755.
I for the

i crossed
le French
ouglit, at
il Gage,
ice-party,
)n of the
7ed. To
uts, who
lent was
The sun
1 by the
terwards
.^ The
lie troop
the red-
ns, the
nd coe-
^•oves of
rippling
forest,
ordered

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1755.]

THE CRISIS NEAR.

221

Three hundred of them left him, went off in another
direction, and did not xejoin him till the English had
crossed the river, i Hence perhaps it was that, hav-
ing left Fort Duquesne at eight o'clock, he spent
half the day in marching seven miles, and ^vas more
than a mile from the fording-place when the British
reached the eastern shore. The delay, from what-
ever cause arising, cost him the opportunity of laying
an ambush either at the ford or in the gullies and
ravines that channelled the forest through which
Braddock was now on the point of marching.

Not far from the bank of the river, and close by
the British line of march, there was a clearing and
a deserted house that had once belonged to the trader
Fraser. Washington remembered it well. It was
here that he found rest and shelter on the winter
journey homeward from his mission to Fort Le Breuf.
He was in no less need of rest at this moment; for
recent fever had so weakened him that he could
hardly sit his horse. From Fraser's house to Fort
Duquesne the distance was eight miles by a rough
path, along which the troops were now beginning to
move after their halt. It ran inland for a little,
then curved to the left, and followed a course paral-
lel to the river along the base of a line of steep hills
that here bordered the valley. These and all the
country were btiried in dense and heavy forest,
choked with bushes and the carcasses of fallen trees!
Braddock has been charged with marching blindly

1 Relation de Godefroy, in Shea, Bataille du MalangueuU.

ill

222

BRADDOCK.

[1756.

i • J

r ^

•■ n

into an ambuscade; but it was not so. There was
no ambuscade; and had there been one, he would
have found it. It is true that he did not reconnoitre
the woods very far in advance of the head of the
column; yet, with this exception, he made elaborate
dispositions to prevent surprise. Several guides,
with six Virginian light horsemen, led the way.'
Then, a musket-shot behind, came the vanguard;
then three hundred soldiers under Gage; then a
large body of axemen, under Sir John Sinclair, to
open the road; then two cannon with tumbrils and
tool-wagons; and lastly the rear-guard, closing the
line, while flanking-parties ranged the woods on both
sides. This was the advance-column. The main
body followed with little or no interval. The artil-
lery and wagons moved along the road, and the
troops filed through the woods close on either hand.
Numerous flanking-parties were thrown out a hun-
dred yards and more to right and left; while, in the
space between them and the marching column, the
pack-horses and cattle, with their drivers, made
their way painfully among the trees and thickets;
since, had they been allowed to follow the road, the
line of march would have been too long for mutual
support. A body of regulars and provincials brought
up the rear.

Gage, with his advance column, had just passed a
wide and bushy ravine that crossed their path, and
the van of the mam column was on the point of
entering it, when the guides and light horsemen m

[1766.

'here vms
le would
connoitre
d of the
elfiborate

guides,
;he way.
mguard;

then a
clair, to
brils and
sing the
on both
le main
he artil-
and the
3r hand.

a hun-
!, in the
nn, the
, made
lickets ;
)ad, the
mutual
wrought

assed a
:h, and
oint of
men in

1755.]

THE EATTLE.

223

the front suddenly Ml back; and the engineer,
Gordon, then engaged in marking out the road, saw
a man, dressed like an Indian, but wearing the
gorget of an officer, bounding forward along the
path.i He stopped when he discovered the head of
the column, turned, and waved his hat. The forest
behind was swarming with French and savages. At
the signal of the officer, who was probably Beaujeu,
they yelled the war-whoop, spread themselves to
right and left, and opened a sharp fire under cover
of the trees. Gage's column wheeled deliberately
into line, and fired several volleys with great steadi-
ness against the now invisible assailants. Few of
them were hurt; the trees caught the shot, but the
noise was deafening under the dense arches of the
forest. The greater part of the Canadians, to borrow
the words of Dumas, "fled shamefully, ciying,
' Sauve qui pent ! '" 2 Volley followed volley, and at
the third Beaujeu dropped dead. Gage's two cannon
were now brought to bear, on which the Indians, like
the Canadians, gave way in confusion, but did not,
like them, abandon the field. The close scarlet
ranks of the English were plainly to be seen through
the trees and the smoke ; they were moving forward,
cheering lustily, and shouting, " God save the King! "
Dumas, nov/ chief in command, thought that all was
lost. "I advanced," he says, "with the assurance

1 Journal of the Proceeding of the Detachment of Seamen, in Sargent.

2 Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1766. Contrecceur a Vaudreuil, 14
Juillet, Vlbb. See Appendix D, where extracts are given.

am^'\

\ '■

■1 V

, f'Hi

■i ^ ^f

\ 1: if

:jf

224

BRADDOCK.

: : f

i,. iil

[1753.

U ' ,

that comes from despair, exciting by voico and
gesture the few soldiem that remained. The fire of
my platoon was so sharp that the enemy seemed
astonished." The Indians, encouraged, began to
rally. The French officers who commanded them
showed admirable courage and address; and while
Dumas and Ligneris, with the regulara and what
was left of the Canadians, held the ground in front,
the savage warriors, screeching their war-cries,
swarmed through the forest along both flanks of the
English, hid behind trees, bushes, and fallen trunks,
or crouched in gullies and ravines, and opened a
deadly fire on the helpless soldiery, who, themselves
completely visible, could see no enemy, and wasted
volley after volley on the impassive trees. The most
destructive iire came from a hill on the English right,
where the Indians lay in multitudes, firing from
their lurking-places on the living target below. But
the invisible death was everywhere, in front, flank,
and rear. The British cheer was heard no more!
The troops broke their ranks and huddled together in
a bewildered mass, slirinking from the bullets that
cut them down by scores.

When Braddock heard the firing in the front, he
pushed forward with the main body to the support of
Gage, leaving four hundred men in the rear, under
Sir Peter Halket, to guard the baggage. At the
moment of his arrival Gage's soldiers had abandoned
their two cannon, and were falling back to escape
the concentrated fire of the Indians. Meeting the

[1755.

oico and
'he fire of
J seemed
Jegan to
led them
nd while
ind what
in front,
mr-cries,
cs of the
I trunks,
pened a
3mselves
I wasted
'he most
ih right,
ig from
V. But
:, flank,
3 more,
ether in
Bts that

:"ont, he
»port of
, under
At the
ndoned
escape
ng the

':m

'i'

Sir Peter Halket.

I;.

'•I

^■<'i u

. .^

111 '^-

'I '

i : J

1755.] GALLANTRY OF VIRGINIAN^

225

advancing troops, they tried to find cover behind
them. This threw the whole into confusion. The
men of the two regiments became mixed together;
and in a short time the entire force, except the
Virginians and the troops left with Halket, were
massed in several dense bodies within a small space
of ground, facing some one way and some another,
and all alike exposed without shelter to the bullets
that pelted them like hail. Both men and officers
were new to this blind and frightful warfare of the
savage in his native woods. To charge the Indians
in their hiding-places would have been useless. They
would have eluded pursuit with the agility of wild-
cats, and swarmed back, like angry hornets, the
moment that it ceased. The Virginians alone 'were
equal to the emergency. Fighting behind trees like
the Indians themselves, they might have held the
enemy in check till order could be restored, had not
Braddock, furious at a proceeding that shocked all
his ideas of courage and discipline, ordered them,
with oaths, to form into line. A body of them
under Captain Waggoner made a dash for a fallen
tree lying in the woods, far out towards the lurking-
places of the Indians, and, crouching behind the
huge trunk, opened fire; but the regulars, seeing the
smoke among the bushes, mistook their best friends
for the enemy, shot at them from behind, killed
many, and forced the rest to return. A few of the
regidars also tried in their clumsy way to fight
behind trees; but Braddock beat them with his

VOL. 1. — 15

■-'I'

226

BllADDOCK.

[1755.

sword, and compelled them to stand with the rest
an open mark for the Indians. The panic increased;
the soldiers crowded together, and the bullets spent
themselves in a mass of human bodies. Commands
entreaties, and threats were lost upon them. " We
would fight," some of them answered, "if we could
see anybody to fight with." Nothing was visible
but puffs of smoke. Officers and men who had stood
all the afternoon under fire afterwards declared that
they could not be sure they had seen a single Indian.
Braddock ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Burton to
attack the hill where the puffs of smoke were
thickest, and the bullets most deadly. With infinite
difficulty that brave officer induced a hundred men to
follow him ; but he was soon disabled by a wound,
and they all faced about. The artillerymen stood
for some time by their guns, which did great damage
to the trees and little to the enemy. The mob of
soldiers, stupefied with terror, stood panting, their
foreheads beaded with sweat, loading and firino-
mechanically, sometimes into the air, sometimes
among their own comrades, many of whom they
killed. The ground, strewn with dead and wounded
men, the bounding of maddened hoi-ses, the clatter
and roar of musketry and cannon, mixed with the
spiteful report of rifles and the yells that rose from
the indefatigable throats of six hundred unseen
savages, formed a chaos of anguish and terror
scarcely paralleled even in Indian war. -'I cannot
describe the horrors of that scene," one of Braddock's

[1755.

the rest,
increased ;
lets spent
3mmands,
n. "We
we could
IS visible
bad stood
ared that
e Indian,
iirton to
»ke were
1 infinite
d men to
i wound,
en stood

damage

mob of
ig, their
d firingf
metimes
)m they
TOunded
; clatter
nth the
>se from

unseen
, terror

cannot
ddock's

1755.]

HAVOC AMONG OFFICERS.

227

officers wrote three weeks after; "no pen could do
it. The yell of the Indians is fresh on my ear, and
the terrific sound will haunt me till the hour of my
dissolution."^

Braddock showed a furious intrepidity. Mounted
on horseback, he dashed to and fro, storming like a
madman. Four horses were shot under him, and he
mounted a fifth. Washington seconded his chief
with equal courage; he too no doubt using strong
language, for he did not measure words when the
fit was on him. He escaped as by miracle. Two
horses were killed under him, and four bullets tore
his clothes. The conduct of the British officers was
above praise. Nothing could surpass their undaunted
self-devotion; and in their vain attempts to lead on
the men, the havoc among them was frightful. Sir
Peter Halket was shot dead. His son, a lieutenant
in his regiment, stooping to raise the body of his
father, was shot dead in turn. Young Shirley,
Braddock's secretary, was pierced through the brain.
Orme and Morris, his aides-de-camp, Sinclair, the
quartermaster-general. Gates and Gage, both after-
wards conspicuous on opposite sides in the War of
the Revolution, and Gladwin, who, eight years later,
defended Detroit against Pontiac, were all wounded.
Of eighty-six officers, sixty-three were killed or dis-
abled; 2 while out of thirteen hundred and seventy-

1 Leslie to a Merchant of Philadelphia, 30 July, 1755, in Hazard's
Pennsylvania Register, v. 191. Leslie was a lieutenant of the Forty-
fourth.

2 A List of the Officers who vere present, and of those killed and

iAiU

I ■■

228

BRADDOCK.

[1755.

three non-commissioned officers and privates, only
four hundred and fifty-nine came off unharmed. ^

Braddock saw that all was lost. To save the wreck
of his force from annihilation, he at last commanded
a retreat; and as he and such of his officers as were
left strove to withdraw the half-frenzied crew in
some semblance of order, a bullet struck him down.
The gallant bulldog fell from his horse, shot through
the arm into the lungs. It is said, though on evi-
dence of no weight, that the bullet came from one
of his own men. Be this as it may, there he lay
among the bushes, bleeding, gasping, unable even
to curse. He demanded to be left where he was.
Captain Stewart and another provincial bore him
between them to the rear.

It was about this time that the mob of soldiers,
having been three hours under fire, and having spent
their ammunition, broke away in a blind frenzy,
rushed back towards the ford, "and when," says
Washington, "we endeavored to rally them, it was
with as much success as if we had attempted to stop
the wild bears of the mountains." They dashed
across, helter-skelter, plunging through the water to
the farther bank, leaving wounded comrades, cannon,

wounded, in the Action on the Banks of the Monongahela, 9 July, 1755
(Public Record Office, America and West Indies, Ixxxii).

1 Statement of the engineer, Mackellar. By another account,
out of a total, officers and men, of 1,460, the number of all ranks
who escaped was 583. Braddock's force, originally 1,200, was in-
creased, a few days before the battle, by detachments from
Dunbar.

P w

1755.] BATTLE-FIELD ABANDONED. 229

baggage, the military chest, and the general's papers,
a prey to the Indians. About fifty of these followed
to the edge of the river. Dumas and Ligneris, who
had now only about twenty Frenchmen with them,
made no attempt to pursue, and went back to the
fort, because, says Contrecoeur, so many of the
Canadians had "retired at the first fire." The field,
abandoned to the savages, was a pandemonium of
pillage and murder. ^
James Smith, the young prisoner at Fort Duquesne,

1 "Nous primes lo parti de nous retirer en vue de rallier nctre
petJta armee."— Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 176G.

On the defeat of Braddock, besides authorities already cited -
ShiTky to Robinson, 5 November, 1755, accompanying the plans of
the battle reproduced in this volume (Public Record Om^^, America
and\\ est Indies, Ixxxii. ). The plans were drawn at Shirley's request
by Patrick Mackellar, chief engineer of the expedition, who was
wuh Gage m the advance column when the fight began. They were
examined and fully approved by the chief surviving officers, and
they closely correspond with another plan made by the aide-de-
camp Orme,- which, however, shows only the beginning of the
aflair.

Report of the Court of Inquiry into the Behavior of the Troops at tho
MonongaheJa. Letters of Dimviddie. Letters of Gage. Burd to Mor-
ris, Zo Julji, 1755. Sinclair to Robinson, 3 September. Rutherford to
- -, 12 July. Writings of Washington, ii. 68-93. Review of Mili.
tary Operations in North America. Entick, i. 145. Gentleman's
Magazme (1755), 378. 426. Letter to a Friend on the Ohio Defeat
(Boston, 1755). "^

Contrecceur a Vaudreuil, 14 Juillet, 1755. Estat de I'Artillerie, etc..
qmsesonttrouves snr la Champ de Bataille. Vaudreuil au Ministr^

Q r v/' ^', '^"^ ""' ^^'«'«"-^ 27 Aout. Relation du Combat du
J Juillet Relation depuis le Depart des Trouppes de Qu€bec jusqu'au
^OduMotsdeSeptembre. Lotbiniere a d'Argenson, 24 Octobre. Rela-
twn officiell imprimee au Louvre. Relation de Godefrou (Shea) Ex-
trms du fegistredu Fort Duquesne (Ibid.). Relation de diverses
Mouvements (Ibid.). Pouchot, i. 37,

I'j

(

I'fit. I i

lii

■

■= ■ '

' '

230

BRADDOCK.

[1755.

had passed a day of Ruspense, waiting the result.
" In tlie afternoon I again olxsorvod a groat noise and
connnotion in tho fort, and, though at that time I
could not und(usUind French, I found it was the
voice of joy and triuinpli, and feared tliat they had
received what I called bud news. I had observed
some of tho old-country soldiers speak Dutch ; as I
spoke Dutch, I went to one of theui and asked liim
what was the news. lie told me that a runner had
just arrived who said that Braddock would certainly
be defeated; that the Indians and French had sur-
rounded him, and were concealed behind trees and
in gullies, and kept a constant fire upon the English;
and that they saw tho English falling in heaps ; and
if they did not take the river, which was the only
gap, and make their escape, there would not bo one
man left alive before sundown. Some time after
this, I heard a number of scalp-halloos, and saw a
company of Indians and French coming in. I ob-
served they had a great number of bloody scalps,
grenadiei-s' caps, British canteens, bayonets, t;tc.,
with them. They brought the news that Braddock
was defeated. After that another company came in,
which appeared to be about one hundred, and chiefly
Indians ; and it seemed to me that almost every one
of this company was carrying scalps. After this
came another company with a number of wagon-
horses, and also a great many scalps. Those that
were coming in and those that had arrived kept a
constant firing of small arms, and also the great

1756.]

AFTEU THE BATTLE.

231

guns in the fort, which wore accompanied with the
most hideous HhoutH and yells from all quarters, so
that It appeared to me as though the infernal regions
liad broke loose.

"About sundown T beheld a small party coming in
with about a dozen prisoners, stripped naked, with
their hands tied behind their backs and their faces
and part of their bodies blacked; these prisoners they
burned to deatli on the bank of Alleghany River,
opposite the fort. I stood on the fort wall until I
beheld them begin to burn one of these men; they
had him tied to a atake, and kept touching him with
firebrands, red-hot irons, etc., and he screaming in a
most doleful manner, the Indians in the meantime
yelling like infernal spirits. As this scene appeared
too shocking for me to behold, I retired to my lodg-
ing, both sore and sorry. When I came into my
lodgings I saw Russel's Seven Sermons, which they
had br.,.ight from the field of battle, which a French-
man made a present of to me. "

The loss of the French was slight, but fell chiefly
on the officers, three of whom were killed, and four
wounded. Of the regular soldiers, all but four
escaped untouched. The Canadians suffered still
less, in proportion to their numbers, only five of
them being hurt. The Indians, who won the victory,
bore the principal loss. Of those from Canada,*
twenty-seven were killed and wounded; while the
casualties among the western tribes are not reported, i

1 Liste des Officiers, Soldats, MiUciens, et Sauvag... de Canada mi
out etetu^set blesses Ic 9 Juillet, 11 i>;i. e i^anaaa qui

s s

'J f

ill

I '

" >

It >

' w

if 1

!i' 1

'^ii^ 1

232

BRADDOCK.

[1755.

All of these last went off tlie next morning with
their plunder and scalps, leaving Contrecoeur in great
anxiety U jt the remnant of Braddock's troops, rein-
forced by the division under Dunbar, should attack
him again. His doubts would have vanished had he
known the condition of his defeated enemy.

In the pain and languor of a mortal wound, Brad-
dock showed unflinching resolution. His bearers
stopped with him at a favorable spot beyond the
Monongahela ; and here he hoped to maintain his
position till the arrival of Dunbar. By the efforts
of the officers about a hundred men were collected
around him ; but to keep them there was impossible.
Within an hour they abandoned him, and fled like
the rest. Gage, however, succeeded in rallying
about eighty beyond the other fording-place ; and
Washington, on an order from Braddock, spurred his
jaded horse towards the camp of Dunbar to demand
wagons, provisions, and hospital stores.

Fright overcame fatigue. The fugitives toiled on
all night, pursued by spectres of horror and despair;
hearing still the war-whoops and the shrieks; pos-
sessed with the one thought of escape from this
wilderness of death. In the morning some order
was restored. Braddock was placed on a horse,-
then, the pain being insufferable, he was carried on
a litter. Captain Orme having bribed the carriers by
the promise of a guinea and a bottle of rum apiece.
Early in the succeeding night, such as had not fainted
on the way reached the deserted farm of Gist. Here

1756.]

PANIC.

288

they met wagons and provisions, with a detachment
of soldiers sent by Dunbar, whose camp was six
miles farther on; and Braddock ordered them to go
to the relief of the . ^ragglers left behind.

At noon of that day a number of wagoners and
pack-horse drivers had come to Dunbar's camp with
wild tidings of roui and ruin. More fugitives fol-
lowed; and soon «fter a wounded officer wis brought
in upon a sheet. The drums beat to arms. The
camp was in commotion; and many soldiers and
teamsters took to flight, in spite of the sentinels,
who tried in vain to stop them.^ There was a still
more disgraceful scene on the next day, after Brad-
dock, with the vvreck of his force, had arrived.
Orders were given to destroy such of the wagons,
stores, and ammunition as could not be carMed back
at once to Fort Cumberland. Whether Dunbar or
the dying general gave these orders is not clear; but
it is certain that they were executed with shameful
alacrity. More than a hundred wagons were burned;
cannon, coehoms, and shells were burst or buried,'
barrels of gunpowder were staved, and the contents
thrown into a brook; provisions were scattered
through the woods and swamps. Then the whole
command began its retreat over the mountains to
Fort Cumberland, sixty miles distant. This pro-
ceeding, for which, in view of the condition of
Braddock, Dunbar must be held answerable, excited

1 Depositions of Matthew Laird, Michael Hoover, and Jacob Hoover
W agoners, :n Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 482. '

284

BRADDOCK.

[1750.

* Is

!l i

h<.

J. «cn 1

the utmost indignation uniong the colonists. If he
could not udviince, they thonght, he might at lei.st
have fortified himself and held his ground till the
provinces could send hiin help; thus covering the
frontier, and holding French war-parties in check.

Bniddock's hist moment was near. Ormo, who,
though himself severely wounded, was with him till
his deatli, told Franklin that lie was totally silent all
the fii-st day, and at night said only, "Who would
have thought it?" that all the next day ho was again
silent, till at last he muttered, "We shall better
know how to deal with them another time," and died
a few minutes after. He had nevertheless found
breath to give orders at Gist's for the succor of the
men who had dropped on the road. It is said, too,
that in Iris last hours "he could not bear the sight of
a red coat," but murmured praises of "the blues,"
or Virginians, and said that he hoped he should live
to reward them.^ He died at about eight o'clock in
the evening of Sunday, the thirteenth. Dunbar had
begun his retreat that monnng, and was then en-
camped near the Great ]\Icadows. On Monday the
dead commander was buried in the road ; and men,
horses, and wagons passed over his grave, effacing
every sign of it, lest the Indians should find and
mutilate the body.

Colonel James Innes, commanding at Fort Cum-
berland, where a crowd of invalids with soldiers'

1 Boiling to his Sr»>, 13 Aiujust, 1755. Boiling was a Virginian
gentleman whose son was at school in England.

Vi \

1756.]

NEWS OF THE ROUT.

286

wives and other women had been left when the
expedition inarched, heard of the defeat, only two
days after it happened, from a wagoner who had fled
from the fiehl on honsehack. lie at once sent a note
of six lines to Lord Fairfax: "I have this moment
received the most melancholy news of the defeat of
our troops, the General killed, and numl)ei-s of our
officers ; our whole artillery taken. In short, the ac-
count I have received is so very bad, that as, please
God, I uitend to make a stand here, 'tis highly
necessary to raise the militia everywhere to defend
the frontiers." A boy whom he sent out on horse-
back met more fugitives, and came back on the four-
teenth with reports as vague a ad disheartening as
the first. Innes sent them to Dinwiddle.^ Some
days after, Dunlar and his train arrived in miserable
disorder, and Fort Cuml)€rland was turned into a
hospital for the shattered fragments of a routed and
ruined army.

On the sixteenth a letter was brought in hasto to
one Buchanan at Carlisle, on the Pennsylvanian
frontier: —

Sir, — T thought it proper to let you know that I was
in the battle where we were defeated. And we had about
eleven hundred and fifty private men, besides officers uid
others. And we wee attacked the ninth day about twelve
o'clock, and held till about three in the afternoon, and
then we were forced to retreat, when I suppose we might
bring off about three hundred whole men, besides a vase

1 Lines to Dinwiddle, 14 July, 1755.

I k

236

BRADDOCK.

ri755.

many wounded. Most of our officers were either wounded
or kil ed, General Braddock is wounded, but I hope not
mortal ; and Sir John Sinclair and many others, but I
hope not mortal. All the train is cut off in a manner.
Sir Peter Halket and his son, Captain Poison, Captain
(xethen, Captain Rose, Captain Tatten killed, and many
others. Captain Ord of the train is wounded, but I hope
not mortal. We lost all our artillery entirely, and every-
thing else. "^

To Mr. John Smith and Buchannon, and give it to the
next post, and let him show this to Mr. George Gibson in
Lancaster and Mr. Bingham, at the sign of the Ship, and
you '11 oblige, ^

Yours to command,

John Campbell, Messenger.^

The evil tidings quickly reached Philadelphia
where such confidence had prevailed that certain
over-zealous persons had begun to collect money for
fireworks to celebrate the victory. Two of these
brother physicians named Bond, came to Franklin
and asked him to subscribe; but the sage looked
doubtful. "Wliy, the devil!" said one of them
"you surely don't suppose the fort will not be
taken?" He reminded them that war is always
uncertain; and the subscription was deferred.^ The
governor laid the news of the disaster before his
Council, telling them at the same time that his oppo-
nents in the Assembly would not believe it, and had
insulted him in the street for giving it currency.3

^ Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 481.

2 Autobiographii of Franklin.

^ Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 480.

1755.]

ORME AND WASHINGTON.

237

Dinwiddle remained tranquil at Williamsburg,
sure that all would go well. The brief note of
Innes, forwarded by Lord Fairfax, first disturbed his
dream of triumph; but on second thought he took
comfort. " I am willing to think that account was
from a deserter who, in a great panic, represented
what his fears suggested. I wait with impatience
for another express from Fort Cumberland, which I
expect will greatly contradict the former." The
news got abroad, and the slaves showed signs of
excitement. "The villany of the negroes on any
emergency is what I always feared," continues the
governor. " An example of one or two at first may
prevent these creatures entering into combinations
and wicked designs, "i And he wrote to Lord Hali-
fax: "The negro slaves have been very audacious
on the news of defeat on the Ohio. These poor
creatures imagine the French will give them their
freedom. We have too many here; but I hope we
shall be able to keep them in proper subjection."
Suspense grew intolerable. "It's monstrous they
should be so tardy and dilatory in sending down any
farther account." He sent Major Colin Campbell
for news ; when, a day or two later, a courier brought
him two letters, one from Orme, and the other from
Washington, both written at Fort Cumberland on the
eighteenth. The letter of Orme began thus: "My
dear Governor, I am so extremely ill in bed with the
wound I have received that I am under the necessity

1 Dinmddie to Colonel Charles Carter, 18 Juhj, 1755.

i *.

288

BRADDOCK.

[1755.

of employing my friend Captain Dobson as my
scribe." Then he told the wretched story of defeat
and humiliation. "The officers were absolutely sac-
rificed by their unparalleled good behavior; advancing
before their men sometimes in bodies, and sometimes
separately, hoping by such an example to engage the
soldiei-s to follow them; but to no purpose. Poor
Shirley was shot through the head. Captain Morris
very much wounded. Mr. Washington had two
horses shoj under liim, and his clothes shot through
in several places; behaving the whole time with the
greatest courage and resolution."

Washington wrote more briefly, saying that, as
Orme --as giving a full account of the affair, it was
needless for him to repeat it. Like many others in
the fight, he greatly underrated the force of the
enemy, which he placed at three hundred, or about a
third of the actual number, —a natural error, as most
of the assailants were invisible. " Our poor Virgmians
behaved like men, and died like soldiers; for I
believe that out of three companies that were there
that day, scarce thirty were left alive. Captain
Peronney and all his officers down to a corporal were
killed. Captain Poison shared almost as hard a fate,
for only one of his escaped. In short, the das-
tardly behavior of the English soldiers exposed all
those who were inclined to do their duty to almost
certain death. It is imagined (I l^elieve with great
justice, too) that two tliirds of both killed and
wounded received their shots from our own cowardly

^ n

1755.]

DINWIDDIE'S REPLIES.

239

dogs of soldiers, who gathered themselves into a
body, contrary to orders, ten and twelve deep, would
then level, fire, and shoot .^wn the men before
them."i

To Orme, Dinwiddle replied: "I read your letter
with tears in my eyes ; but it gave me much pleasure
to see your name at the bottom, and more so when I
observed by the postscript that your wound is not
dangerous. But pray, dear sir, is it not possible by
a second attempt to retrieve the great loss we have
sustained? I presume the General's chariot is at
the fort. In it you may come here, and my house is
heartily at your command. Pray take care of your
valuable health; keep your spirits up, and I dcubt
not of your recovery. My wife and girls join me in
most sincere respects and joy at your being so well,
and I always am, with great truth, dear friend, your
affectionate humble servant."

To Washington he is less effusive, though he had
known him much longer. He begins, it is true,
"Dear Washington," and congratulates him on his
escape ; but soon grows formal, and asks : " Pray, sir,
with the number of them remaining, is there no
possibility of doing something on the other side of
the mountains before the winter months? Surely
you must mistake. Colonel Dvmbar will not march
to winter-quarters in the middle of summer, and
leave the frontiers exposed to the invasions of the

^ These extracts are taken from the two letters preserved in the
Public Record Office, America and West Indies, Ixxiv., Ixxxii.

* If

! <a

i a:

240

BRADDOCK.

[1755.

■ I

^■,.

enemy! No, he is a better officer, and I have a
different opinion of him. I sincerely wish you health
and happiness, and am, with great respect, sir, your
obedient, humble servant."

Washington's letter had contained the astonishing
announcement that Dunbar meant to abandon the
frontier and march to Philadelphia. Dinwiddie,
much disturbed, at once wrote to that officer, though
without betraying any knowledge of his intention.
"Sir, the melancholy account of the defeat of our

forces gave me a sensible and real concern " on

which he enlarges for a while; then suddenly changes
style: "Dear Colonel, is there no method left to
retrieve the dishonor done to the British arms? As
you now command all the forces that remain, are you
not able, after a proper refreshment of your men, to
make a second attempt? You have four months now
to come of the best weather of the year for such an
expedition. What a fine field for honor will Colonel
Dunbar have to confirm and establish his character as
a brave officer." Then, after suggesting plans of
operation, and entering into much detail, the fervid
governor concludes: "It gives me great pleasure that
under our great loss and misfortunes the command de-
volves on an officer of so great military judgment and
established character. With my sincere respect and
hearty wishes for success to all your proceedings, I
am, worthy sir, your most obedient, humble servant."
Exhortation and flattery were lost on Dunbar.
Dinwiddie received from him in reply a short, dry

1755.] CONDUCT OF DUNBAR. 241

note, dated on the first of August, and acquainting
him that he should march for Philadelphia on the
second. This, in fact, he did, leaving the fort to be
defended by invalids and a few Virginians. "I
acknowledge," says Dinwiddle, "I was not brought
up to arras ; but I think common sense would have
prevailed not to leave the frontiers exposed after
having opened a road over the mountains to the Ohio,
by which the enemy can the more easily invade us.
. . . Your great colonel," he writes to Orme, "is
gone to a -Peaceful colony, and left our frontiers
open. . . ' ' o ^,rhoie conduct of Colonel Dunbar
appears 1 - nu, onstrous. . . . To march off all the
regulars, - .eave the fort and frontiers to be
defended by four hundred sick and wounded, and
the poor remains of our provincial forces, appears
to me absurd."^

He found some comfort from the burgesses, who
gave him forty thousand pounds, and would, he
thinks, have given a hundred thousand if another
attempt against Fort Duquesne had been set afoot.
Shirley, too, whom the 'death of Braddock had made
cr ^mander-in-chief, approved the governor's plan of
renewing offensive operations, and instructed Dunbar
to that effect; ordering him, however, should they
prove impra3ticable, to march for Albany in aid of
the Niagara expedition. 2 The order found him safe

1 Dinwiddle's view of Dunbar's conduct is fully justified by the
letters of Shirley, Governor Morris, and Dunbar himself.

2 Orders for Colonel Thomas Dunbar, 12 August, 1755. These
VOL. I. — 16

242

BRADDOCK.

[1765.

in Philadelphia. Here he lingered for a while; then
marched to join the northern army, moving at a pace
which made it certain that he could not arrive in
time to be of the least use.

Thus the frontier was left unguarded; and soon,
as Dinwiddie had foreseen, there burst upon it a
storm of blood and fire.

supersede a previous order of August 6, by which Shirley had
directed Dunbar to march northward at once.

arrive in

CHAPTER VIII.

1755.

REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS.

State op Acadia. - Threatened Invasion. - Peril of the Eno-
lish: THEIR PLAN8.- French Forts to be attacked -

BEADStjODR AND 1 1 S OcCUPANTS. - FreNCH TREATMENT OP THE

ACADIANS. -John Winslow.- Siege and Capture opBEAUsi:-
JOUB. - Attitude op Acadians. - Influence of their Priests •

THEY REFUSE THE OaTH OF AlLEOIANCE ; THEIB CONDITION

AND Character. -Pretended Neutrals. -Moderation of
English Authorities. -The Acadians persist in their
Kefusal. — Enemies or Subjects ? — Choice of the Acadi-
ans.- The Consequence. -Their Removal Determined -
WiNSLow AT Grand Pr^:. - Conference with Murray -

bUMMONS TO THE INHABITANTS: THEIR SEIZURE; THEIR

Embarkation ; their Fate ; their Treatment in Canada
Misapprehension conci uning them.

By the plan which the Duke of Cumberland had
ordained and Braddock had announced in the Council
a'. Alexandria, four blows were to be struck at once
to force back the French boundaries, lop off the
dependencies of Canada, and reduce her ' )m a vast
territory to a petty province. The first bv.oke had
failed, and had shattered the hand of the striker; it
remains to see what fortune awaited the others.

It was long since a project of purging Acadia of
French influence had germinated in the fertile mind
of Shirley. vV^e have seen in a former chapter the

11 Si

i^fj

244 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS [I755.

condition of that afflicted province. Several thou-
sands of its inhabiUints, wrought upon by intriguing
agents of the French government; taught by their
priests tluit fidelity to King Louis was inseparable
from fidelity to God, and that to swear allegiance to
the British Crown was eternal perdition; threatened
with plunder and death at the hands of the savages
whom the ferocious missionary, Le Loutre, held over
them in terror, — liad abandoned, sometimes willingly,
but oftener under constraint, the fields which they
and their fatliers had tilled, and crossing the boundary
line of the Missaguash, had placed themselves under
the French flag planted on the hill of Beausdjour.i
Here, or in the neighborhood, many of them had
remained, wretched and half starved; while others
had been transported to Cape Breton, Isle St.
Jean, or the coasts of the Gulf, -not so far, how-
ever, that they could not on occasion be used to aid
in an invasion of British Acadia. 2 Those of their
countrymen who still lived under the British flag
were chiefly the inhabitants of the district of Mines
and of tlie valley of the river Annapolis, who, with

1 See ante, Chapter IV.

« Rameau (La France aur Colonies, i. 63) estimates the total
emigra lon from 1748 to 1755 at 8.600 souls, -which number seems
much too arge. This writer, thougli vehemently anti-English,
gives the followmg passage from a letter of a high French official:
que les Acadiens omigrds et en grande misfere comptaient se retirer
^ Quebec et demander des terres, mais il conviendrait mieux qu'ils
restent oj ils sont, afin d'avoir le voisinage de I'Acadie bien peupM
et defriche, pour approvisionner I'Isle Royale [Cape Breton] et
tomber en cas de guerre sur I'Acadie." Rameau, i. 133.

IfT^

1765.] POSITION OF THE ACADIANS. 246

Other less important settlements, numbered a little
more than nine thousand souls. Wo have shown
already, by the evidence of the French themselves,
that neither tliey nor tlioir emigrant countrymen had
been oppressed or molested in matters temporal or
"^mtual, but that the English authorities, recogni^-
ii.g their value as an industrious population, hud
labored to reconcile them to a change of rulers which
on the whole was to their advantage. It has been
shown also how, with a heartless perfidy and a reck-
less disregard of their x^elfare and safety, the French
government and its agents labored to keep them
hostile to the Crown of which it had acknowledged
them to be subjects. The result was, that though
they did not, like their emigrant countiymen, abandon
their homes, they remained in a state of restless dis-
affection, refused to supply English garrisons with
provisions, except at most exorbitant rates, smuggled
tl eir produce to the French across the line, gave
them aid and intelligence, and sometimes, disguised
as Indians, robbed and murdered English settlers.
By the new-fangled construction of the treaty ,f
Utrecht which the French boundary commissioners
had devised,! more than half the Acadian peninsula,
including nearly all the cultivated land and nearly all
the population of French descent, was claimed as
belonging to France, though England had held pos-
session of it more than forty years. Hence, accord-
ing to the political ethics adopted at the time by

^ Supra, p. 128.

M-

246 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.

both nations, it would be lawful for France to reclaim
it by force. Englantl, on her part, it will be remem-
bered, claimed vast tracts l)eyond the isthmus; and,
on the same pretext, held that she might rightfully
seize them and capture Heausdjour, with the other
French garrisons that guarded them.

On the part of France, an invasion of the Acadian
peninsula seemed more than likely. Honor demanded
of her that, having incited the Acadians to disaffec-
tion, and so brought on them the indignation of the
English authorities, she should intervene to save
them from the consequences. Moreover, the loss of
the Acadian peninsula had been gall and wormwood
to her; and in losing it she had lost great material
advantages. Its possession was necessary to connect
Canada with the Island of Cape Breton and the
fortress of Louisbourg. Its fertile fields and agri-
cultural people would furnish subsistence to the
troops and garrisons in the French maritime prov-
inces, now dependent on supplies illicitly brought by
New England traders, and liable to be cut off in time
of war when they were needed most. The harbors
of Acadia, too, would be invaluable as naval stations
from which to curb and threaten the northern Eng-
lish colonies. Hence the intrigues so assiduously
practised to keep the Acadians French at heart, and
ready to throw off British rule at any favorable
moment. British officers believed that should a
French squadron with a sufficient force of troops on
board appear in the Bay of Fundy, the whole r jpu-

1786.]

PERIL OP THE ENGLISH.

247

lation on the Btuun of Minos and along the Annapolis
would rise in arms, and that the emigrants beyond
the isthmus, arm/d ;,ad trained by French officers,
would come to their aid. This emigrant population,'
famishing in exile, looked back with regret to the
farms they had abandoned; and, prevented as they
were by Le Loutre and his colleagues from making
their peace with the English, they would, if confident
of success, have gladly joined an invading force to
regain their homes by reconquering Acadia for Louis
XV. In other parts of the continent it was the
interest of France to put off hostilities; if Acadia
alone had been in question, it would have been her
interest to precipitate them.

Her chances of success were good. The French
could at any time send troops from Louisbourg or
Quebec to join those maintained upon the isthmus;
and they had on their side of the lines a force of
militia and Indians amounting to about two thou-
sand, while the Acadians within the peninsula had
about an equal number of fighting men who, while
calling themselves neutrals, might be counted on to
join the invaders. The English were in no condition
to withstand such an attack. Their regular troops
were scattered far and wide through the province,
and were nowhere more than equal to the local
requirement ; ivhile of militia, except those of Halifax,
they had few or none whom they dared to trust!
Their fort at Annapolis was weak and dilapidated,
and their other posts were mere stockades. The

Iff

» ■'■-

i I

I I

1 .*

■\\

umfn

II'

248

REMOVAL OF THE /PADIANS.

[1755,

strongest place in Acadia V7aa the French fort of
Beausdjour, in which the English saw a continual
menace.

Their apprehensions were well grounded. Du-
quesne, governor of Canada, wrote to Le Loutre,
who virtually shared the co- .I'ol of Beausdjour with
Vergor, its commandant: "I invito both yourself
and M. Vergor to devise a plausible pretext for
attacking them [the English] vigorously."^ Three
weeks after this letter was written, Lawrence, gov-
ernor of Nova Scotia, wrote to Shirley from Halifax :
" Being well informed that the French have designs
of encroaching still farther upon His Majesty's rights
in this province, and that they propose, the moment
they have repaired the fortifications of Louisbourg,
to attack our fort at Chignecto [Fort Lawrence], I
think it high time to make some effort to drive them
from the north side of the Bay of Fundy."^ This
letter was brought to Boston by Lieutenant-Colonel
Monckton, who was charged by Lawrence to propose
to Shirley the raising of two thousand men in New
England for the attack of Beausdjour and its depend-
ent forts. Almost at the m.oment when Lawrence
was writing these p":)posal8 to Shirley, Shirley was
writing with the same object to Lawrence, enclosing
a letter from Sir Thomas Rcbinson, concerning which
he said : " I construe the contents to be orders to us

1 Duquesne a Le Loutre, 15 Octobre, 1764 ; extrfiCt in Public Docu-
ments of Nova Scotia, 239.

!* Lawrence to Shirley, 5 November, 1764. Instructions of Lawrence
to Monckton, 7 November, 1754.

1755.]

ROBINSON'S LETTER.

249

to act in concert for taking amj advantages to drive
the French of Canada out of N . Scotia. If that is
your sense of them, and your honor v lu be pleased
to let me know whether you want any and what
p^'istance to enable you to execute the orders, I will
endeavor to send you such assistance from this
province as you shall want."»

The letter of Sir Thomas Robinson, of which a
duplicate had alreaay been sent to Lawrence, was
written in answ to one of Shirley informing the
minister that th luians of Nova "cotia, prompted
by the French, wt.e about to make an attack on all
the English settlements east of the Kennebec;
whereupon Robinson wrote: "You will without
doubt have given immediate intelligence thereof to
Colonel Lawrence, and will have concerted the proper-
est measures with him for taking all possible advan-
tage in No:'a Scotia itself from the absence of those
Indians, in case Mr. Lawrence shall have force
enough to attack the forts erected by the French in
those parts, without exposing the English settle-
ments; and I am particularly to acquaint you that
ii you have not already entered into such a concert
with Colonel Lawrence, it is His Majesty's pleasure
that you should immediately proceed thereupon. "2

The Indian raid did not take place; but not the
less did Shirley and Lawrence find in the minister's
letter their authorization for the attack of Beaus^jour.

1 Shirley to Lawrence, 7 November, 1754.
* Jtobinson to Shirley, 5 July, 1754.

"i>|i

i ta

■'M

250 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.

Shirley wrote to Robinson that the expulsion of the
French from the forts on the isthmus was a necessary
measure of self-defence; that they meant to seize the
whole country as far as Mines Basin, and probably as
far as Annapolis, to supply their Acadian rebels
with land; that of these they had, without reckoning
Indians, fourteen hundred fighting men on or near
the isthmus, and two hundred and fifty more on the
St. John, with whom, aided by the garrison of
Beausdjour, they could easily take Fort Lawrence;
that should they succeed in this, the whole Acadian
population would rise in arms, and the King would
lose Nova Scotia. We should anticipate them, con-
cludes Shirley, and strike the first blow.i

He opened his plans to his Assembly in secret
session, and found them of one mind with himself.
Preparation was nearly complete, and the men raised
for the expedition, before the Council at Alexandria
J jognized it as a part of a plan of the summer
campaign.

The French fort of Beausdjour, mounted on its

1 Shirley to Robinson, 8 December, 1754. Ibid., 24 January, 1755.
The Record Office contains numerous other letters of Shirley on
the subject. "I am obliged to your Honor for communicating to
me the French Me'moirc, whicii, with other reasons, puts it out of
doubt that the French arc determined to begin an offensive war or
the peninsula as soon as ever they shall think tiiemselves strength^
ened enough to venture upon it, and that they have thoughts of
attempting it in the ensuing spring. I enclose your Honor extracts
from two letters from Annapolis Royal, which show that the
French inhabitants are in expectation of its being begun in the
spring." -- Shirley lo Laicrence, G January, 1705.

1755.]

BEAUS^JOUR.

251

hill between the marshes of Missaguash and Tantemar,
was a, regular work, pentagonal in form, with solid
earthen ramparts, bomb-proofs, and an annament of
twenty-four cannon and one mortar. The command-
ant, Duchambon de Vergor, a captain in the colony
regulars, was a dull man of no education, of stuttering
speech, unpleasing countenance, and doubtful char-
acter. He owed his place to the notorious intendant
Bigot, who, it is said, was in his debt for disreputable
service in an affair of gallantry, and who had ample
means of enabling his friends to enrich themselves by
defrauding the King. Beaus(5jour was one of those
plague-spots of official corruption which dotted the
whole surface of New France. Bigot, sailing for
Europe in the summer of 1754, wrote thus to his
confederate: "Profit by your place, my dear Vergor;
clip and cut — you are free to do what you please —
so that you can come soon to join me in France and
buy an estate near me."i Vergor did not neglect
his opportunities. Supplies in great quantities were
sent from Quebec for the garrison and the emigrant
Acadians. These last got but a small part of them.
Vergor and his confederates sent the rest back to
Quebec, or else to Louisbourg, and sold them for
their own profit to the King's agents there, who were
also in collusion with him.

Vergor, however, did not reign alone. Le Loutre,

1 M€moires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. This letter is also men-
tioned in another contemporary dojument, M^moire sur les Fraudes
commises duns la Colonie.

f I,

' i

1 I

252 REJVIOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [I755.

by force of energy, capacity, and passionate vehe-
mence, held him in some awe, and divided his author-
ity. The priest could count on the support of
Duquesne, who had found, says a contemporary,
that "he promised more than he could perform, and
that he was a knave," but who nevertheless felt
compelled to rely upon him for keeping the Acadians
on the side of France. There was another person in
the fort worthy of notice. This was Thomas Pichon,
commissary of stores, a man of education and intelli-
gence, born in France of an English mother. He
was now acting the part of a traitor, carrying on a
secret correspondence with the commandant of Fort
Lawrence, and acquainting him with all that passed
at Beausdjour. It was partly from this source that
the hostile designs of the French became known to
the authorities of Halifax, and more especially the
proceedings of "Moses," by which name Pichon
always designated Le Loutre, because he pretended
to have led the Acadians from the land of bondage. ^

These exiles, who cannot be called self-exiled, in
view of the outrageous means used to force most of
them from their homes, were in a deplorable condi-
tion. They lived in constant dread of Le Loutre,
backed by Vergor and his soldiers. The savage mis-
sionary, bad as he was, had in him an ingredient of

1 Pichon, called also Tyrrell from the name of his mother, was
author of Genuine Letters and Memoirs relating to Cape Breton, — &
book of some value. His papers are preserved at Halifax, and
some of them are printed in the Public Documents of Nova Scotia.

:i n

1755.]

THREATS OF LE LOUTRE.

253

honest fanaticism, both national and religious ; though
hatred of the English held a large share in it. He
would gladly, if he could, have formed the Acadians
into a permanent settlement on the French side of
the line, not out of love for them, but in the interest
of the cause with which he had identified his own
ambition. His efforts had failed. There was not
land enou^ for their subsistence and that of the
older settlers; and the suffering emigrants pined
more and more for their deserted farms. Thither he
was resolved that they should not return. " If you
go," he told them, "you will have neither priests nor
sacraments, but will die like miserable wretches."*
The assertion was false. Priests and sacraments
had never been denied them. It is true that Daudin,
priest of Pisiquid, had lately been sent to Halifax
for using insolent language to the commandant,
threatening him with an insurrection of the inhab-
itants, and exciting them to sedition; but on his
promise to change conduct, he was sent back to his
parishioners. 2 Vergor sustained Le Loutre, and
threatened to put in irons any of the exiles who
talked of going back to the English. Some of them
bethought themselves of an appeal to Duquesne, and
drew up a petition asking leave to return home. Le
Loutre told the signers that if they did not efface
their marks from the paper they should have neither

1 Pick' 1 to Captain Scott, 14 October, 1754, in Public Documents of
Nova Scotia, 229.

* Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 223, 224, 228, 227, 238.

'I -

5 f

254 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.

sacraments in this life, nor heaven in the next. He
nevertheless allowed two of them to go to Quebec as
deputies, writing at the same time to the goveri^or,
that his mind might be duly prepared. Duquesne
replied: "I think that the two rascals of deputies
whom you sent me will not soon recover from the
fright I gave them, notwithstanding the emollient I
administered after my reprimand; and since I told
them that they were indebted to you for not being
allowed to rot in a dungeon, they have promised me
to comply with your wishes." ^

An entire heartlessness marked the dealings of the
French authorities with the Acadians. They were
treated as mere tools of policy, to be used, broken,
and flung away. Yet, in using them, the sole condi-
tion of their eihciency was neglected. The French
government, cheated of enormous sums by its own
ravenous agents, grudged the cost of sending i single
regiment to the Acadian border. Thus unsupported,
the Acadians remained in fear and vacillation, aiding
the French but feebly, though a ceaseless annoyance
and menace to the English.

This was the state of affairs at Beausdjour while
Shirley and Lawrence were planning its destruction.
Lawrence had empowered his agent, Monckton, to
draw without limit on two Boston merchants,
Apthorp and Hancock. Shirley, as commander-in-
chief of the province of Massachusetts, commissioned
John Winslow to raise two thousand volunteers.

1 Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 239.

1755.]

JOHN WINSLOW.

266

Winslow was sprung from the early governors of
Plymouth colony; but, though well-born, he was
ill-educated, which did not prevent him from being
both popular and influential. He had strong military
inclinations, had led a company of his own raising
in the luckless attack on Carthagena, had commanded
the force sent in the preceding summer to occupy
the Kennebec, and on various other occasions had
left his Marshfield farm to serve his country. The
men enlisted readily at his call, and were formed into
a regiment, of which Shirley made himself the
nominal coloneL It had two battalions, of which
Winslow, as lieutenant-colonel, commanded the first,
and George Scott the second, both under the orders
of Monckton. Country villages far and near, from
the western borders of the Connecticut to uttermost
Cape Cod, lent soldiers to the new regiment. The
muster-rolls preserve their names, vocations, birth-
places, and abode. Obadiah, Nehemiah, Jedediah,
Jonathan, Ebenezer, Joshua, and the like Old Testa-
ment names abound upon the list. Some are set
down as "farmers," "yeomen," or " husbandn- 3n ; "
others as "shopkeepers," others as "fishermen," and
many as "laborers;" while a great number were
handicraftsmen of various trades, from blacksmiths
to wig-makers. They mustered at Boston early in
April, where clothing, haversacks, and blankets were
served out to them at the charge of the King; and
the crooked streets of the New England capital were
filled with staring young rustics. On the next

I ]
i

(■(

n I

If 7:

256

REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS.

[1755.

Saturday the following mandate went forth: "The
men will behave very orderly on the Sabbath Day,
and either stay on board their transports, or else go
to church, and not stroll up and down the streets."
The transports, consisting of about forty sloops and
schooners, lay at Long Wharf; and here on Monday
a grand review took place, — to the gratification, no
doubt, of a populace whose amusements were few.
All was ready except the muskets, which were
expected from England, but did not come. Hence
the delay of a month, threatening to ruin the enter-
prise. Whe.i Shirley returned from Alexandria he
found, to his disgust, that the transports still lay at
the wharf where he had left them on his departure.^
Th^ muskets arrived at length, and the fleet sailed
on the twenty-second of ?Iay. Three small frigates,
the "Success," the "Mermaid," and the "Siren,"
commanded by the ex-privateei-sman. Captain Rous,
acted as convoy ; and on the twenty-sixth the whole
force safely reached Annapolis. Thence after some
delay they sailed up the Bay of Fuudy, and at sunset
on the first of June anchored within five miles of the
hill of Beausdjour.

At two o'clock on the next morning a party of
Acadians from Chipody roused Vergor with the news.
In great alarm, he sent a messenger to Louisbourg to
beg for help, and ordered all the fighting men of the
neighborhood to repair to the fort. They counted in

1 Shirley to Robinson, 20 June, 1755.

1755.]

MONCKTON'S ARRIVAL.

257

all between twelve and fifteen hundred ;i but they
had no appetite for war. The force of the invaders
daunted them; and the hundred and sixty regulara
who formed the garrison of Beausdjour were too few
to revive their confidence. Those of them who had
crossed from the English side dreaded what might
ensue should they be caught in arms; and, to prepare
an excuse beforehand, they begged Vergor to threaten
them with punishment if they disobeyed his order.
He willingly complied, promised to have them kiUed
if they did not fight, and assured them at the same
time that the English could never take the fort a
Three hundred of them thereupon joined the garvi-
son, and the rest, hiding their families in the woods
prepared to wage guerilla war against the invaders

Monckton, with all his force, landed unopposed,
and encamped at night on the fields around Fort
Lawrence, whence he could contemplate Fort Beau-
sdjour at his ease. The regulars of the EngHsh gar-
rison joined the New England men; and then, on
the morning of the fourth, they marched to the
attack. Their course lay along the south bank of
the Missaguash to where it was crossed by a bridge
called Pont-^-Buot. This bridge had been destroyed ;
and on the farther bank there was a large block-
house and a breastwork of timber defended by four

1,400. -^""^ '^^°^'«» says 1,200 to

" Mgmoires sur le Canada. 1749-1760

VOL. I. — 17 >-^o-i.iW}.

•i}

258

REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS,

[1755.

hundred regulars, Acadians, and Indians. They
lay silent and unseen till the head of the column
reached the opposite bank; then raised a yell and
opened fire, causing some loss. Three field-pieces
were brought up, the defenders were driven out, and
a bridge was laid under a spattering fusillade from
behind bushes, which continued till the English had
crossed the stream. Without further opposition,
they marched along the road to Beausdjour, and,
turning to the right, encamped among the woody
hills half a league from the fort. That night there
was a grand illumination, for Vergor set fire to the
church and all the houses outside the ramparts.^

The English spent some days in preparing their
camp and reconnoitring the ground. Then Scott,
with five hundred provincials, seized upon a ridge
within easy range of the works. An officer named
Vannes came out to oppose him with a hundred and
eighty men, boasting that h would do great things ;
but on seeing the enemy, quietly returned, to become
the laughing-stock of the garrison. The fort fired
furiously, but with little effect. In the night of the
thirteenth, Winslow, with a part of his own battalion,
relieved Scott, and planted in the trenches two small
mortars, brought to the camp on carts. On the next
day they opened fire. One of them was disabled by
the French cannon, but Captain Hazen brought up

1 Winslow, Journal and Letter Book. M€moires sur le Canada,
1749-1760. Letters from officers on the spot in Boston Evening Post
and Boston News Letter. Journal of Surgeon John Thomas.

* »j

1755.]

SIEGE OF BEAUSEJOUR.

269

two more, of larger size, on ox-wagons; and, in
spite of heavy rain, the fire was brisk on both sides.

Captain Uous, on board his ship in the harbor,
watched the bombardment with great interest. Hav-
ing occasion to write to Winslow, he closed his letter
in a facetious strain. "I often hear of your success
in plunder, particularly a coach, i I hope you have
some fine horses for it, at least four, to draw it, that
it may be said a New England colonel [rode m] his
coach and four in Nova Scotia. If you have any
good saddle-horses in your stable, I should be obliged
to you for one to ride round the ship's deck on for
exercise, for I am not likely to have any other."

Within the fort there was little promise of a strong
defence. Le Loutre, it is true, was to be seen in his
shirt-sieeves, with a pipe in his mouth, directing the
Acadians in their work of strengthening the fortifica-
tions.2 They, on their part, thought more of escape
than of fighting. Some of them vainly begged to be
allowed to go home; others went ofP without leave,

— which was not difficult, as only one side of the
place was attacked. Even among the officers there
were some in whom interest was stronger than honor,
and who would rather rob the King than die for him.
The general discouragement was redoubled when, on
the fourteenth, a letter came from the commandant

^ " 11 June. Capt. Adams went with a Company of Eaingers
and Returned at 11 Clock with a Coach and Sura other Plunder."

— Journal of John Thomas.

2 Journal ofPichon, cited by Beamish Murdoch.

' >i

'if.

260

REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS.

[1755.

of Louisbourg to say that he could send no help, aa
British ships blocked the way. On the morning of
the sixteenth, a mischance l)efell, recorded in these
words in the Diary of Surgeon John Thomas : " One
of our large shells fell through what they called their
bomb-proof, where a number of their officers were
sitting, killed six of them dead, and one Ensign Hay,
which the Indians had took prisoner a few days agone
and carried to the fort." The party was at breakfast
when the unwelcome visitor burst in. Just opposite
was a second bomb-proof, where was Vergor himself,
with Le Loutre, another priest, and several officers,
who felt that they might at any time share the same
fate, i'he effect was immediate. The English,
who had not yet got a single cannon into position,
saw to their surprise a white flag raised on the ram-
part. Some officers of the garrison protested against
surrender; and Le Loutre, who thought that he had
everything to fear at the hands of the victors,
exclaimed that it was better to be buried under the
ruins of the fort than to give it up ; but all was in
vain, and the valiant Vannes was sent out to propose
terms of capitulation. They were rejected, and
others offered, to the following effect: the garrison
to march out with the honors of war and to be sent
to Louisbourg at the charge of the King of England,
but not to bear arms in America for the space of six
months ; the Acadians to be pardoned the part they
had just borne in the defence, "seeing that they had
been compelled to take arms on pain of death."

1765.]

FLIGHT OP LE LOUTRE.

261

Confusion reigned all day at Beaus^jour. The
Acadians went home loaded with plunder. The
French officers were so busy in drinking and pillag-
ing that they could hardly Ije got away to sign the
capitulation. At the ai)pointed hour, seven in the
evening, Scott marched in with a body of provincials,
raised the British flag on the ramparts, and saluted
it by a general discharge of the French cannon, while
Vergor as a last act of hospitality gave a supper to
the officers. 1

Le Loutrc was not to be found; he had escaped in
disguise with his box of papers, and fled to Baye
Vei-te to join his brother missionary, Manach.
Thence he made his way to Quebec, where the
bishop received him with reproaches. He soon
embarked for France; but the English captured him
on the way, and kept him eight years in Elizabeth
Castle, on the Island of Jersey. Here on one occa-
sion a soldier on guard made a dash at the father,
tried to stab him with his bayonet, and was prevented
Avith great difficulty. He declared that, when he was
with his regiment in Acadia, he had fallen into the
hands of Le Loutre, and narrowly escaped being
scalped alive, the missionary having doomed him to
this fate, and with his own hand drawn a knife round
his head as a beginning of the operation. The man
swore so fiercely that he would have his revenge

.^a ^^^^^ capture of Beausejour, Me'moires sur le Canada 1749-
1760; Pichon, Cape Breton, 318; Journal of Pichon, cited by Mur-
doch ; and the Englis^i accounts already mentioned.

VI!

'ill

I ■

262 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1766.

that the officer in command transferred him to
another post.*

Throughout the siege, the Acadians outside the
fort, aided hy Iiul ans, luid constantly attacked the
English, but were always beaten off with loss. There
was an affair of this kind on the morning of the si >
render, during which a noted Micmac chief v/as .hot,
and being brought into the cami), recounted the
losses of his tribe; "after which, and taking a dram
or two, he quickly died," writes Winslov in his
Journal.

Fort Gaspereau, at Baye Verte, twelve miles

distant, was summoned by letter to surrender. Vil-

leray, its commandant, at once complied; and

Winelow went with a detachment to take possession. ^^

Nothing remained but to occupy the French post at

the mouth of the St. John. Captain Rous, relieved

at last from inactivity, was charged with the task;

and on the thirtieth he appeared off the harbor,

manned his boats, and rowed for shore. The French

burned their fort, and withdrew beyond his reach. ^

A hundred and fifty Indians, suddenly converted

from enemies to pretended friends, stood on the

strand, firing their guns into the air as a salute, and

declaring themselves brothers of the English. M'

Acadia was now in British hands. Fort Beau, ir tr

1 Knox, Campanjns in North America, i. 114, note. Knox, who
was stationed in Nova Scotia, says that Le Loutre left behind him
" a most remarkable character for inhumanity."

8 Winslow, Jourtial. Villeray an Ministre, 20 Septembre, 1755.

8 Drucour au Ministre, 1 D^cpinbre, 1755.

1755.] VERGOR ACQLTITTED. 268

became Fort Cumberland, —the second fort in
America that boro the name of the real duke.

The defence had Iwen of the feeblest, .wo years
later, on pressing demands from Vei-sailles, Vergor
was brought to trial, as ..as also Villeray. The
govexnor, Vaudreuil, and the intendant, Bigot, wlio
had returned to Canada, were in 1ie interest of the
chief defendant. The court-martial was packed;
adverse evidence was shuffled out of sight; and
Vergor, acquitted and restored to his rank, lived to
inflict on New France another and a greater injuiy.i
Now began the first ac of a deplorable drama.
Monckton, with his small body of regulars, had
pitchec^ ^heif tent^ under the walls of Beausdjour.
Winslow and Scott, with the New England troops,
lay not far off. There was little intercourse between
the two camps. The British officers bore themselves
towards those of t^^ provincials with a supercilious
coldness common enough on their p?rt throughout
the war. July had passed in what Winslow calls
"an indolent manner," with prayers everj^ day in the
Puritan camp, when, ^arly in August, Monckton sent
for him, and made an ominous declaration. "The
said Monckton was so free as to acquaint me that it
was determined to remove all the French inhabitants
out of the province, and that he should send for all
the adult males from Tantemar, Chipody, AuJac,
Beaus^jour, and Baye Verte to read the Governor's

' M^moire sur les Fraudes commises dens la Colonie, 1779. J/^-
moires surte Canada, 1749-17(50.

11^'

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264

REMOVAL 01' THE ACADIANS.

[1755.

:l i

orders ; and when that was done, was determined to
retain them all prisoners in the fort. And this is
the first conference of a public nature I have had
with the colonel since the reduction of Beausdjour;
and I apprehend that no officer of either corps has
been made more free with."

Monckton sent accordingly to all the neighboring
settlements, commanding the male inhabitants to
meet him at Beaus^jour. Scarcely a third part of
their number obeyed. These arrived on the tenth,
and were told to stay all night under the guns of the
fort. What then befell them will appear from an
entry in t 'e diary of Winslow under date of August
eleventh: "This day was one extraordinary to the
inhabitants of Tantemar, Oueskak, Aulac, Baye
Verte, Beausdjour, and places adjacent; the male
inhabitants, or the principal of them, being collected
together in Fort Cumberland to hear the sentence,
which determined their property, from the Governor
and Council of Halifax; which was that they were
declared rebels, their lands, goods, and chattels for-
feited to the Crown, and their '-^odies to be imprisoned.
Upon which the gates of the fort were shut, and they
all confined, to the amount of four hundred men and
upwards." Parties were sent to gather more, but
caught very few, the rest escaping to the woods.

Some of the prisoners were no doubt among those
who had joined the garrison at Peausdjour, and had
been pardoned for doing so by the terms of the
capitulation. It was held, however, that, though

1755.]

ITS MOTIVES.

265

forgiven this special offence, they were not exempted
from the doom that had gone forth against the great
body of their countrymen. We mast look closely at
the motives and execution of this stern sentence.

At any time up to the spring of 1755 the emigrant
Acadians were free to return to their homes on tak-
ing the ordinary oath of allegiance required of British
subjects. The English authorities of Halifax used
every means t( persuade them to do so; yet the
greater part refused. This was due not only to Le
Loutre and his brother priests, backed by the mili-
tary power, but also to the bishop of Quebec, who
enjoined the Acadians to demand of the English cer-
tain concessions, the chief of which were that the
priests should exercise their functions without being
required to ask leave of the governor, and that the
inhabitants should not be called upon for military
service of any kind. The bishop added that the
provisions of the treaty of Utrecht were insufficient,
and tLat others ought to be exacted.^ The oral
declaration of the English authorities, that for the
present the Acadians should not be required to bear
arms, was not thought enough. Tliey, or rather
their prompters, demanded a written pledge.

The refusal to take the .th without reservation
was not confined to the ^migrants. Those who
remained in the peninsula equally refused it, though
most of them were born and had always lived under

1 L'^veque de Quebec a Le Loutre, Novembre, 1754, in Public Docu-
ments of Nova Scotia, 240.

> £

^^Q REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.

the British flag. For from pledging themselves to
complete allegiance, they showed continual signs of
hostility. In May three pretended French deserters
were detected among them inciting them to take
arms against the English, i

On the capture of Beausdjour the British authori-
ties found themselves in a position of great diflficulty.
The New England troops were enlisted for the year
only, and could not be kept in Acadia. It was likely
that the French would make a strong effort to recover
the province, sure as they were of support from the
great body of its people. The presence of this dis-
affected population was for the French commanders a
continual inducement to invasion; and Lawrence
was not strong enough to cope at once with attack
from without and insurrection from within.

Shirley had held for some time that there was no
safety for Acadia but in ridding it of the Acadians.
He had lately .proposed that the lands of the district
of Chignecto, abandoned by their emigrant owners
should be given .: English settlers, who would act
as a check and a counterpoise to the neighboring
French population. This advice had not been acted
upon. Nevertheless Shirley and his brother governor
of Nova Scotia were kindred spirits, and inclined to
similar measures. Colonel Chzrles Lawrence had
not the good-nature and conciliatory temper which
marked his predecessors, Cornwallis and Eopson
His energetic will was not apt to relent unde. the

1755.]

VIEWS OF ENGLISH AUTHORITIES. 267

softer sentiments, and the behavior of the Acadians
was fast exhausting his patience. More than a year
before, the Lords of Trade had instructed him that
they had no right to their lands if they persisted in
refusing the oath.^ Lawrence replied, enlarging on
their obstinacy, treachery, and "ingratitude for the
favor, indulgence, and protection they have at all
times so undeservedly received from His Majesty's
Government;" declaring at the same time that,
"while they remain without taking the oaths, and
have incendiary French priests among them, there
are no hopes of their amendment;" and that "it
would be much better, if they refuse the oaths, that
they were away." 2 "We were in hopes," again
wrote the Lords of Trade, "that the lenity which
had been shown to those people by indulging them
in the free exercise of their religion and the quiet
possession of their lands, would by degrees have
gained their friendship and assistance, and weaned
their affections from the French ; but we are sorry to
find that this lenity has had so little effect, and that
they still hold the same conduct, furnishing them
with labor, provisions, and intelligence, and conceal-
ing their designs from us." In fact, the Acadians,
while calling themselves neutrals, were an enemy
encamped in the heart of the province. These are
the reasons which explain and palliate a measure ',oc
harsh and indiscriminate to be wholly justified.
Abb^ Raynal, who never saw the AcadHns, has

1 Lords of Trade to Lawrence, 4 March, 1754.
* Lawrence to Lords of Trade, 1 August, 1754.

%4 w't

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268 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.

made an ideal picture of them,i since copied and
improved in prose and verse, till Acadia has become
Arcadia. The plain realities of their condition and
fate are touching enough to need no exaggeration
They were a simple and very ignorant peasantry,
mdustrious and frugal till evil days came to discour-
age them; Hving aloof from the world, with little of
that spirit of adventure which an easy access to the
vast fur-bearing interior had developed in their
Canadian kindred; having few wante, and those of
the rudest; fishing a little and hunting in the winter
but chiefly employed in cultivating the meadows
along the river Annapolis, or rich marshes reclaimed
./ dikes from the tides of the Bay of Fundy The
British government left them entirely free of taxa-
tion. They made cloohing of flax and wool of their
own raising, hats of similar materials, and shoes or
moccasons of moose and seal skin. They bred cattle,
sheep, hogs, and horses in abundance; and the valley
of the Annapolis, then as now, was known for the
profusion and excellence of its apples. For drink
they made cider or brewed spruce-beer. French
officials descnbe their dwellings as wretched wooden
boxes without ornaments or conveniences, and
scarcely supplied with the most necessary furniture.^
Two or more families often occupied the same house;
and their way of life, though simple and virtuous,

1 Bistoire philosophigue et politique, vi. 242 (ed. 1772)
1745. aocqmn au Comte de Maurepas, 12 Septembre,

1755.]

THEIR CHARACTER.

269

was by no means remarkable for leanliness. Such
as it was, contentment reigned among them, undis-
turbed by what modern America calls progress.
Marriages were early, and population grew apace.
This humble society had its disturbing elements ; for
the Acadians, like the Canadians, were a litigious
race, and neighbors often quarrelled about their
boundaries. Nor were they without a bountiful
share of jealousy, gossip, and backbiting, to relieve
the monotony of their lives ; and every village had its
turbulent spirits, sometimes by fits, though rarely
long, contumacious even toward the cur(5, the guide,
counsellor, and ruler of his flock. Enfeebled by
hereditary mental subjection, and too long kept in
leading-strings to walk alone, they needed him, not
for the next world only, but for this ; and their sub-
mission, compounded of love and fear, was commonly
without bounds. He was their true government ; to
him they gave a frank and full allegiance, and dared
not disobey him if they would. Of knowledge he
gave them nothing; but he taught them to be true to
their wives and constant at confession and mass,
to stand fast for the Church and King Louis, and to
resist heresy and King George ; for, in one degree or
another, the Acadian priest was always the agent
of a double-headed foreign power, — the bishop of
Quebec allied with the governor of Canada.^

When Monckton and the Massachusetts men laid

1 Franquet, Journal, 1751, says of the Acadians : " lis aiment
I'argent, n'ont dans toute leur conduite que leur inte'ret pour objet,

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270 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.

siege to Beaus^jour, Governor Lawrence thought the
moment favorable for exacting an unqualified oath of
allegiance from the Acadians. The presence of a
superior and victorious force would help, he thought,
to bring them to reason; and there were some indica-
tions that this would be the result. A number of
Acadian families, who at the promptings of Le Loutre
had emigrated to Cape Breton, had lately returned
to Halifax, promising to be true subjects of King
George if they could be allowed to repossess their
lands. They cheerfully took the oath; on which
they were reinstated in their old homes, and supplied
with food for the winter. 1 Their example unfortu-
nately found few imitators.

Early in June the principal inhabitants of Grand
Pr6 arid other settlements about the Basin of Mines
brought a memorial, signed with their crosses, to
Captain Murray, the military commandant in their
district, and desired him to send it to Governor
Lawrence, to whom it was addressed. Murray
reported that when they brought it to him they
behaved with the greatest insolence, though just
before they had been unusually submissive. He
thought that this change of demeanor was caused by
a report which had lately got among them of a French
fleet in the Bay of Fundy ; for it had been observed

8ont, indiff^remment des deux sexes, d'une inconsideration dans
leurs diseours qui denote de la raechanceie." Another observer,
Diere'ville, gives a more favorable picture.
* Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 228.

1755.]

THEIR MEMORIAL.

271

that any rumor of an approaching French force
alwaj's had a similar effect. The deputies who
brought the memorial were sent with it to Halifax,
where they laid it before the governor and Council.
It declared that the signers had kept the qualified
oath they had taken, "in spite of the solicitations
and dreadful threats of another power," and that they
would continue to prove "an unshaken fidelity to
His Majesty, provided that His Majesty shall allow
us the same liberty that he has [hitherto] granted
us." Their memorial then demanded, in terms
highly offensive to the Council, that the guns,
pistols, and other weapons, which they had lately
been required to give up, should be returned to
tV ui. They were told in reply that they had
been protected for many years in the enjoyment of
their lands, though they had not complied with
the terms on which the lands were granted; "that
they had always been treated by the Government
with the greatest lenity and tenderness, had en-
joyed more privileges than other English subjects,
and had been indulged in the free exercise of their
religion j " all which they acknowledged to be true.
The governor then told them that their conduct had
been undutiful and ungrateful ; " that they had dis-
covered a constant disposition to assist His Majesty's
enemies and to distress his subjects; that they had
not only furnished the enemy with provisions and
ammunition, but had refused to supply the [Unglish']
inhabitants or Government, and when they did supply

>jj?

)

272 REMOVAL OP THE ACADIANS. [1755.

them, had exacted three times the price for which
they were sold at other markets." The hope was
then expressed that they would no longer obstruct
the settlement of the province by aiding the Indians
to molest and kill English settlers; and they were
rebuked for saying in their memorial that they would
be faithful to the King only on certain conditions.
The governor added that they had some secret reason
for demanding their weapons, and flattered them-
selves that French troops were at hand to support
their insolence. In conclusion, they were told that
now was a good opportunity to prove their sincerity
by taking the oath of allegiance, in the usual form,
before the Council. They replied that they had not
made up their mirds on that point, and could do
nothing till they had consulted their constituents.
Being reminded that the oath was personal to them-
selves, and that six years had already been given
them to think about it, they asked leave to retire and
confer together. This wls granted, and at the end
of an hour they came back with the same answer as
before; whereupon they were allowed till ten o'clock
on the next i^orning for a final decisit)n.i

At the appointed time the Council again met, and
the deputies were brought in. They persisted stub-
bornly in the same refusal. "They were then in-
formed," says the record, "that the Council could no
longer look on them as subjects to His Britannic

'fnutes of Council at Hallfa., 3 July, 1755, in Puhlic Documents
of Nova Scotia, 247-255.

1755.]

THEY REFUSE THE OATH.

273

Majesty, but as subjects to the King of France, and
as such they must hereafter be treated; and they
were ordered to withdraw." A discussion followed
in the Council. It was determined that the Acadians
should be ordered to send new deputies to Halifax,
who should answer for them, once for all, whether
they would accept the oath or not; that such as
refused it should not thereafter be permitted to take
it; and ''that effectual measures ought to be taken
to remove all such recusants out of the province."

The deputies, being then called in and told this
decision, became alarmed, and offered to swear
allegiance in the terms required. The answer was
that it was too late ; that as they had refused the
oath under persuasion, they could aot be trusted
when they took it under compulsion. It remained to
see whether the people at large would profit by their
example.

"I am determined," wrote Lawrence to the Lords
of Trade, " to bring the inhabitants to a compliance,
or rid the province of such perfidious subjects. "^
First, in answer to the summons of the Council, the
deputies from Annapolis appeared, declaring that
they had always been faithful to the British' Crown,
but flatly refusing the oath. They were told that,
far from having been faithful subjects, they had
always secretly aided the Indians, and that many of
them had been in arms against the English ; that the
French were threatening the province; and that its

1 Lawrence to Lords of Trade, 18 July, 1756.
VOL. I. — 18

274

REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS.

[1755.

affairs had reached a crisis when its inhabitants must
either pledge tliemselves without equivocation to be
true to the British Crown, or else must leave the
country. They all declared that they would lose
their lands rather than take the oath. The Council
urged them to consider the matter seriously, warning
them that, if they now persisted in refusal, no farther
choice would be allowed them; and they were given
till ten o'clock on tlie following Monday to make
their final answer.

When that day came, another body of deputies had
arrived from Grand Prd and the other settlements of
the Basin of Mines; and being called before the
Council, both they and the former deputation abso-
lutely refused to take the oath of allegiance. These
two bodies represented nine-tenths of the Acadian
population within tlie peninsula. "Nothing," pur-
sues the record of the Council, " now remained to be
considered but what measures should be taken to
send the inhabitants away, and where they should be
sent to." If they were sent to Canada, Cape Breton,
or the neighboring islands, they would strengthen
the enemy, and still threaten the province. It was
therefore resolved to distribute them among the
various English colonies, and to hire vessels for the
purpose with all despatch. ^

1 Minutes of Council, 4 July-2S July, in Public Documents of
Nova iScotia, 266-207. Copies of these and other parts of the record
were sent at the time to England, and are now in the Public Record
Office along with the letters of Lawrence.

1755.]

MOTIVES OF THEIR CONDUCT.

275

The oath, the refusal of which had brought such
consequences, was a simple pledge of fidelity and
allegiance to King George II. and his successors.
Many of the Acadians had already taken an oath of
fidelity, though with the omission of the word "alle-
giance," and, as they insisted, with a saving clause
exempting them from bearing arms. The effect of
this was that they did not regard themselves as
British subjects, and claimed, falsely as regards most
of them, the character of neutrals. It was to put an
end to this anomalous state of things that the oath
without reserve had been demanded of them. Their
rejection of it, reiterated in full vir ^ of the conse-
quences, is to be ascribed partly to u fixed belief that
the English would not execute their threats, partly
to ties of race and kin, but mainly to superstition.
Thty feared to take part with heretics against the
King of France, whose cause, as already stated, they
had been taught to regard as one with the cause of
God; they were constrained by the dread of perdi-
tion. "If the Acadians are miserable, remember
that the priests are the cause of it," writes the
French ofiQcer Boishdbert to the missionary Manach.^

1 On the oath and its history, compare a long note by Mr. Akin
in Public Bocuw nts of Nova Scotia, 263-267. Winslow in Ids Jour-
nal gives an abstract of a memorial sent him by the Acadians, in
which they say that they had refused the oath, and so forfeited
their lands, from motives of religion. I have shown in a former
chapter that the priests had been the chief instruments in prevent-
ing them from accepting the English government. Add the
following : —

" Les malheuTB des Accadiens sont beaucoup moius leur ouvrage

1 1

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276 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1756.

The Council having come to a decision, Lawrance
acquainted Monckton with the result, and ordered
him to seize all the adult males in the neie^hborhood
of Beausdjour; and this, as we have seen, ae picn^ptly
did. It remuins to observe how the res. of the
sentence was carrifd Into effect.

Instructions wexe sent to VVinslow to secure the
inhabitants on or ne? / the Basin of Mii^s and place
them on board transports, which, he was toid, \vould
soon arrive from Boston. His orders were stringent:
" If you find that fair means will not do with them,
you must proceed by the most vigorous measures
possible, not only in compelling them to embark, but
in depriving those who shall escape of all means of
shelter or support, by burning their houses and by
destroying everything that may afford them the
means of subsistence in the country." Similar orders
were given to Major Handfield, the regular officer in
command at Annapolis.

que le fruit des soUicltatlons et des d-marches des missionnaires."
— Vaudreuil au Ministre, 6 Mai, 1760.

" Si nous avons la guerre, et si ies Accadiens sont miserables,
souvenez-vous que ce sont ies prfitres qui en .ont la cause." —
Boish^bert it Manach, 21 F(fvr>er, 1760. Both these writers had en-
couraged the priests in their intrigues so long as these were likely
to profit the French government, and only blamed them after they
failed to accomplish what was expected of them.

" Nous avons six missionnaires dont I'occupation perpetuelle est
de porter Ies esprits au fanatisme et h, la vengeance. . . . Je ne puis
supporter dans nos prStres ces odieuses de'clamations qu'ils font
tons Ies jours aux sauvages: 'Les Anglois sont Ies enuemis de
Dieu, les compagnons du Diable.' " — Pichon, Lettres et Memoires pour
servir a I'Histoire du Cap-Breton, 160, 161. (La Haye, 1700.)

1755.]

MISSION OF WINSLOW.

277

On the fourteenth of Aug 9t Winslow ' •■ out from
his camp at Fort Beausdjour, or Curaberiard, on his
unenviable errand. He had with him but two hun-
dred and ninety-seven men. His mood of mind was
not serene. He was chafed because th . regulars had
charged his men with stialing sheep; and he was
doubly vexed by an untoward incident that \appened
on the morning of his departure. He had sent for-
ward his detachment under Adams, the senior cap-
tain, and they were marching by the fort with drums
beating and colors flying, when Monckton sent out
his aide-de-camp with a curt demand that the coh
should be given up, on the ground that they ouglit
to remain \nth the regiment. Whatever the sound-
ness of the reason, there was no courtesy in the
manner of enforcing it. " This tnuisaction raised my
temper some," writes Winslow ir his Diary; and he
proceeds to record his opinion that "it is the most
ungenteel, ill-natured thing that ever I saw." He
sent Monckton a quaintly indignant note, in which
he observed th. the affair "looks odd, and will
appear so in future history;" but his commander,
reckless of the judgments of posterity, gave him little
satisfaction.

Thus ruffled in spirit, he embarked with his men
and sailed down Chignecto Channel to the Bay of
Fundy, Here, while they waited the turn of the
tide to enter the Basin of Mines, the shores of Cum-
berland lay before them dim in the hot and hazy air,
and the promontory of Cape Split, like some mis-

' ^ I'

1,1

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278

REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS.

[1755.

' \

shapeii monster of primeval chaos, stretched its por-
tentous length along the glimmering sea, with head
of yawning rock, and ridgy back bristled with forests.
Borne on the rushing flood, they soon drifted through
the inlet, glided under the rival promontory of Cape
Blomedon, passed die red sandstone cliffs of Lyon's
Cove, and descried the mouths of the rivei's Canard
and Des Habitants, where fertile marshes, diked
against the tide, sustained a numerous and thriving
population. Before them spread the boundless
meadows of Grand Prd, waving with harvests or
alive with grazing cattle; the green slopes behind
were dotted with the simple dwellings of the Acadian
farmers, and the spire of the village church rose
against a background of woody hills. It was a
peaceful, rural scene, soon to become one of the most
wretched spots on earth. Winslow did not land for
the present, but held his course to the estuary of the
river Pisiquid, since called the Avon. Here, where
the town of W-U'dsoi now stands, there was a stock-
ade called F^x o Edv^ard, where a garrison of regulars
under Captain Alexander Murray kept watch over
the surrounding settlements. The New England
men pitched their tents on shore, while the sloops
that had brought them slept on the soft bed of tawny
mud left by the fallen tide.

Winslow found a warm reception, for Murray and
his officers had been reduced too long to their own
society not to welcome the coming of strangers. The
two commanders conferred together. Both had bf.en

. I

1755.]

WINSLOW AT GRAND PR]g.

279

ordered by Lawrence to "clear the whole countiy of
such bad subjects ; " and the methods of doing so had
been outlined for their guidance. Having come to
some understanding with his brother officer concern-
ing the duties imposed on both, and begun an
acquaintance which soon grew cordial on both sides,
Winslow embarked again and retraced his course to
Grand Pr^, the station which the governor had
assigned him. " Am pleased, " he wrote to Lawrence,
" with the place proposed by your Excellency for our
reception {the village church']. I have sent for the
elders to remove all sacred things, to prevent their
bemg denied by heretics." The church was used as
a storehouse and place of arms ; the men pitched their
tents between it and the graveyard ; v/hile Winslow
took up his quarters in the house of the priest, where
he could look from his window on a tranquil scene.
Beyond the vast tract of grassland to which Grand
Prd owed its name, spread the blue glistening breast
of the Basin of Mines ; beyond this again, the distant
mountains of Cobequid basked in the summer sun;
and nearer, on the left. Cape Blomedon reared its
bluff head of rock and forest above the sleeping
waves.

As the men of the settlement greatly outnumbered
his own, Winslow set his followers to surrounding
the x'lamp with a stockade. Card-playing was for-
bidden, because it encouiaged idleness, and pitching
quoits in camp, because it spoiled the grasa. Pres-
ently there came a letter from Lawrence expressing a

y 1

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280

REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS.

[1755.

fear that the fortifying of the camp might alarm the
iPxhabitants. To which Winslow replied that the
making of the stockade had not alarmed them in the
least, Siuoe they took it as a proof that the detach-
ment was to i:;pend the winter with them; and he
added, that as the harvest was not yet got in, he and
Murray had agreed not to publish the governor's
commands till the next Friday. He concludes:
" Although it is a disagreeable part of duty we are put
upon, I am sensible it is a necessary c j, and shall
endeavor strictly to obey your Excellency's orders."

On the thirtieth, Murray, whose post was not many
miles distant, made him a visit. They agreed that
Winslow should summon all the male inhabitants
about Grand Prd to meet him at the church and hear
the King's orders, and that Murray should do the
same for those around Fort Edward. Winslow then
called in his three captains, — Adams, Hobbs, and '
Osgood, — made them swear secrecy, and laid before
them his instructions and plans: which latter they
approved. Murray then returned to his post, and on
the next day sent Winslow a note containing the
following: "I think the sooner we strike the stroke
the better, therefore will be glad to see you here as
soon as conveniently you can. I shall have the
orders for assembling ready written for your approba-
tion, only the day blank, and am hopeful everything
will succeed according to our wishes. The gentle-
men join me in our best compliments to you and the
Doctor."

■;• ■;:-'^«n., ",

'(Ill

1755.]

THE SUMMONS.

281

On the nt xt day, Sunday, Winslow and the Doctor,
whose name was Whitworth, made the tour of the
neighborhood, with an escort of fifty men, and found
a great quantity of wheat still on the fields. On
Tuesday Winslow "set out in a whale-boat with Dr.
Whitworth and Adjutant Kennedy, to consult with
Captain Murray in this critical conjuncture." They
agreed that three in the afternoon of Friday should
be the time of assembling ; then between them they
drew up a summons to the inhabitants, and got one
Beauchamp, a merchant, to "put it into French. "
It ran as follows : —

By John Winslow, Esquire, Lieutenant-Colonel and
Commander of His Majesty's troops at Grand Pre, Mines,
River Canard, and places adjacent.

To the inhabitants of the districts above named, as well
ancients as young men and lads.

Whereas His Excellency the Governor has instructed
us of his last resolution respecting the matters proposed
lately to the inhabitants, and has ordered us to communi-
cate the same to the inhabita its in general in person, His
Excellency being desirous thai each of them should be
fully satisfied of His Majesty's intentions, which he has
also ordered us to communicate to you, luch as i-iiey have
been given him.

We therefore order and strictly enjoin b^ these presents
to all the inhabitants, as well of the above-named districts
as of all the other distr.'cts, both old men Aid yuuag men,
as well as all the lads of ten years of age, • attend at the
church in Grand Pre on Fr-day, the fivih .nstant, at three
of the clock in the afternoon, that .-j May impa.t v^hat we
ara ordered to communicate tu them; declaring that uo

ii 1

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282

REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS.

[1755.

excuse will be admitted on any pretence whatsoever, on
pain of forfeiting goods and chattels in default.

Given at Grand Pre, the second of September, in the
twenty-ninth year of His Majesty's reign, a.d. 1755.

A similar summons was drawn up in the name of
Murray for the inhabitants of the district of Fort
Edward.

Captain Adams made a reconnoissance of the rivers
Canard and Des Habitants, and reported "a fine
country and full of inhabitants, a beautiful church,
and abundance of the goods of the world." Another
reconnoissance by Captains Hobbs and Osgood among
the settlements behind Grand Prd brought reports
equally favorable. On the fourth, another letter
came from Murray; "All the people quiet, and very
busy at their harvest; if this day keeps fair, all will
be in here in their barns. I hope to-morrow will
crown all our wishes." The Acadians, like the bees,
were to gather a harvest for others to enjoy. The
summr as sent out that afternoon. Powder and
ball w rved to the men, and all were ordered to

keep Wic. . the lines.

On the next day the inhabitants appeared at the
hour appoin 3d, to the number of four hundred and
eighteen men. Winslow ordered a table to be set in
the middle of the church, and placed on it his
instructions and the address he had prepared. Here
he took his stand in his laced uniform, with one or
two subalterns from the regulars at Fort Edward,
and such of the Massachusetts officers as were not oa

1755.]

SCENE IN THE CHURCH.

283

guard duty; strong, sinewy figures, bearing, no
doubt, more or less distinctly, the peculiar stamp
with which toil, trade, and Puritanism had imprinted
the features of New England. Their commander
was not of the prevailing type. He was fifty-three
years of age, with double chin, smooth forehead,
arched eyebrows, close powdered wig, and round,
rubicund face, from which the weight of an odious
duty had probably banished the smirk of self-satis-
faction that dwelt there at other times. ^ Neverthe-
less, he had manly and estimable qualities. The
congregation of peasants, clad in rough homespun,
turned their sunburned faces upon him, anxious and
intent; and Winslow "delivered them by interpret-
ers the King's orders in the following words," which,
retouched in orthography and syntax, ran thus : —

Gentlemen, — T have received from His Excellency,
Governor Lawrence, the King's instructions, which I have
in my hand. By his orders you are called together to
hear His Majesty's final resolution concerning the French
inhabitants of this his pro\^nce of Nova Scotia, who for
almost half a century have had more indulgence granted
them than any of his subjects in any part of his dominions.
What use you have made of it you yourselves best know.

The duty I am now upon, though necessary, is very disa-
greeable to my natural make and temper, as I know it must
be grievous to you, who are of the same species. But it
is not my business to animadvert on the orders I have
received, but to obey them ; and therefore without hesita-

1 See his portrait, at the rooms of the Massachusetts Historical
Sf)ciety.

M i

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284 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.

tion I shall deliver to you His Majesty's instructions and
commands, which are that your lands and tenements and
cattle and live-stock of all kinds are forfeited to the Crown,
with all your other effects, except money and household
goods, and that you yourselves are to be removed from
this his province.

The peremptory orders of His Majesty are that all the
French inhabitants of these districts be removed; and
through His Majesty's goodness I am directed to allow
you the liberty of carrying with you your money and as
many of your household goods as you can take without
overloading the vessels you go in. I shall do everything
in ray power that all these goods be secured to you, and
that you be not molested in carrying them away, and also
that whole families shall go in the same vessel; so that
this removal, which I am sensible must give you a great
deal of trouble, may be made as easy as His Majesty's
service will admit; and I hope that in whatever part of
the world your lot may fall, you may be faithful subjects,
and a peaceable and happy people.

I must also inform you that it is His Majesty's pleasure
that you remain in security under the inspection and direc-
tion of the troops that I have the honor to command.

He then declared them prisoners of the King.
"They were greatly struck," he says, "at this deter-
mination, though I believe they did not imagine that
they vfere actually to be removed." After delivering
the address, he returned to his quarters at the priest's
house, whither he was followed by some of the elder
prisoners, who begged leave to tell their families
what had happened, "since they were fearful that
the surprise of their detention would quite overcome

1755.]

AN ENGLISH REVERSE,

285

them." Winslow consulted with his officers, and it
was arranged that the Acadians should choose twenty
of tneir number each day to revisit their homes, the
rest being held answerable for their return.

A letter, dated some days before, now came from
Major Handheld at Annapolis, saying that he had
tried to secure the men of that neighborhood, but
that many of them had escaped to the woods.
Murray's report from Fort Edward came soon after,
and was more favorable: "I have succeeded finely,
and have got a hundred and eighty-three men into
my possession." To which Winslow replies: "I
have the favor of yours of this day, and rejoice at
your success, and also for the smiles that have attended
the party here." But he adds mournfully: "Things
are now very heavy on my heart and hands." The
prisoners were lodged in the church, and notice was
sent to their families to bring thjm food. "Thus,"
says the Diary of the commander, " ended the memo-
rable fifth of September, a day of great fatigue and
trouble."

There was one quarter where fortune did not
always smile. Major Jedediah Preble, of Winslow's
battalion, wi'ote to him that Major Frye had just
returned from Chipody, whither he had gone with a
party of men to destroy the settlements and bring off
the women and children. After burning two hun-
dred and fifty-three buildings he had re-embarked,
leaving fifty men on shore at a place called Peticodiac
to give a finishing stroke to the work by burning the

ir
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286 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.

"Mass House," or church. While thus engaged,

they were set upon by three hundred Indians and

Acadians, led by the partisan officer Boishebert.

More than half their number were killed, wounded,

or taken. The rest ensconced themselves behind the

neighboring dikes, and Frye, hastily landing with

the rest of his men, engag3d the assailants for three

hours, but was forced at last to re-embark, i Captain

Speakman, who took part in the affair, also sent

Winslow an account of it, and added: "The people

here are much concerned for fear your party should

meet with the same fate (being in the heart of a

numerous devilish crew), which I pray God avert."

Winslow had indeed some cause for anxiety. He
had captured more Acadians since the fifth; and had
now in charge nearly five hundred able-bodied men,
with scarcely three hundred to guard them. As they
were allowed daily exercise in the open air, they
might by a sudden rush get possession of arras and
make serious trouble. On the Wednesday after the
scene in the church some unusual movements were
observed among them, and Winslow and his officers
became convinced that they could not safely be kept
in one body. Five vessels, lately arrived from
Boston, were lying within the mouth of the neigh-
boring river. It was resolved to place fifty of the
prisoners on board each of these, and keep them

1 Also BoiihSbert a Drucour, 10 Octobre, 1V55, an exaggerated
account. Vaudrexiil au Ministre, 18 Octobre, 1755, sets Boishe'bert's
force at one hundred and twenty-five men.

1755.]

A MEASURE OF PRECAUTION.

287

anchored in the Basin. The soldiers were all ordered
under arms, and posted on an open space heside the
church and behind the priest's house. The prisoners
were then drawn up before them, ranked six deep, —
the young unmarried men, as the most dangerous,
being told off and placed on the left, to the number
of a hundred and forty-one. Captain Adams, with
eighty men, was then ordered to guard them to the
vessels. Though the object of the movement had
been explained to them, they were possessed with the
idea that they were to be torn from their families and
sent away at once ; and they all, in great excitement,
refused to go. Winslow told them that there must
be no parley or delay; and as they still refused, a
squad of soldier? advanced towards them with fixed
bayonets ; while he himself, laying hold of the fore-
most young man, commanded him to move forward.
"He obeyed; and the rest followed, though slowly,
and went off praying, singing, and crying, being met
by the women and children all the way (which is a
mile and a half) with great lamentation, upon their
knees, praying." When the escort returned, about a
hundred of the married men were ordered to follow
the first party; and, "the ice being broken," they
readily complied. The vessels were anchored at a
little distance from shore, and six soldiers were placed
on board each of them as a guard. The prisoners
were offered the King's rations, but preferred to be
supplied by their families, who, it was arranged,
should go iu boats to visit them every day; "and

288 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [I755.

thus," says Winslow, "ended this troublesome job."
He was not given to effusions of feeling, but he
wrote to lajor Handfield: "This affair is more
grievous to me than any service I was ever emi)loyed

Murray sent him a note of congratulation: "I am
extremely pleased that things are so clever at Grand
Prd, and that the poor devils are so resigned. Here
they are more patient than I could have expected for
people in their circumstances; and what surprises
me still more is tli.j indifference of the women, who
really are, or seem, quite unconcerned. I long much
to see the poor wretches embarked and our affair a
little settled; and then I will do myself the pleasure
of meeting you and drinking their good voyage."

This agreeable consummation was still distant.
There was a long and painful delay. The provisions
for the vessels which were to carry the prisonei-s did
not come; nor did the vessels themselves, excepting
the five already at Grand Pr^. In vain Winslow
wrote urgent letters to George Saul, the commissary,
to bring the supplies at once. Murray, at Fort
Edward, though with less feeling than his brother
officer, was q-^ite as impatient of the burden of
suffering humanity on his hands. "I am amazed
what can keep the transports and Saul. Surely our

» Haliburton, who knew Winslow's Journal only by imperfect
extracts, erroneously states that the men put on board the vessels
were sent away immediately. They remained at Grand Pr^ several
weeks, and were then sent off at intervals with their families

1755.]

EMBARKATION.

289

friend at Chignecto is willing to give us as much of
our neighbors' compahy as he well can." * Saul came
at last with a shipload of pr-'usions; but the lagging
transports did not appear. nslow grew heartsick

at the daily sight of miseries which he himself had
occasioned, and wrote to a friend at Halifax: "I
know they deserve all and more than they feel; yet
it hurts me to heat- their weeping and wailing and
gnashing of teeth. I am in hopes our affairs will
'•■oon put on another face, and we get transports, and
I rid of the worst piece of service that ever I was in."

After weeks of delay, seven transports came from
Annapolis; and Winslow sent three of them to
Murray, who joyfully responded: "Thank God, the
transports are come at last. So soon as I have
shipped off my rascals, I will come down and settle
matters with you, and enjoy ourselves a little."

Winslow prepared for the embarkation. The
Acadian prisoners and their families were divided
into groups answering to their several villages, in
order that those of the same village might, as far as
possible, go in the same vessel. It was also provided
that the members of each family should remain
together; and notice was given them to hold them-
selves in readiness. "But even now," he writes, "I
could not persuade the people I was in earnest."
Their doubts were soon ended. The first embarka-
tion took place on the eighth of October, under whicli
date the Diary contains this entry : " Began to embark

1 Murray to Winslow, 26 September, 1755.
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290

REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS.

[1755.

the ruhabitants, who went off very solentarily [sid]
and unwillingly, the women in great distress, carry-
ing off their children in their arms ; others carrying
their decrepit parents in their carts, with all their
goods; moving in great confusion, and appeared a
scene of woe and distress."^

Though a large number were embarked on this
occasion, still more remained; and as the transports
slowly arrived, the dismal scene was repeated at
intervals, with more order than at first, as the Aca-
dians had learned to accept their fate as a certainty.
So far as Winslow was concerned, their treatment
seems to have been as humane as was possible under
the circumstances ; but they complained of the men,
who disliked and despised them. One soldier received
thirty lashes for stealing fowls from them; and an
order was issued forbidding soldiers or sailors, on
pain of summary punishment, to leave their quarters
without permission, " that an end may be put to
distressing this distressed people." Two of the pris-
oners, however, while trying to escape, were shot hy
a reconnoitring party.

At the beginning of November Winslow reported
that he had sent off fifteen hundred and ten persons,
in nine vessels, and that more than six hundred still
remained in his district. ^ The last of these were not
embarked till late in December. Murray finished

1 In spite of Winslow's care, some cases of separation of fami-
lies occurred ; but they were not numerous.
* Winslow to Morrkton, 3 November, 1766.

Ijf

1755.]

CONJUGAL DEVOTION.

291

his part of the work at the end of October, having
sent from the district of Fort Edward eleven hundred
persons in four frightfully crowded transports.* At
the close of that month sixteen hundred and sixty-
four had been sent from the district of Annapolis,
where many others escaped to the woods.^ A
detachment which was ordered to seize the inhabit-
ants of the district of Cobequid failed entirely, find-
ing the settlements abandoned. In the country
about Fort Cumberland, Monckton, who directed the
operation in person, had very indifferent success,
catching in all but little more than a thousand. ^ Le
Guerne, missionary priest in this neighborhood, gives
a characteristic and affecting incident of the embarka-
tion. "Many unhappy women, carried away by
excessive attachment to their husbands, whom they
had been allowed to see too often, and closing their
ears to the voice of religion and their missionary,
threw themselves blindly and despairingly into the
English vessels. And now w s seen the saddest of
spectacles; for some of these women, solely from a
religious motive, refused to take with them their
grown-up sons and daughters. " * They would expose
their own souls to perdition among heretics, but no
those of their children.

W n all, or nearly all, had been sent off from the

1 Winslo?v to Monckton, 3 November, 1765.

2 Captain Adams to Window, 29 November, 1756 ; see also Knox,
i. 85, who exactly confirms Adams's figures.

8 Monckton to Winslow, 7 October, 1765.
* Le Guerne a Provost, 10 Mars, 1756.

292

REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS.

[1755.

:. A

I;"

various points of departure, such of the houses and
bams as remained standing were burned, in obedience
to the orders of Lawrence, that those who had escaped
might be forced to come in and surrender themselves.
The whole number removed from the province, men.
women, and children, was a little above six thousand.
Many remained behind; and while some of these
withdrew to Canada, Isle St. Jean, and other dis-
tant retreats, the rest iurked in the woodw«» or re-
turned to their old haunts, whence they waged, for
several years, a guerilla warfare against the Eng-
lish. Yet their strength was broken, and they were
no longer a danger to the province.

Of their eiiled countrymen, one party overpowered
the crew of the vessel that carried them, ran her
ashore at the mouth of the St. John, and esca;[. '.^
The rest were distributed among the colonies from
Massachusetts to Georgia, the master of eavjh trans-
port having been pro\ ided with a letter from Lawrence
addressed to the governor of the province to which
he was bound, and desiring him to receive the
imwelcome strangers. The provincials were vexed
at the burden imposed upon them; and though the
Acadians were not in general ill-treated, their lot
was a hard one. Still more so was that of those
among them who escaped to Canada. The chronicle
of the Ursulines of Quebec, speaking of these last,
says that their misery was indescribable, and at-

1 Lettre commune de Drucour et Prevost au Mtnistre, 6 Avril, 1756.
Vaudreuil au Ministre, 1 Juin, 1756.

1755.]

THEIR FATE.

298

tributes it to the poverty of the colony. But there
were other causes. The exiles found Ic s pity from
kindred and fellow-Catholics than from the heretics
of the English colonies. Some of them who had
made their way to Canada from Boston, whither
they had been transported, sent word to a gentleman
of that place who had befriended them that they
wished to return. ^ Bougainville, the celebrated
navigator, then aide-de-camp to Montcalm, says
concerning them: "They are dying by wholesale.
Their past and present misery, joined to the rapacity
of the Canadians, who seek only to squeeze out of
them all the moTioy they can, and then refuse them
the help so dearly bought, are the cause of this
mortality." "A citizen of Quebec," he says farther
on, " was in debt to one of the partners of the Great
Company [Government officials leagued for plunder].
He had no means of paying. They gave him a great
number of Acadians to board and lodge. He starved
them with hunger and cold, got out of them what
money they had, and paid the extortioner. Quel
pays ! Quels mceurs / " ^

Many of the exiles eventually reached Louisiana,
where their descendants now form a numerous and
distinct population. Some, after incredible hardship,
made their way back to Acadia, where, after the
peace, they remained unmolested, and, with those

i I

^ Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., iii. 42, note.

'^ Bougainville, Journal, 1756-1758. His statements are sustained
by Me'moires sitr le Canada, 1749-1700.

294 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [I755.

who had escaped seizure, became the progenitors of
the present Acadians, now settled in various parts of
the British maritime provinces, notably at Madawaska,
on the upper St. John, and at Clare, in Nova Scotia.
Others were sent from Virginia to England; and
others again, after the complete conquest of the
country, found refuge in France.

In one particular the authoi-s of the deportation
were disappointed ui its results. They had hoped to
substitute a loyal population for a disaffected one;
but they failed for some time to find settlers for the
vacated lands. The Massachusetts soldiers, to whom
they were offered, would not stay in the province;
and it was not till five yeai-s later that families of
British stock began to occupy the waste fields of the
Acadians. This goes far to show that a longing to
become their heirs had not, as has been alleged, any
considerable part in the motives for their removal.

New England humanitarianism, melting into sen-
timentality at a tale of woe, has been unjust to its
own. Whatever judgment may be passed on the
cruel measure of wholesale expatriation, it was not
put in execution till every resource of patience and
persuasion had been tried in vain. The agents of the
French court, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, had
made some act of force a necessity. We have seen
by what vile practices they produced in Acadia a
state of things intolerable, and impossible of con-
tinuance. They conjured up the tempest; and when
it burst on the heads of the unhappy people, they

1755.]

THEIR FATE.

295

gave no help. The government of Louis XV. began
with making the Acadians its tools, and ended with
making them its victims. ^

I It may not be remembered that the predecessop of Louis XV.,
without the slightest provocation or the pretence of s^ny, gave
orders that the whole Protestant population of the colony of New
York, amounting to about eighteen thousand, should be seized,
despoiled of their property, placed on board his ships, and dis-
persed among the other British colonies in such a way that they
could not reunite. Want of power alone prevented the execution
of the order. See " Prontenac and New France under Louis XIV.,"
i. 198, 199.

CHAPTER IX.

1766.

DIESKAU.

Expedition aoainbt Crown Point. — "Villiam Johnson. — Vau-

DREUIL. — DiESKAU. — JOHNRON AND THE INDIANS. — ThE TbO-

TiNCiAL Army. — Doubts and Delays. — March to Lake
George. — Sdnday in Camp. — Advance op Diebkau: he
CHANGES Plan. — Marches against Johnson. — Ambdbh. —
Rout of Provincials. — Battle of Lake George. — Rout
OP THE French. — Rage of the Mohawks. — Peril op Dies-
KAu. — Inaction of Johnson. — The Homeward March. —
Laurels op Victory.

The next stroke of the campaign was to be the
capture of C^own Point, that dangerous neighbor
which, for a quarter of a century, had threatened the
northern colonies. Shirley, in January, had proposed
an attack on it to the ministry; and in February,
without waiting their reply, he laid the plan before
his Assembly. They accepted it, and voted money
for the pay and maintenance of twelve hundred men,
provided the adjacent colonies would contribute in
due proportion. 1 Massachusetts showed a military

^ Governor Shirley's Message to his Assembly, 13 February, 1755.
Resolutions of the Assembly of Massachusetts, 18 February, 1755. Shir-
ley's original idea was to build a ton on a rising ground near
Crown Point, in order to command it. This was soon abandoned
for the more honest and more practical plan of direct attack.

THE REGION OF

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1765.] EXPEDITION AGAINST CRO.v N POINT. 297

activity worthy of the reputation she had won.
Forty-five hundred of her men, or one in ♦^Ight of Icr
adult n^ales, volunteered to fight the French, and
enlisted for the various expeditions, some in tlie pay
of the province, aTid 3omo in that of the King* It
remained to nanis a commander for tiie Cro'"n Point
enteiprise. Nobody had power to do so, for Brad-
dock was not yet come; but that timu might not be
lost, Shirley, at the request of his Assembly, took
the responsibility on himself. If he had named a
Massachusetts officer, it would have roused the jealouny
of the other Nen' England colonies ; and hs therefore
appointed William Johnson of New York, thus
gratiiymg that important ].rovince and pleasing the
Five Nations, who at this time look- , ^n Johnson
with even more than usual favor. Herv upon, in
reply to his request, Connecticut voted twelve hun-
dred men. New Hampshire five hundred, and Rhode
Island four hundred, all at their own charge ; while
New York, a Hitie later, promised eight hundred
more. When, in April, Braddock and the Council
at Alexandria approved the plan and the commander,
Shirley gave Johnson the commission of major-general
of the levies of Massachusetts ; and the governors of
the other provinces contributing to the expedition
gave him similar commissions for their respective
contingents. Never did general take the field with
authority so heterogeneous.

1 Correspondence of Shirleij, February, 1765. The number was
much increased later in the season.

•i

^0 if;

SI I

298

DIESKAU.

[1755.

He had never seen service, and knew nothing of
war. By birth he was Irish, of good family, being
nephew of Admiral Sir Peter Warren, who, owning
extensive wild lands on the Mohawk, had placed the
young man in charge of them nearly twenty years
before. Johnson was born to prosper. He had
ambition, energy, an active mind, a tall, strong
person, a rough, jovial temper, and a quick adapta-
tion to his surroundings. He could drink flip with
Dutch boors, or Madeira with royal governors. He
liked the society of the great, would intrigue and
flatter when he had an end to gain, and foil a rival
without looking too closely at the means ; but com-
pared with the Indian traders who infested the border,
he was a model of uprightness. He lived by the
Mohawk iii a fortified house which was a stronghold
against foes and a scene of hospitality to friends,
both white and red. Here — for his tastes were not
fastidious — presided for many years a Dutch or
German wench whom he finally married; and after
her death a young Mohawk squaw took her place.
Over his neighbors, the Indians of the Five Nations,
and all others of their race with whom he had to
deal, he acqi .red a remarkable influence. He liked
them, adopted their ways, and treated them kindly
or sternly as the case required, but always with a
juFtice and honesty in strong contrast with the ras-
calities of the commission of Albany traders who had
lately managed their affairs, and whom they so
detested that one of their chiefs called them "not

1755.]

WILLIAM JOHNSON.

299

men, but devils." Hence, when tTohnson was made
Indian superintendent there was joy through all the
Iroquois confederacy. When, in addition, he was
made a general, ho assembled the warriors in council
to engage them to aid the expedition.

This meeting took place at his own house, known
as Fort Johnson ; and as more than eleven hundred
Indians appealed at his call, his larder was sorely
taxed to entertain them. The speeches were intermi-
nable. Johnson, a master of Indian rhetoric, knew
his audience too well not to contest with them the
palm of insufferable prolixity. The climax was
reached on the fourth day, and he threw down the
war-belt. An Oneida chief took it up ; Stevens, the
interpreter, began the war-dance, and the assembled
warriors howled in chorus. Then a tub of punch
was brought in, and they all drank the King's
health. 1 They showed less alacrity, however, to
fight his battles, and scarcely three hundred of them
would take the war-path. Too many of their friends
and relatives were enlisted for the French.

While the British colonists were preparing to
attack Crown Point, the French of Canada were
preparing to defend it. Duquesne, recalled from his
post, had resigned the government to the Marquis de
Vaudreuil, who had at his disposal the battalions of
regulars that had sailed in the spring from Brest
under Baron Dieskau. His first thought was to use

» Report of Conference between Major-General Johnson and the
Indians, June, 1766.

' I

Si!

'It

300

DIESKAU.

[1755.

them for the capture of Oswego; but the letters of
Braddock, found on the battle-field, warned him of
the design against Crown Point; while a reconnoitring
party which had gone as far as the Hudson brought
back news that Johnson's forces were already in the
field. Therefore the plan was changed, and Dieskau
was ordered to lead the main body of his troops, not
to Lake Ontario, but to Lake Champlain. He passed
up the Richelieu, and embarked in boats and canoes
for Crown Point. The veteran knew that the foes
with whom he had to deal were but a mob of country-
men. He doubted not of putting them to rout, and
meant never to hold his hand till he had chased them
back to Albany. 1 "Make all haste," Vaudreuil
wrote to him ; " for when you return we shall send
you to Oswego to execute our first design. "^

Johnson on his part was preparing to advance.
In July about three thousand provincials were en-
camped near Albany, some on the " Flats " above the
town, and some on the meadows below. Hither,
too, came a swarm of Johnson's Mohawks, — warriors,
squaws, and children. They adorned the general's
face with war-paint, and he danced the war-dance;
then with his sword he cut the first slice from the ox
that had been roasted whole for their entertainment.
"I shall be glad," wrote the surgeon of a New Eng-
land regiment, " if they fight as eagerly as the " ate
their ox and drank their wine."

1 Bigot au Ministre, 27 Aout, 1765. Ibid., 5 Septembre, 1755.
^ Mifmoire pour servir d' Instruction a M. le Baron de Dieskau,
Marechal des Camps et Armies du Roy, 15 Aovt, 1755.

I'fl

1755.]

DELAYS.

801

Above all things the expedition needed prompt-
ness; yet everything moved slowly. Five popular
legislatures controlled the troops and the supplies.
Connecticut had refused to send her men till Shirley
promised that her commanding officer should rank
next to Johnson. The whole movement was for
some time at a deadlock because the five governments
could not agree about their contributions of artillery
and stores.* The New Hampshire regiment had
taken a short cut for Crown Point across the wilder-
ness of Vermont, but had been recalled in time to
save them from probable destruction. They were
now with the rest in the camp at Albany, in such
distress for provisions that a private subscription
was proposed for their relief.^

Johnson's army, crude as it was, had in it good
material. Here was Phineas Lyman, of Connecticut,
second in command, once a tutor at Yale College,
and more recently a lawyer, — a raw soldier, but a
vigorous and brave one ; Colonel Moses Titcomb, of
Massachusetts, who had fought with credit at Louis-
bourg; and Ephraim Williams, also colonel of a
Massachusetts regiment, a tall and portly man, who
had been a captain in the last war, member of the
General Court, and deputy sheriff. He made his
will in the camp at Albany, and left a legacy to

( (1

i The Conduct of Afajor-General Shirley briefly stated (London,
1758).

a Blanchard to Wentworth, 28 August, 1755, in Provincial Papers of
New Hampshire, vi. 429.

802

DIESKAU.

[1755.

I (

J! !

•
hi!- -I p.

; ;

ruu'

found the school which has since become Williams
College. His relative, Stephen Williams, was chap-
lain of his regiment, and his brother Thomas was its
surgeon. Seth Pomeroy, gunsmith at Northampton,
who, like Titcomb, had seen service at Louisbourg,
was its lieutenant-colonel. He had left a wife at
home, an excellent matron, to whom he was con-
tinually writing affectionate letters, mingling house-
hold cares with news of the camp, and charging her
to see that their eldest boy, Seth, then in college at
New Haven, did not run off to the army. Pomeroy
had with him his brother Daniel ; and this he thought
was enough. Here, too, was a man whose name is
still a household word in New England, — the sturdy
Israel Putnam, private in a Connecticut regiment;
and anoither as bold as he, John Stark, lieutenant in
the New Hampshire levies, and the future victor of
Bennington.

The soldiers were no soldiers, but farmers and
farmers' sons who had volunteered for the summer
campaign. One of the corps had a blue uniform
faced with red. The rest wore their daily clothing.
Blankets had been served out to them by the several
provinces, but the greater part brought their own
guns ; some under the penalty of a fine if they came
without them, and some under the inducement of a
reward.^ They had no bayonets, but carried hatchets
in their belts as a sort of substitute. ^ At their sides

1 Proclamation of Governor Shirlei/, 1755.

'■^ Second Letter to a Friend on the Battle of Lake George.

!■

' M *'''I^BI

■

Lci-u'iaht /iV/ ttiluiU B'-juin, S:

upU sS- L '' Pa.n^

1756.]

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1756.]

THE PROVINCIAL ARMY.

803

were slung powder-honiH, on which, in the leisure
of the camp, they carved quaint devices with the
points of their jack-knives. They came chiefly from
plain New England homesteads, — rustic abodes,
unpainted and dingy, with long well-sweeps, capacious
bams, rough fields of pumpkins and com, and vast
kitchen chimneys, above which in winter hung
squashes to keep them from frost, and guns to keep
them from rust.

As to the manners and morals of the army there is
conflict of evidence. In some respects nothing could
be more exemplary. "Not a chicken has been
stolen," says William Smith, of New York; while,
on the other hand, Colonel Ephraim Williams writes
to Colonel Israel Williams, then commanding on the
Massachusetts frontier: "We are a wicked, profane
army, especially the New York and Rhode Island
troops. Nothing to be heard among a great part of
them but the language of Hell. If Crovvn Point is
taken, it will not be for our sakes, but for those good
people left behind." ^ There was edifying regularity
in respect to form. Sermons twice a week, daily
prayers, and frequent psalm-singing alternated with
the much-needed military drill.^ "Prayere among
us night and morning," writes Private Jonathan
Caswell, of Massachusetts, to his father. "Here we
lie, knowing not when we shall march for Crown
Point; but I hope not long to tarry. Desiring your

1 Papers of Colonel Israel Williams.

2 Massachusetts Archives.

i*-

804

DIESKAU.

[1763.

prayers to God for me as I am agoing to war, I am
Your Ever Dutiful Son." »

To Pomeroy and some of his brothoi^ in anns it
seemed that they were engaged in a kind of crusade
against the myrmidons of Rome. "As you have at
heart the Protectant cause," he wrote to his friend
Israel Williams, " so I ask an interest in your prayers
that the Lord of Hosts would go forth with us and
give us v^ictory over our unreasonable, encroaching,
barbarous, murdering enemies."

Both Williams the surgeon and Williams the
colonel chafed at the incessant delays. " The expe-
dition goes on veiy much as a snail runs," writes the
former to his wife; "it seems we may possibly see
Crown Point this time twelve months. " The colonel
was vexed because everything was out of joint in the
department of transportation: wagoners mutirous for
want of pay; ordnance stores, camp-kettles, and
provisions left behind. "As to rum," he complains,
"it won't hold out nine weeks. Things appear
most melancholy to me." Even as he vras writing, a
report came of the defeat of Braddock ; and, shocked
at the blow, his pen traced the words: "The Lord
have mercy on poor New England ! "

Johnson had sent four Mohawk scouts to Canada.
They returned on the twenty-first of August with
the report that the French were all astir with prepa-
rai.ioii, and tliat eight thousand men were coming to
defend Crown Point. On this a council of war was

* Jonathan Caswell, to John Caswell, 6 July, 1755.

1785.J

MARCH FOR LAKE GEORGE.

806

called; and it was resolved to send to the several
colonies for reinforcements.^ Meanwhile the main
body had moved up the river t(t the spot called the
Great Carrying Place, where Lyman had begun a
fortified storehouse, which his men called Fort
Lyman, but v/hich was afterwards named Fort
Edward. Two Indian trails lod from this point to
the watei*s of Lake Ohamplain, one by way of Lake
George, and the other by way of Wood Creek.
There was doubt which course the army should take.
A road was begun to Wood Creek; then it was
countermanded, and a party was sent to explore the
path to Lake George. "With submission to the
general officers," Surge rn Williams again writes, "I
think it a very grand mistake that the business of
reconnoitring was not done months agone." It was
resolved at last to march for Lake George ; gangs of
axemen were sent to hew out the way; and on the
twenty-sixth two thousand men were o~'^'^red to the
lake, while Colonel Blanchard, of Nev.^ ilan^^^shire,
remained with five hundred to finish and defend Fort
Lyman.

The train of Dutch wagons, guarded by the homely
soldic-y, jolted slowly over the stumps and roots of
the newly made road, and the regiments followed at
their leisure. The hardships of the way were not
without their consolations. The jovial Irishman who
held the chief command made himself very agreeable

1 Minutes of Council of War, 22 August, 1755. Ephraim Williams
to Benjamin Dwight, 22 August, 1755.
VOL. I. — 20

■f

306

DIESKAU.

[1755.

»'/

i it !'

w * 1 f )

Ib I h

nil' 1

Ifflf ' f

if if ' ; i< ' i

III r

to the New England officers. " We went on about
four or five miles," says Pomeroy in his Journal,
" then stopped, ate pieces of broken bread and cheese,
and drank some fresh lemon-punch and the best of
wine with General Johnson and some of the field-
officers." It was the same on the next day. " Stopped
about noon and dined with General Johnson by a
small brook under a tree ; ate a good dinner of cold
boiled and roast venison; drank good fresh lemon-
punch and wine."

That afternoon they reached their destination,
fourteen miles from Fort Lyman. The most beauti-
ful lake in America lay before them; then more
beautiful than now, in the wild charm of untrodden
mountains and virgin forests. " I have given it the
name of Lake George," wrote Johnson to the Lords
of Trade, "not only in honor of His Majesty, but to
ascertain his undoubted dominion here." His men
made their camp on a piece of rough ground by the
edge of the water, pitching their tents among the
stumps of the newly felled trees. In their front was
a forest of pitch-pine ; on their right, a mai-sh, choked
with alders and swcimp-maples ; on their left, the low
hill where Fort George was afterwards built; and at
their rear, the lake. Little was done to clear the
forest in front, though it would give excellent cover
tc an enemy. Nor did Johnson take much pains to
learn the movements of the French in the direction
of Crown Point, though he sent scouts towa- ""s South
Bay and Wood Creek. Every day stores and bateaux,

1755.]

SUNDAY IN CAMP.

307

or flat boats, came on wagons from Fort Lyman; and
preparation moved on with the leisure that had
marked it from the first. About three hundred
Mohawks came to the camp, and were regarded by
the New England men as nuisances. On Sunday
the gray-haired Stephen Williams preached to these
savage allies a long Calvinistic sermon, which must
have sorely perplexed the interpreter whose business
it was to turn it into Mohawk ; and in the afternoon
young Chaplain Newell, of Rhode Island, expounded
to the New England men the somewhat untimely
text, "Love your enemies." On tlie next Sunday,
September seventh, Williams preached again, this
time to the whites from a text in Isaiah. It was a
peaceful day, fair and warm, with a few light
showers; yet not wholly a day of rest, for two hun-
dred wagons came up from Fort Lyman, loaded with
bateaux. After the sermon there was an alarm.
An Indian scout came in about sunset, and reported
that he had found the trail of a body of men moving
from South Bay towards Fort Lyman. Johnson
called for a volunteer to carry a letter of warning
to Colonel Blanchard, the commander. A wagoner
named Adams offered himself for the perilous service,
mounted, and galloped along the road with the letter.
Sentries were posted, and the camp fell asleep.

While Johnson lay at Lake George, Dieskau pre-
pared a surprise for him. The German baron had
reached Crown Point at the head of three thousand
five hundred and seventy-three men, regulars, Cana-

li.

|:|

308

DIESKAU.

[1755.

ill

1 ' 'I

/'i

dians, and Indians.* He had no thought of waiting
tliere to be attacked. The troops were told to hold
themselves ready to move at a moment's notice.
Officers — so ran the order — will take nothing with
them but one spare shirt, one spare pair of shoes, a
blanket, a bearskin, and provisions for twelve days ;
Indians are not to amuse themselves by taking scalps
till the enemy is entirely defeated, since vhey can kill
ten men in the time required to scalp one.^ Then
Dieskau moved on, with nearly all his force, to
Carillon, or Ticonderoga, a promontory commanding
both the routes by which alone Johnson could
advance, that of Wood Creek and that of Lake
George.

The Indian allies were commanded by Legardeur
de Saint-Pierre, the officer who had received Wash-
ington on his embassy to Fort Le Bceuf. These
unmanageable warriors were a constant annoyance to
Dieskau, being a species of humanity quite new to
him. "They drive us crazy," he says, "from morn-
ing till night. There is no end to their demands.
They have already eaten five oxen and as many hogs,
without counting the kegs of brandy they have
drunk. In short, one needs the patience of an angel
to get on with these devils ; and yet one must always
force himself to seem pleased with them."^

They would scarcely even go out as scouts. At

U '. I

1 Vaudreuil au Ministre, 25 Septembre, 1755.

2 Livre d'Ordres, Aout, Septembre, 1755.

8 Dieskau a Vaudreuil, 1 Septembre, 1756.

1755.]

THE ADVANCE,

309

last, however, on the fourth of September, a recon-
noitring party came in with a scalp and an English
prisoner caught near Fort Lyman. He was ques-
tioned under the threat of being given to the Indians
for torture if he did not tell the truth; but, noth-
ing daunted, he invented a patriotic falsehood; and
thinking to lure his captors into a trap, told them
that the English army had fallen back to Albany,
leaving five hundred men at Fhrt Lyman, which he
represented as indefensible. Dieskau resolved on a
rapid movement to seize the place. At noon of the
same day, leaving a part of his force at Ticonderoga,
he embarked the rest in canoes and advanced along
the narrow prolongation of Lake Champlain that
stretched southward through the wilderness to where
the town of Whitehall now stands. He soon came
to a point where the lake dwindled to a mere canal,
while two mighty rocks, capped with stunted forests,
faced each other from the opposing banks. Here he
left an officer named Roquemaure with a detachment
of troops, and again advanced along a belt of quiet
water traced through the midst of a deep marsh,
green at that season with sedge and water-weeds, and
known to the English as the Drowned Lands.
Beyond, on either hand, crags feathered with birch
and fir, or hills mantled with woods, looked down on
the long procession of canoes.^ As they neared the
site of Whitehall, a passage opened on the right, the

• 1

1 I passed this way three weeks ago. There are some points
"where the scene is not much changed since Dieskau saw it.

810

DIESKAU.

[1755.

'■i i.

entrance to a sheet of lonely water slumbering in the
shadow of woody mountains, and forming the lake
then, as now, called South Bay. They advanced to
its head, landed where a small stream enters it, left
the canoes under a guard, and began their march
through the forest. They counted in all two
hundred and sixteen regulars of the battalions of
Languedoc and La Reine, six hundred and eighty-four
Canadians, and abou^ six hundred Indians.^ Every
officer and man carried provisions for eight days in
his knapsack. They encamped at night by a brook,
and in the morning, after hearing mass, marched
again. The evening of the next day brought them
near the road that led to Lake George. Fort Lyman
was but three miles distant. A man on horseback
galloped by; it was Adams, Johnson's unfortunate
messenger. The Indians shot him, and found the
letter in his pocket. Soon after, ten or twelve
wagons appeared in charge of mutinous drivers, who
had left the English camp without orders. Several
of them were shot, two were taken, and the rest ran
off. The two captives declared that, contrary to the
assertion of the prisoner at Ticonderoga, a large force
lay encamped at the lake. The Indians now held a
council, and presently gave out that they would not
attack the fort, which they thought well supplied
with cannon, but that they were willing to attack
the camp at Lake George. Remonstrance was lost
upon them. Dieskau was not young, but he was

1 M€jnoire sur l' Affaire du 8 Septembre.

1755.]

MARCH AGAINST JOHNSON.

311

daring to rashness, and inflamed to emulation by the
victory over Braddock. The enemy were reported
greatly to outnumber him; but his Canadian advisers
had assured him that the English colony militia were
the worst troops ' on the face of the earth. " The
more there are," he said to the Canadians and
Indians, "the more we shall kill;" and in the morn-
ing the order was given to march for the lake.

They moved rapidly on through the waste of pines,
and soon entered the rugged valley that led to
Johnson's camp. On their right was a gorge where,
shadowed in bushes, gurgled a gloomy brook; and
beyond rose the cliffs that buttressed the rocky
heights of French Mountain, seen by glimpses
between tlj boughs. On their left rose gradually
the lower slopes of West Mountain. All was rock,
tliicket, and forest; there was no open space but the
road along which the regulars marched, while the
Canadians and Indians pushed their way through
the woods in such order as the broken ground would
permit.

They were three miles from the lake, when their
scouts brought in a prisoner who told them that a
column of English troops was approaching. Dieskau's
preparations were quickly made. While the regulars
halted on the road, the Canadians and Indians moved
to the front, where most of them hid in the forest
along the slopes of West Mountain, and the rest lay
close among the thickets on the other side. Thus,
when the English advanced to attack the regulars in

.' 1

812

DIEf^KAU.

[1755.

J-

front, they would find themselves caught in a double
ambush. No sight or sound betrayed the snare ; but
behind every bush crouched a Canadian or a savage,
with gun cocked and eai-s intent, listening for the
tramp of the approaching column.

The wagoners who escaped the evening before had
reached the camp about midnight, and reported that
there was a war-party on the road nc ar Fort Lyman.
Johnson ha(' at this time twenty-two hundred effec-
tive men, besides his three hundred Indians. ^ He
called a council of war in the morning, and a resolu-
tion was taken which can only be explained by a
complete misconception as to the force of the French.
It was determined to send out two detachments of
five hundred men each, one towards Fort Lyman,
and the other towards South Bay, the object being,
according to Johnson, " to catch the enemy in their
retreat. "2 Hendrick, chief of the Mohawks, a brave
and sagacious warrior, expressed his dissent after a
fashion of his own. He picked up a stick and broke
it; then he picked up several sticks, and showed
that together they could not be broken. The hint
was taken, and the two detachments were joined in
one. Still the old savage shook his head. " If they
are to be killed," he said, "they are too many; if

1 Wraxall to Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, 10 September, 1755.
Wraxall was Johnson's aide-de-camp and secretary. The Second
Letter to a Friend says twenty-one hundred whites and two hundred
or three hundred Indians. Blodget, who was also on the spot, sets
the whites at two thousand.

2 Letter to the Governors of the Several Colonies, 9 September, 1755.

1755.]

THE AMBUSH.

313

they are to fight, they are too few." Nevertheless,
he resolved to share their fortunes ; and mounting on
a gun-carriage, he harangued his warriors with a
voice so animated and gestures so expressive that
the New England officers listened in admiration,
though they understood not a word. One difficulty
remained. He was too old and fat to go afoot; but
Johnson lent him a horse, which he bestrode, and
trotted to the head of the column, followed by two
hundred of his warriors as fast as they could grease,
paint, and befeather themselves.

Captain Elisha Hawley was in his tent, finishing a
letter which he had just written to his lirother Joseph ?
and these were the last words: "I am this minute
agoing out in company with five hundred men to see
if we can intercept 'em in their retreat, or find their
canoes in the Drowned Lands; and therefore must
conclude this letter." He closed and directed it;
and in an hour received his death-wound.

It was soon after eight o'clock when Ephraim
Williams left the camp with his regiment, marched
a little distance, and then waited for the rest of
the detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel Whiting.
Thus Dieskau had full time to lay his ambush.
When Whiting came up, the whole moved on to-
gether, so little conscious of danger that no scouts
were thrown out in front or flank; and, in full
security, they entered the fatal snare. Before they
were completely involved in it, the sharp eye of old
Hendrick detected some sign of an enemy. At that

.Ui

314

DIESKAU.

[1755.

instant, whether by accident or design, a gun was
fired from the bushes. It is said that Dieskau's
Iroquois, seeing Mohawks, their relatives, in the van,
wished to warn them of danger. If so, the warning
came too late. The thickets on the left blazed out a
deadly fire, and the men fell by scores. In the
words of Dieskau, the head of the column "was
doubled up like a pack of cards." Hendrick's horse
was shot down, and the chief was killed with a bayo-
net as he tried to rise. Williams, seeing a rising
ground on his right, made for it, calling on his men
to follow ; but as he climbed the slope, guns flashed
from the bushes, and a shot through the brain laid
him dead. The men in the rear pressed forward to
support their comrades, when a hot fire was suddenly
opened on them from the forest along their right
flank. Then there was a panic ; some fled outright,
and the whole column recoiled. The van now
became the rear, and all the force of the enemy rushed
upon it, shouting and screeching. There was a
moment of total confusion; but a part of Williams's
regiment rallied under command of Whiting, and
covered the retreat, fighting behind trees like Indians,
and firing and falling back by turns, bravely aided
by some of the Mohawks and by a detachment which
Johnson sent to their aid. " And a very handsome
retreat they made," writes Pomeroy; "and so con-
tinued till they came within about three quarters of
a mile of our camp. This was the last fire our men
gave our enemies, which killed great numbers of

■i»'

1755.]

PREPARATIONS FOR DP] FENCE.

315

them; they were seen to drop as pigeons." So ended
the fray long known in New Enghvnd fireside story
as the " hloody morning scout. " Dieskau -^ow oir* ^red
a halt, and sounded his trumpets to collect his scat-
tered men. His Indians, however, were sullen and
unmanageable, and the Canadians also showed signs
of wavering. The veteran who commanded them
all, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, had been killed. At
length they were persuaded to move again, the
regulars leading the way.

About an hour after Williams and his men had
begun their march, a distant rattle of musketry was
heard at the camp ; and as it grew nearer and louder,
the listeners knew that their comrades were on the
retreat. Then, at the eleventh hour, preparations
were begun for defence. A sort of barricade was
made along the front of the camp, partly of wagons,
and partly of inverted bateaux, but chiefly of the
trunks of trees hastily hewn down in the neighboring
forest and laid end to end in a single row. The line
extended from the southern slopes of the hill on the
left across a tract of rough ground to the marshes on
the right. The forest, choked with bushes and
clumps of rank ferns, was within a few yards of the
barricade, and there was scarcely time to hack away
the intervening thickets. Three cannon were planted
to sweep the road that descended through the pines,
and another was dragged up to the ridge of the hill.
The defeated party began to come in; first, scared
fugitives both white and red; then, gangs of men

816

DIESKAU.

[1755

bringing the wounded ; and at last, an hour and a
half after the fii-Ht fire was heard, the main detach-
ment was seen marching in compact bodies down the
road.

Five hundred men were detailed tc guard the
flanks of the camp. The rest stood behind the
wagons or lay flat behind the logs and inverted
bateaux, the Massachusetts men on the right, and
the Connecticut men on the left. Besides Indians,
this actual fighting force was between sixteen and
seventeen hundred rustics, very few of whom had
been under fire before that m.^Aag. They were
hardly at their posts when they saw ranks of white-
coated soldiers moving down the road, and bayonets
that to them seemed innumerable glittering between
the boughs. At the same time a terrific burst of
war-whoops rose along the front; and, in the words
of Pomeroy, "the Canadians and Indians, heltcT-
skelter, the woods full of them, came running with
undaunted courage right down the hill upon us,
expecting to make us flee." i Some of the men grew
uneasy; while the chief officers, sword in hand,
threatened instant death to any who should stir from
their posts.^ If Dieskau had made an assault at that
instant, there could be little doubt of the result.

This he well knew; but he was powerless. He
had his small force of regulars well in hand; but the
rest, red and white, were beyond control, scattering

^ Seth Pomeroy to his Wife, 10 September, 1755.

2 Dr. Perez Marsh to William Williams, 25 September, 1755.

1755.]

BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE.

817

through the woods and swamps, sho;. ,ng, yelling,
and firing from jehind trees. The regulars advanced
with intrepidity towards the camp where the trees
were thin, dei)loyLd, and lu-ed by platoons, till Cap-
tain Eyre, who commanded the artillery, opened on
them with grape, broke their ranks, and compelled
them to take to cover. The fusillade was now
general on both sides, and soon gijw furious. "Per-
haps," Seth Pomeroy wrote to his wife, two days
after, "the hailstones from heaven were never much
thicker than their bullets came; but, blessed be
God! that did not in the least daunt or disturb us."
Johnson received a flesh-wound in the thigh, and
spent the rest of tlu; day in his tent. Lyman took
command; and it is a marvel that he escap-^d alive,
for he was four hours in the heat of the fire, directing
and animating the men. "It was the most awful
day my eyes ever beheld," wrote Surgeon Williams
to his wife ; " there seemed to be nothing but thunder
and lightning and perpetual pillars of smoke." To
him, his colleague Doctor Pynchon, one assistant,
and a young student called " Billy, " fell the charge
of the wounded of his regiment. " The bullets flew
about our ears all the time of dressing them; so we
thought best to leave our tent and retire a few rods
behind the shelter of a log-house." On the adjacent
hill stood one Blodget, who seems to have been a
sutler, watching, as well as bushes, trees, and smoke
would let him, the progress of the fight, of which he
soon after made and published a curious bird's-eye

i 11

818

DIESKAU.

[1765.

'ii

i,
If

' :

view. As the wounded men wore carried to the
rear, tlie wagoners about the camp took their gunu
and powder-horns, and joined in the fray. A
Mohawk, seeing one of these men still unarmed,
leaped over the barricade, tomahawked the nearest
Canadian, snatched his gun, and darted back unliurt.
The bravo savage found no imitators among his tribes-
men, most of whom did notliing but utter a few wa>
whoops, saying that they had come to see tlieir
English brothere fight. Some of the French Indians
opened a distant flank fire from die high ground
beyond the swamp on the right, but were driven off
by a few shells dropped among ther;

Dieskau had directed his first attack against the
left and centre of Johnson's position. Making no
impression here, he tried to force the right, where
lay the regiments of Titcomb, Ruggles, and Williams.
The fire was hot for about an hour. Titcomb was
shot dead, a rod in front of the barricade, firing from
behind a tree like a common soldier. At length
Dies]-nu, exposing himself within short range of the
English line, was hit in the leg. His adjutant,
Montreuil, himself wounded, came to his aid, and
was washing the injured limb with brandy, when the
unfortunate commander was again hit in the knee
and thigh. He seated himself behind a tree, while
the adjutant called two Canadians to carry him to
the rear. One of them was instantly shot down.
Montreuil took his place ; but Dieskau refused to be
moved, bitterly denounced the Canadians and Indians,

1756.]

ROUT OF THE FRENCH.

819

and ordered the adjutant to leave 1 n and lead tJie
regulars in a last effort against the camp.

It was too late. Johnson's men, singly or in small
squads, were already crossing their row of logs; and
in a few moments the whole dashed forward with a
shout, falling upon the enemy with hatchets and the
butte of their guns. The vVench and their allies
fled. The wounded general still sat helpless by the
tree, when he saw a soldier aiming at him. He
signed to the man not to fire ; but he pulled trigger,
shot him across the hips, leaped upon him, and
ordered him in French to surrender. "I said,"'
writes Dieskau, " ' You rascal, why did you fire ?
You see a man lying in his blood on the ground,
and you shoot hiral ' He answered: 'How did I
know that you had not got a pistol ? I had rather
kill the devil than have %e devil kill me.' 'You
are a Frenchman?' I asked. ' Yes,' he replied; ' it
is more than ten years since I left Canada ; ' where-
upon several others fell on me and stripped me. I
told them to carry me to their ger.eral, which they
did. On learning who I was, he sent for surgeons,
and, though wounded himself, refused all assistance
till my wounds were dressed. " ^

It was near five o'clock when the final rout took
place. Some time ^ -ore, several hundred of the

^ Dialofjue entre le Mar€chal de Saxe et le Baron de Dieskau aux
Champs l5lys€es. This paper is in the Archives de la Guerre, and
was evidently written or inspired by Dieskau himself. In spite of
its fanciful form it if a sober statement of the events of the cam-
paign. There is a translation of it in N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 340.

).il

820

DIESKAU.

[1755.

Canadians and Indians had left the field and returned
to the scene of the morning fight, to plunder and
scalp the dead. They were resting themselves near
a pool in the forest, close beside the road, when their
repose was interrupted by a volley of bullets. It
was fired by a scouting party from Fort Lyman,
chiefly backwoodsmen, under Captains Folsom and
McGinnis. The assailants were greatly outnumbered;
but after a hard fight the Canadians and Indians
broke and fled. McGinnis was mortally wounded.
He continued to give orders till the firing was over;
then fainted, and was carried, dying, to the camp.
The bodies of the slain, according to tradition, were
thrown into the pool, which bears to this day the
name qf Bloody Pond.

The various bands of fugitives rejoined each other
towards night, and encamped in the forest, then
made their way round the southern shoulder of
P'rench Mountain, till, in the next evening, they
reached their canoes. Their plight was deplorable;
for they had left their knapsacks behind, and were
spent with fatigue and famine.

Meanwhile their captive general was not yet out
of danger. The Mohawks were furious at their
losses in the ambush of the morning, and above all
at the death of Hendrick. Scarcely were Dieskau's
wounds dressed, when several of them came into the
tent. There was a long and angry dispute in their
own language between them and Johnson, after
which they went out very sullenly. Dieskau asked

Iff

1755.]

MOHAWK FEROCITY.

321

what they wanted. " What do they want ? " returned
Johnson. "To burn you, by God, eat you, and
smoke you in their pipes, in revenge for three or four
of their chiefs that were killed. But never fear;
you shall be safe with me, or else they k hall kill us
both."i The Mohawks soon came back, and another
talk ensued, excited at fii-st, and then more calm;
till at length the visitors, seemingly appeased, smiled,
gave Dieskau their hands in sign of friendship, and
quietly went out again. Johnson warned him that
he was not yet safe ; and when the prisoner, fearing
that his presence might incommode his host, asked
to be removed to another tent, a captain and fifty
men were ordered to guard him. In the morning
an Indian, alone and apparently unarmed, loitered
about the entrance, and the stupid sentinel let him
pass in. He immediately drew a sword from under
a sort of cloak which he wore, and tried to stab
Dieskau, but was prevented by the colonel to whom
the tent belonged, who seized upon him, took away
his sword, and pushed him out. As soon as his
wounds would permit, Dieskau was carried on a
litter, strongly escorted, to Fort Lyman, whence he
was sent to Albany, and ai^terwards to New York.
He is profuse in expressions of gratitude for the
kindness shown him by the colonial officers, and
especially by Johnson. Of the provincial soldiers he

V 11

If
.1

I i

1 See the story as told by Uieskau to the celebrated Diderot, at
Paris, in 1700. M€moires de Diderot, i. 402 (1830). Compare N. Y.
Col. Docs., X. 343.

VOL. I. — 21

I !

322

DIESKAU.

[1755.

i.V

remarked soon after the battle that in the morning
they fought like good boys, about noon like men, and
in the afternoon like devils. ^ In the spring of 1757
he sailed for England, and was for a time at Fal-
mouth; whence Colonel Matthew Sewell, fearing
that he might see and learn too much, wrote to the
Earl of Holdernesse: "The Baron has great penetra-
tion and quickness of apprehension. His long ser-
vice under Marshal Saxe renders him a man of real
consequence, to be cautiously observed. His cir-
cumstances deserve compassion, for indeed they are
very melancholy, and I much doubt of his being ever
perfectly cured." He was afterwards a long time at
Bath, for the benefit of tlie waters. In 1760 the
famous Diderot met him at Paris, cheerful and full
of anecdote, though wretchedly shattered by his
wounds. He died a few years later.

On the night after the battle the yeomen warriors
felt the truth of the saying that, next to defeat, the
saddest thing is victory. Comrades and friends by
scores lay scattered through the forest. As soon as
he could snatch a moment's leisure, the overworked
surgeon sent the dismal tidings to his wife: "My
dear brother Ephraim was killed by a ball through
his head; poor brother Josiah's wound I fear will
prove mortal; poor Captain Hawley is yet alive,
though I did not think he would live two hours after
bringing m in." Daniel Pomeroy was shot dead ;
and his brother Seth wrote the news to his wife

1 Dr. Perez Marsh to William Williams, 25 September, 1755.

1755.]

AFTER THE B.' TTLE.

828

Rachel, who was just delivered of a child: "Dear
Sister, this brings heavy tidings; but let not your
heaH sink at the news, though it be your loss of
a dear husband. Monday the eighth instant was a
memorable day; and truly you may say, had not the
Lord been on our side, we must all have been swal-
lowed up. My brother, being one that went out in
the first engagement, received a fatal shot through
the middle of the head." Seth Pomeroy found a
moment to write also to his own wife, whom he tells
that another attack is expt. ted; adding, in quaintly
pious phrase: "But as God hath begun to show
mercy, I hope he will go on to be gracious. " Pomeroy
was employed during the next few days with four
hundred men in what he calls "the melancholy piece
of business " of burying the dead. A letter-writer
of the time does not approve what was done on this
occi^sion. "Our people," he says, "not only buried
the French dead, but buried as many of them as
might be without the knowledge of our Indians, to
prevent their being scalped. This I call an excess of
civility;" his reason being that Braddock's dead
soldiers had been left ^o the wolves.

The English loss in killed, wounded, and missing
was two hundred and sixty-two ;i and that of the
French by their own account, two hundred and
twenty-eight, 2 — a somewhat modest result of five

1 Return of Killed, Wounded, and Missing at the Battle of Lake
George.

2 Doreil au Ministre, 20 Octohre, 1755. Surgeon Williams gives

824

DIESKAU.

[1755.

hours' fighting. The English loss was chiefly in the
ambush of the morning, where the killed greatly
outnumbered the wounded, because those who fell
and could not be carried away were tomahawked by
Dieskau's Indians. In the fight at the camp, both
Indians and Canadians kept themselves so well under
cover that it was very difficult for the New England
men to pick them off, while they on their part lay
close behind their row of logs. On the French side,
the regular officers and troops bore the brunt of the
battle and suffered the chief loss, nearly all of the
former and nearly half of the latter being kiUed or

wounded.

Johnson did not follow up his success. He says
that hi^ men were tired. Yet five hundred of them
had stood still all day, and boats enough for their
transportation were lying on the beach. Ten miles
down the lake, a path led over a gorge of the moun-
tains to South Bay, where Dieskau had left his
canoes and provisions. It needed but a few hours to
reach and destroy them; but no such attempt was
made. Nor, till a week after, did Johnson send out
scouts to learn the strength of the enemy at Ticon-
deroga. Lyman strongly urged him to make an
effort to seize that important pass; but Johnson
thought only of holding his own position. " I think, "
he wrote, "we may expect very shortly a more

the English loss aa two hundred and sixteen killed, and ninety-six
wounded. Pomeroy thinks that the French lost four or five hun-
dred. Johnson places their loss at four hundred.

1755.]

INACTION OF JOHNSON.

825

formidable attack." He made a solid breastwork to
defend his camp; and as reinforcements arrived, set
them at building a fort on a rising ground by the
lake. It is true that just after the battle he was
deficient in stores, and had not bateaux enough to
move his whole force. It is true, also, that he was
wounded, and that he was too jealous of Ljnnan to
delegate the command to him ; and so the days passed
till, within a fortnight, his nimble enemy were in-
trenched at Ticcnderoga in force enough to defy him.
The Crown Point expedition was a failure dis-
guised under an incidental success. The northern
provinces, especially Massachusetts and Connecticut,
did what they could to forward it, and after the
battle sent a herd of raw recruits to the scene of
action. Shirley wrote to Johnson from Oswego;
declared that his reasons for not advancing were
insufficient, and urged him to push for Ticonderoga
at once. Johnson replied that he had not wagons
enough, and that his troops were ill-clothed, ill-fed,
discontented, insubordinate, and sickly. He com-
plained that discipline was out of the question,
because the officers were chosen by popular election ;
that many of them were no better than the men,
unfit for command, and like so many "heads of a
mob."^ The reinforcements began to come in, till,
in October, there were thirty-six hundred men in the
camp; and as most of them wore summer clothing

1 Shirley to Johnson, 19 September, 1755. Ibid., 24 September,
1755. Johnson to Shirley, 22 September, 1756. Johnson to Phipps, 10
October, 1765 (Massachusetts Archives).

326

DIESKAU.

[1755.

and had but one thin domestic blanket, they were
half frozen in the chill autumn nights.

Johnson called a council of war; and as he was
suffering from inflamed eyes, and was still kept in
his tent by his wound, he asked Lyman to preside,
— not unwilling, perhaps, to shift the responsibility
upon him. After several sessions and much debate,
the assembled officers decided that it was inexpedient
to proceed.^ Yet the army lay more than a month
longer at the lake, while the disgust of the men
increased daily under the rains, frosts, and snows of
a dreary November. On the twenty-second, Chandler,
chaplain of one of the Massachusetts regiments,
wrote in the interleaved almanac that served him as
a diary:* "The men just ready to mutiny. Some
clubbed their firelocks and marched, but returned
back. Very rainy night. Miry water standing in
the tents. Very distressing time among the sick,"
The men grew more and more unruly, and went off
in squads without asking leave. A difficult question
arose: .*ho should stay for the winter to garrison
the new forts, and who should command them? It
was settled at last that a certain number of soldiers
from each province should be assigned to this un-
grateful service, and that Massachusetts should have
the first officer, Connecticut the second, and New
York the third. Then the camp broke up. " Thurs-
day the 27th," wrote the chaplain in his almanac,
" we set out about ten of the clock, marched in a

1 Reports af Council of War, 11-21 October, 1765.

1755.] THE LAURELS OF VICTORY.

827

body, about three thousand, the wagons and baggage
in the centre, our colonel much insulted by the
way." The soldiers dispersed to their villages and
farms, where in blustering winter nights, by the
blazing logs of New England hearthstones, they told
their friends and neighbors the story of the campaign.
The profit of it fell to Johnson. If he did not
gather the fruits of victory, at least he reaped its
laurels. He was a courtier in his rough way. He
had changed the name of Lac St. Sacrement to Lake
George, in compliment to the King. He now
changed that of Fort Lyman to Fort Edward, in com-
pliment to one of the King's grandsons; and, in com-
pliment to another, called nis new fort at the lake,
William Heniy. Of General Lyman he made no
mention in his report of the battle, and his partisans
wrote letters traducing that brave officer; though
Johnson is said to have confessed in private that he
owed him the victory. He himself found no lack of
eulogists; and, to quote the words of an able but
somewhat caustic and prejudiced opponent, "to the
panegyrical pen of his secretary, Mr. Wraxall, and
the sic volo sic juheo of Lieutenant-Go\ .mor Delancey,
is to be ascribed that mighty renown which echoed
through the ->nies, reverberated to Europe, and
elevated a raw, inexperienced youth into a kind of
second Marlborough, "i Parliament gave him five

1 Review of Military Operations in North America, in a Letter to a
.Nobleman (ascribed to William Livingston).

On the Battle of Lake George a mass of papers will be f v^und in

828

)IE8KAU.

[1755.

thousand pounds, and the King made him a
baronet.

the N. Y. Col. Docs., vols. vi. and x. Those in Vol, VI., taken
chiefly from the archives of New York, consist of oflcial and pri-
vate letters, reports, etc., on the English side. Those in Vol. X.
are drawn chiefly from the archives of the French War D-^part-
ment, and include the correspondence of Dieskau and his ai*, tant
Montreuil. I have examined most of them in the original. Besides
these I have obtained from the Archives de la Marine and other
sources a number of important additional papers, which have never
been printed, including Vaudreuil's reports to the Minister of War,
and his strictures on Dieskau, whom he accuses of disobeying
orders by dividing his force; also the translation of an English
journal of the campaign found In the pocket of a captured officer,
and a long account of the battle sent by Bigot to the minister of
marine, 4 October, 1755.

I owe to the kindness of Theodore Pomeroy, Esq., a copy of ihe
Journal of Lieutenant-Colonel Seth Pomeroy, whose letters also are
full of intei-est ; as are those of Surgeon Williams, from the collec-
tion of William L. Stone, Esq. The papers of Colonel Israel Wil-
liams, in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, con-
tain many other curious letters relating to the campaign, extracts
from some of which are given in the text. One of the most curious
records of the battle is A Prospective-Plan of the Battle nea- Lake
George, with an Explanation thereof, containing a full, though short, His-
tory of that important Affair, hy S~muel Blodget, occasionally at the
Camp when the Battle was fought. It is an engraving, printed at
Boston soon after the fight, of which it gives a clear idea. Four
years after, Blodget opened a shop in Boston, where, as appears by
his advertisements in the newspapers, he sold " English Goods, also
English Hatts, etc." The Engraving is reproduced in the Docu-
mentary History of New York, iv., and elsewhere. The Explanation
thereof is only to be found complete in the original. This, as well
as the anonymous Second Letter to a Friend, also printed at Boston
in 1755, is excellent for the information it gives as to the condition
of the ground where the conflict took place, and the position of the
combatants. The unpublished Archives of Massachusetts; the
correspondence of Sir William Johnson ; the Review of Military
Operations in North America ; Dwight, Travels in New England and
New York, iii. ; and Hoyt, Antiquarian Researches on Indian n ars,

1765.]

A COLONIAL POET.

829

— should alao be mentioned. Dwight and Hoyt drew their informa-
tion from aged survivors of the battle. I have repeatedly examined
the localities.

In the odd effusion of the colonial muse called Tilden's Poems,
chiefly to Animate and Rouse the Soldiers, printed 1756, is a piece
styled The Christian Hero, or New England's Triumph, beginning
with the invocation, —

" O Heaven, indulge my feeble Muse,
Teach her what numbers for to choose! "

and containing the following stanza, —

" Their Dieskau we from them detain,
While Canada aloud complains
And counts the numbers of their slain

And makes a dire complaint ;
The Indians to their demon gods;
And with tlie French there 's little odds,
While images receive their nods,
Invoking rotten saints."

END OF VOL. I.