far the fotrnding i<f i^-Sjrl^^^I^jS^if^'

Gift of
REV. WILLIAM H. OWEN

MONTCALM AND WOLFE.
Vol. I.

PEANOIS PAEKMAN'S WEITINGS.

The Oregon Trail  1 vol.
The Conspiracy of Pontiac  2 vols.
Stramt anB lEnglantr in Kortlj America.
Pioneers of France in the New World . . 1 vol.
The Jesuits in North America ...'... 1 vol.
La Salli!; and the Discovery of the Great
West  1 vol.
The Old Regime in Canada under Louis XIV. 1 vol.
Count Frontenac and New France under
Louis XIV  1 vol.
A Half-Century of Conflict  2 vols.
Montcalm and Wolfe  2 vols.

MONTCALM.
Ageii 29.

FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN NORTH AMERICA.
PART SEVENTH.

MONTCALM AND WOLFE

BV

FRANCIS PARKMAN,

AUTHOR OF " THE OREGON TRAIL," " THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC,"
"pioneers OF FRANCE IN THE HEW WORLD," "THE JESUITS
IN NORTH AMERICA," " LA SALLE," "THE OLD REGIME
IN CANADA," " COUNT FRONTENAC," AND
" A HALF-CENTURY OF CONFLICT."

IN TWO VOLUMES.
Vol. I.

BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
1896.

Copyright, 1884,
By Fkanciis Parkman.

C a. / 5T 5'7(fl D

SEnttesitg ^kss :
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.

xo
HARVARD COLLEGE,
THE ALMA MATER UNDER WHOSE INFLUENCE THE
PURPOSE OF WRITING IT WAS CONCEIVED,
THIS BOOK
IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

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A very large amount of unpublished material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 Na-
tionales at Paris, and the Public Eecord Ofl&ce and
the British Museum at London, The papers copied
for the present work in France alone exceed six
thousand folio pages of manuscript, additional and
supplementary to the "Paris Documepts" procured
for the State of New York under the agency of
Mr. Brodhead. The copies made in England form
ten volumes, besides many English documents con
sulted in 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.

Vlli PREFACE.
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 arrival
in Canada to a few days before his death, also car
ried 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 ex
amined them, and obtained copies of the whole.
They form an interesting complement to the offi
cial 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 1 believe I may safely say
that nothing in it of much consequence has es
caped me. The liberality of some of the older
States of the Union, especially New York and
Pennsylvania, in printing the voluminous records
of their colonial history, has saved me a deal of
tedious labor.
The whole of this published and unpubhshed
mass of evidence has been read and collated with
extreme care, and more than common pains have

PREFACE. ix
been taken to secure accuracy of statement. The
study of books and papers, however, co^ld 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' attention
such scenes and persons as might help to illus
trate 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 " Prance 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
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, Sept. 16, 1884.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
1745-1755.
THE COMBATANTS. PAOK
England In the Eighteenth Century. — Her Political and Social
Aspects.-^ Her Military Condition. ¦>— France. — Her Power and
Importance. — Signs of Decay. — The Court, the Nobles, the
Clergy, the People. — The King and Pompadour. — The Phil
osophers. — Germany. — Prussia. — Frederic II. — Russia. —
State of Europe. — War of the Austrian Succession. — Ameri
can Colonies of France and England. — Contrasted Systems
and their Results. — Canada. — 'Its Strong Military Position.
French Claims to the Continent. — British Colonies. — New
England. — Virginia. — Pennsylvania. -^ New York. — Jeal
ousies, Divisions, Internal Disputes, Military Weakness ... 5
CHAPTER II.
1749-1752.
Ci;LOEON DE BIENVILLE.
La Galissonifere. — Enghsh Encroachment. — Mission of Celeron.
— The Great West. — Its European Claimants. — Its Indian
Population. — English Fur-Traders. — C^oron on the Alleghany.
— His Reception. — His Difficulties. — Descent of .the Ohio. —
Covert Hostility. — Ascent of the Miami. — La Demoiselle. —
Dark Prospects for France. — Christopher Gist. — George Cro-
ghan. — Their Western Mission. — Pickawillany. — English
Ascendency. — English Dissension and Rivalry. — The Key of
the Great West  36

XU CONTEI^TS.
CHAPTER IIL
1749-1753.
conflict for the west. Page
The Five Nations. — Caughnawaga. — Abb^ Piquet. — His Schemes.
— His Journey. — Fort Frontenac. — Toronto. — Niagara. —
Oswego. — Success of Piquet. — Detroit. — La Jonquiere. —
His Intrigues. — His Trials. — His Deatli. — English Intrigues.
Critical State of the West. — Pickawillany Destroyed. — Du-
quesne. — His Grand Enterprise  63
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. — Abbd 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. Franfois." — The English at
Beaubassin. — Le Loutre drives out the Inhabitants. — Murder
of Howe. — Beaus^jour. — Insolence of Le Loutre. — His Harsh
ness to the Acadians. — The Boundary Commission. — Its
Failure. — Approaching War  90
CHAPTER V.
1753, 1754.
¦WASHINGTON.
The French occupy the Sources of the Ohio. — Their Sufferings.
— Fort Le Boeuf. — Legardeur de Saint-Pierre. — Mission of
Washington. — Robert Dinwiddie. — He opposes the French. 
His Dispute with the Burgesses. — His Energy.  His Appeals
for Help. —Fort Duquesne. — Death of Jumonville.  Wash
ington at the Great Meadows. — Coulon de Villiers. — Fort
Necessity  ^28

CONTENTS. XUl
CHAPTER VL
1754, 1755.
the signal of battle. Page
Troubles of Dinwiddie. — Gathering of the Burgesses. — Virginian
Society. — Refractory Legislators. — The Quaker Assembly. —
It refuses to resist the French. — Apathy 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 for
Help. — The Duke of 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."  162
CHAPTER VII
1756.
BRADDOCK.
Anival of Braddock. — His Character. — Council at Alexandria.
— Plan of the Campaign. — Apathy of the Colonists. — Rage
of Braddock. — Franklin. — Fort Cumberland. — Composition of
the Army. — Ofiended 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 Deaih. —
Indian Ferocity. — Reception of the 111 News. — Weakness of
Dunbar. — The Frontier abandoned  187
CHAPTER VIIL
1755-1763.
REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS.
State of Acadia. — Threatened Invasion. — Peril of the English.
— Their Plans. — French Forts to be attacked. — Beaus^jour
and its Occupants. — French Treatment of the Acadians. —
John Winslow. — Siege and Capture of Beausejour. — Attitude
of Acadians. — Influence of their Priests. — They refuse the
Oath of Allegiance. — Their Condition and Character. — Pre
tended Neutrals. — Moderation of English Authorities. — The

XIV CONTENTS. Page
Acadians persist in their Refusal. — Enemies or Subjects ? —
Choice of the Acadians. — The Consequence. — Their Removal
determined. — Winslow at Grand Pr^. — Conference with Mur
ray. — Summons to the Inhabitants. — Their Seizure. — Their
Embarkation. — Their Fate. — Their Treatment in Canada. —
Misapprehension concerning them^  234
CHAPTER IX.
1755.
DIESKAIT.
Expedition against Crown Point. — William Johnson. — Vaudreuil.
— Dieskau. — Johnson and thelndians. — The Provincial 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
Lake George. — Rout of the French. — Rage of the Mohawks.
— Peril of Dieskau. — Inaction of Johnson. — The Homeward
March. — Laurels of Victory  285
CHAPTER X
1755, 1756.
SHIRLEY. BOEDER WAR.
The Niagara Campaign. — Albany. — March to Oswego. — Diffi
culties. -^ The Expedition abandoned. — Shirley and Johnson.
— Results of the Campaign. — The Scourge of the Border. —
Trials of Washington. — Misery of the Settlers. — Horror of
their Situation. — Philadelphia and the Quakers. — Disputes
with the Penns. — Democracy and Feudalism. — Pennsylvanian
Population. — Appeals from the Frontier. — Quarrel of Gover
nor and Assembly. — Help refused. -;- Desperation of the
Borderers. — Fire and Slaughter. — The Assembly alarmed. —
They pass a mock Militia Law. — They are forced to yield . . 318
CHAPTER XI.
1712-1756.
MONTCALM.
War declared. — State of Europe. — Pompadour and Maria
Theresa. — Infatuation of the French Court. — The European
War. — Montcalm to command in America.  His early Life.

CONTENTS. XV
Page
— An intractable Pupil. — His Marriage. — His Family. — His
Campaigns. — Preparation for America. — His Associates. —
Levis, Bourlamaque, Bougainville. — Embarkation. — The Voy
age. — Arrival. — Vaudreuil. — Forces of Canada. — Troops of
the Line, Colony Troops, Militia, Indians. — The Military Situa
tion. — Capture of Fort Bull. — Montcalm at Ticonderoga . . 852
CHAPTER XII.
1756.
OSWEGOi.
The new Campaign. — Untimely Change of Commanders. — Eclipse
of Shirley. — Earl of Loudon. — Muster of Provincials. — New
England Levies. — Winslow at Lake George. — Johnson and
the Five Nations. — Bradstreet and his Boatinen. — Fight on the
Onondaga. — Pestilence at Oswego. — Loudon and the Provin
cials. — New England Camps. — Army Chaplains. — A sudden
Blow. — Montcalm attacks Oswego. — Its Fall  381
CHAPTER XIIL
1756, 1757.
PARTISAN WAR.
Failure of Shirley's Plan. — Causes. — Loudon and Shirley. —
Close of the Campaign. — The Western Border. — Armstrong
destroys Kittanning. — The Scouts of Lake George. — War
Parties from Ticonderoga. — Robert Rogers. — The Rangers.
— Their Hardihood and Daring. — Disputes as to Quarters of
Troops. — Expedition of Rogers. — A Desperate Bush-fight. —
Enterprise of Vaudreuil. — Rigaud attacks Fort William
Henry  417
CHAPTER XIV.
1757.
MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL.
The Seat of War. — Social Life at Montreal. — Familiar Corre
spondence of Montcalm. — His Employments. — His Impres
sions of Canada. — His Hospitalities. — Misunderstandings with
the Governor. — Character of Vaudreuil. — His Accusations. —
Frenchmen and Canadians. — Foibles of Montcalm. — The
openipg Campaign. — Doubts and Suspense. — Loudon's Plan.
— His Character. — Fatal Delays. — Abortive Attempt against
Louisbourg. — Disaster to the British Fleet  452

XVI CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XV.
1757.
fort william henrt. Page
Another Blow. — The War-song. — The Army at Ticonderoga. —
Indian Allies. — The War-feast. — Treatment of Prisoners. —
Cannibalism. — Surprise and Slaughter. — The War Council. —
March of Levis. — The Army embarks. — Fort WiUiam Henry.
— Nocturnal Scene. — Indian Funeral. — Advance upon the
Fort. — General Webb. — His DiflBculties. — His Weakness. —
The Siege begun. — Conduct of the Indians. — The Intercepted
Letter. — Desperate Position of the Besieged. — Capitulation.
— Ferocity of the Indians. — Mission of Bougainville. — Murder
of Wounded Men. — A Scene of Terror. — The Massacre. —
Efiorts of Montcalm. — The Fort burned  474

aME^H: WSMBMrnW
17SO -1760.

INTRODUCTION

It is the nature of great events to obscure the
great events that came before them. The Seven
Years War in Europe is seen but dimly through
revolutionary convulsions and Napoleonic tem
pests ; and the same contest in America is half
lost to sight behind th& storm-cloud of the War
of Independence. Few at this day see the mo
mentous 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 Vol
taire, " 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,
commanded by a Virginian youth, George Wash
ington. To us of this day, the result of the American
p'art 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 fatal to vigorous and united
action. Nor at the outset did they, or the mother-
VOL. I. — I

2 INTRODUCTION.
country, aim at conquering 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 danger
ous 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 Pompa
dour 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 Conti
nental battle-fields could have saved Canada, and
perhaps made good her claim to the vast terri
tories of the West.
But there were other contingencies. The pos
session of Canada was a question of diplomacy as
well as of war. If England conquered her, she
might restore her, as she had lately restored Cape

INTRODUCTION. 3
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 British 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
diplomacy 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 English-speaking races; there would have
been no Revolutionary War ; and for a long time,
at least, no independence. It was not a question
of scanty populations 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 in two continents, and blighted her as a

4 INTRODUCTION.
colonial power. It gave England the control ot
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 indispensa
ble condition of their greatness, if not of their
national existence.
Before ^entering on the story of the great con
test, we will look at the parties to it on both sides
of the Atlantic.

MONTCALM AND WOLFE

CHAPTER I.
1745-1755.
THE COMBATANTS.

England in the Eighteenth CEtrtuRT. — Heb Political and So
cial Aspects. — Her Military Condition. — France. — Her
Power and Importance. — Signs of Decay. — The Court, the
Nobles, the Clergy, the People. — The King and Pompadock.
"^The Philosophers. — Germany. — Prussia. — Frederic. II.
— Russia. — State of Europe. — War oi' the Austrian Suc
cession. — American Colonies of France and England. — Con
trasted Systems and their Results. — Canada. — lis Strong
Military Position. — French: Claims to the Continent. —
British Colonies. — New England. — Virginia.^ Pennsylva
nia. — New York. — Jealousies, Divisions, Internal Disputes,
Military Weakness.
The latter half of the reign of George II. was
one of the most prosaic periods in English history.
The civil wars and the Eestoration had had their
enthusiasms, religion and hberty on one side, and
loyalty on the other ; but the old fires declined
when William HI. 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 consistency except
the defeated and despairing Jacobites. Nor had
anybody as yet proclaimed the rival dogma of
the divine right of the people. The reigning

6 THE COMBATANTS. L1745-1755.
monarch held his crown neither of God nor of the
nation, but of a parliament controlled by a ruling
class. The Whig aristocracy 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 Cul-
loden ; and nothing was left to the dominant party
but to dispute on subordinate questions, and con-
tend for ofS.ce among themselves. 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 politics had run to commonplace, so had
morals ; and so too had religion. Despondent writ
ers of the day even complained that British cour
age had died out. There was little sign to the
common eye that under a dull and languid sur
face, forces were at work preparing a new life,
material, moral, and intellectual. As yet. White-
field 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
Hogarth, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne; of Tom
Jones, Squire Western, Lady Bellaston, and Parson
Adams ; of the " Rake's Progress " and " Marriage

1745-1755.] ENGLAND. 7
Si, la Mode ; " of the lords and ladies who yet live
in the undying gossip of Horace Walpole, be-pow-
dered, be-patched, and be-rouged, flirting at masked
balls, playing cards till daylight, retailing scandal,
and exchanging double meanings. Beau Nash
reigned king over the gaming-tables of Bath ; the
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 embroidered ruffles played away their
patrimony at White'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 no fit company for gentlemen,
and country parsons drank their ale in the squire's
kitchen. The passenger-wagon spent the better
part of a fortnight in creeping from London to
York. Travellers carried pistols against footpads
and mounted highwaymen. Dick Turpin and Jack
Sheppard were popular heroes. Tyburn counted its
victims by scores ; and as yet no Howard had
appeared to refotm the inhuman abominations of
the prisons.
The middle class, though fast rising in impor
tance, was feebly and imperfectly represented in
parliament._ The boroughs were controlled by the
nobility and gentry, or by corporations open to in
fluence or bribery. Parliamentary corruption had
been reduced to a system ; and offices, sinecures,
pensions, and gifts of money were freely used to
keep ministers in power. The great offices of stata

8 THE COMBATANTS. (1745-176&
were held by men sometimes of 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 do
minions of Hanover. His elder son, the Prince of
Wales, was a centre of opposition to him. His
younger son, the Duke of Cumberland, 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 vehe
ment bull-headed courage, of late a little sub
dued by fast growing corpulency. 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 bor
oughs, and the extraordinary assiduity and devo
tion 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, Mansfield, Halifax, and Chesterfield,
— were conspicuous figures in the politics of the
time. One man towered above them all. Pitt
had many enemies and many critics. They called
him ambitious, audacious, arrogant, theatrical
pompous, domineering ; but what he has left for
posterity is a loftiness of soul, undaunted cour
age, fiery and passionate eloquence, proud in
corruptibility, domestic virtues rare in his day

1745-1755.] FRANCE. J)
unbounded faith in the cause for which he stood,
and abilities which without wealth or strong con
nections were destined to place him on the height
of power. The middle class, as yet almost voice
less, looked to him as its champion ; but he was
not the champion of a class. His patriotism was
as comprehensive as it was haughty and unbend
ing. He lived for England, loved her with in
tense 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 equip
ment. After the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the
army within the three kingdoms had been reduced
to about eighteen thousand men. Added to these
were the garrisons of Minorca and Gibraltar, and
six or seven independent companies in the Ameri
can colonies. Of sailors, less than seventeen thou
sand 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 House of Bourbon held the three thrones of
France, Spain, and Naples ; and their threatened
union in a family compact was the terror of Euro
pean diplomacy. At home France was the fore-
most of the Continental nations ; and she boasted
herself second only to Spain as a colonial power.

JO THE COMBATANTS. [1745-1755.
She disputed with England 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 Cler
mont were but weak successors of Conde, Turenne,
Vendome, and Villars. Marshal Richelieu was
supreme in the arts of gallantry, and more famous
for conquests of love than of war. The best gen
erals 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 bastards of Augustus the Strong,
Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. He was
now, 1750, dying at Chambord, his iron constitu
tion ruined by debaucheries.
The triumph of the Bourbon monarchy was com
plete. The government had become one great
machine of centralized administration, with a king
for its head ; though a king who neither could nor
would direct it. All strife was over between the
Crown and the nobles ; feudalism was robbed of its
vitality, and left the mere image of its former self
with nothing alive but its abuses, its caste privi
leges, its exactions, 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,

1745-1755.] FRANCE. 11
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
Versailles to revolve about the throne as glitter
ing 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 them, " 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 hall of the ChS,teau, 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, mar
shals of France, and a vast throng of courtiers,
like an animated bed of tulips ; for men and women
alike wear bright and varied colors. . Above are
the frescos of Le Brun ; around are walls of sculpt
ured and inlaid marbles, with mirrors that reflect
the restless splendors of the scene and the blaze
of chandeliers, sparkling with crystal pendants.
Pomp, magnificence, profusion, were a business
and a duty at the Court. Versailles was a gulf

12 THE COMBATANTS. '.1745-175&
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 corruption. 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 gallantry, in their small
three-cornered hats, powdered perukes, embroidered
coats, and lace ruffles. Their valets served them
with ices in the trenches, under the cannon of be
sieged 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 morn
ing a battle. Saxe, however, himself a sturdy
German, while he recognized their fighting value,
and knew well how to make the best of it, some
times complained that they were volatile, excitable,
and difficult to manage.
The weight of the Court, with its pomps, luxu
ries, 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 pos-

1746-1765.] FRANCE. 13
sessions, were wholly free, though they consented
to make voluntary gifts to the Crown ; and when,
in a time of ernergency, the minister Machault
required them, in common with all others hitherto
exempt, to contribute a twentieth of their reve
nues to the charges of government, they passion
ately refused, declaring that they would obey God
rather than the King. The cultivators 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, en
forced with merciless rigor by the farmers of
the revenue, who enriched themselves by wringing
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 wealth; while the country that paid
the 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 intolerable oppression turned peasants into
beggars or desperadoes ; while the clergy were
sapped by corruption, and the nobles enervated
by luxury and ruined by extravagance, the middle
class was growing in thrift and strength. Arts
and commerce prospered, 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 favorites amused them
selves with adorning it. Some of the chief embel-

J4 THE COMBATANTS. [1745-176&
lishments that make Paris what it is to-day — the
Place de la Concorde, the Champs Elys^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 power, itself touched
with decay. A disastrous 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
worthless. He did not want understanding, still
less the graces of person. In his youth the people
called him the " Well-beloved ; " but by the mid
dle of the century 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 selfishness, his listless disregard of
public duty, and his effeminate libertinism, mixed
with superstitious devotion, made him no less a
national curse. Louis XIH. was equally unfit to

1745-1755.] FRANCE. 15
govern ; but he gave the reins to the Great Car
dinal. 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 infa-i
mous to him and to her. She gained and long
kept the power that she coveted : filled the Bas
tille with her enemies ; made and unmade minis
ters ; appointed and removed generals. Great
questions of policy were at the mercy of her ca
prices. Through her frivolous vanity, her per
sonal likes and dislikes, all the great departments
of government — army, navy, war, foreign affairs,
justice, finance — changed from hand to hand in
cessantly, and this at a time of crisis when the
kingdom needed the steadiest and surest guidance.
Few of the officers -of state, except, perhaps, D'Ar-
genson, 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 the Comte de St.-Florentin,
charged with the affairs of the clergy, took their
cue from her. The King stinted her in nothing.
First and lastj 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

X6 THE COMBATANTS. Jl 745-1756.
stUl some forty years m 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 everything, analyzing every
thing, believing nothing. Voltaire was in the
midst of it, hating, with all his vehement soul,
the abuses that swarmed about him, and assaihng
them with the inexhaustible shafts of his restless
and piercing intellect. Montesquieu was showing
to a despot-ridden age the principles of political
freedom. Diderot and D'Alembert were beginning
their revolutionary Encyclopaedia. Rousseau was
sounding the first notes of his mad eloquence, —
the wild revolt of a passionate and diseased 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 pun
gent 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 good-will for humanity. The Revolution be
gan at the top, — in the world of fashion, birth,
and intellect, — and propagated itself downwards.
" We walked on a carpet of flowers," Count Segur
afterwards said, "unconscious that it covered an
abyss;" till the gulf yawned at last, and swal
lowed them.
Eastward, beyond the Rhine, lay the hetero
geneous patchwork of the Holy Roman, or Ger-

1T45-1755.1 THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. 17
manic. 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 com
posed it. In the south the House of Austria
reigned over a formidable assemblage of states ;
and in the north the House of Brandenburg, pro-.
moted to royalty half a century before, had raised
Prussia into an importance far beyond her extent
and population. In her dissevered rags of terri
tory lay the destinies of Germany. It was the
late King, that honest, thrifty, dogged, headstrong
despot, Frederic William, who had made his king
dom 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, bullied him for submitting to such
treatment, and imprisoned him for trying to run
away from it. He came at last out of purgatory ;
and Europe felt him to her farthest bounds. This
bookish, philosophizing, verse-making cynic and
profligate was soon to approve himself the first war
rior of his time, and one of the first of all time.
Another power had lately risen on the European
world. Peter the Great, half hero, half savage,
had roused the inert barbarism of Russia into a
VOL. I. — 2

18 THE COMBATANTS. [1745-1755
titanic life. His daughter Elizabeth had succeeded
to his throne, — heiress of his sensuality, if not of
his talents.
Over all the Continent the aspect of the times
was the same. Power had everywhere left the
plains and the lower slopes, and gathered at the
summits. Popular life was at a stand. No great
idea stirred the nations to their depths. The re
ligious convulsions of the sixteenth and seven
teenth 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 ob
servance of treaties ; inheritance and succession ;
rivalries of sovereign houses struggling to win
power or keep it, encroach on neighbors, or pre
vent 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, nursed some dubious claim born of a mar
riage, a will, or an ancient covenant fished out of
the abyss of time, and watched their moment to
make it good. The general opportunity came
when, in 1740, the Emperor Charles VI. died and
bequeathed his personal dominions of the House
of Austria to his daughter, Maria Theresa. The
chief Powers of Europe had been pledged in ad
vance to sustain the will ; and pending the event
the veteran Prince Eugene had said that two hun
dred thousand soldiers would be worth all their

1745-1755.] THE STATE OF EUROPE. 19
guaranties together. The two hundred thousand
were not there, and not a sovereign kept his word.
They 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 Ba
varia and the King of Spain claimed their share,
and the Elector of Saxony and the King of Sar
dinia 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 dispense with her support. England, jealous of
her designs, trembling for the balance of power,
and anxious for the Hanoverian possessions of her
king, threw herself into the strife on the side of
Austria. It was now that, in the Diet at Presburg,
the beautiful and distressed Queen, her infant in
her arms, made her memorable appeal to the wild
chivalry of her Hungarian nobles; and, clashing
their swords, they shouted with one voice : " Let
us die for our king, Maria Theresa ; " Moriamur
pro rege nostra, Maria Theresia,-^ one of the most
dramatic scenes in history ; not quite true, perhaps,
but near the truth. Then came that confusion
worse confounded called the war of the Austrian
Succession, with its Mollwitz, 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.

20 THE COMBATANTS. [1745-175&
THE AMERICAN COMBATANTS.
The French claimed all America, from the AUe
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 to these vast regions, with
adjacent islands, they gave the general name of
New France. They controlled the highways of
the continent, for they held its two great rivers.
First, they had seized the St. Lawrence, and then
planted themselves at the mouth of the Mis
sissippi. Canada at the north, and Louisiana at
the south, were the keys of a boundless interior,
rich with incalculable possibilities. 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 the middle of the century they numbered in
all, from Georgia to Maine, about eleven hundred
and sixty thousand white inhabitants. By the
census of 1754 Canada had but fifty-five thou
sand.^ Add those of Louisiana and Acadia, and
the whole white population under the French flag
might be something more than eighty thousand.
Here is an enormous disparity ; and hence it has
been argued that the success of the English colo
nies and the failure of the French was not due to
difference of religious and political systems, but
1 Censuses of Canada, iv. 61. Rameau {La France aux Colonies ii 81)
estimates the Canadian population, in 1755, at sixty-six thousand besides
voyageurs, Indian traders, etc. Vaudreuil, in 1760, places it at' sevBnty

1745-1755.] FRENCH COLONIES. 21
simply to numerical preponderance. But this pre
ponderance itself grew out of a difference of sys
tems. We have said before, and it cannot be said
too often, that in making Canada a citadel of the
state religion, — a holy of holies of exclusive Ro
man Catholic orthodoxy, — the clerical monitors
of the Crown robbed their country of a trans-
Atlantic empire. New France could not grow with
a priest on guard at the gate to let in none but
such as pleased him. One of the ablest of Cana
dian governors. La Galissoniere, seeing the feeble
ness of the colony compared with the vastnes« of
its claims, advised the KiAg 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 AUeghanies.
It needed no effort of the King to people his
waste domain, not with ten thousand peasants,
but with twenty times ten thousand Frenchmen
of every station, — the most industrious, most in
structed, most disciplined 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 drag-
onnades. Now, as in the past century, many

22 THE COMBATANTS. |1745-17S5.
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 valleys of the West. It would have
been a bane of absolutism, but a national glory ;
would have set bounds to English colonization^
and changed the face of the continent. The oppor
tunity 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 have shown elsewhere the aspects of Canada,
where a rigid scion of the old European tree wag
set to grow, in the wilderness. The military Gov
ernor, holding his miniature Court on the rock of
Quebec ; the feudal proprietors, whose domains
lined the shores of the St. Lawrence ', the peasant ;
the roving bushranger ; the half-tamed savage,
with crucifix and gcalpdng-knif e ; priests ; friars ;
nuns ; and soldiers, ' — ' mingled to form a society
the most picturesque on the continent. What dis
tinguished it from the France that produced it was
a total absence of revolt against the laws of its
being, •— an absolute conservatism, an unquestion
ing acceptance of Church and King. The Cana
dian, 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 thouo-ht him
a devU. He had, it is true, a spirit of insubordi
nation born of the freedom of the forest • but if
his instincts rebelled, his mind and soul were

/745-i755.J CANADA. 23
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 position of inferiority. Yet Canada had
a vigor of her own. It was not in spiritual defer
ence only that she differed from the country of her
birth. Whatever she had caught of its corrup
tions, 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 engaged in
pursuits of war or adventure, and inured to rough
joumeyings and forest exposures — were rugged
as their climate. Even the French regular troops,
sent out to defend the colony, caught its hardy
spirit, and set an example of stubborn fighting
which 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 wilder
ness, shaggy with primeval woods. Innumerable
streams gurgled beneath their shadows; innumer
able lakes gleamed in the fiery sunsets ; innumer
able mountains bared their rocky foreheads to the
wind. These wastes were ranged by her savage
allies, Micmacs, Etechemins, Abenakis, Caughna-
wagas ; and no enemy could steal upon her un
awares. Through the midst of them stretched
Lake Champlain, pointing straight to the heart of

24 THE COMBATANTS. [1745-1755
the British settlements, — a watery thoroughfare
of mutual attack, and the only approach by which,
without a long detour by wilderness or sea, a hos- '
tile 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. Southwestward, some fourteen
hundred miles as a bird flies, and twice as far
by the practicable routes of travel, was Louisiana,
the second of the two heads of New France ; while
between lay the realms of solitude where the Mis
sissippi rolled its sullen tide, and the Ohio wound
its belt of silver through the verdant woodlands.
To whom belonged this world of prairies and
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 pre
tensions 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
the distribution of their American lands. Who
ever 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 inter
national extension of her own principle would
have destroyed the pretensions of France to all
the countries of the West, She had called them

1745-1755.] NEW ENGLAND. 25
hers for three fourths of a century, and they were
still a howling waste, yielding nothing to civiliza
tion but beaver-skins, with here and there a fort,
trading-post, or mission, and three or four puny
hamlets by the Mississippi and the Detroit. We
have seen how she might have made for herself 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, inso
much as they all had representative governments,
and a basis of English law. But the differences
among them were great. Some were purely Eng
lish ; others were made up of various races, though
the Anglo-Saxon was always predominant. Some
had one prevailing religious creed ; others had
many creeds. Some had charters, and some had
not. In most cases the governor was appointed
by the Crown ; in Pennsylvania and Maryland he
was appointed by a feudal proprietor, and in Con
necticut and Rhode Island he was chosen by the
people. The differences of disposition and charac
ter 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
features all its own; but the rest were substan
tially one in nature and origin. The principal
among them., Massachusetts, may serve as the type

26 THE COMBATANTS. 51745-1755
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 education,
was widely diffused. Practically Massachusetts
was almost independent of the mother-country.
Its people were purely English, of sound yeoman
stock, with an abundant leaven drawn from the
best of the Puritan gentry ; but their original char
acter had been somewhat modified by changed
conditions of life. A harsh and exacting creed,
with its stiff formalism 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 isolation of
a narrow village life, — joined to produce, in the
meaner sort, qualities which were unpleasant, and
sometimes repulsive. Puritanism was not an un
mixed 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. Nev
ertheless, while New England Puritanism bore its

1746-1755.] NEW ENGLAND. 27
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, patriotism, 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 colonies
abounded in high examples of public and private
virtue, though not always under the most pre
possessing forms. They were conspicuous, more
over, for intellectual activity, and were by no
means without intellectual eminence. Massachu
setts 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 speculation ; and Franklin, famous already
by his discoveries in electricity. On the other
hand, there were few genuine New Englanders
who, however personally 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-righteousness, along with
Certain other traits, failed to commend the Puritan
colonies to the favor of their fellows. Then, as
now. New England was best known to her neigh
bors by her wor^t side.

28 THE COMBATANTS. (1745-175&
In one point, however, she found general ap
plause. 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 vulnerable to the guns and toma
hawks 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 Canadian 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 heav
iest 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, me
chanics, or farmers. To compare them with good

i745-1755.] VIRGINIA. 29
regular troops would be folly ; but they did, on the
whole, better than could have been expected, and
in the last war achieved the brilliant success of the
capture of Louisburg. 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 chief sources of it.
The great colony of Virginia stood in strong
contrast to New England. In both the population
was English ; but the one was Puritan with Round
head traditions, and the other, so far as concerned
its governing class, Anglican with Cavalier tradi
tions. In 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 century.
The hope had found fruition. The lower classes
of Virginia were as untaught 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 ; numer
ous 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 strati
fied. On the lowest level were the negro slaves,
nearly as numerous as all the rest together ; next,
the indented servants and the poor whites, of low
origin, good-humored, but boisterous, and some
times vicious ; next, the small and despised class
of tradesmen and mechanics ; next, the farmers and
lesser planters, who were mainly of good English

30 THE COMBATANTS. [1746-17K
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 squiree
transplanted to a warm climate and turned slave
masters. They sustained their position 'by entails,
and constantly undermined it by the reckless pro
fusion which ruined them at last. Many of them
were well born, with an immense pride of descent,
increased by the habit of domination. Indolent an(J
energetic by turns ; rich in natural gifts and often
poor in book-learning, though some, in the lack
of good teaching at home, had been bred in the Eng
lish 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 rough
ness of the plantation, — what they wanted in
schooling was supplied by an education which
books alone would have been impotent to give, the
education which came with the possession and ex
ercise of political power, and the sense of a position
to maintain, joined to a bold spirit of independence
and a patriotic attachment to the Old Dominion.
They were few in number ; they raced, gambled,
drank, and swore ; they did everything 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 onlv near h.

i-745-1755.] PENNSYLVANIA, 31
The essential antagonism of Virginia and New
England was afterwards to become, and to remain
for a century, an element of the first influence in
American 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 differed widely from
both. She was a conglomerate of creeds and
races, — English, Irish, Germans, Dutch, and
Swedes; Quakers, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Ro
manists, Moravians, and a variety of nondescript
sects- The Quakers prevailed in the eastern dis
tricts; quiet, industrious, virtuous, and serenely
obstinate. The Germans were strongest towards
the centre of , the colony, and were chiefly peas
ants ; successful farmers, but dull, ignorant, and
-superstitious. Towards the west were the Irish,
of whom some were Celts, always quarrelling with
their German neighbors, who detested them ; but
the greater part were Protestants of Scotch de
scent, from Ulster ; a vigorous border population.
Virginia and New England had each a strong dis
tinctive character. Pennsylvania, with her hete
rogeneous population, had none but that 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. Phila
delphia, next to Boston, was the largest town in
British America ; and was, moreover, the Intel-
lectual centre of the middle and southern colonies.
Unfortunately, for her credit in the approaching

32 THE COMBATANTS. [1745-1755
war, the Quaker influence made Pennsylvania 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 Eng
lish, joined .to the Dutch, the original settlers,
were the dominant population ; but a half-score
of other languages were spoken in the province,
the chief among them being that of the Huguenot
French in the southern parts, and that of the Ger
mans on the Mohawk. In religion, the province
was divided between the Anglican Church, with
government support and popular dislike, and
numerous dissenting sects, chiefly Lutherans, In
dependents, Presbyterians, and members of the
Dutch Reformed Church. The little city of New
York, like its great successor, was the most cosmo
politan place on the continent, and probably the
gayest. It had, in abundance, balls, concerts, the
atricals, and evening clubs, with plentiful dances
and other amusements for the poorer classes.
Thither in the winter months came the great hered
itary proprietors on the Hudson ; for the old Dutch
feudality still held its own, and the manors of Van
Renselaer, Cortland, and Livingston, with their
seigniorial privileges, and the great estates and
numerous tenantry of the Schuylers and other lead
ing families, formed the basis of an aristocracy.

1745-1755.] BRITISH COLONIES. 33
some of whose members had done good service to
the province, and were destined to do more. Penn
sylvania 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 crystallization had, it is true, many oppo
nents. In politics, as in religion, there were sharp
¦ a,ntagonisms and frequent quarrels. They centred
in the city ; for in the well-stocked dwellings of
the Dutch farmers along the Hudson there reigned
a tranquil and prosperous routine ; and the Dutch
border town of Albany had not its like in Amer
ica for unruffled conservatism and quaint pic
turesqueness. 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 Caro
lina and Georgia, too remote from the seat of war
to 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 alle
glance to the British Crown. Communication be
tween 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 conflicting interests or per-
VQI. I.  3

34 THE COMBATANTS. [1745-1755,
petual disputes concerning boundaries. The patri
otism of the colonist was bounded by the lines of
his government, except in the compact and kin
dred colonies of New England, which were socially
united, though politically distinct. The country of
the New Yorker was New York, and the country
of the Virginian was Virginia. The New England
colonies had once confederated; but, kindred as
they were, they had long ago dropped apart. Wil
liam Penn proposed a plan of colonial union wholly
fruitless. James II. tried to unite all the northern
colonies under one government ; but the attempt
came to naught. Each stood aloof, jealously inde
pendent. At rare intervals, under the pressure of
an emergency, some of them would try to act in
concert ; and, except in New England, the results
had been most discouraging. Nor was it this se
gregation only that tmfitted them for war. They
were all subject to popular legislatures, through
whom alone money and men could be raised ; and
these elective bodies were sOmetimes factious and
selfish, and not always either far-sighted or reason
able. Moreover, they were in a state of ceaseless
friction with their governors, who represented the
king, or, what was worse, the feudal proprietary.
These disputes, though varying in intensity, were
found everywhere except in the two small colonies
which chose their own governors ; and they were
premonitions of the movement towards indepen
dence which ended in the war of Revolution. The
occasion of difference mattered little. Active or
latent, the quarrel was always present. In New

1745-1755.] COLONIAL DISCORD. 35
York it turned on a question of the governor's
salary ; in Pennsylvania on the taxation of the
proprietary estates ; in Virginia on a fee exacted
for the issue of land patents. It was sure to arise
whenever some public crisis gave the representa
tives of the people an opportunity of extorting
concessions from the representative of the Crown,
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 Crown; the people at war with the execu
tive, and, by the fermentation of internal politics,
blinded to an outward danger 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 con
centred 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 intel
lectual life ; of barren absolutism against a liberty,
crude, incoherent, and chaotic, yet full of prolific
vitality.

CHAPTER n.
1749-1752.
C:feL0R0N DE BIENVILLE.
La Galissoniere. — English Encroachment. — Mission op C6lo-
RON. — The Great West. — Its European Claimants. — Its
Indian Population. — English Fur-Traders. — Ci;LOR0N on the
Alleghany. — 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. — Pick
awillany. — English Ascendency. — English Dissension and
Rivalry. — The Key of the Great West.
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 him
self famous by a victory, near Minorca, over the
English admiral Byng, — an achievement now re
membered chiefly by the fate of the defeated com
mander, judicially murdered as the scapegoat of an
imbecile ministry. Galissoniere was a humpback ;
but his deformed person was animated by a bold
spirit and a strong and penetrating intellect. He
was the chief representative of the American pol
icy of France. He felt that, cost what it might,
she must hold fast to Canada, and link her to
Louisiana by chains of forts strong enough to hold
back the British colonies, and cramp their growth

1749-1752.] ERRAND OF CfiLORON. 37
by confinement within narrow limits ; while French
settlers, sent from the mother-country, 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 ambi
tion ; and to abandon them is to abandon our
selves ; 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
preponderant in Europe.-^
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.
Meanwhile, the English traders were crossing the
mountains from Pennsylvania and Virginia, poach
ing 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 stUl, English land speculators were begin
ning 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 Celeron de Bienville
thither in the summer of 1749.
He was a chevalier de St. Louis and a captain
in the colony troops. Under him went fourteen
officers and cadets, twenty soldiers, a hundred
and eighty Canadians, and a band of Indians,
1 La Galissoniere, Memoire sur les Colonies de la France dans
I'Amerique septentrionale.

38 CflLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749-n52.
all in twenty-three birch-bark canoes. They left
La Chine on the fifteenth of June, and pushed up
the rapids of ' the St. Lawrence, losing a man and
damaging several canoes on the way. Ten days
brought them to the mouth of the Oswegatchie,
where Ogdensburg now stands. Here they found
a Sulpitian priest, Abb^ Piquet, busy at building
a fort, and lodging for the present under a shed
of bark like an Indian. This enterprising 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 re
storing 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 Celeron reached
Niagara. This, the most important pass of all
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 the town
of Portland now stands ; and for the next seven
days were busied in shouldering canoes and bag
gage up and down the steep hills, through the

1749-1752.] THE WEST. 39
dense forest of beech, oak, ash, and elm, to the
waters of Chautauqua Lake, eight or nine miles
distant. Here they embarked again, steering
southward over the sunny waters, 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 tall forests that overarched it.
This prosperity was short. The stream was low,
in spite of heavy 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 Tvere reduced to the sad necessity of dragging
our canoes over the sharp pebbles, which, with all
our care and precaution, stripped off large slivers
of the bark. At last, tired and worn, and almost
in despair of ever seeing La Belle Riviere, we
entered it at noon of the 29th." The part of
the Ohio, or " La Belle Riviere," which they had
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 cane-
brakes of Louisiana ; one communicating with the
world through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the
other through the Gulf of Mexico. These vital
points were feebly connected by a chain of military
posts, — slender, and often interrupted, — circling
through the wilderness nearly three thousand
miles. Midway between 'Canada and Louisiana

40 c:§:loron de bienville. [1749-1752;
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 entrenched themselves well along its' east
ern limits, they would shut their rivals between
the AUeghanies and the sea, control all the tribes
of the West, and turn them, in case of war, against
the English borders, — a frightful and insupport
able scourge.
The Indian population of the Ohio and its north
ern tributaries was relatively considerable. The
upper or eastern half of the valley was occupied by
mingled hordes of Delawares, Shawanoes, Wyan-
dots, and Iroquois, or Indians 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 Maumee, there was a small wooden fort, an
other on the St. Joseph, and two on the Wabash.
On the meadows of the Mississippi, in the Illinois
country, stood Fort Chartres, — a much stronger

1749-1752.] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS. 41
work, and one of the chief links of the chain that
connected Quebec with New Orleans. Its four
stone bastions were impregnable to musketry ; and,
here in the depths of the wilderness, there was no
fear that cannon would be brought against it. It
was the 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 inter
vening hamlets of St. Philippe and Prairie h la
Roche, — a picturesque but thriftless population,
mixed with Indians, totally ignorant, busied partly
with the fur-trade, and partly with the raising of
corn for the market of New Orleans. They com
municated with it by means of a sort of row galley,
of eighteen or twenty oars, which made the voyage
twice a year, and usually spent ten weeks on the
return up the river.*
The Pope and the Bourbons had claimed this
wilderness for seventy years, and, had done scarcely
more for it than the Indians, its natural owners.
Of the western tribes, even of those living at
the French posts, the Hurons or Wyandots alone
were Christian.^ The devoted zeal of the early
1 Gordon, Journal, 1766, appended to PownaU, Topographical Descrip
tion. In the Depot 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.
2 " De toutes les nations domieiliees dans les postes des pays d'en haut, il
n'y a que les hurons du detroit qui aieut embrasse la Religion chretienne.*
Memoire du Roy pour servir d'instruction au S'. Marquis de Lajonquiere.

42 CfiLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749-1752,
missionaries and the politic efforts of their suc
cessors had failed alike. The savages of the Ohio
and the Mississippi, instead of being tied to France
by the mild bonds of the faith, were now in a
state which 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. Dinwiddie, governor
of Virginia, says of them : " They appear to me to
be in general a set of abandoned wretches ; " and
Hamilton, governor of Pennsylvania, replies : " I
concur with you in opinion that they are a very
licentious people." * Indian traders, of whatever
nation, are rarely models of virtue ; and these,
without doubt, were rough and lawless men, with
abundant blackguardism and few scruples. Not
all of them, however, are to be thus qualified.
Some were of a better stamp ; among whom were
Christopher Gist, William Trent, and George Cro
ghan. These and other chief traders hired men on
the frontiers, crossed the AUeghanies with goods
packed on the backs of horses, descended into the
valley of the Ohio, and journeyed from stream to
stream and village to village along the Indian
trails, with which all this wilderness was seamed,
and which the traders widened to make them prac
ticable. 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
1 Dinwiddie to Hamilton, 21 May, 1753. Hamilton to Dinwiddie  Man
1753, ' "

1749,] POSSESSION OF THE OHIO. 43
they descended the main river, and ascended such
of its numerous tributaries as were navigable.
They were bold and enterprising ; and French
writers, with alarm and indignation, declare that
some of them had crossed the Mississippi and
traded with the distant Osages. It is said that
about three hundred of them came over the moun
tains every year.
On reaching the Alleghany, C^loron de Bienville
entered upon the work assigned him, and began by
taking possession of the country. The men were
drawn up in order ; Louis XV. was proclaimed
lord of all that region, the arms of France, stamped
on a sheet of tin, 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 the whole pro
ceeding. The leaden plate was inscribed as fol
lows : " Year 1749, in the reign of Louis Fifteenth,
King of France. We, Celoron, commanding the
detachment sent by the Marquis de la Galissoniere,
commander-general of New France, to restore tran
quillity in certain villages of these cantons, have
buried this plate at the confluence of the Ohio
and the Kanaouagon \_Gonewango'], this 29th July,
as a token of renewal of possession heretofore
taken of the -aforesaid River Ohio, of all streams
that fall into it, and all lands on both sides to
the source of the aforesaid streams, as the preced
ing 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."

44 CfiLORON DE BIENVILLE. 11749.
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 ap
proach. 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 taking to the woods. Some
times, however, Celoron succeeded in gaining an
audience ; and at a village of Senecas called La
.Paille Coupee he read them a message from La
Galissoniere couched in terms sufficiently impera
tive : " 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 Celoron
to tell you my intentions, which are that I will
not endure the English on my land. Listen to me,
children; mark well the word that I send you;
follow my advice, and the 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

1749,] ENGLISH INTRUDERS. 45
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; but nobody doubted that fear had
extorted their answer."
Four leagues below French Creek, by a rqck
scratched with Indian hieroglyphics, they buried
another leaden plate. Three days after, they
reached the Delaware village of Attiqu^, at the
site of Kittanning, whose twenty-two wigwams
were all empty, the owners having fled. A little
farther on, at an old abandoned village of Shawa
noes, they found six English traders, whom they
warned to begone, and return no more at their
perU. Being helpless to resist, the traders pre
tended obedience ; and Celoron charged them with
a letter to the Governor of Pennsylvania, in which
he declared that he was " greatly surprised " to
find Englishmen trespassing on the domain of
France. " I know," concluded the letter, " that
our Commandant-General would be very sorry to
be forced to use violence ; but his orders are precise,
to leave no foreign traders within the limits of his
government." ^
On the next day they reached a village of Iro
quois under a female chief, called Queen Ale-
quippa by the English, to whom she was devoted.
Both Queen and subjects had fled ; but among the
deserted wigwams were six more Englishmen,
whom Celoron warned off like the others, and
1 C^oron, Journal. Compare the letter as translated in N. Y- Col
Docs., VI, 532 ; also Colonial Records of Pa., V. 425.

46 CELORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749.
who, like them, pretended to obey. At a neighbor*
ing town they found only two withered ancients,
male and female,, whose united ages, in the judg
ment 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 English, one of the chief'
places on the river.^ Both English and French
flags were flying over the town, and the inha]3i-
tants, lining the shore, greeted their visitors with
a salute of musketry, — not wholly welcome, as the
guns were charged with ball. Celoron 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, Shawa
noes, and Mingoes. Here, too, were gathered
many fugitives from the deserted towns above.
Celoron feared a night attack. The camp was
encircled by a ring of sentries ; the officers walked
the rounds till morning;; a part of the men were
kept under arms, and the rest ordered to sleep in
their clothes. Joncaire 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 in
stead of a battle, there was a council. Celoron
delivered to the assembled chiefs a message from
1 There was another Chiningu^, the Shenango of the English, on the
Alleghany.

1749.] ENGLISH WARNED OFF. 47
the Governor more conciliatory than the former,
" Through the love I bear you, my children, I send
you Monsieur de Celoron to open your eyes to the
designs of the English against your lands. The
establishments they mean to make, and of which
you are certainly ignorant, tend to your complete
ruin. They hide 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. The English intend
to rob you of your country; and that they may
succeed, they begin by corrupting your minds.
As they mean to seize the Ohio, which belongs to
me, I send to warn them to retire."
The reply of the chiefs, though sufficiently
humble, was not all that could be wished. They
begged that the intruders might stay a little
longer, since the goods they brought were neces
sary to them. It was in fact, these goods, cheap,
excellent, and abundant as they were, which
formed the only true bond between the English
and the Westem tribes. Logstown was one of
the chief resorts of the English traders ; and at
this moment there were ten of them in the place.
Celoron warned them off. " They agreed," says
the chaplain, " to all that was demanded, well
resolved, no doubt, to do the contrary as soon as
our backs were turned."
Having distributed gifts among the Indians,
the French proceeded on their way, and at ot

48 CELORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749.
near the mouth of Wheeling Creek buried another
plate of lead. They repeated the same 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 protruding from the bank
where the freshets had laid it bare, knocked it
down with a long stick, melted half of it into bul
lets, and gave what remained to a neighbor from
Marietta, who, hearing of this mysterious 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 eigh
teenth of August, C61oron buried yet another
plate, at the mouth of the Great Kenawha. 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 varia
tions of date and place.
The weather was by turns rainy and hot ; and
the men, tired and famished, were fast falling ill.
On the twenty-second they approached Scioto,
called by the French St. Yotoc, or Sinioto, a large
Shawanoe town at the mouth of the river which
bears ,the same name. Greatly doubting what
welcome awaited them, they filled their powder-
horns and prepared for the worst. Joncaire was
1 O. H. Marshall, in Magazine of American History, March, 1878.
2 For papers relating to it, see Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soe, II.
3 For a fac-simile of the inscription on this plate, see Olden Time, I. 288.
Cfloron calls the Kenawha, Chinodahichetha. The inscriptions as given in
his Journal correspond with those on the plates discovered.

1'49.] SCIOTO. 49
sent forward to propitiate the inhabitants ; but
they shot bullets through the flag that he carried,
and surrounded him, yelling and brandishing
their knives. Some were for killing him at once ;
others for burning him alive. The interposition
of a friendly Iroquois saved him ; and at length
they let him go. Celoron was very uneasy at the
¦ reception of his messenger. " I knew," he writes,
" the weakness of my party, two thirds of which
were young men who had never left home before,
and would all have run at the sight of ten In
dians. Still, there was nothing for me but to
keep on ; for I was short of provisions, my canoes
were badly damaged, and I had no pitch or bark
to mend them. So I embarked again, ready f©r
whatever might happen. I had good officers, and
about fifty men who could be trusted."
As they neared the town, the Indians swarmed
to the shore, and began the usual salute of mus
ketry. " They fired," says Celoron, " full a thou
sand shots ; for the English give them powder for
nothing." He prudently pitched his camp on the
farther side of the river, posted guards, and kept
close watch. Each party distrusted and feared
the other. At length, after much ado, many de
bates, and some threatening movements on the
part of the alarmed and excited Indians, a coun
cil took place at the tent of the French comman
der ; the chiefs apologized for the rough treatment
of Joncaire, and Celoron replied with a rebuke,
which would doubtless have been less mild, had
he felt himself stronger. He gave them also a
VOL. I. — 4

50 CELORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749.
message from the Governor, modified, apparently,
to 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 unsatisfactory.
It was plain that they were bound to the enemy
by interest, if not by sympathy. A party of Eng
lish traders were living in the place ; and Celoron
summoned them to withdraw, on pain of what
might ensue. "My instructions," he says, "en
joined me to do this, and even to pillage the Eng
lish ; 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 assem
bled chiefs having been regaled with a cup of
brandy each, — the only part of the proceeding
which seemed to please them, — Celoron reim-
barked, and continued his voyage.
On the thirtieth they reached the Great Mi
ami, called by the French, Riviere k la Roche;
and here Celoron buried the last of his leaden
plates. They now bade farewell to the Ohio, or,
in the words of the chaplain, to " La Belle Riviere,
— that river so little known to the French, and
unfortunately too well known to the English."
He speaks of the multitude 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

i749.] LA DEMOISELLE. 51
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 cur
rent 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 Eng
lish traders who lived here had prudently with
drawn, leaving only two hired men in the place.
The object of Celoron 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 Mau
mee, where they would be safe from English seduc
tion. To this end, he called them to a council,
gave them ample gifts, and made them an ha
rangue in the name of the Governor. The Demoi
selle took the gifts, thanked his French father for
his good advice, and promised to follow it at a
more convenient time.^ In vain Celoron 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
1 Celoron, Journal. Compare .4 Message from the Twightwees (Miamis)
in Colonial Records of Pa,, V. 437, where they say that they refused
the gifts.

52 CFILORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749,
the Miami Confederacy, gathered his followers to
the spot, till, less than two years after the visit
of Celoron, 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.
Celoron 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 voyage 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 Fron
tenac; and as he descended thence to Montreal,
he stopped at the Oswegatchie, in obedience to
the Governor, who had directed him to report
the progress made by the Sulpitian, Abb^ 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 priest, buoyant
and undaunted, was still resolute for the glory of
God and the confusion of the heretics.
^ At length Celoron reached Montreal; and, closing
his Journal, wrote thus : " Father Bonnecamp, who
is a Jesuit and a great mathematician, reckons that
we have travelled twelve hundred leagues ; I and

1750.] THE OHIO COMPANY. 53
my officers think we have travelled more. All I
can say is, that the nations of these countries are
very ill-disposed towards the French, and devoted
entirely to the English." ^ If his expedition had
done no more, it had at least revealed clearly
the deplorable condition of French interests in
the West.
While Celoron was warning English traders from
the Ohio, a plan was on foot in Virginia for a new
invasion of the French domain. An association
was formed to settle the Ohio coimtry; and a
grant of five hundred thousand acres was procured
from the King, on condition that a hundred fam
ilies should be established upon it within seven
years, a fort buUt, and a garrison maintained.
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 England. In the year after
the expedition of Celoron, 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 Logs-
town, the Chiningue of Celoron, where he found
1 Journal de la Campagne que moy Cdoron, Chevalier de I'Ordre Royal et
Militaire de St. Louis, Capitaine Commandant un detachement envoys dans la
Belle Riviere par les ordres de M. le Marquis de La Galissoniere, etc.
Relation d'un voyage dans la Belle Riviere sous les ordres de M. de Celorbn,
par le Fere Bonnecamp, en 1749.
2 Instructions to Gist, in appendix to PownaU, Topographical Description
of North America.

54 CIJLORON de BIENVILLE. [17fin
what he calls a " parcel of reprObate Indiau
traders." Those whom he so stigmatizes were
Pennsylvanians, chiefly Scotch-Irish, between whom
and the traders from Virginia there was great jeal
ousy. 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 vil
lage of Muskingum he found the trader George
Croghan, sent to the Indians by the Governor of
Pennsylvania, to renew the chain of friendship.'^
" Croghan," he says, " is a mere idol among his
countrymen, the Irish traders ; " yet they met
amicably, and the Pennsylvanian had with him a
companion, Andrew Montour, the interpreter, who
proved of great service to Gist. As Montour was
a conspicuous person in his time, and a type of his
class, he merits a passing 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 Frenchman crucified
by the English.^ Her son Andrew is thus described
by the Moravian Zinzendorf, who knew him : " His
I Mr. Croghan's Transactions with the Indians, in N. Y. Col. Docs.,
VII. 267 ; Croghan to Hamilton, 16 Dec. 1750.
2 This is stated by Count Zinzendorf, who visited her among the Sen
ecas. Compare Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV., p. 376.
In a plan of the "Route of the Western Army," made in 1779, and of
which a tracing is before me, the village where she lived is still called
"French Catharine's Town."

1750, 1751.] A WHITE SQUAW. 55
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 wears a coat of fine cloth
of cinnamon color, a black necktie with silver span
gles, a red satin waistcoat, trousers over which
hangs his shirt, shoes and stockings, a hat, and
brass ornaments, something like the handle of a
basket, suspended from his ears." -^ He was an
excellent interpreter, and held in high account by
his Indian kinsmen.
After leaving Muskingum, Gist, Croghan, and
Montour went together to a village on White Wo
man's Creek, — so called from one Mary Harris, 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, finding such
comfort as she might in an Indian husband and a
family of you.ng half-breeds. " She still remem
bers," says Gist, " that they used to be very reli
gious in New England, and wonders how white men
can be ^o 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 Celoron.
Thence they rode northwestward along the forest
path that led to Pickawillany, the Indian town on
the upper waters of the Great Miami. Gist was
dehghted with the country ; and reported to his
employers that "it is fine, rich, level land, well
1 Journal of Zinzendorf, quoted in Schweinitz, Life of David Zeisberger
112, note

56 C:&L0R0N DE BIENVILLE. [1751
timbered with large walnut, ash, sugar trees and
cherry trees ; well watered with a great number of
little streams and rivUlets ; full of beautiful natu
ral 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 them,
escorted them to the neighboring town, where they
were greeted by a fusillade of welcome. "We
entered 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 Britain, or La Demoiselle. Great were the
changes here since Celoron, a year and a half be
fore, hdd vainly enticed him to change his abode,
and dwell in the shadow of the fleur-de-lis. The
town had grown to four hundred families, 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

i'!'51.j MIAMIS AND ENGLISH. 57
advice, which the auditors received with the usual
monosyllabic plaudits, ejected from the depths of
their throats. A treaty of peace was solemnly made
between the English and the confederate tribes,
and all was serenity and joy; till four Ottawas,
probably from Detroit, arrived with a French flag,
a 'gift of brandy and tobacco, and a message from
the French commandant inviting the Miamis 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 anything the French say, nor
do anything they bid us." Then addressing the
French as if actually present : " Fathers, we have
made a road to the sun-rising, and have been taken
by the hand by our brothers the English, the Six
Nations, the Delawares, Shawanoes, and Wyan
dots.'' We 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 what I say. Tell that to your
fathers the French, -for we speak it from our
hearts." The chiefs then took down the French
flag which the Ottawas had planted in the town, and
dismissed the envoys with their answer of defiance.
On the next day the town-crier came with a
message from the Demoiselle, inviting his Eng-
1 Compare Message of Miamis and Hurons to the Govemor of Pennsylva
nia in N. Y. Col. Docs., VI. 594 ; and Report of Croghan in Colonial Records
of Pa., V. 522, 523.

58 C:&L0R0N DE BIENVILLE. [1751
lish guests to a " feather dance," which Gist thus
describes: "It was performed by three dancing-
masters, who were painted all over of various
colors, with long sticks in their hands, upon 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 In
dian drum. From time to time a warrior would leap
up, and the drum and the dancers would cease as
he struck a post with his tomahawk, and in a loud
voice recounted his exploits. Then the music and
the dance began anew, till another warrior caught
the martial fire, and bounded into the circle to
brandish his tomahawk and vaunt his prowess.
On the first of March Gist took leave of Picka
willany, and returned towards the Ohio. He
would have gone to the Falls, where Louisville now
stands, but for a band of French Indians reported
to be there, who would probably have killed him.
After visiting a deposit of mammoth bones on the
south shore, long the wonder of the traders, he
turned eastward, crossed with toil and difficulty
the mountains about the sources of the Kenawha,
and after an absence of seven months reached his
frontier home on the Yadkin, whence he proceeded
to Roanoke with the report of his journey.^
1 Journal of Christopher Gist, in appendix to PownaU, Topographical
Description. Mr. Croghan's Transactions with the Indians iu N. Y. CoL
Docs., VIL 267.

lr50-1752.] ENGLISH APATHY. 59
-All looked well for the English in the West;
but under this fair outside lurked hidden danger.
The Miamis were hearty in the English cause, and
so perhaps were the Shawanoes; but the Dela
wares had not forgotten the wrongs that drove
them from their old abodes east of the AUeghanies,
while the Mingoes, or emigrant Iroquois, like their
brethren of New York, felt the influence of Jon
caire and other French agents, who spared no
efforts to seduce them.^ Still more baneful to Brit
ish 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 away their lands. This confirmed what
they had been taught by the French emissaries,
whose intrigues it powerfully aided. The gov
ernors of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia
saw the importance of Indian alliances, and felt
their own responsibihty in regard to them ; but they
could do nothing without their assemblies. Those
of New York and Pennsylvania were largely com
posed of tradesmen and farmers, absorbed in local
interests, and possessed by two motives, — the sav
ing of the people's money, and opposition to the
governor, who stood for the royal prerogative. It
was Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, who had sent Cro-
1 Joncaire made anti-English speeches to the Ohio Indians under the
eyes of the English themselves, who did not molest him. Journal qf
George Croghan, 1751, in Olden Time, I. 136.

60 C:fiL0R0N DE BIENVILLE. [1750-1782,
ghan to the Miamis to " renew the chain of friend
ship ; " and when the envoy returned, the Assem
bly rejected his report. " I was condemned," be
says, " for bringing expense on the Government, and
the Indians were neglected." ^ In the same year
Hamilton again sent him over the mountains, with
a present for the Mingoes and Delawares. Croghan
succeeded in 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 Pitts
burg 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 " re
jected the proposal, and condemned me for making .
such a report." Yet this post on the Ohio was
vital to English interests. Even the Penns, pro
prietaries of the province, never lavish of their
money, offered four hundred pounds towards the
cost of it, besides a hundred a year towards its
maintenance ; but the Assembly would not listen.^
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.
1 Mr. Croghan's Transactions with the Indians, N. Y. Col. Docs., VII,
267, 2 Colonial Records of Pa., V, 515, 529, 547, At a councU at Logs-
town (1751), the Indians said to Croghan : " TJie French want to cheat us
out of our country ; but we will stop them, and, Brothers the English, yon
must help us. We expect that you wiU build a strong house on the Kivei
Ohio, that in case of war we may have a place to secure our wives and
children, likewise our brothers that come to trade with us," Report of
Treaty at Logstown, Ibid., V. 538.

1750-1762.] ENGLISH APATHY. 61
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
Pennsylvania and Virginia ; and each feared that
whatever money it might spend there would turn
to the profit of the other. This was not the only
evil that sprang from uncertain ownership. " Till
the line is run between the two provinces," says
Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia, " I cannot ap
point 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 " securing the fidelity of the
Indians 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, invit
ing 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 Caro
lina, who sent the commissioners, but supplied them
very meagrely with the indispensable presents.^
Clinton says further : " The Assembly of this prov
ince have not given one farthing for Indian affairs,
nor for a year past have they provided for the
1 Dinwiddie to the Lords of Trade, 6 Oct. 1752.
2 Journals of New York Assembly, II. 283, 284. Colonial Records of Pa.,
V. 466.
» Clinton to Hamilton, 18 Dec. 1750, Clinton to Lords of Trade, 13 June,
1751 ; Ibid., 17 July, 1751.

62 Cl&LORON DE BIENVILLE. [1750-1762,
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
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 nu
merical preponderance 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
Ohio, 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 Cfloron (Archives de la Marine) is very long
and circumstantial, including the proces verbaux, and reports of councils
with Indians. The Journal of the chaplain, Bonnecamp (Dep6t de la
Marine), is shorter, but is the work of an intelligent 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 D^pot de la
Marine. Concurrently with these French narratives, one may consult
the English letters and documents bearing on the same subjects, in the
Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, the Archives of Pennsylvania, and
the Colonial Documents of New York.
Three of Celeron'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 JohnsoS, on the Mohawk, who
interpreted the " Devilish writing " in such a manner as best to inspiw
horror of French designs, 1 Clinton to Bedford, 30 July, 1750.

CHAPTER ra.
1749-1753.
CONFLICT FOR THE WEST.
The Five Nations. — Caughnawaga. — AuBi! Piquet.  His
Schemes. — His Journey. — Fort Frontenac. — Toronto. —
Niagara. — Oswego. — Success op Piquet, — Detroit. — La
JoNQuiiiRE, — His Intrigues. — His Trials. — His Death. —
English Intrigues. — Critical State op the West. — Picka
willany destroyed. — Duquesne. — His 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 in
ternational 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 emigrated 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 con
sequence 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 conn-

64 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST, [1749-1753.
teracted by the young colonel of militia, William
Johnson, who lived on the Mohawk, and was al
ready well skilled in managing Indians. Johnson
sometimes lost his temper ; and once wrote to Gov
ernor Clinton to complain of the " confounded
wicked things the French had infused into the
Indians' heads ; among tiie lest chat the- English
were determined, the first opportunity, to destroy
them all. I assure your Excellency I had hard
work to beat these and several other cursed villa-
nous 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 con
version to the Faith ; but the attempt had failed.
They had, however, made within their own hmits
an asylum for such converts as they could gain,
whom they collected together at Caughnawaga,
near Montreal, to the number of about three hun
dred 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 be
tween the Church, the army, and the fur-trade.
It had a chapel, fortifications, and storehouses;
two Jesuits, an officer, and three chief traders.
Of these last, two were maiden ladies, the Deihoi-
selles Desauniers; and one of the Jesuits, their
friend Father Tournois, was their partner in busi-
1 Johnson to Clinton, 28 April, 1749.
^ The estimate of a French official report, 1736, and of Sir WUliam
Johnson, 1763.

1749-1753.] PIQUET. 65
ness. They carried on by means of the Mission
Indians, and in collusion with influential 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
Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. This was the
establishment of Father Piquet, which Celoron 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 unprepossessing;^ an enthusiastic
schemer, with great executive talents ; ardent, ener
getic, vain, self-confident, and boastful. The entei;-
prise 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 tra
ders. Rich meadows, forests, and abundance of
fish and game, made it attractive to Indians,
and the Oswegatchie gave access to the Iroquois
1 La Jonquiere au Ministre, 27 Fev. 1750. Ibid., 29 Oct. 1751. Ordres
du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, 1751. Notice biographique de la Jon
quiere. La Jonquiere, governor of Canada, at last broke up their con
traband trade, and ordered Tournois to Quebec.
2 I once saw a contemporary portrait of him at the mission of Two
Mountains, where he had been stationed.
8 Rouille a la Jonquiere, 1749. The Intendant Bigot gave him monej
and provisions, N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 204.
VOL. I. — 5

66 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1749-175a
towns. Piquet had chosen his site with great
skill. His activity was admirable. His first
stockade was burned by Indian incendiaries; but
it rose quickly from its ashes, and within a year
or two the mission of La Presentation had a fort
of palisades flanked with blockhouses, a chapel,
a storehouse, a barn, a stable, ovens, a saw-mill,
broad fields of corn and beans, and three villages
of Iroquois, containing, in all, forty-nine bark
lodges, each holding three or four families, more
or less converted to the Faith ; and, as 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 was as
s.afe for the new proselytes as it was convenient
and agreeable. The Pennsylvanian interpreter,
Conrad Weiser, was told at Onondaga, the Iro
quois capital, that Piquet had made a hundred
converts from that place alone ; and that, " hav
ing clothed them all in very fine clothes, laced
with silver and gold, he took them down and pre
sented them to the French Governor at" Montreal,
who received them very kindly, and made them
large presents." ^
Such were some of the temporal attractions of
La Presentation. The nature of the spiritual in
struction bestowed by Piquet and his fellow-priests
may be partly inferred from the words of a prose
lyte warrior, who declared with enthusiasm that he
had learned from the Sulpitian missionary that the
King of France was the eldest son of the wife of
1 Journal of Conrad Weiser, 1750.

1749-1753.] BOASTS OF PIQUET. 67
Jesus Christ.^ This he of course took in a literal
sense, the mystic idea of the Church as the spouse
of Christ being beyond his savage comprehension.
The effect was to stimulate his devotion to the
Great Onontio beyond the sea, and to the lesser
Onontio who represented him 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 spite of envy, contradic
tion, and opposition from nearly all the Indian vil
lages, 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 masters, Jesus Christ and the King, even to
the extremities of this new world ; 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." ^
The letter from which this is taken was written
to urge upon the Govemment a scheme in which
the zealous priest could see nothing impracticable.
He proposed to raise a war-party of thirty-eight
hundred Indians, eighteen hundred of whom were
to be drawn from the Canadian missions, the Five
Nations, and the tribes of the Ohio, while the re-
1 Lalande, Notice de I'Abbe Piquet, in Lettres iSdiJiantes. See also
Tasse in Revue Canadienne, 1870, p. 9.
2 Piquet a la Jonquiere et Bigot, 8 Fev. 1752. See Appendix A. In
spite of Piquet's seU-laudation, and in spite also of the detraction of the
author of the Mgmoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760, there can be no doubt
of his practical capacity and his fertility of resource. Duquesne, when
governor of the colony, highly praises " ses talents et son activite' poul
ie service de Sa Majeste'."

68 CONFLICT FOR- THE WEST. [1751.
maining 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 hap
pen, — they \the war-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 ! '
His wild project never took effect, though the
Governor, he says, at first approved it.
In the preceding year the " Apostle of the Iro
quois," 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 resort of Indians ; now
none were here, for the English 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 complains that " there was not
1 Appendix A.

^¦^51-] PIQUET AT TORONTO. 69'
"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 gar
rison. "My hunters," says Piquet, "had supplied
me with means of giving them a pretty good enter
tainment. We drank, with all our hearts, the
health of the authorities, temporal and ecclesiasti
cal, to the sound of our musketry, which was very
well fired, and delighted the islanders." These
islanders were a band of Indians who lived here;
Piquet gave them a feast, then discoursed of reli
gion, 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 Cerbe
rus 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 nothing wanting in this fort ; every
thing is abundant, fine, and good." There was
reason for this. The 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

70 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1751.
hav,e been ruinous to French interests, but by a
tempting supply of goods and brandy.^ Thus the
fort was kept well stocked, and with excellent
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 reim-
barked, and encamped six leagues from temptation.
Two days more brought him to Niagara, where
he was warmly received by the commandant, the
chaplain, and the storekeeper, — the triumvirate
who ruled these forest outposts, and stood respec
tively for their three vital principles, war, religion,
and trade. Here Piquet said mass ; and after rest
ing a day, set out for the trading-house at the port
age of the cataract, recently built, like Toronto, to
stop the Indians on their way to Oswego.^ Here
he found Joncaire, and here also was encamped a
large band of Senecas; though, being all drunk,
men, women, and children, they were in no condi
tion to receive the Faith, or appreciate the tem
poral advantages that attended it. On 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
1 On Toronto, La Jonquiere et Bigot au Ministre, 1749, La Jonquiere atx
Ministre, SO Aout, 1750, N. Y. Col. Docs., X, 201, 246.
2 La Jonquiere au Ministre, 2S Fgv. 1750. Ibid., 6 Oct. 1751. Compare
Colonial Records of Pa., V, 508,

5^751.] PIQUET AT NIAGARA. 71
silence," pursues the missionary, "an infinity of
talks on this occasion. Monsieur de Joncaire for
got nothing that could help me, and behaved like
a great servant of God and the King. My recruits
increased every moment. I went to say my brev
iary while my Indians and the Senecas, without
loss of time, assembled to hold a council with Mon
sieur de Joncaire." The result of the council was
an entreaty to the missionary not to stop at Os
wego, 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 hap
pened so often that I thought aU the trees along
the way were charged with gunpowder ; and when
we reached the fort. Monsieur de Becancour
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 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

72 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1751
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 bit
ten. 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 ntew 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 stifl
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 Niagara. No English establishment
on the continent was of such ill omen to the
French. It not only robbed them of the fur-
trade, by which they lived, but threatened them
vdth military and political, no less than commer
cial, ruin. They were in constant dread lest ships
of war should be built here, strong enough to com
mand Lake Ontario, thus separating Canada from
Louisiana, and cutting New France asunder. To

1751.] PIQUET AT OSWEGO. 73
meet this danger, they soon after built at Fort
Frontenac a large three-masted vessel, mounted with
heavy cannon; thus, as usual, forestalling 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
your great men [the Assembly^ agree ? " asked a
Mohawk chief of the interpreter, Conrad Weiser.^
Piquet kept his promise not to land at the Eng
lish fort ; but he approached in his canoe, and
closely observed it. The shores, now covered by
the city of Oswego, were then a desolation of bare
hills and fields, studded with the stumps of felled
trees, and hedged about with a grim border of for
ests. Near the strand, by the mouth of the Onon
daga, were the houses of some of the traders ; and
on the higher ground behind them stood a huge
block-house with a projecting upper story. This
building was surrounded by a rough wall of stone,
with flankers at the angles, forming what was
called the fort.* Piquet reconnoitred it from
his canoe with the eye of a soldier, "It is
1 Lieutenant Lindesay to Johnson, July, 1751.
2 Clinton to Lords of Trade, 30 July, 1750.
' Journal of Conrad Weiser, 1750.
* Compare Doc. Hist. N. Y., 1. 463.

74 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [176t
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 hp
enlarges on the evils that arise from it. " It not
only spoils our trade, but puts the English into
communication with a vast number of our Indians,
far and 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 Algon-
kins, who were going on a war-party with Monsieur
BelStre, formed a line of their own accord, and sa
luted us with three volleys of musketry, and cries
of joy without end. All our little bark vessels
replied in the same Fay. Monsieur de Vercheres
and Monsieur de Valtry ordered the cannon of the
fort to be fired ; and my Indians, transported with
joy at the honor done them, shot off their guns
incessantly, with cries and acclamations that de
lighted everybody." A goodly band of recruits
joined him, and he pursued his voyage to La Pre
sentation, while the canoes of his proselytes fol
lowed 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 establishment which officers,

1751.] THE KEY OF THE WEST, 75
interpreters, and traders thought a chimaera, — 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." ^
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 controlled the passage from
Ontario to Erie, so did Fort Detroit control that
from Erie to Huron, and Fort Michillimackinac
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.^ This im
mense extent of inland navigation was safe in the
hands of France so long as she held Niagara.
1 Journal qui peut semr de Memoire et de Relation du Voyage que fay
fait sur le Lac Ontario pour attirer au nouvel MtaUissement de La Presenta
tion les Sauvages Iroquois des Cinq Nations, 1751. The last passage given
above is condensed in the rendering, as the original is extremely involved
and ungrammatical.
2 La Jonquiere au Ministre, 24 Aout, 175a

76 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1^5L
Niagara lost, not only the lakes, but also the Val
ley of the Ohio was lost with it. Next in impor
tance was Detroit. This was not a military post
alone, but also a settlement ; and, except the ham
lets 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 America had more attraction.
Father Bonnecamp stopped here for a day on his
way back from the expedition of Ceioron. " The
situation," he says, "is charming. A fine river
flows at the foot of the fortifications ; vast mead
ows, asking only to be tilled, extend beyond the
sight. Nothing can be more agreeable than the
climate. Winter lasts hardly two months. Euro
pean grains and fruits grow here far better than
in many parts of France. It is the Touraine and
Beauce of Canada." -^ The white flag of the Bour
bons floated over the compact little palisaded town,
with its population of soldiers and fur-traders ;
and from the block-houses which served as bas
tions, one saw on either hand the small solid dwell
ings of the habitants, ranged at intervals along the
margin of the water; while at a little distance
three Indian villages — Ottawa, Pottawattamie,
and Wyandot — curled their wigwam smoke into
the pure summer air.^
When ceioron de Bienville returned from the
Ohio, he went, with a royal commission, sent him
1 Relation du Voiage de la Belle Riviere, 1749.
2 A plan of Detroit is before me, made about this time by the engineei
Lery.

1750, 1751.] DETROIT. 77
a year before, to command at Detroit.^ His late
chaplain, the very intelligent Father Bonnecamp,
speaks of him as fearless, energetic, and fuU 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 smaU, a sow, six hens, a cock,
six pounds of powder, and twelve pounds of lead ;
while to these favors were added many otliers.
The result was that twelve families were persuaded
to go, or about a twentieth part of the number
wanted.^ Detroit was expected to furnish supplies
to the other posts for five hundred miles around,
control the neighboring Indians, thwart English
machinations, and drive off English interlopers.
La Galissoniere no longer governed Canada. He
had been honorably recalled, and the Marquis de la
Jonquiere sent in his stead.^ La Jonquiere, like
his predecessor, was a naval officer of high repute ;
1 Le Ministre a la Jonquiere et Bigot, 14 Mai, 1749. Le Ministre a
Celoron, 23 Mai, 1749.
2 Ordonnance du 2 Jan. 1750, La Jonquiere et Bigot au Ministre, 1750.
Forty-six persons of all ages and both sexes had been induced by La Galis
soniere to go the year before. Lettres communes de la Jonquiere et Bigot, 1749,
The< total fixed population of Detroit and its neighborhood in 1750 is stated
at four hundred and eighty-three souls. In the following two years, a con
siderable number of young men came of their own accord, and C^oron
wrote to Montreal to ask for girls to marry them.
* Le Ministre a la Galissoniere, 14 Mai, 1749,

78 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1750, 175L
he was tall and imposing in person, and of un
doubted capacity and courage ; but old and, accord
ing to his enemies, very 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 Abbe Piquet succeeds in his mis
sion," wrote the Minister to the new Governor,
" we can easily persuade these savages to destroy
Oswego. This is of the utmost importance ; but act
with great caution."^ In the next year the Minister
wrote 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 [Osioegol as opposed to their
liberty, and, so to speak, a usurpation 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 Jonquiere should feel with
what circumspection such an affair should be con-
du.cted, and he should labor to accomplish it in
a manner not to commit himself."^ To this La
1 Mgmoires surle Canada, 1749-1760. The charges made here-and else
where are denied, somewhat faintly, by a descendant of La Jonquiere in
his elaborate Notice biographique of his ancestor,
2 Le Ministre a La Jonquiere, Mai, 1749, The instructions given to La
Jon(]pi&re before leaving France also urge the necessity of destroymg
Osweg'O, s Ordres du Roy et D^piches des Ministres ; a MM. de la Jonquiire et
Bigot, 15 Avril, 1750. See Appendix A. for original.

1750, 1751.] CLINTON AND LA JONQUlilRE. 79
Jonquiere replies that it wiU need time ; but that
he will gradually bring 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." ^ This
last injunction was scarcely fulfilled in a corre
spondence 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 traders in the country of the Miamis.
Niagara, like Oswego, was in the country of the
Five Nations, whom the treaty of Utrecht declared
" subject to the dorninion of Great Britain." ^
This declaration, preposterous in itself, was bind
ing on France, whose plenipotentiaries had signed
the treaty. The treaty also provided that the sub
jects of the two Crowns " shaU enjoy full liberty of
going and coming on account of trade," and Clinton
therefore demanded that La Jonquiere should dis
avow the arrest of the four traders and punish its
authors. The French Governor replied with great
asperity, spurned the claim that the Five Nations
were British subjects, and justified the arrest.^ 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
1 Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, 1750.
* Chalmers, Collection of Treaties, I, 382.
' La Jonquiere a Clinton, 10 Aout, 1751.
* Deposition of Morris Turner and Ralph Kilgore, in Colonial Records
"f Pa., V. 482. The deponents had been prisoners at Detroit.

80 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1750, 1761.
of 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 ia
his own house ; for I can at any time get an Indian
to kill any man for a small matter. Their going on
m that manner is worse than open war."
The French on their side made counter-accu
sations. The captive traders were examined on
oath before La Jonquiere, and one of them, John
Patton, is reported to have said that Croghan had
instigated Indians to kill Frenchmen.^ French
officials declared that other English traders were
guilty of the same practices ; and there is very
little doubt that the charge was true.
The dispute with the English was not the only
source of trouble to the Governor. His superiors
at Versailles would not adopt his views, and
looked on him with distrust. He advised the
building of forts near Lake Erie, and his advice
was rejected. " Niagara 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 Intendant must look to it." ^ Great
abuses there were ; and of the money sent to Can
ada for the service of the King the larger part
found its way into the pockets of peculators.
The colony was eaten to the heart with official
Precis des Faits, avec leurs Pikces justificatives, 100.
2 Ordres du Roy et Dipiches des Ministres, 1750.
3 Ibid., 6 Juin, 1751.

1750-1752] DEATH OF LA JONQIJifcRE. 81
Jorruption; and the centre of it was Francois
Bigot, the intendant. The Minister directed La
Jonquiere's attention to certain malpractices
which had been reported to him; and the old
man, deeply touched, replied: "I have reached
the age of sixty-six years, and there is not a drop
of blood in my veins that does not thriU for the'
service of my King. I will not 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 Jonquiere ordered Ceioron
to attack the English at Pickawillany ; and Ceioron
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 Jonquiere answered
with bitter complaints against Ceioron, and then
begged to be recaUed. His health, already shat
tered, 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
1 La Jonquiere au Ministre, 19 Oct. 1751.
2 Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, 1751.
* He died on the sixth of March, 1 752 ( Bigot au Ministre, 6 Mai) ; not on
the seventeenth of May, as stated in the MSmoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760
VOL. I. — 6

g2 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1751, 1752.
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 its way, his spirit fled ; and the Baron
de Longueuil took his place till a new governor
should arrive.
Sinister tidings came thick from the West.
Raymond, 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 I am told by Cold-
foot, a great Miami chief, whom I think an honest
man, if there is any such thing among Indians.
... If the English stay in this country we
are lost. We must attack, and drive them out."
And he tells 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

1751, 1762.] PERIL OF THE FRENCH. 83
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 In
dians sided with the English. Longueuil in
formed the Minister that the Miamis had scalped
two soldiers; that the Piankishaws had killed
seven Frenchmen; and that a squaw who 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 sur
rounding tribes, get possession of Fort Chartres,
and cut our communications with Louisiana." ^
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,
1 Depeches de Longueuil; Lettres de Raymond; Benoit de Saint-Clere
i la Jonquiere, Oct. 1751.
^ Longueuil au Ministre, 21 Avril, 1752.

84 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1752.
which he thought would "effectually disgust
them," and bring all trouble to an end. ^
La Jonquiere's remedy had been more heroic, for
he had ordered Ceioron to attack the English and
their red allies alike ; and he charged that officer
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 was sent up to Detroit to
aid the stroke,^ the Indians of that post, whose
co-operation was thought necessary, proved haff-
hearted, intractable, and even touched with disaffec
tion. 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 Mich
illimackinac with a fleet of canoes manned by
two hundred and fifty Ottawa and Ojibwa war
riors ; 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 Pick
awillany 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 ware
house of the traders. Of these there were at the

1 Le Ministre a la Jonquiere, 1752, Le Ministre a Duquesne, 9 Juillet,
1752, 2 La Jonquiire a Celoron, 1 Oct. 1751.

1752,] DUQUESNE. 85
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 tribes
men. 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 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 cannibal
ism, and they boiled and eat the Demoiselle.-^
The captive traders, plundered to the skin, were
carried by Langlade to Duquesne, the new gover
nor, 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 mar
ried a squaw, I will ask for him only a pension
of two hundred francs, which will flatter him
infinitely." The Marquis Duquesne, sprimg 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.
1 On the attack of Pickawillany, Longueuil au Ministre, 18 Aout, 1752 ;
Duquesne au Ministre, 25 Oct. VISi; Colonial Records of Pa., V. 599;
Journal of William Trent, 1752. Trent was on the spot a few days after
the affair.

86 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1752,
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 en
couraged him. Duquesne, profiting by the infatu--
ated neglect of the British provincial assemblies,
prepared to occupy the upper waters of the Ohio,
and secure the passes with forts and garrisons.
Thus the Virginian and Pennsylvanian traders
would be debarred all access to the West, and the
tribes of that region, bereft henceforth of English
guns, knives, hatchets, and blankets, English gifts
and English cajoleries, would be thrown back to
complete dependence on the French. The moral
influence, too, of such a movement would be incal
culable ; 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 disaffec
tion. It is true that, under the treaty, commis
sioners had been long in session at Paris to settle
the question of American boundaries; but there
was no likelihood that they would come to agree^
ment ; and if France would make good her Western
claims, it behooved 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

1V53.] OFFICLAE CORRUPTION. 87
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 enor
mous; and they have doubled since the peace."
Again, a little later : " Build on the Ohio such
forts as are absolutely 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 estab-
Hshment of every new post, was an opportunity to
the official thieves with whom the colony swarmed.
Some band of favored knaves grew rich ; while a
much greater number, excluded from sharing the
iUicit profits, clamored against the undertaking,
and wrote charges of corruption to Versailles.
Thus the Minister was kept tolerably well in
formed ; 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." ^
It seems that unlawful gain was not the only
secret spring of the movement. An officer of re
pute says that the Intendant, Bigot, enterprising
in his pleasures as in his greed, was engaged in
an intrigue with the wife of Chevalier Pean ; and
I Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, 1753.
2 Duquesne au Ministre, 29 Sept 1754.

88 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. (1763.
wishing at once to console the husband and to
get rid of him, sought for him a high command
at a distance from the colony. Therefore while
Marin, an able officer, was made first in- rank,
Pean was made second. The same writer hints
that Duquesne himself was influenced by similar
motives in his appointment of leaders.^
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
hundred; but to the Indians it seemed a mighty
host; and one of their orators declared that the
lakes and rivers were covered with boats and sol
diers from Montreal to Presquisle.^ 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, " whoop
ing and hollowing in a frightful manner." ^ Lieu
tenant Holland at Oswego saw a fleet of canoes
upon the lake, and was told by a roving French
man that they belonged to an army of six thousand
1 Ponchot, Memoire sur la derniere Guerre de I'Amerique septentrionale
(erf. 1781), L 8.
2 Duquesne au Ministre, 27 Oct. 1758,
' Johnson to Clinton, 20 April, 1753, in N. Y. Col. Docs., VI, 778.

1753.] THE OHIO ENTERPRISE. 89
men going to the Ohio, " to cause all the English
to quit those parts." ^
The main body of the expedition landed at Pres-
quisle, on the southeastern shore of Lake Erie,
where the town of Erie now stands ; and here for
a whUe we leave them.
1 Holland to Clinton, 15 May, 1753, in N. Y. Col. Docs., VL 780,

CHAPTER IV.
1710-1754.
CONFLICT FOR ACADIA.
Acadia ceded to England, — Acadians sweak Fidelity, — Halt,
EAX founded, — French Intrigue. — Acadian Priests. — Mild
ness OI' English Rule. — Covert Hostility op Acadians.^
The New Oath. — Treachery op Versailles. — Indians incited
TO War. — Clerical Agents of Revolt, — Abbe Le Loutre, —
Acadians impelled to emigrate, — Misery op the Emigrants.
— Humanity op Cornwallis and Hopson. — Fanaticism and Vio
lence op Le Loutre. — Capture of the " St. Franqois." — The
Engli-sh AT Beaubassin. — Le Loutre drives out the Inhabit
ants. — Murder op Howe. — Beausejour. — Insolence op 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 conflict in Acadia has a melancholy interest,
since it ended in a catastrophe which prose and
verse have joined to commemorate, but of which
the causes have not been understood.
Acadia — that 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 1710, and formally transferred by France to the
British Crown, three years later, by the treaty of
Utrecht. By that treaty it was "expressly pro
vided " that such of the French inhabitants as

1710-1749.] OATH OF FIDELITY. 91
" are willing to remain there and to be subject to
the Kingdom of Great Britain, are to enjoy the
free exercise of their religion according to the
usage of the Church of Rome, as far as the laws
of Great Britain do allow the same ; " but that
any who choose may remove, with their effects,
if they do so within a year. Very few availed
themselves of this right ; and after the end of
the year those who remained were required to
take an oath of allegiance to King George. There
is no doubt that in a little time they would have
complied, had they been let alone ; but the French
authorities of Canada and Cape Breton did their
utmost to prevent them, and employed agents to
keep them hostile to England. Of these the most
efficient were the French priests, who, in spite of
the treaty, persuaded their flocks that they were
still subjects of King Louis. Hence rose endless
perplexity to the English commanders at Annap
olis, who more than suspected that the Indian
attacks with which they were harassed Were due
mainly to French instigation.^ It was not till
seventeen years after the treaty that the Acadians
could be brought to take the oath without quali
fications which made it almost useless. The Eng
lish authorities seem to have shown throughout
an unusual patience and forbearance. At length,
about 1730, nearly all the -inhabitants signed by
crosses, since few of them could write, an oath
1 See the numerous papers in Selections from the Public Documents of
the Province of Nova Scotia (Halifax, 1869), pp. 1-165; a Government
publication of great value,.

92 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749,
recognizing George II. as sovereign of Acadia, and
promising fidelity and obedience to him.^ This
restored comparative quiet till the war of 1745,
when some of the Acadians remained neutral,
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 mU
itary and naval station more formidable than
ever. Upon this the British Ministry resolved
to establish another station as a counterpoise ; and
the harbor of Chebucto, on the south coast of Aca
dia, was chosen as the site of it. Thither in June,
1749, came a fieet of transports loaded with emi
grants, tempted by offers of land and a home in
the New World. Some were mechanics, trades
men, farmers, and laborers ; others were sailors,
soldiers, and subaltern officers thrown out of em
ployment by the peace. Including 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,
1 The oath was literatim as follows : " Je Promets et Jure Sincerement
en Foi de Chre'tien que Je serai entierement Fidele, et Obeierai Vraiment
Sa Majesty Le Roy George Second, qui {sic) Je reconnoi pour Le Sou-
vrain Seigneur de I'Accadie ou Nouvelle Ecosse. Ainsi Dieu me Soit en
Aide."

1749-1754,] HALIFAX. 93
Yet it was free like the rest, with the same popu*
lar representation and local self-government. Ed
ward Cornwallis, uncle of Lord Cornwallis of the
Revolutionary War, was made governor and com
mander-in-chief. Wolfe calls him " a man of ap
proved courage and fidelity ; " and even the caustic
Horace Walpole speaks of him as " a brave, sensi-
ble 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 as
signed to him ; before winter closed, the whole
were under shelter, the village was fenced with
palisades and defended by redoubts of timber,
and the battahons lately in garrison at Louis
bourg manned the wooden ramparts. Succeed
ing ye^-rs brought 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 AnnapoHs, besides six or
seven smaU 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 had never reconcUed themselves to
the loss of Acadia, and were resolved, by diplo
macy or force, to win it back again ; but the buUd
ing of Halifax showed that this was to be no easy
task, and fiUed. 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

94 CONFLICT FOB ACADIA. [1749-1754
five had been born under the British flag, must be
kept French at heart, and taught that they were
still French subjects. 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 prin
cipal parishes, one of the largest being that of An
napolis. Other centres of population were Grand
Pre, on the basin of Mines ; Beaubassin, 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 prov
ince 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 Aca
dians to be British subjects, the Government of
Louis XV, intrigued continually to turn them
from subjects into enemies. Before me is a mass
gf 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

^ Description de I'Acddie, avec le Nom des Paroisses et le Nombre des
Habitants, 1748. Memoire a presenter a la Cour sur la Necessity de fixer
les Limites de I'Acadie, par I'Abb^ de ITsle-Dieu, 1753 (1754'?). Com
pare the estimates in Censuses of Canada (Ottawa, 1876).

1749-1754.] ACADLAN PRIESTS. 95
papers from the archives of Paris, memorials, re
ports, and secret correspondence, relating to the
same matters. With the help of these and some
collateral lights, it is not difficult to make a cor
rect diagnosis of the political disease that ravaged
this miserable country. Of a multitude of proofs,
only a few can be given here ; but these wUl
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 stipulated by treaty. It is true that, from time
to time, there were loud complaints from French
officials that religion was in danger, because cer
tain 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 provincial authorities seems, without
a single exception, to have been the consequence
of misconduct on the part of the priest, in oppos
ing the Government and stirring his flock to disaf
fection. La Jonquiere, the determined adversary
of the English, reported to the bishop that they
did not oppose the ecclesiastics in the exercise of
their functions, and an order of Louis XV. admits
that the Acadians have enjoyed liberty of reli
gion.^ In a long document addressed in 1750 to
1 La Jonquiere a I'Svique de Quebec, 14 Juin, 1750. Memoire dv Roy
pour servir d'instruction au Comte de Raymond, commandant pour Sa Ma
jeste a I'Isle Royale [Cape Breton], 24 Avril, 1751.

96 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.
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 govemment. 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 con
fidence, without troubling their debtors, without
pressing them, without 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 cer
tain moderate rents payable in grain and lawfully
due. They have passed over in silence the con
temptuous refusal of the Acadians to take titles
from them for the new lands which they chose to
occupy.^ "We know very well," pursues Roma, "the
fruits of this conduct in the last war; and the
English know it also. Judge then what wiU be
the wrath and vengeance of this cruel nation."
The fruits to which Roma alludes were the hos
tilities, open or secret, committed by the Aca
dians against the English. He now ventures the
1 See Appendix B.

1749-1754.] THE OATH REFUSED. 97
prediction that the enraged conquerors will take
their revenge by drafting 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 gener
ation 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 bear 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 paper signed with the marks of a
thousand persons. The following passage con
tains the pith of it. " The inhabitants in gen
eral, sir, over the whole extent of this country
are resolved not to take the oath which your-
Excellency requires of us ; but if your Excellency-
will grant us our old oath, with an exemption for
ourselves and our heirs from taking up arms, we
VOL, I. — 7

98 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1751
will accept it." ^ The answer of ComwaUis 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 whoUy spontaneous, but was mainly
due to influence from without. The French offi
cials 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 wUl best appear in a despatch sent by
La Jonquiere to the Colonial Minister in the
autumn of 1749.
"Monsieur GomwalHs issued an order on the
tenth of the said month [August'], to the effect
that if the inhabitants wiU remain faithful sub
jects of the King of Great Britain, he wiU aUow
them priests and public exercise of their religion,
with the understanding that no priest shaU offici
ate without his permission or before taking an
oath of fidelity to the King of Great Britain.
Secondly, that the inhabitants shall not be
1 Public DocumeiOs of Nova Scotia, 173.
' See Ibid., 174, where the answer is printed.
» Cornwallis to the Board cf Trade, 11 Sept. 1749.

1749-1754.] COVERT WAR. 99
exempted from defending their houses, their lands,
and the Government. Thirdly, that they shall
take an oath of fidelity to the King of Great Brit
ain, on the twenty-sixth of this month, before
officers sent them for that purpose."
La Jonquiere proceeds to say that on hearing
these conditions the Acadians were filled with'
perplexity and alarm, and that he, the governor,
had directed Boish^bert, 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 HaUfax by means of their Indian
neighbors. As peace had been declared, the oper
ation was deUcate ; and when three of these
Indians came to him from their missionary, Le
Loutre, with letters on the subjec]b. La Jonquiere
was discreetly reticent. " I did not care to give
them any advice upon the matter, and confined
myself to a promise that I would on no account
abandon them ; and I have provided for supply
ing them -with everything, whether arms, ainmu-
nition, food, or other necessaries. It is to be
desired that these savages should succeed in
thwarting the designs of 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 give 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 nox French inhabi
tant is to join them ; everything will be done of

100 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754,
their own motion, and vnthout showing that I had
any knowledge of the matter. This is very essen
tial; therefore I have written to the Sieur de
Boishebert to observe great prudence in his meas
ures, 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'Abb^ 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 wiU
be so discouraged by constant Indian attacks that
they will renounce their pretensions to the parts
of the country belonging to the King of France.
" I feel, Monseigneur," — thus the Govemor con
cludes 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 harmless settlers;
* La Jonquiere au Ministre, 9 Oct. 1749, See Appendix B,

1750,] COVERT WAR. 101
yet the English authorities did not at first suspect
that they were hounded on by their priests, under
the direction of the Governor of Canada, and with
the privity of the Minister at VersaiUes. More
than this; for, looking across the sea, we find
royalty itself lending its august countenance to
the machination. 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 advising the Acadians not to
take the oath of allegiance to the King of Eng
land ; another from Le Loutre, declaring that he
and Father Germain were consulting 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 merchandise,
" to confirm them in their good designs." ^
To this the Minister replies in a letter to Des
herbiers : " His Majesty is well satisfied with all
you have done to thwart the English in their new
establishment. 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 be-
.come disheartened." Desherbiers is then told that
His Majesty desires him to aid English desert
ers in escaping from Halifax.^ Supplies for the
^ Resume des Lettres lues au Travail du Roy, Mai, 1750.
2 In 1750 nine captured deserters from Phillips's regiment declared on
their trial that the French had aided them and supplied them all with
money. Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 193.

102 CONFLICT FOR ACADLA.. [1750,1751
Indians are also promised ; and he is informed
that twelve medals are sent him by the frigate
" La MutinCy" to be given to the chiefs who shall
most distinguish themselves. In another lettei
Desherbiers is enjoined to treat the English
authorifies 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 Acar
dia, 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 re
marked that the savages have been most favorar
bly disposed. It is of the utmost importance that
no means be neglected to keep them so. The mis
sionaries 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 Raymond wUl excite these
missionaries not to slacken their efforts ; but he
wiU warn them 'at the same time so to contain
their zeal as not to compromise themselves with
the English,, and give just occasion of complaint," ^
That is, the King Orders his representative to en
courage 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
I Le Ministre a Desherbiers, 23 Mai, 1750; Ibid., 31 Mai, 1750.
* Memoire du Roy pour servir d'instruction au Comte de Raymond, 24
Avril, 175L

i749-1754.] COVERT WAR. 103
letter of earlier date, " has engaged Ahh6 Le Loutre
to distribute the usual presents among the savages,
and Monsieur Bigot has placed in his hands an
additional gift of cloth, blankets, powder, and
ball, to be given them in case they harass the
English at Halifax. This missionary is to induce
them to do so." ^ In spite of these efforts, the
Indians began to relent in their hostilities; and
when Longueuil became provisional governor of
Canada, he complained to the Minister that it was
very difficult to prevent them from making peace
with the English, though Father Germain was
doing his best to keep them on the war-path.^
La Jonquiere, too, had done his best, even to the
point of departing from his original policy of al
lowing 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 the Eng
Ush frontier ; and in the same ,vessel was sent a
supply of " merchandise, guns, and munitions for
the savages and the Acadians who may take up
arms with them ; and the whole is sent under
pretext of trading in furs with the savages."^
On another occasion La Jonquiere wrote : "In
order that the savages may do their part courage
ously, a few Acadians, dressed and painted in their
way, could join them to strike the English. I
cannot help consenting to what these savages do,
because we have our hands tied [by the peace'], and
1 Lettre commune de Desherbiers et Bigot au Ministre, 15 Aout, 1749.
^ Longueuil au Ministre, 2& Avril, 1752.
3 Bigot au Ministre, 1749.

104 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA [17*9-1754
so can do nothing ourselves. Besides, 1 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 them to break the peace ; and then,
by means of a falsehood, have them punished as
felons. Many disguised Acadians did in fact join
the Indian war-parties ; and their doing so was
no secret to the English. " What we call here
an Indian war," wrote Hopson, successor of Corn
wallis, " is no other than a pretence for the
French to commit hostUities on His Majesty's
subjects." At length the Indians made peace, or pretended
to do so. The chief of Le Loutre's mission, who
called himself Major Jean-Baptiste Cope, came to
Halifax with a deputation of his tribe, and they
all affixed their totems to a solemn treaty. In
the next summer they returned with ninety or a
hundred warriors, were well entertained, presented
with gifts, and sent homeward in a schooner. On
the way they seized the vessel and murdered the
crew. This is told by Provost, intendant at Louis
bourg, who does not say that French instigation
had any part in the treachery.^ It is nevertheless
certain that the Indians were paid for this or some
contemporary murder; for Provost, writing just
four weeks later, says : " Last month the savages
1 Depeches de la Jonquiere, I Mai, 1751. See Appendix B.
2 Prevost au Ministre, 12 Mars, 1753 j Ibid., 17 Jxily, 1753. Pro
vost was ordonnateur, or intendant, at Louisbourg. The treaty will b»
found in f uU in Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 683.

1749-1754.] LE LOUTRE, 105
took eighteen English scalps, and Monsieur Le
Loutre was obliged to pay them eighteen hundred
livres, Acadian money, which I have reimbursed
him." 1
From the first, the services of this zealous mis
sionary had been beyond price. Prevost testifies
that, though Cornwallis does his best to induce
the Acadians to swear fidelity to King George,
Le Loutre keeps them in allegiance to King Louis,
and threatens to set his Indians upon them unless
they declare against' the English. " I have al
ready," adds Provost, " paid him 11,183 livres for
his daily expenses ; and I never cease advising him
to be as economical as possible, and always to take
care not to compromise himself with the English
Government." ^ In consequence of " good service
to religion and the state," Le Loutre received a
pension of eight hundred livres, as did also Mail-
lard, his brother missionary on Cape Breton. " The
fear is," writes the Colonial Minister to the Gov
ernor 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." ^
^ Prevost au Ministre, 16 Aoiit, 1753.
'^ Ibid., 22 Juillet, 1750.
2 Le Ministre 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 the 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 ^roof
of French good faith. It was afterwards printed, along with other papers,
in a small volume called Precis des Faits, avec leurs Pieces justificatives

106 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754
All the Acadian clergy, in one degree or an
other, seem to have used their influence to prevent
the inhabitants from taking the oath, and to per
suade 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' missionary at Annapolis is mentioned
as old, and therefore inefficient ; while the cur^
at Grand Pr^, also an elderly man, was too much
inclined to confine himself to his spiritual func
tions. 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 inseparable
from duty to the King of France. The Bishop of
Quebec desired the Abb6 de I'lsle-Dieu to represent
to the Court the need of more missionaries to keep
the Acadians Catholic and French ; but, he addsi,
there is danger that they (the missionaries) wUl
be required to take an oath to do nothing con
trary to the interests of the King of Great Brit
ain.^ 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 instigating his flock to disaf
fection, had been sent prisoner to HaUfax, but
released on taking an oath in the above terms.
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 say, breathes the highest sentiments of international
honor, 1 L'Isle-Dieu, Memoire sur l'.^tat actuel des Missions, 1753 (1754-!).

1749-1754.] RESENTMENT OF CORNWALLIS, 107
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 Brit
ish 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 zeal to preserve and increase the
number of the faithfuL" Girard, to his credit,
preferred to leave the colony, and retired to Isle
St. Jean.^
CornwaUis 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 for their good that he excites these -wretches
to practise their cruelties -against those who have
sho-wn them every kindness ? The conduct of the
priests of Acadia has been such that by command
of His Majesty I have published an Order declaring
that if any one of them presumes to exercise his
functions without my express permission he shall
be dealt with according to the laws of England." ^
The EngUsh, bound by treaty to allow the Aca
dians the exercise of their reUgion, at length con
ceived the idea of replacing the French pries-ts by
others to be named by the Pope at the request of
the British Govemment. This, becoming known to
the French, greatly alarmed them, and the Intend
ant at Louisbourg wrote to the Minister that the
* Longueuil au Ministre, 27 Avril, 1752.
* Cornwallis to the Bishc^ of Quebec, 1 Dec 1749.

108 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.
matter required serious attention.* It threatened,
in fact, to rob them of their chief agents of in
trigue ; but their alarm proved needless, as the
plan was not carried into execution.
The French officials would have been better
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. ^ If so, it was a snare intended sim
ply to reconcile them to English rule. Nor was it
without effect. " We must give up altogether the
idea of an insurrection in Acadia," writes an officer
of Cape Breton. " The Acadians cannot be trusted ;
they are controlled by fear of the Indians, which
leads them to breathe French sentiments, even
when their inclinations are English. They will
yield to their interests; and the 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 terri
tory, and thus to strengthen the French frontier.
In this work the chief agent was 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
• Daudin, pretre, a Prevost, 23 Oct. 1753. Prevost au Ministre, 24 Nov.
1753. 2 Memoire a presenter a la Cour, 1753.
' Roma au Ministre, 11 Mars, 1750.

1749-1754.] UNWILLING EMIGRANTS. 109
settle and support them for three years, and even
indemnify them for any losses they might incur;
threatening if they did not do as he advised, to
abandon them, deprive them of their priests, have
their wives and children carried off, and their prop
erty laid waste by 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 Eng
lish, Cape Breton. Some were eager to go ; some
went with reluctance ; some would scarcely be per
suaded 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 com
pelled them." ^ These savages were the flock of
Abb6 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 perforce most
of their effects behind. They became disheart
ened 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.^ The Governor of
1 MSmoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
2 Bonaventure a Desherbiers, 26 .luin, 1751.
« PrSvost au Ministre, 25 Nov. 1750.

110 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754,
Isle St. Jean declares that they are dying of hun
ger.-^ Girard, the priest who bad withdrawn to
this island rather than break his oath to the Eng
lish, w^rites : •'^ Many of them cannot protect them
selves day or night from the severity of the cold-
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, stockings, or shirts.
They are not all reduced to this extremity but
nearly all are in want." ^ Mortality among them
was great, and would have been greater but for
rations supplied by the French Government.
During these proceedings, the English Govemor,
Cornwallis, 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 gen
eral permission 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 na
tive country, attached to their own interests and
^ Bonaventure, ut supra.
" Girard a {Bonaventure?}, 27 Oct. 1753,

1749-1754,] FORBEARANCE OF" CORNWALLIS. Ill
faithful to the Government. You know that cer
tain 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 eon-
science. Their aim is to embroil you with the
Government. I wiU 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
confidence in the Court of Versailles has been seen
already. "When you declared your desire to
submit yourselves to another Government," pur
sues Cornwallis, " our determination was to hinder
nobody from foUowing 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 wiU is not far from being an
enemy. We confess, however, that your determi
nation 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 fathers
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

1^12 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1764.
public exercise of the Roman Catholic religion.
But I declare to you frankly that, according to
our laws, nobody can possess lands or houses in
the province who shall refuse to take the oath
of aUegiance to his King when required to do so.
You know very well that there 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 fol
lowing 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 gen
eral 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 passport. And we declare that nothing shaU
prevent us from giving such passports to all who
ask for them, the moment peace and tranquillity
are re-established." ^ He declares as his r6ason
for not giving them at once, that on crossing the
frontier " you will have to pass the French detach
ments and savages assembled there, and that they
compel all the inhabitants who go there to take
up arms " against the English. How well this rea
son was founded will soon appear.
Hopson, the next govemor, described by the
French themselves as a "mild and peaceable offi
cer," was no less considerate in his treatment of
the Acadians ; and at the end of 1752 he issued
1 The above passages are from two addresses of Cornwallis, read to
the Acadian deputies in, April and May, 1750, The combined extracts
here given convey the spirit of the whole. See Public Documents of Nova
Scotia. 185-190,

1749-1754,] LE LOUTRE. 113
the following order to his military subordinates :
"You are to look on the French inhabitants in
the same light as the rest of His Majesty's sub
jects, as to the protection of the laws and govern
ment ; 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 your
self by mUitary 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
overwhelmed 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 missionary was provided. He fed their
traditional dislike of the English, and fanned
their fanaticism, bom of the villanous counterfeit
of Christianity which he and his predecessors had
imposed on them. Thus he contrived to use them
on the one hand to murder the English, and on
1 Public Documents of Nova Saaia, 197.
TOL, I. — 8

114 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA [1749-1754
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 with
out 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 susceptible to the influence of
their priests, trembled before him. 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 gov
ernors 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 bp deprived of
the services of a priest, and that the savages shall
treat them as enemies ? " -^ " Nobody," says a
French Catholic contemporary, " was more fit than
he to carry discord and desolation into a country."^
Cornwallis called him "a good-for-nothing scoun
drel," and offered a hundred pounds for his head.'
1 L'Eveque de Quebec a Le Loutre; translation in Public Document!
of Nova Scotia, 240.
2 Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
s On Le Loutre, compare Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 178-180,
no(e, with authorities there cited; N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 11 ; Memoires sui
le Canada, 1749-1760 (Quebec, 1838).'

i749-1754.] BEAUBASSIN. 115
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 carry
ing arms and ammunition to the Acadians and In
dians. A less defensible act was the capture of the
armed brig "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 nations. Captain Rous, a New England
officer commanding a frigate in the Royal Navy,
opened fire on the " St. Francois," took her after
a short cannonade, and carried her into Halifax,
where she was condemned by the court. Several
captures of small craft, accused of illegal acts, were
also made by the English. These proceedings, be
ing 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 rea
sonable doubt, the place was within the limits of
Acadia, and therefore on English ground.-' Beau
bassin was a considerable settlement on the isth
mus that joins the Acadian peninsula to the
mainland. Northwest of the settlement lay a
wide marsh, through which ran a stream called
1 La Jonquifere himself admits that he thought so. " Cette partie 1^
ftant, 'k ce que je crois, d^pendante de I'Acadie." La Jonquiere au Ministrt,
3 Oct. 1750.

116 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754,
the Missaguash, some two mUes beyond which
rose a hUl called Beausejour. On and near this
hill were stationed the troops and Canadians sent
under Boishebert and La Corne to watch the
English frontier. This French force excited dis
affection among the Acadians through all the
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 that the people of Beau
bassin 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 inhabitants, and thus com
pelled them to cross to the French side of the
river.^ This was the first forcible removal of the
Acadians. It was as premature as it was violent;
since Lawrence, being threatened by La Corne,
whose force was several times greater than his
own, presently reimbarked. In the following Sep
tember he returned with seventeen small vessels
and about seven hundred men, and again attempted
1 It has been erroneously stated that Beaubassin was burned by its own
inhabitants, " Laloutre, ayant vu que les Acadiens ne paroissoient pas fort
presses d'abandonner leurs biens, avoit lui-meme mis le feu k I'ifeglise, et
I'avoit fait mettre aux maisons des habitants par quelques-uns de ceux
qu'il avoit gagn^s," etc, Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. "Les sau
vages y mirent le feu." Precis des Faits, 85. "Les savauges mlrent la
feu aux maisons." Prevost au Ministre, 22 Juillet, 1750.

i749-1754.J BEAUBASSIN. 117
to land on the strand of Beaubassin. La Jon
quiere says that he could only be resisted indi
rectly, because he was on the EngUsh side of the
river. This indirect resistance was undertaken by
Le Loutre, who had thrown up a breastwork along
the shore and manned it with his Indians and his
pamted and be-feathered Acadians. Nevertheless
the English landed, and, with some loss, drove out
the defenders. Le Loutre himself seems not to
have been among them; but they kept up for a
time a helter-skelter fight, encouraged by two
other missionaries, Germain and Lalerne, who were
near being caught by the English.^ Lawrence
quickly routed them, took possession of the ceme
tery, and prepared to fortify himself. The village
of Beaubassin, consisting, it is said, of a hundred
and forty houses, had been burned in the spring ;
but there were still in the neighborhood, on the
English side, many hamlets and farms, with 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
compUed, and the greater part fled to the woods.^
On this the Indians and their Acadian allies set
the houses and barns on fire, and laid waste the
whole district, leaving the inhabitants no choice
but to seek food and shelter with the. French.^
1 La /VaUi&re, Journal de ce qui s'est passS a Chenitou [Chignecto] et
autres parties des Frontieres de I'Acddie, 1750-1751. La VaUifere was an
officer on the spot.
2 Prevost au Ministre, 27 Sept. 1750.
^ " Les sauvages et Accadiens mirent le feu dans toutes les maisons et
grange's, pleines de bled et de fonrrages, ce qui a causd une grande disette."
La Vallifere, ut supra.

118 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.
The English fortified themselves on a low hill
by the edge of the marsh, planted palisades, built
barracks, and named the new work Fort Lawrence.
Slight skirmishes between them and the French
were frequent. Neither party respected the divid
ing line of the Missaguash, and a petty warfare of
aggression and reprisal began, and became chronic.
Before the end of the autumn there was an atro
cious act of treachery. Among the English offi
cers was Captain Edward Howe, an intelligent
and agreeable person, who spoke French fluently,
and had been long stationed in the province. Le
Loutre detested him ; dreading his influence over
the Acadians, by many of whom he was known
and liked. One morning, at about eight o'clock,
the inmates of Fort Lawrence saw what seemed an
officer from Beausejour, carrying a flag, and fol
lowed by several men in uniform, wading through
the sea of grass that stretched beyond the Missa
guash. When the tide was out, this river was
but an ugly trench of reddish mud gashed across
the face of the marsh, with a thread of half-fluid
slime lazUy crawling along the bottom; but at
high tide it was filled to the brim with an opaque
torrent that would have overflowed, but for the
dikes thrown up to confine it. Behind the dike
on the farther bank stood the seeming officer, wav
ing his flag in sign that he desired a parley. He
was in reality no officer, but one of Le Loutre's
Indians in disguise, Etienne Le Batard, or, as
others say, the great chief, Jean-Baptiste Cope.
Howe, carrying a white, flag, and accompanied by

1749-1754.] MURDER OF HOWE. 119
a few officers and men, went towards 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 stream, and mortally
wounded liim. They continued their fire on his
companions, but could not prevent them from
carrying the dying man to the fort. The French
officers, indignant at this viUany, did not hesitate
to charge it upon Le Loutre; "for," says one of
them, " what is not a wicked priest capable of
doing ? " But Le Loutre's brother missionary,
Maillard, 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 spo
ken words disrespectful to the Holy Virgin.-*
Maillard adds that the Indians were much pleased
with what they had done. Finding, however,
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
French began a fort on the hill of Beausejour, and
the Acadians were required to work at it with no
1 Maillard, Les Missions Micmaques. On the murder of Howe, Public
Documents of Nova Scotia, 194, 195, 210; Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-
1760, where it is said that Le Loutre was present at the deed ; La Valliere,
Journal, who says that some Acadians took part in it; Depeches de la
Jonquiere, who says "les sauvages de I'Abbe le Loutre Tout tu^ pal
trahisou;" and Prevost au Ministre, 27 Oct. 1750.

120 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754,
compensation but rations. They were thinly clad,
some had neither shoes 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 Beausejour 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 it, not
three miles distant, the red flag of England waved
over the palisades of Fort Lawrence, 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 shelter at Chipody and its neigh
borhood, where there were thriving settlements of
their countrymen. Le Loutre, fearing that they
would return to their lands and submit to the Eng
lish, sent some of them to Isle St. Jean. " They
refused to go," says a French writer; "but he com
pelled them at last, by threatening to make the
Indians pillage them, carry off their wives and
children, and even kill them before their eyes.
Nevertheless he kept about him such as were
most submissive to his will." * In the spring
after the English occupied Beaubassin, La Jon
quiere issued a strange proclamation. It com-
^ M€moires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.

i749-I7.54.] INSOLENCE OF LE LOUTRE. 121
manded all Acadians to take forthwith an oath of
fidelity to the King of France, and to enroll them
selves in the French militia, on pain of being
treated as rebels.^ Three years after, Lawrence,
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 criminals.^ Thus were these unfortu
nates ground between the upper and nether mill
stones. Le Loutre replied to this proclamation
of Lawrence by a letter in which he outdid him
self. He declared that any of the inhabitants who
had crossed to the French side 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 at once made over
to their sole use and sovereign ownership,^ — "which
being read and considered," says the record of the
HalUax Council, " the contents appeared too inso
lent and absurd to be answered."
The number of Acadians who had crossed the
line and were collected about Beausejour was now
large. Their countrymen of Chipody began to
find them a burden, and they lived chiefly on
' Ordonnance du \2 Avril, 1751. ,
2 ^crit donne aux Habitants refugies a Beausejour, 10 Aout, 1754.
* Copie de la Lettre de M. I'Abbe Le Loutre, Pretre Missionnaire des
Sauvages de I'Accadie, a M. Lawrence a Halifax, 26 Aoitt, 1754. There
is a translation in Public Documents of Nova Scotia.

122 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754
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 over
the line by false assurances, and they applied se
cretly to the English authorities to learn if they
would be allowed to return to their homes. The
answer was that they might do so with full enjoy
ment of religion and property, if they would take
a simple oath of fidelity and loyalty to the King
of Great Britain, qualified by an oral intimation
that they would not be required for the present
to bear arms.^ When 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- exhaus
tion.^ The military commandant at Beausejour
used gentler means of prevention ; and the Aca
dians, unused for generations to think or act for
themselves, remained restless, but indecisive, wait
ing till fate should settle for them the question,
under which king ?
Meanwhile, for the past three years, the com
missioners appointed under the treaty of Aix-la-
Chapelle to settle the question of boundaries be
tween France and England in America had been
in session at Paris, waging interminable war on
paper; La Galissoniere and Silhouette for France,
1 Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 205, 209.
^ Compare Memoires, 1749-1760, and Public Documents of Nova Scotia,
929, 230.

1749-1754.] LIMirS OF ACADIA, 123
Shirley and MUdmay for England. By the treaty
of Utrecht, Acadia belonged to England ; but what
was Acadia ? According to the English commis
sioners, it comprised not only the peninsula now
caUed Nova Scotia, but aU the immense 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.^ 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, biit 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 that 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 Quebec and Cape Breton,
which was possible only with the eastern portions
in French hands. So new was this denial that
even La Galissoniere himself, the foremost in
making it, had declared without reservation two
years before that Acadia was the entire penin
sula.^ " If," says a writer on the question, " we
1 The commission of De Monts, in 1603, defines Acadia as extending
from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degrees of latitude, — that is, from
central New Brunswick to southern Pennsylvania. Neither party cared
to produce the document,
2 " L'Acadie suivaut ses anciennes limites est la presquisle bornee par
son isthme," La Galissonniere au Ministre, 25 Juillet, 1749. The English
commissioners were, of course, ignorant of this admission.

124 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754
had to do with a nation more tractable, less grasp
ing, and more conciliatory, it would be well to
insist also that Halifax should be 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 whUe denying that the country was
Acadia, the French invariably called the inhabi
tants Acadians. Innumerable public documents,
commissions, grants, treaties, edicts, signed by
French kings and ministers, had recognized Aca
dia as extending over New Brunswick and a part
of Maine. Four censuses of Acadia while it be
longed to the French had recognized the main
land as included in it; and so do also the early
French maps. Its prodigious shrinkage was sim
ply 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 de
pendencies from the British colonies ? Various
principles of demarcation were suggested, of which
the most prominent on the French side was a geo
graphical one. All countries watered by streams
falling into the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and
the Mississippi were to belong to her. This would
bave planted her in the heart of New York and
along the crests of the AUeghanies, giving her aP
the interior of the continent, and leaving nothing
to England but a strip of sea-coast. Yet in view
of what France had achieved ; of the patient gal-
I Memoire de I'Abbe de I'lsle-Dieu, 1753 (1754 ¦?).

1749-1754.] BRITISH CLAIMS. 125
lantry of her explorers, the zeal of her missionaries,
the adventurous hardihood of her bushrangers, re
vealing 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 reas
onable compared with those of England. The
treaty of Utrecht had declared the Iroquois, 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 ex
peditions were mere raids, great or small. Some
times, as in the case of the Hurons, they made a
solitude 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, for
est, or prairie where an Iroquois had taken a scalp.
This would give them not only the country be
tween the AUeghanies and the Mississippi, but also
that 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 Aca
dia to the St. Lawrence would cut off the present
counties Of Gaspe, Rimouski, 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.

126 CONFLICT FOR ACADLA. [1749-1754
Lawrence.' Such being the attitude of the two
contestants, it was plain that there was no 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.^ Out of the discussion rose also
a swarm of fugitive publications in French, Eng
lish, and Spanish; for the question of American
boundaries had become European. There was one
among them worth notice from its -amusing absurd
ity. 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 preserved in America as well as in "Europe,
because " Nature," " the aggrandizement of the
human soul," and the "felicity of man" are unani
mous in demanding it. The Exiglish colonies are
more populous and wealthy than the French ; there-
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 iVcio and Accurate Map of North America; both are in the
British Museum. Dr. John Mitchell, in his Contest in America (London,
1757) pushes the English claim to its utmost extreme, a,nd 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 on the original
grants of some of the colonies, which ran indefinitely westward across
ths continent.
'¦' Memoires des Commissaires de Sa Majesty Tris ChrMienne et de ceux
dis Sa Majeste Brittanique. Paris, 1755. Several editions appeared.

1749-1754.] THE OHIO ENTERPRISE, 127
fore 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 AUeghanies and all Acadia but
a strip of the south coast, according to the " sub
lime 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 entrench herself there, and
hold the passes of the West against all comers.
It remains to see how she fared in her bold
enterprise.
^ Roman politique sur I'Etat present des Affaires de I'Amerique (Am
sterdam, 1756), For extracts from French Documents, see Appendix B.

CHAPTER V.
1753, 1764
WASHINGTON.
The French occitpt the Sources of the Ohio, — Their Suffer
ings, — Fort Le Bceuf. — Legardeur de Saint-Pierre. — Mis
sion OF Washington, — Robert Dinwiddie. — He opposes the
French. — His Dispute with the Burgesses. — His Energy. —
His Appeals for Help. — Fokt Duquesne. — Death or Jumok-
viLLE. — Washington at the Great Meadows. — Couldn de
Villiers. ^ Fort Necessity.
Towards the end of spring the vanguard of the
expedition sent by Duquesne to occupy the Ohio
landed at Presquisle, where Erie now stands.
This route to the Ohio, far better than that which
ceioron 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
Rivifere aux Boeufs, now French Creek: At the
farther end of this road they began another
wooden fort and called it Fort Le Boeuf. 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.
It was heavy work to carry the cumbrous load
of baggage across the portages. Much of it is said

1753.] MARESr AND HIS OFFICERS. 129
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, com
mander 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 Pean, of whose private
character there is little good to be said, but whose
conduct as an officer was such that Duquesne calls
him a prodigy of talents, resources, and zeal.^
The subalterns deserve no such praise. They
disliked the service, and made no secret of their
discontent. Rumors of it filled Montreal; and
Duquesne wrote to Marin : "I am surprised that
you have not told me of this change. Take note
of the sullen and discouraged faces about you.
This sort are worse than useless. Rid yourself of
them at once ;" send them to Montreal, that I may
"make an example of them." ^ Pean wrote at the
end of September that Marin was in extremity;
and the Governor, disturbed and alarmed, for he
knew the value of the sturdy old officer^ looked
anxiously for a successor: He chose another
1 Pouchot, Merhoires sur la derniere Guerre de I'Amerique Septentrios-
nale, I. 8.
2 Duquesne au Ministre, 2 Nov. 1753; compare Memoire pour Michel'
Jean Hugues Pean.
8 Duquesne a Marin, 27 Aoiit, 1753.
VOL. I. — 9

130 WASHINGTON. 11755
veteran, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, who had just
returned from a journey of exploration towards
the Rocky Mountains,^ and whom Duquesne now
ordered to the Ohio.
MeanwhUe 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 EngUsh called the Half-King,
qame to Fort Le Boeuf and ordered the French
to leave the country; 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.^ Even the Iro
quois, Delawares, and Shawanoes on the Alle
ghany had come to the French camp and offered
their help in carrying the baggage. It needed but
perseverance and success in the enterprise to win
over every tribe from the mountains to the Mis
sissippi. To accomplish this and to curb the
English, Duquesne had planned a third fort, at
the junction of French Creek with the Alleghany,
or at some point lower down; then, leaving the
three posts well garrisoned, Pean was to descend
1 Memoire ou Journal sommaire du Voyage de Jacques Legardeur de
Saint-Pierre. 2 Rapports de Conseils avec les Sauvages a Montreal, Juillet, 1753,
Duquesne au Ministre, 31 Oct. 1753, Letter of Dr, Shuckburgh m N. Y
Col. Docs., VI. 806.

1753.] FORT LE BCEUF. lEl
the Ohio with the whole remaining force, impose
terror on the wavering tribes, and complete their
conversion. Both plans were thwarted; the fort
was not built, nor did Pean descend the Ohio.
Fevers, lung diseases, and scurvy made such
deadly havoc among troops and Canadians, that
the dying Marin saw with bitterness that his
work must be left half done. Three hundred of
the best men were kept to garrison Forts Pres
quisle and Le Boeuf ; and then, as winter ap
proached, the rest were sent back to Montreal.-
When they arrived, the Governor was shocked. at
their altered looks. " I reviewed them, and could
not help being touched by the pitiable state to
which fatigues and exposures had reduced them.
Past all doubt, if these emaciated figures had gone
down the Ohio as intended, the river would have
been strewn with corpses, and the evil-disposed
savages would not have failed to attack the sur
vivors, seeing that they were but spectres." -^
Legardeur de Saint-Pierre arrived at the end ot
autumn, and made his quarters at Fort Le Boeuf.
The surrounding forests had dropped their leaves,
and in gray and patient desolation bided the com
ing winter. Chill rains drizzled over the gloomy
"clearing," and drenched the palisades and log-
built barracks, raw from the axe. Buried in the
wilderness, the military exiles resigned themselves
as they might to months of monotonous solitude ;
1 Duquesne au Ministre, 29 Nov. 1753. On this expedition, compare
the letter of Duquesne in N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 255, and the deposition of
Stephen CorEen, Ibid., VL 835.

132 WASHINGTON. [175a
when, just after sunset on the eleventh of Decem
ber, a tall youth came out of the forest on horse
back, attended by a companion much older and
rougher than himself, and followed by several
Indians and four or five white men with pack-
horses. Officers from ' the fort went ,out to meet
the strangers ; and, wading through mud and sod
den snow, 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 vwith the commandant, and gave him a
letter' from Governor Dinwiddie. ' 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 Major
George Washington, Adjutant-General of the Vir
ginia militia.-'
Din-widdie, 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 F^ngland, and built forts
on Lake Erie and on a branch of the Ohio. He
wrote to challenge the invasion and summon the
invaders to withdraw ; and he could find none so
fit to bear 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,
• Journal of Major Washington. Journal of Mr. Christopher Gist.

1753.] WASHINGTON AND JONCAIRE. 133
at the middle of November, struck into the wil
derness with Christopher Gist as a guide, Van-
braam, a Dutchman, as French interpreter, Davison,
a trader, as Indian interpreter, and four woodsmen
as servants. They weiit to the forks of the Ohio,
and then down the river to Logsto-w-n, the Chinin
gue of ceioron de Bienville. There Washington
had various parleys with the Indians ; and thence,
after vexatious delays, he continued his journey
towards Fort Le Boeuf, accompanied by the friend
ly 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 Alle
ghany. Here there was an English trading-house ;
but the French had seized it, raised their flag over
it, and turned it into a miUtary outpost.-' Joncaire
was in command, with two subalterns ; aud noth
ing could exceed their civility. They invited the
strangers to supper ; and, says Washington, " the
wine, as they dosed themselves pretty plentifully
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
^ Marin had sent sixty men in August to seize the house, which be
longed to the trader Eraser. Depeches de Duquesne. They carried off
two men whom they found here. Letter of Eraser in Colonial Records of
Pa., V. 659

134 WASHINGTON. [1753
their one, yet they knew their motions were too
slow and dilatory to prevent any undertaking of
theirs." ^
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 marshes
and swamps, forests choked with snow, and drenched
with incessant rain, they toiled on for four days
more, till the wooden walls of Fort Le Boeuf ap
peared at last, surrounded by fields studded thick
with stumps, and half-encircled by the chiU cur
rent of French Creek, along the banks of which'
lay more than two hundred canoes, ready to carry
troops in the spring. Washington describes Le
gardeur de Saint-Pierre as " an elderly gentleman
with much the air of a soldier." The letter sent
him by Dinwiddie expressed astonishment 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 from Canada
with an armed force, and invaded the King of
Great Britain's territories. It becomes my duty
to require your peaceable departure ; and that you
would forbear prosecuting a purpose so interrupt-
ive of the harmony and good understanding which
His Majesty is desirous to continue and cultivate
with the Most Christian King. I persuade myself
1 Journal of Washington, as printed at Williamsburg, just after his
return.

i753.] FRENCH DEVICES. ^ 135
you wUl receive and entertain Major Washington
with the candor and politeness natural to your
nation ; and it will give me the greatest satisfac
tion 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
that meanwhile he should remain at his post, ac
cording 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 dignity as well as his o-wn quality and
great merit." ^ No form of courtesy had, in fact,
been wa,nting. " He appeared to be extremely
complaisant," says Washington, "though he was
exerting every artifice to set our Indians at vari
ance with us. I saw that every stratagem 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 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 pushed forward on foot, accompanied by Gist
alone. Each was wrapped to the throat in an In-

1 " La Distinction qui convient \ votre Dignitte' k sa Quality et a son
grand M^rite." Copy of original letter sent by Dinwiddie to Governol
Hamilton.

136 WASHINGTON. 11754
dian " matchcoat," 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 interposed, and they let him go.''
Then, to escape pursuit, 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 aU 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 freezing 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 ex
cessively 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 Williams
burg and made his report to Dinwiddie.
Robert Dinwiddie was lieutenant-governor of
Virginia, in place of the titular governor, Lord
1 Journal of Mr. Christopher Gist, in Mass. Hist. Coll., 3rd Series, V.

-¦iSS,] ORDERS OF THE KING. 137
Albemarle, 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 disliked ; and when he rose to the gov
ernorship 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 Presquisle, when Dinwiddie
warned the Home Government of the danger, and
urged, what he had before urged in vain on the
Virginian Assembly, the immediate building of
forts on the Ohio. There came in reply a letter,
signed by the King, authorizing 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 find 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 peacea
bly to depart ; and if, notwithstanding your admo
nitions, they do still endeavor to carry out any
such unlawful and unjustifiable designs, we do here
by strictly charge and 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 Dinwiddie was de
pendent on his Assembly, or House of Burgesses.
1 Instructions to Our Trusty and Well-beloved Robert Dinwiddie, Esq,
28 Aug. 1753.

138 WASHINGTON. 11753
He convoked them for the first of November,
sending Washington at the same time with the
summons to Saint-Pierre. The burgesses met.
Dinwiddie exposed 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 intensely jeal
ous of the slightest encroachment on its rights
by the Crown or its representative. The Governor
defended the fee. The burgesses replied that
" subjects cannot be deprived of the least part of
their property without their consent," declared the
fee unlawful, and called on Dinwiddie 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. Dinwiddie rebuked them
for " disregarding the designs of the French, and
disputing the rights of the Crown; " and he " pro
rogued them in some anger." ^
Thus he was unable to obey the instructions of
the King. As a temporary resource, he ventured
to order a jjraft of two hundred men from the
militia. Washington was to have command, with
the*trader, William Trent, as his lieutenant. His
orders were to push with all speed to the forks of
1 Address of Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie to the Council and Bur
f esses, 1 Nov. 1753.
* Dinwiddie Papers.

i754,] EFFORTS OF DINWIDDIE. 139
the Ohio, and there build a fort ; " but in case any
attempts are made to obstruct the works by any
persons whatsoever, to restrain all such offenders,
and, in case of resistance, to make prisoners of,
or kill and destroy them." ' The Governor next
sent messengers to the Catawbas, Cherokees, Chick-
asaws, 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, Mary
land, and New Jersey, begging for contingents of
men, to be at Wills 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 wUl lay
a fund to qualify me to send four or five hundred
men more to the Ohio, which, with the assistance
of our neighboring colonies, may make some
figure." The session began. Again, somewhat oddly, yet
forcibly, the Governor set before the Assembly the
peril of the situation, and begged them to post
pone less pressing questions to the exigency of the
hour.^ This time they listened; and voted ten
thousand pounds in Virginia currency to defend

^ Ibid. Instructions to Major George Washington, January, 1754.
2 Speech of Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie to the Council and Burgessel
14 Feb.. 1754.

140 WASHINGTON. 11754,
the frontier. The grant was frugal, and they
jealously placed its expenditure m the hands of a
committee of their own.^ Dinwiddie, 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 stUl more
was their sending an agent to England to com
plain against him on the irrepressible question of
the pistole fee ; and he writes to his London friend,
the merchant Hanbury : "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 thinking man will make a distinction be
tween a fee and a tax. Poor people ! I pity
their, ignorance and narrow, Ul-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 thoughts 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
1 See the bill in Hening, Statutes of Virginia, VI. 417.

^754.] PROVINCIAL APATHY. 141
clothes ; a good laced hat and two pair stockings,
one sUk, the other fine thread." ^
If the Governor and his English sometimes
provoke a smUe, he deserves admiration for the
energy with which he opposed the public enemy,
under circumstances 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 gov
ernors, calling for supplies, and wrote letter upon
letter to rouse them to effort. He wrote also to
the more distant governors, Delancey of New
York, and Shirley of .Massachusetts, begging them
to make what he called a "faint" against Can
ada, to prevent the French from sending so large
a force to the Ohio. It was to the nearer colo
nies, from New Jersey to South Carolina, that
he looked for direct aid ; and their several gov
ernors were all more or less active to procure it ;
but as most of them had some standing dispute
with their assemblies, they could get nothing ex
cept on terms with which they would not, and
sometimes could not, comply. As the lands in
vaded by the French belonged to one of the two
rival claimants, Virginia and Pennsylvania, the
other colonies had no mind to vote money to de
fend 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
1 Dinwiddie to Hanbury, 12 March, 1754; Ibid., 10 May, 1754.

142 WASHINGTON [1754
who chiefly made up his Assembly. North Caro
lina 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 re
ceived 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 Dinwid
dle'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 pom
pously called the Governor's Palace, Dinwiddie
despatched letters, orders, couriers, to hasten the
tardy reinforcements 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. Fry was at Alexandria with half
the so-called regiment, trying to get it into march
ing order ; Washington, with the other half, had
pushed forward to the Ohio Company's storehouse
at WUls Creek, which was to form a base of oper
ations. 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 Captain 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 examined

1754,] FORT DUQUESNE BUILT. 143
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 Wills Creek,
leaving Ensign Ward with forty men at work
upon it. Their labors were suddenly interrupted.
On the seventeenth of AprU a swarm of bateaux
and canoes came down the Alleghany, bringing,
according to Ward, more than a thousand French
men, though in reality not much above five hun
dred, 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 re
ported his mishap to Washington ; while the
French 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
refractory assembly to hamper him ; no lack of
money, for the King supplied it; and all Canada
must march at his bidding. Thus, while Dinwid
die was stUl toiling to muster his raw recruits,
Duquesne' s lieutenant, Contrecceur, successor of
1 See the summons in Precis des Faits, 101.

144 WASHINGTON. ' [1754.
Saint-Pierre, had landed at Presquisle with a
much greater force, in part regulars, and in part
Canadians. Dinwiddie was deeply vexed when a message
from Washington told him how his plans were
blighted ; and he spoke his mind to his friend Han
bury : " 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 in
dependent companies from New YOrk come soon,
I am in hopes the eyes of the other colonies wiU
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 congratu
late you on the increase of your family. My wife
and two girls join in our most sincere respects to
good Mrs. Hanbury." '
The seizure of a king's fort by 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 Wash
ington acted much as if war had been declared.
From their station at Wills Creek, the distance by
the traders' path to Fort Duquesne was about a
hundred and forty miles. Midway was a branch
of the Monongahela called Redstone Creek, at the
mouth of which the Ohio Company had buUt
1 Dinunddie to Hanbury, 10 May, 1754.

I754.J A BLOW STRUCK. 145
another storehouse. Dinwiddie ordered all the
forces to cross the mountains and assemble at this
point, until they should be strong enough to ad
vance 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 count
less 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, Dinwiddie learned that he had crossed
the main ridge of the AUeghanies, and was en
camped with a hundred and fifty men near the
parallel ridge of Laurel Hill, at a place called the
Great Meadows. Trent's backwoodsmen 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 heart of the Gov
ernor. 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. Washington was on the Youghiogany, a branch
of the Monongahela, exploring it in hopes that it
might prove navigable, when a messenger 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,
VOL. I, — 10

146 WASHINGTON. 11754
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. Washington 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 entrenchment, at the same time
cutting away the bushes and clearing what the
young commander called " a charming field for
an encounter .s" Parties were sent out to scour
the woods, but they found no enemy. Two days
passed ; when, on the moming 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 search was vain,
the French having hidden themselves 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 dis
tant. 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 mo
ment. Fearing a stratagem to surprise his camp,

1T54.] JUMONVILLE. 147
he left his main force to guard it, and at ten
o'clock set out for the Half-King's wigwams at
the head of forty men. The night was rainy, and
the forest, to use his own words, "as black as
pitch." "The path," he continues, "was hardly
wide enough for one man ; we often lost it, and
could not find it again for fifteen or twenty min
utes, 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 sunrise. 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 French were supposed to be concealed.
They were there in fact ; and they snatched their
guns the moment they saw the English. Wash
ington gave the word to fire. A short fight
ensued. Coulon de Jumonville, an ensign in com
mand, 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
Contrecceur, the commandant at Fort Duquesne.
1 Journal of Washington in Precis des Faits, 109. This Journal, wliich
is entirely distinct from that before 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 disap-

148 WASHINGTON. [17S4
Five days before, Contrecceur had sent Jumon
ville to scour the country as far as the dividing
ridge of the AUeghanies. Under him were another
officer, three cadets, a volunteer, an interpreter,
and twenty-eight men. He was provided with a
written summons, to be delivered to any English
he might find. It required them to withdraw froiq
the domain of the King of France, and threatened
compulsion by force of arms in case of refusal.
'But before delivering the summons Jumonville
was ordered to send two couriers back with all
speed to Fort Duquesne to inform the command'
ant that he had found the English, and to acquaint
• him when he intended to communicate with thein,'
It is difficult to imagine any object for such an
order except that of enabling Contrecceur to send
to the spot whatever force might be needed to
attack the English on their refusal to 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 Wash
ington's camp, sent out scouts to reconnoitre it,
but gave no notice of his -presence ; played to per
fection the part of a skulking enemy, and brought
destruction on himself by conduct which can only
be ascribed 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 only if threatened by a
superior force. This last assertion is confirnied by
1 The summons and the instructions to Jumonville are in Precis da
Faitt.

1754.] JUMONVn,LE. 149
the French officer Pouchot, who says that Jumon
ville, seeing himself the weaker party, tried to
show the letter he had brought.^
French writers say that, on first seeing the Eng
lish, JumonviUe's interpreter called out that he
had something 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 denied by Washington,
and rests only on the assertion of the Canadian
who ran off at the outset, and on the alleged as
sertion of Indians who, if present at all,' which is
unlikely, escaped like the Canadian before the fray
began. Druillon, an officer with Jumonville, wrote
two letters to Dinwiddie after his capture, to claim
the privileges of the bearer of a summons; but
while bringing forward every other circumstance
in favor of the claim, he does not pretend that
the summons was read or shown either before or
during the action. The French account of the
conduct of Washington's Indians is no less erro
neous. " This murder," says a chronicler of the
time, " produced on the minds of the savages an
effect very different from that which the cruel
Vvasinghton had promised 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." ^
1 Pouchot, Mimoire sur la derniere Guerre.
2 Ponlin de Lumina, Histoire de la Guerre contre les Anglois, 15

150 WASHINGTON. II754
Instead of doing this, they boasted of their part
in the fight, scalped all the dead Frenchmen, sent
one scalp to the Delawares as an invitation to
take up the hatchet for the English, and dis
tributed the rest among the various Ohio tribes
to the same end.
Coolness of judgment, a profound sense of pub
lic duty, and a strong self-control, were even then
the characteristics of Washington-; but he 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 expe
rience 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 hos
tile ; and though by passively waiting the event
he would have thrown upon them the responsi
bility of striking the first blow, he would have
exposed his small party to capture or destruction
by giving them time to gain reinforcements from
Fort Duquesne. It was inevitable that the killing
of Jumonville should be greeted in France by an
outcry of real or assumed horror ; but the Cheva
lier de Levis, second in command to Montcalm,
probably expresses the true opinion of French
men best fitted to judge when he calls it " a pre
tended assassination." ' Judge it as we may, this
obscure skirmish began the war that set the world
on fire.^
1 Levis, Memoire sur la Guerre du Canada.
2 On this affair. Sparks, Writings of Washington, II. 25-48, 447. Din
widdle Papers. Letter of Contrecceur in Precis des Faits. Journal of
Washington, Ibid. Washington to Dinwiddie, 3 June, 1754, Dussieux,

1754.] THE GREAT MEADOWS. 151
Washington returned to the camp at the Great
Meadows ; and, expecting soon to be attacked, sent
for reinforcements to Colonel Fry, who was lying
dangerously ill at WiUs Creek. Then he set his
men to work at an entrenchment, which he
named Fort Necessity, and which must have been
of the slightest, as they finished it within three
days.^ The Half-King now joined him, along
with the female potentate known as Queen Ale-
quippa, and some thirty Indian families. A few
days after. Gist came from Wills Creek with news
that Fry was dead. Washington succeeded to the
command of the regiment, the remaining three
companies of which presently appeared and joined
their comrades, raising the whole number to three
hundred. Next arrived the independent company
from South Carolina ; and the Great Meadows be
came 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.
Le Canada sous la Domination Frangaise, 1 18. Gaspe, Anciens Canadiens,
appendix, 396. The assertion of Abbe de I'lsle-Dieu, that Jumonville
showed a flag of truce, is unsupported. Adam Stephen, who was iu 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 hundred
and fifty francs. In 1775 his daughter, Charlotte Aimable, wishing to
become a nun, was given by the King six hundred francs for her
"trousseau" on entering the convent. Dossier de Jumonville et de sa
Veuve, 22 Mars, 1755. Memoire pour Mile, de Jumonville, 10 Juillet^, 1775.
Expense du Garde des Sceaux, 25 Juillet, 1775.
* Journal of Washington in P'icis des Faits.

152 WASHINGTON. [1754.
The presence of the company of regulars was a
doubtful advantage. Captain Mackay, its com
mander, holding his commission from the King,
thought himseU above any officer commissioned
by the Governor. There was great courtesy be
tween 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 impossible, both from want of money, and
from the discontent it would have bred in the' Vir
ginians, who worked for nothing besides their daily
pay of eightpence. Washington, already a leader
of men, possessed himself in a patience extremely
difficult to his passionate temper ; but the position
was untenable, and the presence of the military
drones demoraUzed his soldiers. Therefore, leav
ing 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 entrenchment thrown up. De
serters had brought news that strong reinforce
ments were expected 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 of attack thickened.
Mackay and his men were sent for, and they

1754.] COULON DE VILLEERS. 153
arrived on the twenty-eighth of June. A councU
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 the Virginians had to carry much of the bag
gage 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 position, though perhaps the best in
the neighborhood, was very unfavorable, and
Washington would have retreated farther, but for
the condition of his men. They were spent with
fatigue, and there was no 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
news of the death of Jumonville reached Mont
real, 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 Jumonville, the
command was now transferred to Villiers. Here
upon, the march was postponed ; the newly-arrived

154 WASHINGTON. [1754.
Avarriors were called to council, and Contrecceur
thus harangued them: "The English have mur
dered my chUdren ; 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, Iro
quois of La Presentation, Nipissings, Algonquins,
and Ottawas, — I in\dte you all by this belt of
wampum 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 were cheerfully accepted. Then
Contrecceur turned to the Delawares, who were
also present : " 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 mak
ing moccasons for the march, and by the French in
preparing for an expedition on a larger scale than
had been at first intended. Contrecceur, Villiers,
Le Mercier, and Longueuil, after deliberating to
gether, drew up a paper to the effect that " it was
fitting (convenable) to march against the English
with the greatest possible number of French and
savages, in order to avenge ourselves and chastise
them for having violated the most sacred laws of
civilized nations ; " that, though their conduct jus
tified 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

1754.] MARCH OF VILLIERS. 155
of his royal orders, the French looked on them as
friends. But it was further agreed that should
the English have withdrawn to their own side of
the mountains, " they should be followed to their
settlements to destroy them and treat them as ene
mies, till that nation should give ample satisfaction
and completely change its conduct." ^
The party set out on the next morning, pad
dled their canoes up the Monongahela, encamped,
heard Mass ; and on the thirtieth reached the
deserted storehouse of the Ohio Company at the
mouth of Redstone Creek. It was a building of
solid logs, well loopholed for musketry. To please
the Indians by asking theu' advice, Villiers called
all the chiefs to council ; which, being concluded
to their satisfaction, he left a sergeant's guard at
the storehouse to watch the canoes, and began his
march through the forest. The path was so rough
that at the first halt the chaplain declared he
could go no farther, and turned back for the store
house, though not till he had absolved the whole
company in a body. Thus lightened 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 Villiers pushed his
1 Journal de Campagne de M. de Villiers depuis son Arrivee au Fort
Duquesne jusqu' a son Retour au dit Fort. These and other passages are
omitted in the Journal as printed in Precis des Faits. Before me is a copy
from the original in the Archives de la Marine,

156 WASHINGTON. [1754
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 un-
buried. 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
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 be only
knee deep. On the south, and partly on the west,
there was an exterior embankment, which 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, think
ing, he says, that the enemy, being greatly supe
rior in force, would attack at once ; and choosing
for some reason to meet them' on the open plain.
But Villiers had other views. "We approached
the English," he writes, "as near as possible,
without uselessly exposing the lives of' the King's

1764.] FORT NECESSITY. 157
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 separated
by a small brook. One of these was about a hun
dred paces from the English, and the other about
sixty. Their position was such that the French
and Indians, well sheltered by trees and bushes,
and with the advantage of higher ground, could
cross their fire upon the fort and enfilade a part
of it. Washington had meanwhile drawn his fol
lowers within the entrenchment; and the firing
now began on both sides. Rain fell all day. The
raw earth of the embankment was turned to soft
mud, and the men in the ditch of the outwork
stood to the knee in water. The swivels brought
back from the camp at Gist's farm were mounted
on the rampart ; but the gunners were so ill pro
tected that the pieces were almost sUenced by the
French musketry. The fight lasted nine hours.
At times the fire on both sides was nearly quenched
by the showers, and the bedrenched combatants
could do little but gaze at each other through a
gray veil of mist and rain. Towards night, how
ever, the fusUlade revived, and became sharp again
until dark. At eight o'clock the French called
out to propose a parley.
Villiers thus gives his reasons for these over
tures. " 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 the firing of

158 WASHINGTON. [1754
cannon had been heard in the distance, I proposed
to M. Le Mercier to 'offer the English a confer
ence." He says further that ammunition was fall
ing short, and that he thought the enemy might
'sally in a body and attack him.^ The English, on
their side, were in a worse 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 desper
ate position, Washington declined the parley, think
ing it a pretext to introduce a spy ; but wh^n 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 Peyroney, who was dis
abled 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 sputtering candle kept alight with 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 I'assassinat du Sieur de Jumon
ville as the death of the Sieur de Jumonville,'^ As
1 Journal de Villiers, original. Omitted in the Journal as printed by
the French Government. A short and very incorrect abstract of this
Journal will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., X.
2 See Appendix C. On the fight at Great Meadows, compare Sparks,
Writings of Washington, II. 456-468 ; also a letter of Colonel Innes to

1764,] CAPITULATION. 159
thus understood, the articles were signed about
midnight. They provided that the English should
march out with drums beating and the honors of
war, carrying with them one of their swivels and
all their other property ; that they should be pro
tected 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 Vanbraam
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 Virgin
ians were kUled 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.^ 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, Villiers says that the detach
ment as originally formed consisted of five hun
dred white men. These were increased after his
arrival at Fort Duquesne, and one of the party
Governor Hamilton, written a week after the event, in Colonial Records of
Pa., VI, 50, and a letter of Adam Stephen in Pennsylvania Gazette, 1754,
' Dinwiddie writes to the Lords of Trade that thirty iu all were killed,
and seventy wounded, on the English side ; and the commissary Varln
¦writes to Bigot that the French lost seventy-two killed and wounded.

160 WASHINGTON, [1754
reports that seven hundred marched on the ex
pedition.^ The number 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 them
selves on the open meadow. There were no In
dians 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 cowards, 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
I A Journal had from Thomas Forbes, lately a Private Soldier in the King
of France's Service. (Public Record Office.) Forbes was one of Villiers'
soldiers. The commissary Varin puts the number of French at six hfin-
dred, besides Indians.
2 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 the Indians,
but was always driving them on to fight by his directions ; that he lay at
one place from one full moon to the other, and made no fortifications at
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. 161
increased the confusion by plundering, and threat
ening an attack. They knocked to pieces the
medicine-chest, thus causing great distress to the
wounded, two of whom they murdered and scalped.
For a time there was danger of panic ; but order
was restored, and the wretched march began along
the forest road that led over the AUeghanies,
fifty-two miles to the station at Wills Creek.
Whatever may have been the feelings of Wash
ington, he has left no record of them. His im
mense 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
wounded men borne along in torture, and weary
men staggering under the living load. His pride
was humbled, and his young ambition seemed
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 Necessity was doubly disas
trous 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 smould
ering war broke into flame, nearly all the western
tribes drew their scalping-knives for France.
Villiers went back exultant to Fort Duquesne,
burning on his way the buildings of Gist's settle
ment and the storehouse at Redstone Creek..
Not an English flag now waved beyond the
AUeghanies.-' 1 See Appendix C.
VOL, I. — 11

CHAPTER VI.
1754, 1755.
THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.
Troubles op Dinwiddie. — Gathehing of the BnKaESSES. — Vib-
GiNiAN Society, — Refeactoky Legislators, — The Quaker
Assembly, — It refuses to resist the French. -^ Apathy of
New York. — Shirley akd the General Court of Massachi^-
setts. — Short-sighted Policy. — Attitude of Royal Gov
ernors. — Indian Allies waver. — Convention at Albany.^
Scheme of Union. — It fails. — Dinwiddie and Glen. — Din
widdie CALLS on England for Help. — The Duke of New
castle. — Weakness of the British Cabinet. — Attitude op
France. — Mutual Dissimulation. — Both Powers send Troops
to America. — Collision. — Capture of the "Alcide" and the
" Lis."
The defeat of' Washington was a heavy blow to
the Governor, and he angrily ascribed it to the
delay of the expected reinforcements. The King's
companies from New York had reached Alexan
dria, and crawled towards the scene of action with
thin ranks, bad discipline, thirty women and chil
dren, 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 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 confusion among them." The men
1 Dinwiddie to the Lords of Trade, 24 July, 1754. Ibid, to Delancey,
SO June, 1754.

1754.] THE VIRGINIAN CAPITAL. 163
were, in fact, utterly unmanageable. They had
been promised three shillings a day, while the
Virginians had only eightpence ; and when they
heard on the march that their pay was to be re
duced, they mutinied, disbanded, and went home.
"You may easily guess," says Dinwiddie to a
London correspondent, " the great fatigue and
trouble I have had, which is more than I ever
Went through in my life." He rested his hopes
on the session of his Assembly, which was to take
place in August ; for he thought that the late dis
aster 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 scattered far and
wide on their lonely plantations. The capital of
the province was Williamsburg, a village of about
Of 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
his wife and two daughters exercised such official
hospitality as his moderate salary and Scottish
thrift would permit.^
1 For a contemporary account of WUliamsburg, BnrUaby, Travels in
North America, 6, Smyth, Tour in America, I. 17, describes it some
years later.

164 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754
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 Lon
don at heavy cost in tobacco, though' soon to be
bedimmed by Virginia roads and negro care; ra
cing and hard-drinking planters ; clergymen of the
Establishment, not much more ascetic than their
boon companions of the laity; ladies, with man
ners a little rusted by long seclusion ; black coach
men and footmen, proud of their masters and their
liveries ; young cavaliers, booted and spurred, sit
ting 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 Dinwiddie made them
an opening speech, inveighing against the aggres
sions of the French, their " contempt of treaties,"
and "ambitious views for universal monarchy;"
and he concluded : " I could expatiate very largely
on these affairs, but my heart burns with resent
ment at their insolence. I think there is no room
for many arguments to induce you to raise a con
siderable supply to enable me to defeat the designs
of these troublesome people and enemies of man
kind." The burgesses in their turn expressed
1 The English traveller Smyth, in his Tour, gives a curious and vivid
picture of Virginian life. For the social condition of this and other colo
nies before the Revolution, one cannot do better than to consult Lodge's
Short History of the English Colonies.

i!754.] TROUBLES OF DINWIDDIE. 165
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 Governor,
was both unconstitutional and offensive. He re
monstrated 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." ^ A few
weeks later he was comforted ; for, having again
called the burgesses, they gave him the money,
without trying this time to humiliate him. ^
In straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel,
aristocratic Virginia was far outdone by democratic
Pennsylvania. Hamilton, her governor, had laid
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 was curiously unlike
' Dinwiddie to Hamilton, 6 Sept., 1754. Ibid, to J. Abercrombie, 1 Sept.,
1754. 2 Hening, VI. 435.
- The Earl of Holdernesse to the Governors in America, 28 Aug. 1753.

166 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. |1754,
that of Virginia, as half and often more than half
of its members were Quaker tradesmen in sober
raiment and broad-brimmed 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 farms. 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 Assem
blies of this province are generally composed of a
majority who are constitutionally principled against.
war, and represent a well-meaning, peaceable peo
ple." -^ They then adjourned, telling the Governor
that, "As those our limits have not been clearly
ascertained to our satisfaction, we fear the precipi
tate 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
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 an
swer was always. No. The House would give noth
ing but five hundred pounds for a present to the
Indians; after which they adjourned "to the sixth
of the month called May." ^ At their next meet-
1 Colonial Records of Pa., V. 748.
2 Pennsylvania Archives, II. 235, Colonial Records of Pa., VI, 22-26.
Works of Franklin, IIL 265.

1754.J CONDUCT OF THE QUAIOSRS. 167
ing 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 contrary 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 simi
lar vote, with the same result. At their Octo
ber 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 governor, who had
lately succeeded Hamilton, was under the same
restrictions as his predecessor. They told him,
however, that in the present case they felt them
selves bound by no Act of Parliament, and added :
"We hope the Governor,- notwithstanding any penal
bond he may have entered into, will on reflection
think himself at liberty and find it consistent 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 controversy concerning
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
I Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 215.

168 THE SIGNAL, OF BATTLE. [1754,
rather the French should conquer them than give
up their privileges." ^ " Truly," remarks Dinwid
die, " I think they have given their senses a long
holiday." New York was not much behind her sisters in
contentious stubbornness. In answer to the Gov
ernor'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 evi
dence or information appear to us to be an invasion
of any of His Majesty's colonies." ^ 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.^
Maryland, after long delay, gave six thousand.
New Jersey felt herself safe behind the other col
onies, and would give nothing. New England, on
the other hand, and especially Massachusetts, had
suffered so much from French war-parties that
they were always ready to fight. Shirley, the
governor of Massachusetts, had returned from his
bootless errand to settle the boundary 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 laur
els in the last war. Shirley was cautious of giving
^ Morris to Penn, 1 Jan. 1755.
^ Address of the Assembly to Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, 23 April,
1754. Lords of Trade to Delancey, 5 .luly, 1754,
^ Delancey to Lords of Trade, 8 Oct. 1754.

1754,] COLONIAL DISSENSIONS. 169
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 seiz
ing the carrying-place between the Chaudiere 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 Port
land) ; 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.-"^
While to these northern provinces Canada was
an old and pestilent enemy, those towards the
south scarcely knew her by name ; and the idea
of French aggression on their borders was so novel
and strange that they admitted it with difficulty.
Mind and heart were engrossed in strife with thpir
governors : the universal struggle for virtual self-
rule. But the war was often waged with a pas
sionate 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, ca
pable, at need, of the mightiest efforts to purge
^Massachusetts Archives, 1754. Hutchinson, III. 26. Conduct of Major
General Shirley briefly stated. Journals of the Board of Trade, 1754.

170 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754
itself of disaffection and vindicate its commanding
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.
Their first necessity was to rid themselves of the
French, who, by shutting them between the AUe
ghanies and the sea, would cramp them into per
petual littleness. With France on their backs,
growing while they had no room to grow, they
must remain in helpless wardship, dependent on
England, whose aid they would always need ; but
with 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 cen
tury the vision of the ordinary colonist rarely
reached so far. The immediate victory over a
governor, however slight the point at issue, was
more precious in his eyes than the remote though
decisive advantage which he saw but dimly.
The governors, representing the central power,
saw the situation from the national point of view.
Several of them, notably Dinwiddie and Shirley,
were filled with wrath at the proceedings of the
French ; and the former was exasperated beyond
measure at the supineness of the provinces. He
had spared no effort to rouse them, and had failed.
His instincts were on the side of authority ; but,
under the circumstances, it is hardly to be imputed

1754.] ENGLISH AND INDIANS. 171
to him as a very deep offence against human lib
erty that he advised the compelling of the colonies
to raise men and money for their own defence,
and proposed, in view of their " intolerable obstin
acy and disobedience to his Majesty's commands,"
that Parliament should tax them half-a-crown a
head. The approaching war offered to the party
of authority temptations 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 opposition to the common enemy. It was very
willing that the several provinces shoiild give
money and men, but not that they should acquire
military habits and a dangerous capacity of act
ing together. There was one kind of union, how
ever, so obviously necessary, 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 sepa
rate treaties, made by each province in its own
interest, had bred endless disorders. The adhe
sion of all the tribes had been so shaken, and the
efforts of the French to alienate them were so
vigorous 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|

172 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754
Hendrick, came to New York with a deputation of
the tribe to complain of their wrongs ; and finding
no redress, went off in anger, 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 Onon
daga, 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
left. 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 we live. We are so perplexed
between you that we hardly know what to say or
think." ^ No man had such power over the Five
Nations as Johnson. His dealings with them were
at once honest, downright, and sympathetic. They
loved and trusted him as much as they detested the
Indian commissioners at Albany, whom the prov
ince of New York had charged with their affairs,
and who, being traders, grossly abused their office.
It was to remedy this perUous state of things
that the Lords of Trade and Plantations directed
the several governors to urge on their assembhes
the sending of commissioners to make a joint
treaty with the wavering tribes.^ Seven of the
1 N. Y. Col. Docs., VI. 788. Colonial Records of Pa., V. 625.
2 N. Y. Col. Docs., VI. 813.
' Circular Letter of Lords of Trade to Governors in America, \8 Sept.
1753. Lords of Trade to Sir Dancers Osborne, in N. Y. Col. Docs., VI, 800.

J754.] SPEECH OF HENDRICK. 173
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 King was symboli
cally represented, holding in his embrace the colo
nies, the Five Nations, and all their allied tribes.
This was presented to the assembled warriors, 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 allow
ing 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 vigi
lant people, always using their utmost endeavors

174 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. fl754.
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 Gov
ernor of Virginia and the Govemor 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 loar], but you
prevented 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 city. It is but a step from Can
ada hither, and the French may come and turn
you out of doors. 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 for
tifying everywhere. But you are all like women,
bare and open, without fortifications." ^
Hendrick's brother Abraham now took up the
word, and begged that Johnson might be restored
to the management of Indian affairs, which he had
formerly 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
1 Proceedings of the Congress at Albany, N. Y. Col. Docs., VI. 853. A
few verbal changes, for the sake of brevity, are made in the above
extracts.

S754.] SCHEMES OF UNION. 175
to take any effective steps for fortifying the
frontier. The congress now occupied itself with another
matter. Its members were agreed that great dan
ger was impending; that without wise and just
treatment of the tribes, the French would gain
them all, build 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 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, observing that
if ignorant savages could confederate, British col
onists might do as much.^ Franklin, the leading
spirit of the congress, now laid before it his fa
mous 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 reqviired each of them to transfer some
of its functions of self-government to a central
council. Another plan was afterwards devised by
the friends of prerogative, perfectly agreeable to
the King, since it placed all power in the ha,nds
1 Kennedy, Importance of gaining and preserving the Friendship of the
Indians.

176 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754.
of a council of governors, 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 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 Dinwiddie grew
more and more alarmed, " for 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 hundred to fifteen hun
dred." He writes to Lord Granville 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 rar
pacious enemy." What vexed him even more than
the apathy of the assemblies was the conduct of his
brother-governor. Glen of South Carolina, who, ap
parently piqued at the conspicuous part Dinwiddie
was acting, wrote to him in a " very dictatorial
style," found fault with his measures, jested at his
activity in writing letters, and even questioned the
1 On the Albany plan of union, Franklin's Works, I, 177, Shirley
thought it " a great strain upon the prerogative of the Crown," and was
for requiring the colonies to raise money and men " without farther con
sulting them upon any points whatever." Shirley to Robinson, 24 Dec.
1754.

1754.] DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. 177
right of England to lands on the Ohio ; till he was
moved at last to retort : " I cannot help observing
that your letters and arguments would have been
more proper from a French officer than from one of
His Majesty's governors. My condiict 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 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 unfit
ness for both. He was an adept in personal poli
tics, 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 higher work of govern
ment. He was restless, quick in movement, rapid
and confused in speech, lavish of worthless prom
ises, 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
1 Dinwiddie Papers ; letters to Granville, Albemarle, Halifax, Fox,
Holdernesse, Horace Walpole, and Lords of Trade,
VOL. I. — 12

178 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754.
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 limping, evasive hurry : ' Annapolis, Annapolis !
Oh, yes, Annapolis must be defended ; to be
sure, Annapolis should be defended, — where is
Annapolis ? ' " ^ Another contemporary, Smollett,
ridicules him in his novel of Humphrey Clinlcer,
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 stUl 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
A-cadia 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 isl
and? — 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 'U go directly and tell the
King that Cape Breton is an island.' "
' Walpole, George II., I, 344.

1754.] COLLEAGUES OF NEWCASTLE. 179
His wealth, county influence, flagitious use of
patronage, and long-practised skill in keeping ma
jorities in the House of Commons by means that
would not bear the light, 'made his support neces
sary to Pitt himself, and placed a fantastic politi
cal 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 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 cele
brated navigator, was First Lord of the Admiralty,
— a position in which he disappointed everybody.
In France the true ruler was Madame de Pom
padour, once the King's mistress, now his procuress,
and a sort of feminine prime minister. Machault
d'Arnouville was at the head of the Marine and
Colonial Department. The diplomatic represen
tatives of the two Crowns were more conspicuous

180 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. fl754
for social than for political talents. Of Mirepoix,
French ambassador at London, Marshal Saxe had
once observed : " It is a good appointment ; he can
teach the English to dance." Walpole says con
cerning him : " He could not even learn to pro
nounce the names of our games of cards, — which,
however, engaged most of the hours of his negoti
ation. We were to be bullied out of our colonies
by an apprentice at whist ! " Lord Albemarle, Eng
lish ambassador at Versailles, is held up by Chester
field 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, Govemor of Virginia, Groom of the Stole,
and ambassador to Paris, — amounting in all to six
teen 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 learn
ing, his parts, his political abilities and application?
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 thou
sand men, and France had nearly ten times as
many under arms. Both alike were weak in

1754.] AID FOR AMERICA. 181
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 inter
ests 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 and good faith, while increasing her navy,
reinforcing her garrisons in America, and strength
ening 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 Parlia
ment, he congratulated them on the prevailing
peace, and assured them that he should improve
it to promote the trade of his subjects, " and pro
tect those possessions which constitute one great
source of their wealth." America was not men
tioned ; but his hearers understood him, and made
a liberal grant for the service of the year.^ Two
regiments, each of five hundred men, had already
been ordered to sail for Virginia, where their num
bers were to be raised by enlistment to seven hun
dred.^ Major-General Braddock, a man after the
1 Entick, Late War, L 118.
2 Robinson to Lords of the Admiralty, 30 Sept. 1754. Ibid., to Board of
Ordnance, 10 Oct. 1754. Ibid., Circular Letter to American Governors, 26
Oct. 1754. Instructions to our Trusty and Well-beloved Edward Braddock,
25 Nob. 1754.

182 THE SIGNAL OF, BATTLE. 11755,
Duke of Cumberland's own 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 foreseen what
awaited them.
This movement was no sooner known at Ver
sailles than a counter expedition was prepared on
a larger scale. Eighteen ships of war were fitted
for sea at Brest and Rochefort, and the six bat
talions of La Reine, Bourgogne, Languedoc, Gui-
enne, Artois, and Beam, 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 de 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 cer
tain distance from the coast. There was long and
tedious delay. Doreil, commissary 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

1755.] DIPLOMATIC SKIRMISH. 183
rigging (I don't know the name of it) which was
broken. It is precious time lost, and gives the
English 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 very able and zeal
ous h^nds. It is now half-past two. In haU an
hour all may be ready, and we may get out of the
harbor before night." He was again disappointed ;
it was the third of May before the fleet put to
sea.^ During these preparations there was active dip
lomatic correspondence between the two Courts.
Mirepoix demanded why British troops were sent
to America. Sir Thomas Robinson answered that
there was no intention to disturb the peace or
offend any Power whatever ; yet the secret orders
to Braddock were the reverse of pacific. Robin
son 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
was meant. At the same time Mirepoix in the
name of the King proposed that orders should be
given to the American governors on both sides to
refrain from all acts of aggression. But while mak
ing 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
^ Lettres de Cremille, de Rostaing, et de Doreil au Ministre, Avril 18,
24, 28, 29, 1755. Liste des Vaisseaux de Guerre qui composent I'Escadre
armee a Brest, 1755. Journal of M. de Vaudreuil's Voyage to Canada, ia
N. Y. Col Docs., X. 297. Pouchot, I. 25.

184 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1755,
on the Kennebec, — a river which, by the admission
of the French themselves, belonged to the EngUsh.
But, in making this attack, the French Governor
was expressly enjoined to pretend that he acted
without orders.^ He was also told that, if neces
sary, he might make use of the Indians to harass
the English!^ Thus there was good faith on neither
part ; but it is clear through all the correspondence
that the English expected to gain by precipitating
an open rupture, and the French by postponing it.
Projects of convention were proposed on both sides,
but there was no agreement. The English insisted
as a preliminary condition that the French should
evacuate all the western country as far as the
Wabash. Then ensued a long discussion of their
respective claims, as futile as the former discus
sion at Paris on Acadian boundaries.^
The- British Court knew perfectly the naval and
military preparations of the French. Lord Albe
marle had died at Paris in December; but the
secretary of the embassy, De Cosne, sent to London
full information concerning the fleet at Brest and
Rochefort.* On this. Admiral Boscawen, with eleven
ships of the line and one frigate, was ordered to
intercept it ; and as his force was plainly too small,
Admiral Holbourne, with seven more ships, was
1 Machault a Duquesne, 17 Fev. 1755. The letter of Mirepoix pro
posing mutual abstinence from aggression, is dated on the 6th of the
same month. The French dreaded Fort Halifax, because they thought it
prepared the way for an advance on Quebec by way of the Chaudiere;
2 Ibid.
' This correspondence is printed among the Pieces justificatives of tha
Precis des Faits.
* Particulars in Entick, I. 121.

1755.] THE- ALCIDE AND THE LIS. 185
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 Amer
ica.^ Boscawen, who got to sea before La Motte,
stationed himself near the southern coast of New
foundland to cut 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 EngUsh expedition was, in the main, a
failure. Three of the French ships, however, lost
in fog and rain, had become separated 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 Hocquart ; the
others were the " Lis "and the " Dauphin." The wind
fell ; but the fogs continued at intervals ; 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 ac
count, says that in the morning they were within
three leagues of him, crowding all sail 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 Admiral,
displaying a red flag as a 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."
1 Secret Instructions for our Trusty and Well-beloved Edward Boscawen,
Esq., Vice-Admiral of the Blue, 16 April, 1755. Most secret Instructions for
Francis Holbourne, Esq., Rear-Admiral of the Blue, 9 May, 1755. Robin
son to Lords of the Admiralty, 8 May, 1755.

186 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1755.
Hocquart then asked the name of the British admi
ral ; and on hearing it said : " I know him ; he is
a friend of mine." Being asked his own name in
return, he had scarcely uttered it when the bat
teries of the " Dunkirk " belched flame and smoke,
and volleyed a tempest of iron upon the crowded
decks of the " Alcide." She returned the fire, but
was forced at length to strike her colors. Rostaing,
second in command of the troops, was killed ; and
six other .officers, with about eighty men, were
killed or wounded.^ At the same time the " Lis "
was attacked and overpowered. She had on board
eight companies of the battalions of La Reine and
Languedoc. The third French ship, the "Dauphin,"
escaped under cover of a rising fog.^
Here at last was an end to negotiation. The
sword was drawn and brandished in the eyes of
Europe.
1 Liste des Officiers tu^s et blesses dans le Combat de I' Alcide et du Lis.
2 Hocquart's account is given in full by Pichon, Lettres et Memoires
pour servir a I' Histoire du Cap-Breton. The short account in Precis des
Faits, 272, seems, too, to be dra-wn from Hocquart. Also Boscawen to
Robinson, 22 June, 1755. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1755. Entick,
L 137. Some English accounts say that Captain Howe, in answer to the ques
tion, " Are we at peace, or war -? " returned, " I don't know; but you had
better prepare for war." Boscawen places the action on the 10th, instead
of the 8th, and puts the English loss at seven killed and twenty-seven
wounded.

CHAPTER VII.
1755.
BRADDOCK.
Arrival op Braddock. — His Character. — Council at Alexan
dria. — Plan of the Campaign. — Apathy of the Colonists, r-
Rage of Braddock. — Franklin. — Fort Cumberland. — Com.
position of the Armt. — Offended Friends. — The March. — .
The French Fort. — Savage Allies. — The Captive. — Beau
jeu. — He goes to meet the English. — Passage of the
Monongahela. — The Surprise. — The Battle — Rout of Brad
dock. — His Death. — Indian Ferocitt. — Reception of the III
News. — Weakness of Dunbar, — The Frontier abandoned.
" I HAVE the pleasure to acquaint you that Gen
eral Braddock came to my house last Sunday
night," writes Dinwiddie, at the end of February,
to Governor Dobbs of North Carolina. Brad
dock had landed at Hampton from the ship " Cen
turion," along with young 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 ease ; for these twelve months past I have
been a perfect slave." He conceived golden opin
ions of his guest. "He is, I think, a very fine
officer, and a sensible, considerate gentleman. He
and I live in great harmony."
Had he known him better, he might have praised
him less. WUliam Shirley, son of the Govemor of

188 BRADDOCK. [1755
Massachusetts, was Braddock' s secretary; 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 pecuniary matters." ^ The astute Franklin,
who also had good opportunity of knowing him,
says : " This general was, I think, a brave man,
and might probably have made a good figure in
some European war. But he had too much self-
confidence ; too high an opinion of the validity of
regular troops ; too mean a one of both Americans
and Indians." ^ Horace Walpole, in his function
of gathering and immortalizing 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 Iroquois in dis
position. He had a sister who, having gamed
away all her little fortune at Bath, hanged herself
with a truly English deliberation, leaving only a
note upon the table with those lines : ' To die is
landing on some silent shore,' etc. When Brad
dock was told of it, he only said : ' Poor Fanny !
I always thought she would play till she would
be 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.
1 Shirley the younger to Morris, 23 May, 1755.
2 Franklin, Autobiography.

1755.1 HIS CHARACTER. 189
She was a rash but warm-hearted creature, re
duced to penury and dependence, not so much
by a passion for cards as by her lavish generosity
to a lover ruined by his own foUies, and with
whom her relations are said to have been entirely
innocent. Walpole continues: "But a more ridic
ulous story of Braddock, and 'which is recorded
in heroics by Fielding in his Covent Garden Tra
gedy, 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 very pressing,
she pulled out her purse and showed him that she
had but t-vrelve 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 support you.' Braddock refused
the purse, insisted on the duel, was disarmed,
and would not even ask his life. However,
with all his brutality, he has lately been gover
nor of Gibraltar, where he made himself adored,

190 BRADDOCK. [175/1
and where scarce any govemor was endured
before." ^
Another story is told of him by an accomplished
actress of the time, George Anne Bellamy, whom
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 in the Park one day, we heard a
poor fellow was to be chastised ; when I requested
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 brutality and insolence of
his manners ? To which the other replied : ' You
never knew me insolent to my inferiors. It is
only to such rude men as yourself that I behave
with the spirit which I think they deserve.' "
Braddock made a visit to the actress on -the
evening before he left London for America. " Be
fore we parted," she says, " the General told me
that he should never see me more; for he was
going with a handful of men to conquer whole
nations ; and to do this they must cut their way
through unknown woods. He produced a map of
the country, saying at the same time : ' Dear Pop,
we are sent like sacrifices to the altar,' " ^ — a
strange presentiment for a man of his- sturdy
temper. 1 Letters of Horace Walpole (1866), IL 459, 461. It is doubtful if
Braddock was ever governor of Gibraltar ; though, as Mr, Sargent shows,
he once commanded a regiment there.
2 Apology for the Life of George Anne Bellamy, written by herself,
II, 204 (London, 1786J.

1755,] THE COUNCIL. 191
Whatever were his failings, he feared nothing,
and his fidelity and honor in the discharge of pub
lic trusts were never questioned. "Desperate in
his fortune, brutal in his behavior, obstinate in
his sentiments," again writes Walpole, "he 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 Alexan
dria, where a camp was to be formed. Thither,
towards the end of March, went Braddock himself,
along with Keppel and Dinwiddie, in the Gover
nor's coach ; while his aide-de-camp, Orme, his sec
retary, Shirley, and the servants of the 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
formed encampment. Here was Dinwiddie, who
thought his troubles at an end, and saw in the red-
coated soldiery the near fruition of his hopes.
Here, too, was his friend and ally, Dobbs of North
Carolina; with Morris of Pennsylvania, fresh
from Assemblj^ quarrels ; Sharpe of Maryland, who,
having once been a soldier, had been made a sort
of provisional commander-in-chief before the ar
rival of Braddock ; and the ambitious Delancey
of New York, who had lately led the opposition
against the Govemor of that province, and now
1 Walpole, George II., I, 390.

192 BRADDOCK. [I755.
filled the office himself, — a position that needed all
his manifold adroitness. But, next to Braddock,
the most noteworthy man present was Shirley,
governor of Massachusetts. There was a fountain
of youth in this old lawyer. A few years before,
when he was boundary commissioner in Paris, he
had had the indiscretion to marry a young Catholic
French girl, the daughter of his landlord; and
mow, when more than sixty years old, he thirsted
for military honors, and delighted in contriving
operations of war. He was one of a very few in
the colonies who at this time entertained the idea
of expelling the French from the continent. He
held that Carthage must be destroyed ; and, in
spite of his Parisian marriage, was the foremost
advocate of the root-and-branch policy. He and
Lawrence, governor of Nova Scotia, had concerted
an attack on the French fort of Beausejour ; and,
jointly with others in New England, he had
planned the capture of Crown Point, the key of
Lake Champlain. By these two strokes and by
fortifying the portage between the Kennebec and
the Chaudiere, he thought that the northern col-
on'es would be saved from invasion, and placed in
a position to become themselves invaders. Then,
by iriving the enemy from Niagara, securing that
important pass, and thus cutting off the commu
nication between Canada and her interior depen
dencies, all the French posts in the West would
die of inanition.^ In order to commend these
schemes to the Home Government, he had painted
1 Correspondence of Shirley, 1754, 1755.

1755.] PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN. 193
in gloomy colors the dangers that beset the British
colonies. Our Indians, he said, will all desert us
if we su-bmit to French encroachment. Some of
the provinces are full of negro slaves, ready to'
rise against their masters, and of Roman Catholics,
Jacobites, indented servants, and other dangerous
persons, who would aid the French in raising a ser
vile insurrection. Pennsylvania is in the hands of
Quakers, who wUl not fight, and of Germans, who
are likely enough to join the enemy. The Dutch of
Albany wou.ld 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 naval force, capture New
York and cut the British colonies asunder.-^
The plans against Crown Point and Beausejour
had already found the approval of the Home Gov
ernment and the energetic support of all the New
England colonies. Preparation for them was in
fuU activity ; and it was with great difficulty that
Shirley had disengaged himself from these cares
to attend the council at Alexandria. He and Din
widdie stood in the front of opposition to French
designs. As they both defended the royal prerog
ative 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 gratitude, and the American
States owe it stUl.
Braddock, laid his instructions before the Coun
cil, and Shirley found them entirely to his mind ;:
1 Shirley to Robinson, 24 Jan. 1755.
VOL. I. — 13

194 BRADDOCK. [1755
whUe the General, on his part, fully approved the
schemes of the Governor. The plan of the cam
paign was settled. The French were to be attacked
at four points at once. The two British regimenta
lately arrived were to advance on Fort Duquesne ;
two new regiments, known as Shirley's and Pepper
ell'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 an
other body of New England men to capture Beau
sejour 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 reputa
tion for energy, capacity, and faithfulness. Lastly,
the Acadian enterprise was assigned to Lieutenant-
Colonel Monckton, a regular officer of merit.
To strike this fourfold blow in time of peace
was a scheme worthy of Newcastle and of Cumber
land. The pretext was that the positions to be
attacked were all on British soil ; that in occupy
ing 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 posi
tions, the French, if they had no other right,
might at least claim one of prescription. Crown

1755.] PREPARATION. 195
Point had been twenty-four years in their undis
turbed possession, while it was three quarters of
a century since they first occupied Niagara ; and,
though New York claimed the ground, no serious
attempt had been made to dislodge them.
Other matters now engaged the Council. Brad
dock, in accordance with his instructions^ asked
the governors to urge upon their several assem
blies the establishment of a general fund for the
service of the campaign ; but the 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 com
pelled by Act of Parliament to contribute in due
proportion to the support of the war. Braddock
next asked if, in the judgment of the Council, it
would not be well to send Colonel Johnson with
full powers to treat with the Five Nations, who
had been driven to the verge of an outbreak
by the misconduct of the Dutch Indian commis
sioners at Albany. The measure was cordially
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, bur
dened 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 commis
sion as sole superintendent of Indian affairs, and

196 BRADDOCK. 11755,
charged, besides, with the enterprise against Crown
Point ; while an express was despatched to Monck
ton at Halifax, with orders to set at once to his
work of capturing Beausejour.^
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 WUls Creek,
the two regiments had disembarked at Philadel
phia and marched westward, the way would have
been shortened, and would have 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 adjoinkig
province of Maryland, wagons, horses, and forage
were scarce. The enemies of the Administration
ascribed this blunder to the influence of the Quaker
merchant, John Hanbury, whom the Duke of New
castle had consulted as a person familiar with
American affairs. Hanbury, who was a promi
nent 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

^Minutes of a Council held at the Camp at Alexandria, in Virginia, April
14, 1755. Instructions to Major-General Braddock, 25 Nov. 1754. Secret
Instructions to Major-General Braddock, same date. Napier to Braddock,
written by Order of the Duke of Cumberland, 25 Nov. 1754, in Precis des
Faits, Pieces justificatives, 168, Orme, .Journal ofBraddock's Expedition.
Instructions to Governor Shirley. Correspondence of Shirley. Correspond
ence of Braddock (Public Record Office), Johnson Papers. Dinwiddie
Papers. Pennsylvania Archives, II,
2 Shebbeare's Tracts, Letter I, Dr, Sh^bbeare was a political pamph
leteer, pilloried by one ministry, and rewarded by the next. He certainly

1755.] HIS DIFFICULTIES. 197
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."^ Many of them thought
that the alarm about French encroachment was a
device of designing politicians; and they did not
awake to a full consciousness of the peril till it
was forced upon them by a deluge of calamities,
produced by the purblind folly of their own repre
sentatives, who, instead of frankly promoting the
expedition, displayed a per-verse and exasperating
narrowness which chafed Braddock to fury. He
praises the New England colonies, and echoes Din
widdle's declaration that they have shown a " fine
martial spirit," and he commends Virginia as hav
ing 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. Every
thing depended on speed, and speed was impossible ;
speaks of Hanbury, though he does not give his name. Compare Sar
gent, 107, 162,
1 Gentleman's Magazine, Aug. 1755.
2 Writings of Washington, II. 78. He speaks of the people of Penn
sylvania. 8 Braddock to Robinson, 18 March, 19 April, 5 June, 1755, etc. On the
attitude of Pennsylvania, Colonial Records of Pa., VL, passim.

198 BRADDOCK. (1755.
for stores and provisions were net ready, though
notice to furnish them had been given months
before. The quartermaster-general. Sir John Sin
clair, "stormed like a lion rampant," but with small
effect.-' 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 comment
that Braddock 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-gen
eral of Pennsylvania. That sagacious personage, —
the sublime of common-sense, about equal in his
instincts and motives of character to the respect
able average of the New England that produced
him, but gifted with a versatile power of brain
rarely matched on earth, — was then divided be
tween his strong desire to repel a danger of which
he saw the imminence, and his equally strong an
tagonism to the selfish claims of the Penns, pro
prietaries of Pennsylvania. This last motive had
determined his attitude towards their representa
tive, the Governor, and led him into an opposition
as injurious to the military good name of the pro
vince as it was favorable to its political longings,
In the present case there was no such conflict of
inclinations ; he could help Braddock without
hurting Pennsylvania. He and his son had visited
• Colonial Records of Pa., VI 368,

1755.] SERVICES OF FRANKLIN. 199
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 Frank
lin, " 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 Min
istry for sending them into a country void of the
means of transportation. Franklin remarked that
it was a pity they had not landed in Pennsylvania,
where almost every farmer had his wagon. Brad
dock caught eagerly at his words, and begged that
he would use his influence to enable the troops to
move. Franklin went back to Pennsylvania, is
sued an address to the farmers appealing to their
interest and their fears, and in a fortnight pro
cured a hundred and fifty wagons, with a large
number of horses.-' Braddock, grateful to his bene
factor, and enraged at everybody else, pronounced
him " Almost the only instance of ability and hon
esty I have known in these provinces." ^ More
wagons and more horses gradually arrived, and
at the eleventh hour the march began.
On the tenth of May Braddock reached Wills
Creek, where the whole force was now gathered,
1 Franklin, Autobiography. Advertisement of B. Franklin for Wagons;
Address to the Inhabitants of the Counties of York, Lancaster, and Cumber
land, in Pennsylvania Archives, II, 294.
2 Braddock to Robinson, 5 June, 1755. The letters of Braddock here
cited are the originals in the Public Record Office.

200 BRADDOCK. [1765
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 i]ort Cumberland.
During the past winter the independent compa
nies which .had failed Washington in his need
had been at work here to prepare a base of opera
tions 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 mur- '
dered oaks and chestnuts tumed into ramparts,
barracks, and magazines. Fort Cumberland was
an enclosure of logs set upright in the ground,
pierced with loopholes, and armed with ten smaU
cannon. It stood on a rising ground near the
point where Wills Creek joined the Potomac, and
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
woods, 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 Brad-
dock's force was now assembled, amounting, regu
lars, 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 hundred men each. Of Vir
ginians 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 regi
ment was assigned the duty of " making them as

1755.] HIS ILL-HUMOR. 201
much like soldiers as possible,"^ — that is, of drill
ing them like regulars. The General had little
hope of them, and informed Sir Thomas Robinson
that "their slothful and languid disposition ren
ders 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 now about six hun
dred 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 temper, rasped by dis
appointments, was in constant irritation. "He
looks upon the country, I believe," writes Wash
ington, " as void of honor or honesty. We have
frequent disputes on this head, which are main
tained 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 in
compatible with reason or common sense." ^ Brad-
dock's secretary, the younger Shirley, writing to
his friend Governor Morris, spoke thus irrever
ently of his chief : " As the King said of a neigh
boring 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
1 Orme, Journal.
2 Writings of Washington, II. 77

202 BRADDOCK. (1755
more abiUty and a little less honesty upon the
present occasion might serve our tum better.' It
is a joke to suppose that secondary 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 o-wn abiUties
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, particu
larly in America. I am greatly disgusted at see
ing an expedition (as it is called), so ill-concerted
originally in England, so improperly conducted
since in America." ^ -
Cap-fcain Robert Orme, of whom Shirley speaks,
was aide-de-camp to Braddock, and author of a
copious and excellent Journal of the expedition,
now in the British Museum.^ 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 handsome, booted to the knee, his scar
let coat, ample waistcoat, and small three-cornered
hat all heavy with gold lace. The General had
two other aides-de-camp. Captain Roger Morris
1 Shirley the younger to Morris, 23 May, 1755, iu Colonial Records oj
Pa., VI. 404.
'•^ Printed by Sargent, in his excellent monograph of Braddock's Expe
dition. '

1755.] INDIAN ALLIES. 203
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 com
plained that Indian affairs had been so ill con
ducted by the provinces that it was hard to gain
their confidence. 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 Croghan brought,
however, about fifty warriors, with as many
women and children, to the camp at Fort Cum
berland. They were objects of great curiosity to
the soldiers, who gazdd with astonishment on their
faces, painted red, yellow, and black, their ears
slit and hung with pendants, and their heads close
shaved, except the feathered scalp-lock at the
crown. " 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."
Braddock received them several times in his tent,
ordered the guard 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 ; where
upon, being much pleased, they danced a war-
dance, described by one spectator as "droll and

204 BRADDOCK. [1755
odd, showing how they scalp and fight;" after
which, says another, "they set up the most hor
rid song or cry that ever I heard." ^ These war
riors, 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 Scarro-
yaddy, afterwards complained : " He looked upon
us as dogs, and would never hear anything that we
said to him." Only eight of them remained with
him to the end.^
Another ally appeared at the camp. This was a
personage long known in Western 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 Valley 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 Indians,
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 Brad-
dock'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
well on its march. Three hundred axemen led
the way, to cut and clear the road ; and the long
^ Journal of a Naval Officer, in Sargent. The Expedition of Majar-Gerv
eral Braddock, being Extracts of Letters from an Officer (London, 1755).
^ Statement of George Croghan, in Sargent, appendix iii.
5 See several traditional accounts and contemporary letters in Hazard's
Pennsylvania Register, IV. 389, 390, 416; V. 191.

1755.] THE MARCH. 205
train of packhorses, wagons, and cannon toiled on
behind, over the stumps, roots, and stones of the
narrow track, the regulars and provincials march
ing 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, Brad
dock 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 forests ancient as the world.
The road was but twelve feet wide, and the Une
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, crawl
ing 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, flecked 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 com
mandant of Fort Duquesne had sent out parties
for that purpose. A few French and Indians
hovered about them, now and then scalping a

206 BRADDOCK. [1755.
straggler or inscribing filthy insults on trees;
while others fell upon the border settlements
which the advance of the troops had left defence
less. Here they were more successful, butcheriag
about thirty persons, chiefly women and children.
It was the eighteenth of June before the army
reached a place called the Little Meadows, less
than thirty miles from Fort Cumberland. Fever
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 they could move scarcely more than
three miles a day. Braddock consulted with
Washington, who advised him to leave the heavy
baggage to follow as it could, and push forward
with a body of chosen troops. This counsel was
given in view of a report that five hundred regu
lars were on the way to reinforce Fort Duquesne.
It was adopted. Colonel Dunbar was left to com
mand the rear division, whose powers of move
ment were now reduced to the lowest point. The
advance corps, consisting of about twelve hundred
soldiers, besides officers and drivers, began its
march on the nineteenth with such ¦ artillery as
was thought indispensable, thirty wagons, and
a large number of packhorses. " The prospect,"
writes Washington to his brother, "conveyed in
finite delight to my mind, though I was excess
ively 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

1755,] THE FRENCH FORT. 207
were halting to level every mole-hiU, and to erect
bridges over every brook, by which means we
were four days in getting twelve mUes." 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 the
Monongahela to avoid this danger, and then ford
it again to reach his destination.
Fort Duquesne stood on the point of land where
the Alleghany and the Monongahela join to form
the Ohio, and where now stands Pittsburg, with
its swarming population, its restless industries,
the clang of its forges, and its chimneys vomit
ing 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 note 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 work, 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

208 BRADDOCK. [1755
in with earth, and ten feet or more thick. The
two water sides were enclosed by a massive stock
ade 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 barracks for the soldiers, officers'
quarters, the lodgings of the commandant, a guard
house, and a storehouse, all built partly of logs and
partly of boards. There were no casemates, and
the place was commanded by a high woody hill
beyond the Monongahela. The forest had been
cleared away to the distance of more than a mus
ket shot from the ramparts, and the stumps were
hacked level with t,he 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 cov
ered with Indian corn and other crops. ^
The garrison consisted of a 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 Canadians, eight hundred Indian warriors,
1 M'Kinney's Description of Fort Duquesne, 1756, in Hazard's Penn
sylvania Register, VIII. 318. Letters of Robert Stobo, Hostage at Fort
Duquesne, 1754, in Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 141, 161. Stobo's Plan of
Fort Duquesne, 1754. Journal of Thomas Forbes, 1755. Letter of Cap
tain Haslet, 1758, in Olden Time,!. 184. Plan qf Fort Duquesne in Public
Eecord Office.
2 See Appendix D.

1755.] A YOUNG CAPTIVE. 209
mustered from far and near, had built their wig
wams and cam]>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, — Caugh-
nawagas from Saut St. Louis, Abenakis from St.
Francis, and Hurons from Lorette, whose chief
bore the name of Anastase, in honor of that Father
of the Church. The rest were unmitigated heathen,
— Pottawattamies and Ojibwas from the northern
lakes under Charles Langlade, the same bold parti
san who had led them, three years before, to attack
the Miamis at Pickawillany ; Shawanoes and Min
goes 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 heterogeneous crew
through countless generations ; and with the primi
tive 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 Pennsylvanian 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 the clearing,
his captors, who had shot and scalped his com
panion, 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
VOL. I. — 14

210 BRADDOCK. {175S,
unfortunate boy, the object, of this obstreperous
rejoicing, presently saw a multitude of savages,
naked, hideously bedaubed with red, blue, black,
and bro-wn, and armed with sticks or clubs, ran
ging 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 waj. He
ran with 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 he swooned. On com
ing 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 the 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, the seventh, with
news that they were not far distant. On the
eighth the brothers Normanville went out, and
found that they were within six leagues of the
fort. The French were in great excitement and
alarm ; but Contrecceur at length took a resolu
tion, which seems to have been inspired by Beau-
-• Account of Remarkable Occurrences in the Life of Colonel James Smith,
written by himself. Perhaps the best of all the numerous narratives of
captives among the Indians,
* Relation de Godefroy, in Shea, Bataille du MaldngueuU (Mononga
hela).

1755.] BEAUJEU. 211
jeu.^ It was determined to meet the enemy on the
march, and ambuscade them if possible at the cross
ing of the Monongahela, or some other favorable
spot. Beaujeu proposed the 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 ? " ® The greater part
caught 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 Canadians, or about nine hundred in all.^
1 Dumas, however, declares that Beaujeu adopted the plan at his
suggestion, Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756.
2 Relation depuis le Depart des Trouppes de Quebec jusqu'au 30 du
Mois de Septembre, 1755.
* Liste des Officiers, Cadets, Soldats, Miliciens, et Sauvages qui compo-
saient le Detachement qui a ete au devant d'un Corps de 2,000 Anglois a

212 BRADDOCK. [1755.
At eight o'clock the tumult was over. The broad
clearing lay lonely and still, and Contrecceur, with
what was left of his garrison, waited in suspense
for the issue.
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 f ording-place ; but Lieutenant-Col
onel 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 reg
ularity and order. The sun was cloudless, and
the men were inspirited by the prospect of near
triumph. Washington afterwards spoke with ad
miration of the spectacle.^ The music, the ban
ners, the mounted officers, the troop of light
cavalry, the naval detachment, the red-coated
regulars, the blue-coated Virginians, the wagons
and tumbrils, cannon, howitzers, and coehorns, the
train of packhorses, and the droves of cattle,
passed in long procession through the rippling
shallows, and slowly entered the bordering for
est. Here, 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
3 Lieues du Fort Duquesne, le 9 Juillet, 1755 ; joint a la Lettre de M. Bigot
du 6 AoAt, 1755.
1 Compare the account of another eye-witness. Dr. Walker, in Hazard's
Pennsylvania Register, VI. 104.

J^755.] THE CRISIS NTIAR. 213
met by obstacles, the nature of which is not wholly
clear. His Indians, it seems, had proved refrac
tory. Three hundred of them left him, went off
in another direction, and did not rejoin him tUl
the English had crossed the river.^ Hence per
haps it was that, having left Fort Duquesne at
eight o'clock, he spent half the day in marching
seven 'miles, and was more than a mile from the
fording-place when the British reached the east
ern shore. The delay, from whatever cause aris
ing, cost him the opportunity of laying an aml^ush
either at the ford or in the giUlies and ravines
that channelled the forest through which Brad
dock 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 Eraser. Washington remembered it
well. It was here that he found rest and shelter
on the winter journey homeward from his mission
to Fort Le Boeuf. 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
Eraser'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 Uttle ; then curved to
the left, and followed a course parallel to the
river along the base of a line of steep hills that
here bordered the valley. These and all the
country were buried in dense and heavy forest,
1 Relation de Godefroy, in Shea, Bataille du MalangueuU.

214 BRADDOCK. [1755
choked with bushes and the carcases of fallen
trees. Braddock has be'en charged with marching
blindly 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 excep
tion, he made elaborate dispositions to prevent
surprise. Several guides, with six Virginian light
horsemen,^ led the way. Then, a musket-shot be
hind, came the vanguard ; then three hundred
soldiers under Gage ; then a large body of axe
men, 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 artillery
and wagons moved along the road, and the troops
filed through the woods close on either hand.
Numerous flanking-parties were thrown out a
hundred yards and more to right and left ; while,
in the space between them and the marching col
umn, 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 main column was on the point

No. I.
A Sketch of the Field of Battle of the qth of July, upon the Monongahela, seven miles from
Fort du Quesne, shewing the Disposition of the Troops when the Action began.

EXPLANA TION.
H British Troops ; the long lines express the
number of Files. O French and Indians. + Cannon
and Howitzers, i Waggons, Carts, and Tumbrils.
I Cattle and Packhorses.
A, French and Indians when first discovered by
the Guides.
B, Guides and six light Horse.
C, Vanguard of the advanced Party.
D, Advanced Party, commanded by Lt.Col. Gage.
E, Working Party, commanded by Sir Jn. St.
Clair, D.Q.M.G.
F. Two Field Pieces.

G, Waggons with Powder and Tools.
H, Rear Guard of the advanced Party.
/, Light Horse leading the Convoy. K, Sailors
and Pioneers, with a Tumbril of Tools, etc. Z, Three
Field Pieces. M, General's Guard. N, Main Body
upon the Flanks of the Convoy, with the Cattle and
Packhorses between them and the Flank Guards.
O, Field Piece in y= rear of y« Convoy. P, Rear
Guards. Q, Flank Guards. R, A Hollow Way.
S, a Hill which the Indians did most of the Execu
tion from. T, Frazer's House.

(Signed)

Pat. Mackellar, Eng'.

. No. 2.
A Sketch of the Field of Battle, shewing the Disposition of the Troops about 2 ocloc-k.,
when the whole of the main Body had joined the Advanced and Working Partys, then
beat back from the Ground they occupied as in Plan No. I.

EXPLANA TION.
A, The French and Indians skulking behind Trees,
round the British. '
F, The two Field Pieces of the advanced Party
abandoned. C, D, E, H, K, Jf, N, Q, The whole Body of the
British joined with little or no Order, but endeavour
ing to make Fronts towards y"= Enemies Fire. Z, The
three Field Pieces of the main Body. P, The rear
Guard divided (round the rear of the Convoy now
closed up) behind Trees having been attack'd by a
few Indians.

N.B. The Disposition on both Sides continued
about two hours nearly as here represented, the
British endeavouring to recover the Guns {F) and
to gain the Hill {S) to no purpose. The British were
at length beat from the Guns (Z). The General was
wounded soon after. They were at last beat across
the Hollow Way {E)- and made no further Stand.
The Retreat was full of Confusion and Hurry, but
after a few Miles there was a Body got to rally.

(Signed)

Pat. Mackellar, Eng"".

''^^S.] THE BATTLE. 215
of entering it, when the guides and Ught horse
men in the front suddenly feU 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, for
ward along the path.^ He stopped when he dis
covered the head of the column, turned, and waved
his hat. The fordst 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 steadiness 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 for
est. The greater part of the Canadians, to bor
row the words of Dumas, " fled shamefully, crying
' Sauve qui peut ! ' " ^ 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 confu
sion, 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 shout
ing " God save the King ! " Dumas, now chief
in command, thought that all was lost. " I ad
vanced," he says, " with the assurance that comes
I Journal of the Proceeding of the Detachment of Seamen, in Sargent.
2 Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756. Contrecceur a Vaudreuil, 14
Juillet, 1755. See Appendix D, where extracts are given.

216 BRADDOCK. 11756
from despair, exciting by voice and gesture the
few soldiers that remained. The fire of my pla
toon was so sharp that the enemy seemed aston
ished." The Indians, encouraged, began to rally.
The French officers who commanded them showed
admirable courage and address ; and while Dumas
and Ligneris, with the regulars 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 fire 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,
shrinking 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 advancing troops,

1755.] GALLANTRY OF VIRGINIANS. 217
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 sev
eral 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 sav>
age 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 wildcats, 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 re
stored, had not Braddock, furious at a proceed
ing 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 en
emy, shot at them from behind, killed many, and
forced the rest to return. A few of the regulars
also tried in their clumsy way to fight behind
trees; but Braddock beat them with his sword,
and compelled them to stand with the rest, an

218 BRADDOCK. [1765,
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." Noth
ing 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 firing
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 horses, 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 can
not describe the horrors of that scene," one of
Braddock's officers wrote three weeks after ; " no
pen could do it. The yell of the Indians is fresh

1755.] HAVOC AMONG OFEICERS. 219
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 Hal
ket 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 quar
termaster-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 disabled;^ whUe out of thirteen hun
dred and seventy-three non-commissioned ofl3.cers
1 Leslie to a Merchant of Philadelphia, 30 July, 1755, in Hazard's
Pennsylvania Register, N. 191. Leslie was a lieutenant of thePorty-
fourth. 2 A List of the Officers who were present, and of those killed and wounded,
in the Action on the Banks of the Monongahela, 9 July, 1755 (Public Record
Office, America and West Indies, LXXXII.).

220 BRADDOCK. [1755.
and privates, only four hundred and fifty-nine
came ofE 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 bul
let struck him down. The gallant bulldog fell
from his horse, shot through the arm into the
lungs. It is said, though on evidence 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 at
tempted 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, 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
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 increased, a fe*- days before
the battle, by detachments from Dunbar. ,

1755.] NEWS PROM THE PIELD. 221
now only about twenty Frenchmen with them,
made no attempt to pursue, and went back to the
fort, because, says Contrecceur, so many of the
Canadians had "retired at the first fire." The
field, abandoned to the savages, was a pandemo
nium of pillage and murder.^
James Smith, the young prisoner at Fort Du
quesne, had passed a day of suspense^ waiting the
result. " In the afternoon I again observed a
great noise and commotion in the fort, and,
though at that time I could not understand
French, I found it was the voice of joy and tri
umph, and feared that they had received what I
called bad news. I had observed some of the old-
country soldiers speak Dutch ; as I spoke Dutch,
I went to one of them and asked him what was
^ " Nous primes le parti de nous retirer en vue de rallier notre petite
armee." Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756.
On the defeat of Braddock, besides authorities already cited, — Shirley
to Robinson, 5 Nov. 1755, accompanying the plans of the battle reproduced
in this volume (Public Record Office, America and West /nc^jes, LXXXlI.).
The plans were diawn at Shirley's request by Patrick Mackellar, chief engi
neer of the expedition, who was with Gage in the advance coluinn 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 affair.
Report of the Court qf Inquiry into the Behavior of the Troops at the Mo
nongahela. Letters of Dinwiddie. Letters of Gage. Burd to Morris, 25
July, 1755. Sinclair to Robinson, 3 Sept. Rutherford to  , 12 July.
Writings of Washington, II. 68-93. Review of Military Operations in North
America. Entick, I. 145. Gentleman's Magazine (1755), 378, 426. Letter
to a Friend on the Ohio Defeat (Boston, 1755).
Contrecceur a Vaudreuil, 14 Juillet, 1755. Estat de I' Artillerie, etc., qui se
sont trouves sur le Champ de Bataille. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Aoiit, 1755.
Bigot au Ministre, 27 Ao&t. Relation du Combat du 9 Juillet. Relation
depuis le Depart des Trouppes de Quebec jusqu'au 30 du Mois de Septembre,
Lotbiniere a d'Argenson, 24 Oct. Relation officielle imprimee au Louvre. Re
lation de Godefroy (Shea). Extraits du Registre du Fort Duquesne (Ibid.),
Relation de divCrses Mouvements ( Ibid.) . Pouchot, I. 37.

222 BRADDOCK. tl75&
the news. He told me that a runner had just
arrived who said that Braddock would certainly
be defeated; that the Indians and French had
surrounded him, and were concealed behind trees
and in gullies, and kept a constant fire upon the
English ; and that they saw the English falling in
heaps ; and if they did not take the river, which
was the only gap, and make their escape, there
would not be 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 observed they had a great number
of bloody scalps, grenadiers' caps, British canteens,
bayonets, etc., 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 com
pany was carrjdng scalps. After this came another
company with a number of wagon-horses, and al$o
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 guns in the fort,
which were accompanied with the most hideous
shouts and yells from all quarters, so that it ap
peared to me as though the infernal regions had
broke loose.
" -About sundown I 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 death on the bank of

1755.] AI'TER THE BATTLE. 223
Alleghany River, opposite the fort. I stood on the
fort wall until 1 beheld them begin to burn one of
these men ; they had him tied to a stake, 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 spir
its. As this scene appeared too shocking for me to
behold, I retired to my lodging, both sore and
sorry. When I came into my lodgings I saw
Russel's Seven Sermons, which they had brought
from the field of battle, which a Frenchman 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 stUl
less, in proportion to their numbers, only five of
them being hurt. The Indians, who. won the vic
tory, bore the principal loss. Of those from Can
ada, twenty-seven were killed and wounded ; while
the casualties among the Western tribes are not
reported.^ All of these last went off the next
morning with their plunder and scalps, leaving
Contrecceur in great anxiety lest the remnant of
Braddock's troops, reinforced 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
1 Liste des Officiers, Soldats, Miliciens, et Sauvages de Canada qui onl
ete tues et blesses le 9 Juillet, 1755.

224 BRADDOCK. [1765.
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 stUl the war-whoops and the
shrieks ; possessed with the one thought of escape
from this wilderness of death. In the morning
some order was restored. Braddock was placed on
a horse ; thep, 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 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
stragglers left behind.
At noon of that day a number of wagoners and
packhorse-drivers had come to Dunbar's camp
with wild tidings of roiit and ruin. More fugitives
followed ; and soon after a wounded officer was
brought in upon a sheet. The drums beat to arms.

'755.1 PANIC. 225
The camp was in commotion; and many soldiers
and teamsters took to flight, in spite of the senti
nels, who tried in vain to stop them.^ There was a
still more disgraceful scene on the next day, after
Braddock, with the wreck of his force, had arrived.
Orders were given to destroy such of the wagons,
stores, and ammunition as could not be carried
back at once to Fort Cumberland. Whether Dun
bar 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, coehorns, and shells
were burst or buried ; barrels of gunpowder were
staved, and the contents thrown into a brook ; pro
visions were scattered through the woods and
swamps. Then the whole command began its re
treat over the mountains to Fort Cumberland,
sixty miles distant. This proceeding, for which, in
view of the condition of Braddock, Dunbar must
be held answerable, excited the utmost indignation
among the colonists. If he could not advance, they
thought, he might at least have fortified himself
and held his ground till the provinces coiild send
him help ; thus covering the frontier, and holding
French war-parties in check.
Braddock's last moment was near. Orme, who,
though himself severely wounded, was with him
till his death, told Franklin that he was totally
silent all the first day, and at night said only,
" Who would have thought it ? " that all the
1 Depositions of Matthew Laird, Michael Hoover, and Jacob Hoover,
Wagoners, in Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 482.
TOL. I — 15

226 BRADDOCK. [1755
next day he was again silent, till at last he mut
tered, "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 his 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 morning, and was then
encamped near the Great Meadows. 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'
wives and other women had been left when the
expedition marched, heard of the defeat, only two
days after it happened, from a wagoner who had
fled from the field on horseback. Pie 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 nuriibers of our officers; our whole artillery
taken. In short, the account I have received is
so very bad, that as, please God, I intend to make
a stand here, 'tis highly necessary to raise the
1 Boiling to his Son, 13 Aug. 1755. Boiling was a Virginian gentle
man whose son waa at school in England.

'765.] NEWS OF THE ROUT. 227
militia everywhere to defend the frontiers." A
boy whom he sent out on horseback met more
fugitives, and came back bn the fourteenth with
reports as vague and disheartening as the first.
Innes sent them to Dinwiddie.^ Some days after,
Dunbar and his train arrived in miserable disorder,
and Fort Cumberland was turned into a hospital
for the shattered fragments of a routed and ruined
army. On the sixteenth a letter was brought in haste
to one Buchanan at Carlisle, on the Pennsylvanian
frontier : —
SiE, — I thought it proper to let you know that I was in
the battle -where Kre -were defeated. And -we had about
eleven hundred and fifty private men, besides officers and
others. And we -were 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 tnen, besides a vast many
wounded. Most of our officers were either wounded or
killed ; General Braddock is wounded, but I hope not
mortal; and Sir John Sinclair and many others, but 1
hope not mortal. All the train is cut off in a manner.
Sir Peter Halket and his son. Captain Poison, Captain
Gethen, 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, acil
you'll oblige, Yours to command, John Campbell, Messenger.^
1 Innes to Dinwiddie, 14 July, 1755.
2 Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 481.

228 BRADDOCK. [1755
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
jsage looked doubtful. " Why, 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 opponents in the Assembly
would not believe it, and had insulted him in the
street for giving it currency.^
Dinwiddie 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 ac
count was from a deserter who, in a great panic,
represented what his fears suggested. I wait with
impatience for another express from Fort Cum
berland, which I expect will greatly contradict
the former." The news got abroad, and the
slaves showed signs of excitement; "The vil-
lany 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 -mcked
* Autobiography of Franklin.
2 Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 48a

1755.] ORME AND WASHINGTON. 229
designs." ^ And he wrote to Lord Halifax : " The
negro slaves have been very audacious on the
news of defeat on the Ohio. These poor crea
tures imagine the French will give them th^ir
freedom. We have too many here ; but I hope
we shall be able to keep them in proper subjec
tion." Suspense grew intolerable. " It 's mon
strous they should be so tardy and dilatory in
sending do-wn 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 Gov
ernor, I am so extremely ill in bed with the
wound I have received that I am under the ne
cessity of employing my friend Captain Dobson
as my scribe." Then he told the wretched story
of defeat and humiliation. "The officers were
absolutely sacrificed by their unparalleled good be
havior ; advancing before their men sometimes in
bodies, and sometimes separately, hoping by such
an example to engage the soldiers to follow them ;
but to no purpose. Poor Shirley was shot through
the head, Captain Morris very much wounded.
Mr. Washington had two horses shot under him,
and his clothes shot through in several places ;
behaving the whole time with the greatest cour
age and resolution."
Washington wrote more briefly, saying that, as
Orme was giving a full account of the affair, it
1 Dinwiddie to Colonel Charles Carter, 18 July, 1755.

230 BRADDOCK. [1755i
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 hun
dred, or about a third of the actual number, — a
natural error, as most of the assailants were invisi
ble. " Our poor Virginians 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 offi
cers down to a corporal were killed. Captain Poi
son shared almost as hard a fate, for only one of
his escaped. In short, the dastardly behavior of
the English soldiers exposed all those who were
inclined to do their duty to almost certain death.
It is imagined (I believe with great justice, too)
that two thirds of both killed and wounded re
ceived their shots from our own cowardly dogs
of soldiers, who gathered themselves into a body,
contrary to orders, ten and twelve deep, would
then level, fire, and shoot down the men before
them." 1
To Orme, Dinwiddie replied : " I read your letter
with tears in my eyes ; but it gave me much pleas
ure 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
1 These extracts are taken from the two letters preserved in the Public
Record Office, America and West Indies, LXXIV. LXXXII.

1765.] CONDUCT OP DUNBAR. 231
take care of your valuable health ; keep your spirits
up, and I doubt not of your recovery. My wife
and girls join me in most sincere respects and joy
at your beuag 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 Dun
bar will not march to winter-quarters in the middle
of summer, and leave the frontiers exposed to
the invasions of the 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 astonish
ing announcement that Dunbar meant to abandon
the frontier and march to Philadelphia. Din
widdie, much disturbed, at once wrote to that offi
cer, 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

232 BRADDOCK. [1755
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 expedi
tion. 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 devolves 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
note, dated on the first of August, and acquainting
him that he should maroh 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 Dinwiddie, " I was not
brought up to arms; but I think commOn sense
would have prevailed not to leave the frontiers
exposed after having opened a road over the moun
tains 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. . . . The whole conduct of
Colonel Dunbar appears to me monstrous. ... To
march off all the regulars, and leave the fort and
frontiers to be defended by four hundred sick and

^755.1 CONDUCT OP DUNBAR. 233
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
commander-in-chief, approved the Governor's plan
of renewing offensive operations, and instructed
Dunbar to that effect ; ordering him, however,
should they prove impracticable, to march for
Albany in aid of the Niagara expedition.^ The
order found him safe in PhUadelphia. 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 uj)on it a
storm of blood and fire.
1 Dinwiddle's view of Dunbar's conduct is fully justified by the letters
of Shirley, Governor Morris, and Dunbar himself.
^ Orders for Colonel Thomas Dunbar, 12 Aug. 1755. These supersede
a previous order of August 6, by which Shirley had directed Dunbar to
march northward at once.

CHAPTER Vm.
1755-1763.
REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS.
State o* Acadia. — Threatened Invasion. — Peril of the ENSLisa
— Their Plans. — French Forts to be attacked. — Beausbjoue
AND its Occupants. — French Treatment op the Acadians. —
John Winslow. — Siege and Captdrb of Beausejour. — Atti
tude OP Acadians. — Influence op their Priests. — They refuse
the Oath op Allegiance. — Their Condition and Character.
— Pretended Neutrals. — Moderation of English Authorities.
— The Acadians Persist in their Refusal. — Enemies or Sub
jects 1 — Choice of-the Acadians. — The Consequenc.e. — Their
Removal determined. — Winslow at Grand Pre. — Confer
ence WITH Murray. — Summons to the Inhabitants. — Their
Seizure. — Their Embarkation. — Their Fate. — Their Treat
ment IN Canada. — Misapprehension concerning them.
By the plan which the Duke of Cumberland
had ordained and Braddock had announced in the
Council at Alexandria, four blows were to be
struck at once to force back the French bound
aries, lop off the dependencies of Canada, and
reduce her from a vast territory to a petty prov
ince. The first stroke had failed, and had shat
tered 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. We have seen in a former chap
ter the condition of that afflicted province. Sev
eral thousands of its inhabitants, wrought upon

1755.J POSITION OF THE ACADIANS. 235
by intriguing agents of the French Government ;
taught by their priests that fidelity to King Louis
was inseparable from fidelity to God, and that to
swear allegiance to the British Ci^own was eter
nal perdition ; threatened with plunder and death
at the hands of the savages whom the ferocious
missionary, Le Loutre, held over them in terror, —
had abandoned, sometimes willingly, biit oftener
under constraint, the fields which they and their
fathers had tilled, and crossing the boundary line
of the Missaguash, had placed themselves under
the French flag planted on the hill of Beausejour.-^
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, however,
that they could not on occasion be used to aid in
an invasion of British Acadia.^ Those of their
countrymen who still lived under the British flag
were chiefly the inhabitants of the district of
Mines and of the valley of the River Annapolis,
who, with other less important settlements, num
bered a Uttle more than nine thousand souls.
We have shown already, by the evidence of the
French themselves, that neither they nor their
1 See ante. Chapter IV.
2 Rameau {La France aux Colonies, I. 63), estimates the total emigra
tion from 1748 to 1 755 at 8,600 souls, — which number seems much too large.
This writer, though vehemently anti-English, gives the foUqwing passage
from a letter of a high French official : " que les Acadiens e'migre's et en
grande misere comptaient se retirer a Quebec et demander des terres,
mais il conviendrait mieux qu'ils restent oil ils sont, afin d'avoir le vois-
inage de I'Acadie bien peuple' et de'fricjhe', pour approvisionner I'Isle
Royale [ Cape Breton] et tomber en cas de guerre sur I'Acadie." Rameau,
L 133.

236 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755
emigrant countrymen had been oppressed or mo
lested in matters temporal or spiritual, but that
the English authorities, recognizing their value as
an industrious population, had labored to recon
cile 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 reckless dis
regard of their welfare 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 countrymen,
abandon their homes, they remained in a state
of restless disaffection, refused to supply English
garrisons with provisions, except at most exor
bitant rates, smuggled ' their 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 of 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, ac
cording to the political ethics adopted at the time
by both nations, it would be lawful for France
to reclaim it by force. England, on her part, it
will be remembered, claimed vast tracts beyond
the isthmus ; and, on the same pretext, held that
1 Suvra, p. 123.

^''^S-i DESIGNS OF THE FRENCH. 237
she might rightfully seize them and capture Beau
sejour, with the other French garrisons that
guarded them.
On the part of France, an invasion of the Aca
dian peninsula seemed more than Ukely. Honor
demanded of her that, having incited the Aca
dians to disaffection, and so brought on them
the indignation of the English authorities, she
should intervene to save them from the conse
quences. Moreover the loss of the^ Acadian pe
ninsula had been gall and wormwood to her ;
and in losing it she had lost great material ad
vantages. Its possession was necessary to con
nect Canada with the Island of Cape Breton and
the fortress of Louisbourg. Its fertile fields and
agricultural people would furnish subsistence to
the troops and garrisons in the French maritime
provinces, now dependent on suppUes 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 in
valuable as naval' stations from which to curb and
threaten the northern English 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 population on the
Basin of Mines and along the Annapolis would
rise in arms, and that the emigrants beyond the
isthmus, armed and trained by French officers,

238 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755
would come to their aid. This emigrant popu
lation, famishing in exile, looked back with re
gret to the farms they had abandoned ; and,
prevented as they were by Le Loutre and his
colleagues from making their peace with the Eng
lish, they would, if confident of success, have
gladly joined an invading force to regain their
homes by reconqu.ering Acadia for Louis XV.
In other parts of the continent it was the inter
est 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 isth
mus ; and they had on their side of the lines a
force of militia and Indians amounting to about
two thousand, while the Acadians within the pe
ninsula 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 at
tack. Their regular troops were scattered far*
and wide through the province, and were no
where more than equal to the local requirement ;
while 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
strongest place in Acadia was the French fort of
Beausejour, in which the English saw a contin
ual menace.

1756.] ENGLISH PLANS. 239
Their apprehensions were well grounded. Du
quesne, governor of Canada, wrote to Le Loutre,
who virtually shared the control of Beausejour
with Vergor, its commandant : " I invite both
yourself and M. Vergor to devise a plausible
pretext for attacking them [the English] vigor
ously." ^ Three weeks after this letter was writ
ten, Lawrence, governor 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 re
paired 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 let^
ter was brought to Boston by Lieutenant-Colonel
Monckton, who was charged by Lawrence to pro
pose to Shirlfey the raising of two thousand men
in New England for the attack of Beausejour and
its dependent forts. Almost at the moment when
Lawrence was writing these proposals to Shirley,
Shirley was writing with the same object to Law
rence, enclosing a letter from Sir Thomas Robin
son, concerning which he said : " I construe the
contents to be orders to us to act in concert for
taking any advantages to drive the French of
Canada out of Nova Scotia. If that is your sense
of them, and your honor will be pleased to let
1 Duquesne a Le Loutre, 15 Oct. 1754; extract in Public Documents oj
Nova Scotia, 239.
> 2 Latvrence to Shirley, 5 Nov. 1754. Instructions of Lawrence to Monck
ton, 7 Nov. 1754.

240 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755
me know whether you want any and what assist
ance 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 already been sent to Lawrence, was
written in answer to one of Shirley informing the
Minister that the Indians of Nova Scotia, prompted
by the French, were 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 xvill have concerted the pro-
perest measures with him for taking all possible
advantage in Nova 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 Eng
lish settlements ; and I am particularly to acquaint
you that if you have not already entered into such
a concert with Colonel Lawrence, it is His Majesty's
pleasure that you should immediately proceed
thereupon." ^
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 Beause
jour. Shirley wrote to Robinson that the expul
sion 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
1 Shirley to Lawrence, 7 Nov. 1 754.
2 Robinson to Shirley, 5 July, 1754.

1755.] BEAUSEJOUR. 241
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 hun
dred and fifty more on the .St. John, with whom,
aided by the garrison of Beausejour, they could
easily take Fort Lawrence ; that should they suc
ceed in this, the whole Acadian population would
rise in arms, and the King would lose Nova Scotia.
We should anticipate them, concludes Shirley, and
strike the first blow.-'
He opened his plans to his Assembly in secret
session, and found them of one mind with hirnself.
Preparation was nearly complete, and the men
raised for the expedition, before the Council at
Alexandria, recognized it as a part of a plan of the
summer campaign.
The French fort of Beausejour, mounted on its
hill between the marshes of Missaguash and Tan
temar, was a regular work, pentagonal in form,
with solid earthern ramparts, bomb-proofs, and an
armament of twenty-four cannon and one mortar.
The commandant, Duchambon de Vergor, a captain
in the colony regulars, was a dull man of no educa
tion, of stuttering speech, unpleasing countenance,
1 Shirley to Robinson, 8 Dec. 1754. Ibid., 2i Jan. 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 Memoire,
which, with other reasons, puts it out of doubt that the French are deter
mined to begin an offensive war on the peninsula as soon as ever they shall
think themselves strengthened 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 iu the
spring." Shirley to Lawrence, 6 Jan 1755.
vol. I. — 16

242 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755
and doubtful character. 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. Beausejour was one of those plague-spots
of official corruption which dotted the whole sur
face of New France. Bigot, sailing for Europe in
the summer of 1764, wrote thus to his confedei^
ate : " 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." ^ Vergor did not
neglect his opportunities. Supplies in great quan
tities were sent from Quebec for the garrison
and the emigrant Acadians. These last got but
a small part of them.- Vergor and his confeder
ates sent the rest back to Quebec, or else to Louis
bourg, 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;
by force of energy, capacity, and passionate vehe
mence, held him in some awe, and divided his
authority. 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
1 Memoires surle Canada, 1749-1760. This letter is also mentioned in
another contemporary document, Memoire sur les Fraudes commises dans
la Colonic.

1756.] THOMAS PICHON. 243
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 intelligence, 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 acquaint
ing him with all that passed at Beausejour. 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 exUes, who cannot be called self-exiled,
in view of the outrageous means used to force
most of them from their homes, were in a de
plorable condition. They lived in constant dread
of Le Loutre, backed by Vergor and his soldiers.
The savage missionary, bad as he was, had in him
an ingredient of 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 set
tlement 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 enough
for their subsistence and that of the older settlers ;
1 Pichon, called also Tyrrell from the name of his mother, was author
of Genuine Letters and Memoirs relating to Cape Breton,-^ a, book of some
value. His papers are preserved at Halifax, and some of them are printed
in the Public Documents of Nova Scotia.

244 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755
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 sac
raments, but will die Uke 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 insurrec
tion of the inhabitants, and exciting them to se
dition ; but on his promise to change conduct,
he was sent back to his parishioners.^ 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 them
selves 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
sacraments in this life nor heaven in the next.
He nevertheless aUowed two of them to go to
Quebec as deputies, writing at the same time to
the Governor, that his mind might be duly pre
pared. Duquesne replied : " I think that the two
rascals of deputies whom you sent me will not
soon recover from the fright I gave them, not
withstanding the emollient I administered after
my reprimand; and since I told them that they
1 Pichon to Captain Scott, 14 Oct. 1754, in Public Documents of Nova
Scotia, 229.
' Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 223, 224, 226, 227, 238.

i755.] JOHN WINSLOW. 245
were indebted to you for not bemg allowed to
rot in a dungeon, they have promised me to com
ply 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 condition of their efficiency was neglected.
The French Government, cheated of enormous
sums by its own ravenous agents, grudged the
cost of sending a single regiment to the Acadian
border. Thus unsupported,, the Acadians remained
in fear and vacUlation, aiding the French but fee
bly, though a ceaseless annoyance and menace to
the EngUsh.
This was the state of affairs at Beausejour while
Shirley and Lawrence were planning its destruc
tion. Lawrence had empowered his agent, Monck
ton, to draw without limit on two Boston merchants,
Apthorp and Hancock. Shirley, as commander-
in-chief of the province of Massachusetts, com
missioned John Winslow to raise two thousand
volunteers. 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 com
pany 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
1 Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 239.

246 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [175&
farm to serve his; country. The men enlisted
readily at his call,, and were formed into a regi
ment, of which Shirley made himself the nominal
colonel. It had two battalions, of which Winslow,
as lieutenant-colonel, comnlanded 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 regi
ment. The muster-rolls preserve their names,
vocations, birthplaces, and abode. Obadiah, Ne-
hemiah, Jedediah, Jonathan, Ebenezer, Joshua, and
the like Old Testament names abound upon the
list. Some are set down as "farmers," "yeomen,"
or " husbandmen ; " others as " shopkeepers," oth
ers 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
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

i755.J ALARM OP VERGOR. 247
muskets, which were expected from England, but
did not come. Hence the delay of a month,
threatening to ruin the enterprise. When Shir
ley returned from Alexandria he found, to his
disgust, that the transports still lay at the wharf
where he had left them on his departure.^ The
muskets arrived at length, and the fieet sailed on
the twenty-second of May. Three small frigates,
the " Success," the " Mermaid," and the "' Siren,"
commanded by the ex-privateersman. 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 Fundy,
and at sunset on the first of June anchored within
five miles of the hill of Beausejour.
At two o'clock on the next morning a party of
Acadians from Chipody toused 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 all between twelve and fif
teen hundred ; ^ but they had no appetite for war.
The force of the invaders daunted them ; and the
hundred and sixty regulars who formed the garri
son of Beausejour were too few to revive their con
fidence. 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
1 Shirley to Robinson, 20 June, 1755.
'^ Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. An English document. State of
the English and French Forts in Nova Scotia, says 1,300 to 1.400.

248 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
'with punishment if they disobeyed his order. He
willingly complied, promised to have them killed
if they did not fight, and assured them at the same
time that the English could never take the fort.-"
Three hundred of them thereupon joined the gar
rison, 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
sejour at his ease. The regulars of the English
garrison 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-a-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 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 spatter
ing fusillade from behind bushes, which continued
till the English had crossed the stream. Without
further opposition, they marched along the road to
Beausejour, and, turning to the right, encamped
among the woody hills half a league from the fort.
That night there was a grand illumination, foi
1 Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.

1755.J SIEGE OF BEAUSEJOUR. 249
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 he 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 Ilazen brought up two more, of larger
size, on ox-wagons ; and, in spite of heavy rain, the
fire was brisk on hoth sides.
Captain Rous, on board his ship in the harbor,
watched the bombardment with great interest.
Having 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 hope
you have some fine horses for it, at least four, to
draw it, that it may be said a New England colonel
[^rode in] his coach and four in Nova Scotia. If
1 Winslow, Journal and Letter Book. Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-
1760. Letters from officers on the spot in Boston Evening Posi and Boston
News Letter. Journal of Surgeon John Thomas,
2 " 1 1 June. Capt. Adams went with a Company ,of Raingers, and Re
turned at 11 Clock with a Coach and Sum other Plunder." Journal qf
Joltn Thomas.

250 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
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-sleeves, with a pipe in his mouth,
directing the Acadians in their work of strength
ening the fortifications.' They, on their part,
thought more of escape than of fighting. Some
of them vainly begged to be allowed to go home ;
others went off 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 gen
eral discouragement was redoubled when, on the
fourteenth, a letter came from the commandant
of Louisbourg to say that he could send no help,
as British ships blocked the way. On the morn
ing of the sixteenth, a mischance befell, 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 'num
ber 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 him
self, with Le Loutre, another priest, and several
1 Journal of Pichon, cited by Beamish Murdoch.

I755.J CAPTURE OF BEAUSfeOUR. 251
officers, who felt that they might at any time share
the same fate. The 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 rampart. 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 capitula
tion. 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 Louis
bourg 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." Confusion reigned all day at
Beausejour. The Acadians went home loaded
with plunder. The French officers were so busy
in drinking and pillaging that they could hardly
be got away to sign the capitulation. At the
appointed' 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 On the capture of Beausejour, Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760;
Pichon, Cape Breton, 318; Journal of Pichon, cited by Murdoch; and the
English accounts already mentioned.

252 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. {1755.
Le Loutre was not to be found; he had es
caped in disguise with his box of papers, and fled
to Baye Verte 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 occasion a soldier on guard made a
dash at the father, tried to stab him with his
bayonet, and was prevented with 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,
that the officer in command transferred him to
another post.-^
Throughout the siege, the Acadians outside the
fort, aided by Indians, had constantly attacked
the English, but were always beaten off with loss.
There was an affair of this kind on the morning
of the surrender, during which a noted Micmac
chief was shot, and being brought into the camp,
recounted the losses of his tribe ; " after which,
and taking a dram or two, he quickly died, '
writes Winslow in his Journal.

1 Knox, Campaigns 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."

1755.] VERGOR ACQUITTED. 253
Fort Gaspereau, at Baye Verte, twelve mUes
distant, was summoned by letter to surrender.
VUleray, its commandant, at once complied; and
Winslow went with a detachment to take posses
sion.' 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 with
drew beyond his reach.^ A hundred and fifty
Indians, suddenly converted from enemies to pre
tended friends, stood on the strand, firing their
guns into the air as a salute, and declaring them
selves brothers of the English. All Acadia was
now in British hands. Fort Beausejour became
Fort Cumberland, — the second fort in America
that bore the name of the royal Duke.
The defence had been of the feeblest. Two
years later, on pressing demands from Versailles,
Vergor was brought to trial, as was also VU
leray. The Governor, Vaudreuil, and the In
tendant, Bigot, who had returned to Canada, were
in the interest of the chief defendant. The court-
martial was packed; adverse evidence was shuf
fled out of sight ; and Vergor, acquitted and restored
to his rank, lived to inflict on New France another
and a greater injury.^
Now began the first act of a deplorable drama.
^ Winslow, Journal. Villeray au Ministre, 20 Sept. 1755.
^ Drucour au Ministre, 1 D&. 1755.
' Memoire sur les Fraudes commises dans la Colonie, 1759. Memoires
sur le Canada, 1749-1760.

254 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
Monckton, with his small body of regulars, had
pitched their tents under the walls of Beausejour.
Winslow and Scott, with the New England troops,
lay not far off. There was little intercourse be
tween the two camps. The British officers bore
themselves towards those of the provincials with
a supercilious coldness common enough on their
part throughout the war. July had passed in
what Winslow calls "an indolent manner," with
prayers every day in the Puritan camp, when,
early in August, Monckton sent for him, and
made an ominous declaration. " The said Monck
ton was so free as to acquaint me that it was de
termined to remove all the French inhabitants out
of the province, and that he should send for all the
adult males from Tantemar, Chipody, Aulac, Beau
sejour, and Baye Verte to read the Governor's
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 Beau
sejour; and I apprehend that no officer of either
corps has been made more free with."
Monckton sent accordingly to all the neighbor
ing settlements, commanding the male inhabitants
to meet him at Beausejour. 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 the diary of Winslow
under date of August eleventh : " This day was
one extraordinary to the inhabitants of Tantemar,

^¦^55.] ITS MOTIVES. 255
Oueskak, Aulac, Baye Verte, Beausejour, and
places adjacent; the male inhabitants, or the
principal of them, bemg coUected together in Fort
Cumberland to hear the sentence, which deter
mined their property, from the Governor and
Council of Halifax; which was that they were
declared rebels, their lands, goods, and chattels
forfeited to the Crown, and their bodies 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 Beausejour,
and had been pardoned for doing so by the terms
of the capitulation. It was held, however, that,
though forgiven this special offence, they were
not exempted from the doom that had gone forth
against the great body of their countrymen. We
must look closely at the motives and execiition of
this stern sentence.
At any time up to the spring of 1755 the emi
grant Acadians were free to return to their homes
on taking the ordinary oath of allegiance required
of British subjects. The English authorities of
Halifax used every means to 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 military power, but also to the
Bishop of Quebec, who enjoined the Acadians to
demand of the English certain concessions, the

256 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
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 mUitary service of any
kind. The Bishop added that the provisions of
the treaty of Utrecht were insufficient, and that
others ou,ght to be exacted.^ The oral declara
tion of the English authorities, that for the present
the Acadians should not be required to bear arms,
was not thought enough. They, or rather their
prompters, demanded a written pledge.
The refusal to take the oath without reservation
was not confined to the emigrants. Those who re
mained in the peninsula equally refused, it, though
most of them were born and had always lived
under the British flag. Far from pledging them
selves to complete allegiance, they showed con
tinual signs of hostility. In May three pretended
French deserters were detected among them incit
ing them to take arms against the English.^
On the capture of Beausejour the British authori
ties found themselves in a position of great diffi
culty. 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 disaffected population was for
the French commanders a continual inducement
to invasion : and Lawrence was not strong enough
1 L'Eveque de Quebec a Le Loutre, Nov. 1754, in Public Documents of
Nova Scotia, 240. 2 Jbid., 242.

1755.] VIEWS OF ENGLISH AUTHORITIES. 257
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 Aca
dians. He had lately proposed that the lands of
the district of Chignecto, abandoned by their emi
grant owners, should be given to EngUsh 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
Charles Lawrence had not the good-nature and
conciliatory temper which marked his predecessors,
Cornwallis and Hopson. His energetic will was
not apt to relent under the 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 ob
stinacy, 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." ^ "We were in
1 Lords of Trade to Lawrence, 4 March, 1754.
^Lawrence to Lords of Trade, 1 Aug. 1754.
VOL 1. — 17

258 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755
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 concealing their
designs from us." In fact, the Acadians, while
calling themselves neutrals, were an enemy en
camped in the ^ heart of the province. These are
the reasons which explain and palliate a measure
too harsh and indiscriminate to be wholly justified.
Abbe Raynal, who never saw the Acadians, has
made an ideal picture of them,' since copied and
improved in prose and verse, till Acadia has be-
;ome Arcadia. The plain realities of their con
dition and fate are touching enough to need no
exaggeration. They were a simple and very ignor
ant peasantry, industrious and frugal till evil days
came to discourage them ; living aloof from the
world, with little of that spirit of adventui-e which
an easy access to the vast fur-bearing interior had
developed in their Canadian kindred ; having few
wants, and those of the rudest ; fishing a little and
hunting in the winter, but chiefly employed in cul
tivating the meadows along the River Annapolis,
or rich marshes reclaimed by dikes from the tides
of the Bay of Fundy. The British Government left
1 Histoire philosophique et politique, VI. 242 (ed. 1772).

1755. J THEIR CHARACTER. 259
them entirely free of taxation. They made cloth
ing 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 Anna
polis, then as now, was known for the profusion
and excellence of its apples. For drink, they made
cider or brewed spruce-beer. French pfficials de
scribe 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,
was by no means remarkable for cleanliness. 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 litig
ious 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 cure, 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 submission, compounded of love and fear,
was commonly without bounds. He was their
1 Beauharnois et Hocquart au Comte de Maurepas, 12 Sept. 1745.

260 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755
true govemment ; 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 con
stant 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 siege to Beausejour, 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 indications that this would
be the result. A number of Acadian famUies,
who at the promptings of Le Loutre had emi
grated 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 sup
plied with food for the winter.^ Their example
unfortunately found few imitators.
Early in June the principal inhabitants of
Grand Pre and other settlements about the Basin
1 Franquet, Journal, 1751, says of the Acadians : " lis aiment I'argent,
n'ont dans toute leur conduite que leur int(Sr6t pour objet, sont, indiffe'rem-
ment des deux sexes, d'une inconside'ration dans leurs discours qui denote
de la m&haucetd." Another observer, Dier^ville, gives a more favorable
picture. 2 Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 228.

J755.] THEIR , MEMORIAL. 261
of Mines brought a memorial, signed with their
crosses, to Captain Murray, the military comman
dant 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 that any rumor of an
approaching French force always 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 CouncU, that the guns,
pistols, and other weapons, which they had lately
been required to give up, should be returned to
them. 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 Gov
ernment with the greatest lenity and tenderness,
had enjoyed more privileges than other English

262 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755
subjects, and had been indulged in the free exercise
of their religion ; " all which they acknowledged
to be true. The Governor then told them that
their conduct had been undutiful and ungrateful;
" that they had discovered 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 [English] inhabitants or
Government, and when they did supply them, had
exacted three times the price for which they were
sold at other markets." The hope was then ex
pressed 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 con
ditions. The Governor added that they had some
secret reason for demanding their weapons, and
flattered themselves 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
minds on that point, and could do nothing till they
had consulted their constituents. Being reminded
that the oath was personal to themselves, and
that six years had already been given them to
think about it, they asked leave to retire and
confer together. This was granted, and at the
end of an hour they came back with the same

1755. J THEY REFUSE THE OATH. 263
answer as before ; whereupon they were allowed
till teu o'clock on the next morning for a final
decision.' At the appointed time the Council again met,
and the deputies were brought in. They persisted
stubbornly in the same refusal. " They were then
informed," says the record, "that the Council could
no longer look on them as subjects to His Britannic
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 depu
ties 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 there
after 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
aUegiance in the terms required. The answer
was that it was too late ; that as they had re
fused the oath under persuasion, they could not
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
1 Minutes of Council at Halifax, 3 July, 1755, in Public Documents af
Nova Scotia, 247-255.

264 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755
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 faith
ful 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 affairs had
reached a crisis when its inhabitants must either
pledge themselves without equivocation to be true
to the British Crown, or else must leave the coun
try. They all declared that they would lose their
lands rather than take the oath. The Council
urged them to consider the matter seriously, warn
ing them that, if they now persisted in refusal, no
farther choice would be allowed them ; and they
were given till ten o'clock on the following Mon
day to make their final answer.
When that day came, another body of deputies
had arrived from Grand Pre and the other settle
ments of the Basin of Mines; and being called
before the Council, both they and the former
deputation absolutely refused to take the oath
of allegiance. These two bodies represented nine
tenths of the Acadian population within the
peninsula. "Nothing," pursues the record of
the Council, " now remained to be considered but
what measures should be taken to send the in
habitants away, and where they should be sent
to." If they were sent to Canada, Cape Breton,
1 Lawrence to Lords qf Trade, 16 Juin, 1755.

:755.] MOTIVES OF THEIR CONDUCT. 265
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.'
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
" allegiance," and, as they insisted, with a saving
clause exempting them from bearing arms. The
effect of this was that they did not regard them
selves 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
view of the consequences, is to be ascribed partly
to a fixed belief that the English would not
execute their threats, partly to ties of race and
kin, but mainly to superstition. They 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 per
dition. "If the Acadians are miserable, remem
ber that the priests are the cause of it," writes
1 Minutes of Council, 4 July — 28 July, in Public Documents of Nova
Scotia, 255-267. 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.

266 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1765
the French officer Boishebert to the missionary
Manach.' The Council having come to a decision, Lawrence
acquainted Monckton with the result, and ordered
him to seize all the adult males in the neighbor
hood of Beausejour ; and this, as we have seen,
he promptly did. It remains to observe how the
rest of the sentence was carried into effect.
Instructions were sent to Winslow to secure the
inhabitants on or near the Basin of Mines and
place them on board transports, which, he was
told, would 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

1 On the oath and its history, compare a long note by Mr. Akin in
Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 263-267. Winslow in his Journal 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 preventing them from accepting the English
government. Add the following : —
" Les malheurs des Accadiens sont beaucoup moins leur ouvrage que le
fruit des soUicitations et des dcSmarches des missionnaires." Vaudreuil au
Ministre, 6 Mai, 1760.
" Si nous avons la guerre, et si les Accadiens sont miserables, souvenez-
vous que ce sont les pretres qui en sont la cause." Boishebert a Manach, 21
Fev. 1760. Both these Writers had encouraged the priests iu their in
trigues 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 les esprits au fanatisme et a la vengeance. . . . Je ne puis supporter
dans nos pretres ces odieuses de'clamations qu'ils font tons les jours aux
sauvages : ' Les Anglois sont les ennemis de Dieu, les compagnous du
Diable.' " Pichon, Lettres et Memoires pour servir a I' Histoire du Cap-
Breton, 160, 161. (La Haye, 1760.)

-7S5.J MISSION OF WINSLOW. 267
escape of all means of shelter or support, by burn
ing their houses and by destroying everything that
may afford them the means of subsistence in the
country." Similar orders were given to Major
Handheld, the regular officer in command at
Annapolis. On the fourteenth of August Winslow set out
from his camp at Fort Beausejour, or Cumberland,
on his unenviable errand. He had with him but
two hundred and ninety-seven men. His mood of
mind was not serene. He was chafed because the
regulars had charged his men with stealing sheep ;
and he was doubly vexed by an untoward incident
that happened on the morning of his departure.
He had sent forward his detachment under Adams,
the senior captain, 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 colors should be given up, on the
ground that they ought to remain with the regi
ment. Whatever the soundness of the reason,
there was no courtesy in 'the manner of enforcing
it. " This transaction raised my temper some,"
writes Winslow in 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
that 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

268 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755
Fundy. Here, while they waited the turn of the
tide to enter the Basin of Mines, the shores of
Cumberland lay before them dim in the hot and
hazy air, and the promontory of Cape Split, like
some misshapen monster of primeval chaos,
stretched its portentous length along the glimmer
ing 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 the red sandstone cliffs of Lyon's Cove, and.
descried the mouths of the rivers 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 Pre, 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 Windsor now stands, there was
a stockade called Fort Edward, where a garri
son of regulars under Captain Alexander Murray
kept watch over the surrounding settlements.
The New England men pitched their tents' on
shore, whUe the sloops that had brought them
slept on the soft bed of tawny mud left by the
fallen tide.

17551 WINSLOW AT GRAND PRfi. 269
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 been ordered by Lawrence to " clear the whole
country 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 concerning 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 Pre, 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 being
defiled by heretics." The church was used as a
storehouse and place of arms; the men pitched
their tents between it and the graveyard ; while
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 grass
land to which Grand Pre owed its name, spread
the blue glistening breast of the Basin of Mines ;
beyond this again, the distant mountains of Cobe
quid 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 outnum
bered his own, Winslow set his followers to sur
rounding the camp with a stockade. Card-playing

270 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755
was forbidden, because it encouraged idleness, and
pitching quoits in camp, because it spoiled the
grass. Presently there came a letter from Law
rence expressing a fear that the fortifying of the
camp might alarm the inhabitants. To which
Winslow replied that the making of the stockade
had not alarmed them in the least, since they took
it as a proof that the detachment was to spend
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 one, 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 Pre to meet him at the
church and hear the King's orders, and that Mur
ray should do the same for those around Fort
Edward. Winslow then called in his three cap
tains, — Adams, Hobbs, and Osgood, — made them
swear secrecy, and laid before them his instruc
tions and plans ; which latter they approved. Mur
ray 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 approbation, only
the day blank, and am hopeful everything will

1756.] THE SUMMONS. 271
succeed according to our wishes. The gentlemen
join me in our best complirnents to you and the
Doctor." On the next 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 Beau-
champ, a merchant, to " put it into French." It
ran as follows : —
By John Winslow, Esquire, Lieutenant-Colonel and Com
mander of His Majesty's troops at Grand Pre, Mines, Eiver
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 communicate the
same to the inhabitants in general in person, His Excellency
being desirous that each of them should be fully satisfied of
His Majesty's intentions, which he has also ordered us to
communicate to you, such as they have been given him.
We therefore order and strictly enjoin by these presents
to all the inhabitants, as well of the above-named districts
as of all the other districts, both old men and young men,
as well as all the lads of ten years of age, to attend at the
church in Grand Pr^ on Friday, the fifth instant, at three
of the clock in the afternoon, that we ma(y impart what we
are ordered to communicate to them; declaring that no

272 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 Pr^, the second of September, in the
twenty-ninth year of His Majesty's reign, a. d. 1765.
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 beau
tiful church, and abundance of the goods of the
world." Another reconnoissance by Captains
Hobbs and Osgood among the settlements be
hind Grand Pre brought reports equally favora
ble. 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 summons was sent out that after
noon. Powder and ball were served to the men,
and all were ordered to keep within the lines.
On the next day the inhabitants appeared at
the hour appointed, to the number of four hun
dred 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 regu
lars at Fort Edward, and such of the Massachu
setts officers as were not on guard duty ; strong.

1755.] SCENE IN THE CHURCH. 273
sinewy figures, bearing, no doubt, more or less dis
tinctly, the peculiar stamp with which toil, trade,
and Puritanism had imprinted the features of New
England. Their commander was not of the pre
vailing type. He was fifty-three years of age,
with double chin, smooth forehead, arched eye
brows, close powdered wig, and round, rubicund
face, from which the weight of an odious duty
had probably banished the smirk of self-satisfac
tion 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 inter
preters the King's orders in the following words,"
which, retouched in orthography and syntax, ran
thus : —
Gentlemen, — I 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 province 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
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 efEects, except money and household
1 See his portrait, at the rooms of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
VOL. I. — 18

274 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
^oods, and that you youi-selyes 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 my 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 gtm 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 haye the hoi;ior to command.
He then declared them prisoners of the King.
" They were greatly struck," he says, " at this
determination, though I believe they did not im
agine that they were actually to be removed."
After delivering the address, he rettimed to his
quarters at the priest's house, whither he was fol
lowed 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 them." Wins
low consulted with his officers, and it was ar
ranged that the Acadians should choose twenty
of their 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

1755.] AN ENGLISH REVERSE. 275
he had tried to secure the men of that neighbor
hood, 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 them food. "Thus,"
says the Diary of the commander, " ended the
memorable fifth of September, a day of great
fatigue and trouble."
There was one quarter where fortune did not
always smile. Major Jedediah Preble, of Wins-
low's battalion, wrote to him that Major Frye
had just returned from Chipody, whither he had
gone with a party of men to destroy the settle
ments and bring off the women and children.
After burning two hundred and fifty-three build
ings he had reimbarked, leaving fifty men on
shore at a place called Peticodiac to give a fin
ishing stroke to the work by burning the "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

276 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
with the rest of his men, engaged the assailants
for three hours, but was forced at last to reim-
bark.^ 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 posses
sion of arms 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 neighboring river.
It was resolved to place fifty of the prisoners on
board each of these, and keep them anchored in the
Basin. The soldiers were all ordered under arms,
and posted on an open space beside 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 num
ber of a hundred and forty-one. Captain Adams,
1 Also Boishebert a Drucourt, 10 Oct. 1755, an exaggerated account.
Vaudreuil au Ministre, 18 Oct. 1755, sets Boish^ert's force at one
boudred and twenty-five men.

1755.] A MEASURE OF PRECAUTION. 277
with eighty men, was then ordered to guard them
to the vessels. Though the object of the move
ment had been explained to them, they were pos
sessed 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 soldiers advanced
towards them with fixed bayonets ; while he him
self, laying hold of the foremost young man, com
manded 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 haU) with great lamentation, upon their
knees, praying." When the escort returned, about
a hundred pi the married men were ordered to fol
low 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 in boats to visit them
every day ; " and thus," says Winslow, " ended
this troublesome job." He was not given to
effusions of feeling,' but he wrote to Major Hand-
field : " This affair is more grievous to me than
any service I was ever employed in." ^
1 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 Pre several weeks, and were then
sent off at intervals with their famUies.

278 REMOVAL OF THE AGADLANS. [1755.
Murray sent him a note of congratulation: "I
am extremely pleased that things are so clever at
Grand Pre, and that the poor devils are so re
signed. Here they are more patient than I could
have expected for people in their circumstances;
and what surprises me still more is the indiffer
ence 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 pro
visions for the vessels which were to carry the'
prisoners did not come ; nor did the vessels them
selves, excepting the five already at Grand Pre.
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 quite as im
patient of the burden of suffering humanity on
his hands. " I am amazed what can keep the
transports and Saul. Surely our friend at Chigr
necto is willing to give us as much of our neigh
bors' company as he well can." ^ Saul came at
last with a shipload of provisions ; but the lagging
transports did not appear. Winslow grew heart
sick 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 hear their weeping and wailing
1 Murray to Winslow, 2^ Sept. 1755.

1755.] EMBARKATION- 279
and gnashing of teeth. I ana in hopes our affairs
will soon put on another face, and we get trans
ports, 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 themselves in readiness. " But even now," he
writes, "I could not persuade the people I was
in earnest." Their doubts were soon ended. The
first embarkation took place on the eighth of Octo
ber, under which date the Diary contains this
entry : " Began to embark the inhabitants, who
went off very solentarUy [sic] and unwillingly, the
women in great distress, carrying off their chil
dren in their arms ; others carrying their decrepit
parents in their carts, with all their goods ; mov
ing in great confusion, and appeared a scene of
woe and distress."^
1 In spite of Winslow's care, some cases of separation of families
occurred; but they were not numerous.

280 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
Though a large number were embarked on this
occasion, still more remained; and as the trans
ports slowly arrived, the dismal scene was repeated
at intervals, with more order than at first, as the
Acadians had learned to accept their fate as a cer
tainty. So far as Winslow was concerned, their
treatment seems to have been as humane as was
possible under the circumstances; but they com
plained of the men, who disliked and despised
them. One soldier received thirty lashes for steal
ing fowls from them ; and an order was issued for
bidding soldiers or sailors, on pain of summary
punishment, to leave their quarters without per
mission, " that an end may be put to distressing
this distressed people." Two of the prisoners,
however, whUe trying to escape, were shot by a
reconnoitring party.
At the beginning of November Winslow re
ported 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 Decem
ber. Murray finished his part of the work at the
end of October, having sent from the district of
Fort Edward eleven hundred persons in four fright
fully 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
1 Winslow to Monckton, 3 Nov. 1755.
2 Ibid.
' Captain Adams to Winslow, 29 Nov. 1755 ; see also Knox, I. 85, who
exactly confirms Adams's figures.

i755.] CONJUGAL DEVOTION. 281
was ordered to seize the inhabitants of the district
of Cobequid failed entirely, finding the settlements
abandoned. In the country about Fort Cumber
land, Monckton, who directed the operation in per
son, had very indifferent success, catching in all
but little more than a thousand.^ Le Guerne, mis
sionary priest in this neighborhood, gives a charac
teristic and affecting incident of the embarkation.
" 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 was 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 ex
pose their own souls to perdition among heretics,
but not those of their chUdren.
When all, or nearly all, had been sent off from
the various points of departure, such of the houses
and barns 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 be
hind ; and while some of these withdrew to Can
ada, Isle St. Jean, and other distant retreats, the
rest lurked in the woods or returned to their old
1 Monckton to Winslow, 7 Oct. 1755.
2 Le Guerne a Provost, 10 Mars, 1756.

282 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
haunts, whence they waged, for several years a
guerilla warfare against the English. Yet their
strength was broken, and they were no longer a
danger to the province.
Of their exiled countrjrmen, one party over
powered the crew of the vessel that carried them,
ran her ashore at the mouth of the St. John, and
escaped.-^ The rest were distributed among the
colonies from Massachusetts to Georgia, the
master of each transport having been provided
with a letter from Lawrence addressed to the
Governor of the province to which he was bound,
and desiring him to receive the unwelcome stran
gers. The provincials were vexed at the burden
imposed upon them; and though the Acadians
were not in general Ul-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
attributes it to the poverty of the colony. But
there were other causes. The exiles found less
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 be
friended them, that they wished to return.^
Bougainville, the celebrated navigator, then aide-
de-camp to Montcalm, says concerning them:
' Lettre commune de Drucour et Prevost au Ministre, 6 Avril, 1756. Vaw
dreuil au Ministre, 1 Juin, 1756.
^ Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., III. 42, note.

1756. J THEIR FATE. 283
"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 money they can, and then refuse them the
help so dearly bought, are the cause of this mor
tality." "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 niimerous
and distinct population. Some, after incredible
hardship, made their way back to Acadia, where,
after the peace, they remained unmolested, and,
with those 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 authors of the deporta
tion were disappointed in its results. They had
hoped to substitute a loyal population for a dis
affected one; but they failed for some time to
1 Bougainville, Journal, 1756-1758. His statements are sustained bj
Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.

284 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
find settlers for the vacated lands. The Massa
chusetts soldiers, to whom they were offered,
would not stay in the province; and it was not
till five years later that families of British stock
began to occupy the waste fields of the Acadians.
This goes far to show that a longuig to become
their heirs had not, as has been alleged, any con
siderable part in the motives for their removal.
New England humanitarianism, melting into
sentimentality 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 intoler
able, and impossible of continuance. They con
jured up the tempest ; and when it burst on the
heads of the unhappy people, they gave no help.
The Government of Louis XV. began with making
the Acadians its tools, and ended with making
them its victims.-'
1 It may not be remembered that the predecessor of Louis XV., with
out the slightest provocation or the pretence of any, 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 dispersed 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 Frontenac and New France under Louis
XIV., 189, 190.

/jl//jj.

THE REGION OF
from surveys made in.
1762

¦oiki

"""'0.

Mm4

^orfWiUiam.Bemy^ -i.«<^*

CHAPTER IX.
1765.
DIESKAU.
Expedition against Crown Point. —William Johnson. — Vau
dreuil. — Dieskau. — Johnson and the Indians. — The Pro
vincial Armt. — Doubts and Delays. — March to Lake
George. — Sunday in Camp. — Advance op Dieskau. — He
changes Plan. — Marches against Johnson. — Ambush. — Raur
op Provincials. — Battle op Lake George. — Rout op the
French. — Rage of the Mohawks. — Peril op Dieskau. —
Inaction op Johnson. — The Homeward March. — Laurels op
Victory. The next stroke of the campaign was to be the
capture of Crown 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 col
onies would contribute in due proportion.^ Massa
chusetts showed a military activity worthy of the
reputation she had won. Forty-five hundred of
1 Governor Shirley's Message to his Assembly, 13 Feb. 1755. Resolu
tions of the Assembly of Massachusetts, 18 Feb. 1755. Shirley's original
idea was to build a fort 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.

286 DIESKAU. [1755.
her men, or one in eight of her adult males, vol
unteered to fight the French, and enlisted for
the various expeditions, some in the pay of the
province, and some in that of the King.^ It re
mained to name a commander for the Crown Point
enterprise. Nobody had power to do so, for Brad
dock was not yet come ; but that time might not
be lost, Shirley, at the request of his Assembly,
took the responsibility on himself. If he had
named a Massachusetts ofl&cer, it would have roused
the jealousy of the other New England colonies ;
and he therefore appointed WUliam Johnson of
New York, thus gratifying that important prov
ince and pleasing the Five Nations, who at this
time looked on Johnson with even more than
usual favor. Hereupon, in reply to his request,
Connecticut voted twelve hundred men. New
Hampshire five hundred, and Rhode Island four
hundred, all at their own charge ; while New
York, a little later, promised eight hundred more.
When, in April, Braddock and the Council at Alex
andria 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.
He had never seen service, and knew nothing
of war. By birth he was Irish, of good family,
1 Correspondence of Shirley, Feb. 1755. The number was much in
creased later iu the season.

1755.] WILLIAM JOHNSON. 287
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 pros
per. He had ambition, energy, an active mind,
a tall, strong person, a rough, jovial temper, and
a quick adaptation 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 compared with the Indian
traders who infested the border, he was a model
of uprightness. He lived by the Mohawk in 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 acquired a remarkable influence.
He liked them, adopted their ways, and treated
them kindly or sternly as the case required, but
always with a justice and honesty in strong con
trast with the rascalities 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 men, but devils."
Hence, when Johnson was made Indian superin
tendent there was joy through all the Iroquois

288 DIESKAtT. [1755.
confederacy. When, in addition, he w^s made a
general, he assembled the warriors in councU 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 appeared at his call, his larder was sorely
taxed to entertain them. The speeches were in
terminable. 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 cho
rus. Then a tub of punch was brought in, and
they all drank the King's health.-' 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 them for the capture of
Oswego ; but the letters of Braddock, found on
the battle-field, warned him of the design against
1 Report of Conference between Major-General Johnson and the Indians,
fune, 1755.

1755.] MOHAWK ALLIES. 289
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 countrymen. He doubted not
of putting them to rout, and meant never to hold
his hand till he had chased them back to Albany.'
" 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
encamped near Albany, some on the " Flats "
above the town, and some on the meadows be
low. 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 England
regiment, "if they fight as eagerly as they ate
their ox and drank their wine."
Above all things the expedition needed prompt
ness ; yet everything moved slowly. Five popular
I Bigot au Ministre, 27 Aoik, 1755. Ibid., 5 Sept. 1755.
2 Memoire pour servir d'instruction a M. le Baron de Dieskau, Marechal
des Camps et Armies du Roy, 15 Aout, 1755.
vol. 1. — 19

290 DIESKAU. [1755
legislatures controlled the troops and the supplies.
Connecticut had refused to send her men till Shir
ley 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 wilderness 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 pro
posed for their relief.^
Johnson's army, crude as it was, had in it good
material. Here was Phineas Lyman, of Connecti
cut, 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 Louisbourg; 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 dep
uty-sheriff. He made his will in the camp at
Albany, and left a legacy to found the school
which has since become Williams College. His
relative, Stephen Williams, was chaplain of hia
regiment, and his brother Thomas was its sur
geon. Seth Pomeroy, gunsmith at Northampton,
1 The Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated (London, 1758).
2 Blanchard to Wentworth, 28 Aug. 1755, in Provincial Papers of New
Hampshire, VI 429.

1765.] THE PROVINCIAL ARMY. 291
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
continually writing affectionate letters, mingling
household 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 Put
nam, private in a Connecticut regiment ; and an
other 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 sum
mer campaign. One of the corps had a blue uni
form 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 sub
stitute.^ At their sides were slung powder-horns,
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 home
steads, — rustic abodes, unpainted and dingy, with
1 Proclamation of Governor Shirley, 175.'5.
2 Second Letter to a Friend on the Battle of Lake George.

292 DIESKAU. [1755
long well-sweeps, capacious barns, rough fields of
pumpkins and corn, 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 Wil
liams writes to Colonel Israel Williams, tben
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 Crown Point is taken, it
will not be for our sakes, but for those good
people left behind." ^ There was edifying regu
larity in respect to form. Sermons twice a week,
daily prayers, and frequent psalm-singing alter
nated with the much-needed military drill.^
"Prayers 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 prayers to God for me as
I am agoing to war, I am Your Ever Dutiful Son." *
To Pomeroy and some of his brothers in arm?
it seemed that they were engaged in a kind of
crusade against the myrmidons of Rome. " As
you have at heart the Protestant cause," he wrote
1 Papers of Colonel Israel Williams.
* Massachusetts Archives.
• Jonathan Caswell to John Caswell, 6 July, 1765.

1755.] ILL NEWS. 293
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 victory over our
unreasonable, encroaching, barbarous, murdering
enemies." Both WUliams the surgeon and Williams the
colonel chafed at the incessant delays. " The
expedition goes on very much as a snaU runs,"
writes the former to his wife ; " it seems we may
possibly see Crown Point this time twelve
month's." The Colonel was vexed because every
thing was out of joint in the department of trans
portation : wagoners mutinous 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 melan
choly to me." Even as he was 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 Can
ada. They returned on the twenty-first of
August with the report that the French were all
astir with preparation, and that eight thousand
men were coming to defend Crown Point. On
this a council of war was called ; and it was re
solved to send to the several colonies for rein
forcements.^ Meanwhile the main body had
moved up the river to the spot called the Great
Carrying Place, where Lyman had begun a forti-
1 Minutes of Council of War, 22 Aug. 1755. Ephraim Williams ta
Benjamin Dwight, 22 Aug. 1755.

294 DIESKAU. 11755
fied storehouse, which his men called Fort Lyman,
but which was afterwards named Fort Edward.
Two Indian trails led from this point to the
waters of Lake Champlain, 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 sub
mission to the general officers," Surgeon 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 ordered to the lake, while Colonel
Blanchard, of New Hampshire, remained with five
hundred to finish and defend Fort Lyman.
The train of Dutch wagons, guarded by the
homely soldiery, jolted slowly over the stumps
and roots of the newly made road, and the regi
ments 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 to the New England
ofl&cers. " 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

i755.] LAKE GEORGE. 295
a smaU 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
beautiful 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 un
doubted 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 marsh,
choked with alders and swamp-maples ; on their
left, the low hill where Fort George was after
wards built ; and at their rear, the lake. Little
was done to clear the forest in front, though it
would give excellent cover to 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 towards South Bay and
Wood Creek. Every day stores and bateaux, or flat
boats, came on wagons from Fort Lyman ; and pre
paration 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

296 DIESKAU. [1755
sorely perplexed the interpreter whose business it
was to turn it into Mohawk ; and in the afternoon
young Chaplain Newell, of Rhode Island, ex
pounded to the New England men the some
what untimely text, "Love your enemies." On
the 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 hundred 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 vol
unteer 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
prepared a surprise for him. The German Baron
had reached Crown Point at the head of three
thousand five hundred and seventy-three men,
regulars, Canadians, and Indians.^ He had no
thought of waiting there 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
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre, 25 Sept. 1755.

1755.] HIS RED ALLIES. 297
provisions for twelve days; Indians are not to
amuse themselves by taking scalps till the enemy
is entirely defeated, since they can kUl 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 ofl&cer who had received Wash
ington on his embassy to Fort Le Boeuf. These
unmanageable warriors were a constant annoyance
to Dieskau, being a species of humanity qiiite new
to him. " They drive us crazy," he says, " from
morning till night. There is no end to their de
mands. 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
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, nothing daunted, he invented a patriotic false
hood ; and thinking to lure his captors into a trap,
told them that the English army had fallen back to
1 Livre d' Ordres, Aout, Sept. 1755.
2 Dieskau a Vaudreuil, 1 Sept. 1755.

298 DIESKAU. [1756
Albany, leaving five hundred nien at Fort 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 prolonga
tion 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 de
tachment 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 knoAvn 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 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 bat
talions of Languedoc and La Reine, six hundred
' I passed this way three weeks ago. There are some points where the
scene is not much changed since Dieskau saw it. ¦

X765.] HIS CONFIDENCE. 299
and eighty-four Canadians, and about 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 ap
peared 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 will
ing to attack the camp at Lake George. Remon
strance was lost upon them. Dieskau was not
young, but he was 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 moming the order was
given to march for the lake.
1 Memoire sur V Affaire du 8 Septembre.

300 DIESKAU. [1766.
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 the boughs. On their left rose
gradually the lower slopes of West Mountain. All
was rock, thicket, 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 Moun
tain, and the rest lay close among the thickets on
the other side. Thus, when the English advanced
to attack the regulars in 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 ears intent, listening for the tramp of
the approaching column.
The wagoners who escaped the evening before
had reached the camp about midnight, and re
ported that there was a war-party on the road
near Fort Lyman. Johnson had at this time

1755.J ADVICE OF HENDRICK 301
twenty-two hundred effective men, besides his
three hundred Indians.^ He caUed a council of
war in the morning, and a resolution was taken
which can only be explained by a complete mis
conception 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."^ Hendrick, chief of the Mohawks,
a brave and sagacious warrior, expressed his dis
sent 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 they
are to fight, they are too few." Nevertheless,
he resolved to share their -fortunes ; and mount
ing on a gun-carriage, he harangued his warriors
with a voice so animated and gestures so express
ive, 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
' Wraxall to Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, 10 Sept. 1755. WraxaU
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 tw«
thousand. ^ Jjetter to the Governors of the several Colonies, 9 Sept, 1755.

302 DIESKAU. [1755
column, foUowed by two hundred of his warriors
as fast as they could grease, paint, and befeather
themselves. Captain Elisha Hawley was in his tent, finish
ing a letter which he had just written to his
brother 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 canie up, the whole moved on
together, so little conscious of danger that no
scouts were thrown out in front or flank; and,
in full security, they entered the fatal snare. Be
fore they were completely involved in it, the
sharp eye of old Hendrick detected some sign of
an enemy. At that 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

1755.J THE AMBUSH. 303
shot down, and the chief was kUled 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 screech
ing. There was a moment of total confusion ; but
a part of Williams's regiment rallied under com
mand of Whiting, and covered the retreat, fight
ing behind trees like Indians, and firing and falling
back by turns, bravely aided by some of the Mo
hawks and by a detachment which Johnson sent
to their aid. "And a very handsome retreat they
made," . writes Pomeroy; "and so continued 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
them; they were seen to drop as pigeons." So
ended the fray long known in New England fire
side story as the " bloody morning scout." Dies
kau now ordered a halt, and sounded his trumpets
to collect his scattered men. His Indians, how
ever, were sullen and unmanageable, and the
Canadians also showed signs of wavering. The
veteran who commanded them all, Legardeur de
Saint-Pierre, had been kUled. At length they

304 DIESKAU. [1755.
were persuaded to move again, the regulars lead
ing 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 com
rades 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, biit chiefiy 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 barri
cade, 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 bringing the wounded ;
and at last, an hour and a half after the first fire
was heard, the main detachment was seen march
ing in compact bodies down the road.
Five hundred men were detailed to 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

1755.] BATTLE OE LAKE GEORGE. 305
Indians, this actual fighting force was between
sixteen and seventeen hundred rustics, very few
of whom had been under fire before that morning.
They were hardly at their posts when they saw
ranks of white-coated soldiers moving down the
road, and bayonets that to them seemed innu
merable 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, helter-skelter, the
woods full of them, came running with undaunted
courage right down the hill upon us, expecting to
make us flee."^ 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 through the woods and swamps, shout
ing, yelling, and firing from behind trees. The
regulars advanced with intrepidity towards the
camp where the trees were thin, deployed, and
fired by platoons, till Captain Eyre, who com
manded 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 grew furious. "Perhaps," Seth
Pomeroy wrote to his wife, two days after, " the
1 Seth Pomeroy to his Wife, 10 Sept. 1755.
a Dr. Perez Marsh to William Williams, 25 Sept. 1755.
VOL. I.— 20

306 DIESKAU. U76&
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." John
son received a flesh-wound in the thigh, and spent
the rest of the day in his tent. Lyman took
command ; and it is a marvel that he escaped
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 col
league 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 hUl 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 pub
lished a curious bird's-eye view. As the wounded
men were carried to the rear, the wagoners about
the camp took their guns and powder-horns, and
joined in the fray. A Mohawk, seeing one of
these men still unarmed, leaped over the barri
cade, tomahawked the nearest Canadian, snatched
his gun, and darted back unhurt. The brave
savage found no imitators among his tribesmen,
most of whom did nothing but utter a few war-
whoops, saying that they had come to see their

1755.] ROUT OF THE FRENCH. 307
English brothers fight. Some of the French In
dians opened a distant flank fire from the high
ground beyond the swamp on the right, but were
driven off by a few shells dropped among them.
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 bar
ricade, firing from behind a tree like a common
soldier. At length Dieskau, 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 Adju
tant 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, and ordered the Adjutant to leave him
and lead the 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 butts of their guns. The
French and their allies fled. The wounded Gen
eral still sat helpless by the tree, when he saw a

308 DIESKAU. [175&
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
him ! ' He answered : ' How did I know that you
had not got a pistol ? I had rather kill the devU
than have the devil kill me.' ' You are a French
man ? ' I asked. ' Yes,' he replied ; 'it is more
than ten years since I left Canada ; ' whereupon
several others fell on me and stripped me. I
told them to carry me to their general, which
they did. On learning who I was, he sent for
surgeons, and, though wounded himself, refused
all assistance tUl my wounds were dressed."^
It was near five o'^clock when the final rout
took place. Some time before, several hundred
of the Canadians and Indians had left the field
and returned to the scene of the morning fight,
to plunder and scalp the dead. They were rest
ing themselves near a pool in the forest, close
beside the road, when their repose was inter
rupted by a voUey of bullets. It was fired by
a scouting party from Fort Lyman, chiefly back
woodsmen, under Captains Folsom and McGinnis.
The assailants were greatly outnumbered; but
after a hard fight the Canadians and Indians
1 Dialogue entre le Mar^chal de Saxe et le Baron de Dieskau aux Chamvs
Ulysees. This paper is in the Archives de la Guerre, and was evidently
¦written or inspired by Dieskau himself. In spite of its faucim. lorm it
is a sober statement of the events of the campaign. There is a translation
«f it in N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 340.

1755.] MOHAWK FEROCITT. 309
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 tra
dition, were thrown uito the pool, which bears to
this day the name of 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 French Mountain, tUl, in the next evening,
they reached their canoes. Their plight was de
plorable; for they had left their knapsacks be
hind, 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 sul
lenly. Dieskau asked 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 shall kill us both."^ The Mo
hawks soon came back, and another talk ensued,
excited at first, and then more calm ; tUl at length
1 See the story as told by Dieskau to the celebrated Diderot, at Paris,
in 1760. Memoires de Diderot, I. 402 (1830). Compare N. Y. Col. Docs.,
X. 343.

310 DIESKAU. !n55.
the visitors, seemingly appeased, smiled, gave Dies
kau 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 Avhom 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
afterwards 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 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 Falmouth; whence Colonel Matthew Sewell,
fearing that he might see and learn too much,
wrote to the Earl of Holdernesse: "The Baron
has great penetration and quickness of appre
hension. His long service under Marshal Saxe
renders him a man of real consequence, to be
' Dr. Perez Marsh to William Williams, 25 Sept, 1755.

^755.] AFTER THE BATTLE. 311
cautiously observed. His circumstances 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 the waters. In 1760 the fa
mous Diderot met him at Paris, cheerful and fuU
of anecdote, though wretchedly shattered by his
wounds. He died a few years later.
On the night after the battle the yeomen war
riors felt the truth of the saying that, next to
defeat, the saddest thing is victor^'. 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
him in." Daniel Pomeroy was shot dead ; and his
brother Seth wrote the news to his wife Rachel,
who was just delivered of a child : " Dear Sister,
this brings heavy tidings ; but let nat your heart
sink at the news, though it be your loss of a dear
husband. Monday the eighth instant was a mem
orable day ; and truly you may say, had not the
Lord -been on our side, we must all have been
swallowed 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 expected;

312 DIESKAU. [175&
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 occasion.
" 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 Brad
dock's dead soldiers had been left to the wolves.
The English loss in killed, wounded, and miss
ing was two hundred and sixty-two ; ^ and that of
the French by their own account, two hundred
and twenty-eight,^ — a somewhat modest result of
five 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
1 Return of Killed, Wounded, and Missing at the Battle of Lake George.
2 Doreil au Ministre, 20 Oct. 1755. Surgeon Williams gives the Eng
lish loss as two hundred and sixteen killed, and ninety-six wounded.
Pomeroy thinks that the French lost four or five hundred. Johnson
places their loss at four hundred.

1755.J INACTION OF JOHNSON. 313
and suffered the chief loss, nearly all of the for
mer and nearly half of the latter being killed or
wounded. Johnson did not follow up his success. He says
that his 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 mountains 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 Ticonderoga. Lyman strongly
urged him to make an effort to seize that import
ant pass ; but Johnson thought only of holding
his own position. "I think," he wrote, "we may
expect very shortly a more formidable attack."
He made a solid breastwork to defend his camp ;
and as reinforcements arrived, set them at build
ing 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 Lyman to dele
gate the command to him ; and so the days passed
till, within a fortnight, his nimble enemy were
entrenched at Ticonderoga 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 Connecti-

314 DIESKAU. [1756.
cut, 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 Ticonde
roga at once. Johnson replied that he had not
wagons enough, and that his troops were ill-
clothed, ill-fed, discontented, insubordinate, and
sickly. He complained 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 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 stUl kept in
his -tent by his wound, he asked Lyman to preside,
— not unwilling, perhaps, to shift the responsibUity
upon him. After several sessions and much de
bate, the assembled officers decided that it was
inexpedient to proceed.^ Yet the army lay more
than a month longer at the lake, while the dis
gust 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
1 Shirley to Johnson, 19 Sept. 1755. Ibid., 24 Sept. 1755. Johnson
to Shirley, 22 Sept. 1755. Johnson to Phipps, 10 Oct. 1755 (Massa
chusetts Archives).
" Reports of Council of War, 11-21 Oct. 1755.

1755.] THE LAURELS OF VICTORY. 315
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 :
Who 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 ungrateful service, and that Massachusetts
should have the first officer, Connecticut the
second, and New York the third. Then the camp
broke up. " Thursday the 27th," wrote the chap
lain in his almanac, " we set out about ten of the
clock, marched in a body, about three thousand,
the wagons and baggage in the centre, our colonel
much insulted by the way." The soldiers dis
persed to their villages and farms, where in blus
tering 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,
m compliment to one of the King's grandsons ; and.
in compliment to another, called his new fort a^

316 DIESKAU. 11755
the lake, William Henry. 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
jubeo of Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, is to be
ascribed that mighty renown which echoed through
the colonies, reverberated to Europe, and elevated
a raw, inexperienced youth into a kind of second
Marlborough." ^ Parliament gave him five thousand
pounds, and the King made him a baronet.
1 Review of Military Operations in North America, in a Letter to a Noble
man (ascribed to William Livingston).
On the Battle of Lake George a mass of papers will be found in the
N. Y. Col. Docs., Vols. VI. and X. Those in Vol VI., taken chiefly
from the archives of New York, consist of oifieial and private letters,
reports, etc., on the English side. Those iu Vol. X. are drawn chiefly
from the archives of the French War Department, and include the corre
spondence of Dieskau and his adjutant 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 dis
obeying 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 Oct. ns.').
I owe to the kindness of Theodore Pomeroy, Esq., a copy of the Jour
nal of Lieutenant-Colonel Seth Pomeroy, whose letters also are full of
Interest ; as are those of Surgeon Williams, from the collection of Wil
liam L. Stone, Esq. The papers of Colonel Israel Williams, in the
Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, contain many other curi
ous 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 near Lake George, with an Explanation

1755.] A COLONIAL POET. 317
thereof, containing a full, ihouqh short. History of that important Affair, by
Samuel Blodget, occasionalli/ 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 liatts, etc." The engraving is reproduced in the
Documentary History of New York, IV., and elsewhere. The Explana
tion thereof is only to be found complete in the original. This, as weif
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 qf Military Operations in North America;
Dwight, Travels in New England and New York, III. ; and Hoyt, Antiqua
rian Researches on Indian Wars, — should also be mentioned. Dwight
and Hoyt drew their information from aged snivivors 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 si piece styled The
Christian Hero, or New England's Triumph, beginning with the invo
cation, — " O Heaven, indulge my feeble Muse,
Teach her what numbers for to choose 1 "
and containing the following stanza; —
" Their Dieskau we from them detain,
-While Canada alond 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."

CHAPTER X.
1755, 1756.
SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR.
The Niagara Campaign. — Albany. — March to Oswego. — Diffi
culties. — The Expedition abandoned. — Shiklet and Johnson.
— Results of the Campaign. — The Scourge of the Border. —
Trials of Washington. — Misery of the Settlers. — Hor
ror op their Situation. — Philadelphia and the Quakers.
— Disputes with the Penns. — Democracy and Feudalism. —
Pennsylvanian Population. — Appeals from the Frontier. —
Quarrel of Governor and Assembly. — Help refused. — Des
peration OF the Borderers. — Fire and Slaughter. — The
Assembly ALARMED. — They pass a mock Militia Law. — They
ARE forced to YIELD.
The capture of Niagara was to finish the work
of the summer. This alone would have gained
for England the control of the valley of the Ohio,
and made Braddock's expedition superfluous. One
marvels at the short-sightedness, the dissensions,
the apathy which had left this key of the interior
so long in the hands of France without an effort
to wrest it from her. To master Niagara would
be to cut the communications of Canada with the
whole system of French forts and settlements in
the West, and leave them to perish like limbs of a
girdled tree.
Major-General Shirley, in the flush of his new
martial honors, was to try his prentice hand at
the work. The lawyer-soldier could plan a cam
paign boldly and well. It remained to see how

1755.] ALBANY. 319
he would do his part towards executing it. In
July he arrived at Albany, the starting-point of
his o-wn expedition as well as that of Johnson.
This little Dutch city was an outpost of civiliza
tion. The Hudson, descending from the north
ern wilderness, connected it with the lakes and
streams that formed the thoroughfare to Canada ;
while the Mohawk, flowing from the west, was a
liquid pathway to the forest homes of the Five
Nations. Before the war was over, a little girl,
Anne Mae Vicar, daughter of a Highland officer,
was left at Albany by her father, and spent sev
eral years there in the house of Mrs. Schuyler,
aunt of General Schuyler of the Revolution. Long
after, married and middle-aged, she wrote down
her recollections of the place, — the fort on the
hill behind; the great street, grassy and broad,
that descended thence to the river, with market,
guard-house, town-hall, and two churches in the
middle, and rows of quaint Dutch-built houses on
both sides, each detached from its neighbors, each
with its well, garden, and green, and its great
overshadowing tree. Before every house was a
capacious porch, with seats where the people gath
ered in the summer twilight; old men at one
door, matrons at another, young men and girls
mingling at a third; while the cows with their
tinkling bells came from the common at the end
of the town, each stopping to be milked at the
door of its owner ; and children, porringer in
hand, sat on the steps, watching the process and
waiting their evening meal.

320 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR. [1755-
Such was the quiet picture painted on the
memory of Anne MacVicar, and reproduced by
the pen of Mrs. Anne Grant.^ The patriarchal,
semi-rural town had other aspects, not so pleas
ing. The men were mainly engaged in the fur-
trade, sometimes legally with the Five Nations,
and sometimes illegally with the Indians of Can
ada, — an occupation which by no means tends to
soften the character. The Albany Dutch traders
were a rude, hard race, loving money, and not
always scrupulous as to the means of getting it.
Coming events, too, were soon to have their effect
on this secluded community. Regiments, red and
blue, trumpets, drums, banners, artillery trains,
and all the din of war transformed its peaceful
streets, and brought some attaint to domestic,
morals hitherto commendable ; for during the
next five years Albany was to be the principal
base of military operations on the continent.
Shirley had left the place, and was now on his
way up the Mohawk. His force, much smaller
than at first intended, consisted of the New Jersey
regiment, which mustered five hundred men, known
as the Jersey Blues, and of the fiftieth and fifty-
first regiments, called respectively Shirley's and
Pepperell's. These, though paid by the King and
counted as regulars, were in fact raw provincials,
just raised in the colonies, and wearing their gay
uniforms with an awkward, unaccustomed air.
1 Memoirs of an American Lady (Mrs. Schuyler), Chap. VI. A genu
ine picture of colonial life, and a charming book, though far from being
historically trustworthy. Compare the account of Albany in Kalm,
II. 102.

1755.) ADVANCE OF SHIRLEY. 321
How they gloried in them may be gathered from
a letter of Sergeant James Gray, of Pepperell's,
to his brother John : " I have two HoUand shirts,
found me by the King, and two pair of shoes and
two pair of worsted stockings ; a good silver-laced
hat (the lace 1 could sell for four dollars) ; and my
clothes is as fine scarlet broadcloth as ever you
did see. A sergeant here in the King's regiment
is counted as good as an ensign with you ; and
one day in every week we must have our hair
or wigs powdered." ^ Most of these gorgeous war
riors were already on their way to Oswego, their
first destination.
Shirley followed, embarking at the Dutch vil
lage of Schenectady, and ascending the Mohawk
with about two hundred of the so-called regulars
in bateaux. They passed Fort Johnson, the two
villages of the Mohawks, and the Palatine settle
ment of German Flats ; left behind the last trace
of civilized man, rowed sixty miles through a
wilderness, and reached the Great Carrying Place,
which divided the waters that flow to the Hudson
from those that flow to Lake Ontario. Here now
stands the city which the classic zeal of its
founders has adorned with the name of Rome.
Then all was swamp and forest, traversed by a
track that led to Wood Creek, — which is not to be
confounded with the Wood Creek of Lake Cham
plain. Thither the bateaux were dragged on
sledges and launched on the dark and tortuous
stream, which, fed by a decoction of forest leaves
1 James Gray to John Gray, 11 July, 1755.
VOL. I. — 21

322 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR. 1175&
that oozed from the marshy shores, crept in
shadow through depths of foliage, with only a
belt of illumined sky gleaming between the jagged
tree-tops. Tall and lean with straining towards
the light, their rough, gaunt stems tricklmg with
perpetual damps, stood on either hand the' silent
hosts of the forest. The skeletons of their dead,
barkless, blanched, and shattered, strewed the
mudbanks and shallows; others lay submerged,
like bones of drowned mammoths, thrusting lank,
white limbs above the suUen water; and great
trees, entire as yet, were flung by age or storms
athwart the current, — a bristling barricade of
matted boughs. There was work for the axe as
well as for the oar; till at length Lake Oneida
opened before them, and they rowed all day over
its sunny breast, reached the outlet, and drifted
down the shallow eddies of the Onondaga, between
walls of verdure, silent as death, yet haunted
everywhere with ambushed danger. It was
twenty days after leaving Schenectady when they
neared the mouth of the river ; and Lake Ontario
greeted them, stretched like a sea to the pale
brink of the northern sky, while on the bare hill
at their left stood the miserable little fort of
Oswego. Shirley's whole force soon arrived ; but not the
needful provisions and stores. The machinery pf
transportation and the commissariat was in the
bewildered state inevitable among a peaceful
people at the beginning of a war ; while the news
of Braddock's defeat produced such an effect on

1755.] JOHN SHIRLEY. 323
the boatmen and the draymen at the carrying-
places, that the greater part deserted. Along
with these disheartening tidings, Shirley learned
the death of his eldest son, killed at the side of
Braddock. He had with him a second son. Cap
tain John Shirley, a vivacious young man, whom
his father and his father's friends in their familiar
correspondence always called " Jack." John Shir
ley's letters give a lively view of the situation.
" I have sat down to write to you," — : thus he
addresses Governor Morris, of Pennsylvania, who
seems to have had a great liking for him, — "be
cause there is an opportunity of sending you a
few lines ; and if you will promise to excuse blots,
interlineations, and grease (for this is written in
the open air, upon the head of a pork-barrel, and
twenty people about me), I will begin another
half-sheet. We are not more than about fifteen
hundred men fit for duty ; but that, I am pretty
sure, if we can go in time in our sloop, schooner,
row-galleys, and whale-boats, will be suffieient to
take Frontenac ; after which we may venture to
go upon the attack of Niagara, but not before.
I have not the least doubt with myself of knock
ing down both these places yet. this fall, if we
can get away in a week. If we take or destroy
their two vessels at Frontenac, and ruin their
harbor there, and destroy the two forts of that
and Niagara, I shall think we have done great
things. Nobody holds it out better than my
father and myself. We shall all of us relish a
good house over our heads, being all encamped,

324 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR. [1755
except the General and some few field-officerSj who
have what are called at Oswego houses ; but they
would in other countries be called only sheds,
except the fort, where my father is. Adieu, dear
,sir ; I hope my next will be directed from Fron
tenac. Yours most affectionately, John Shirley." ^
Fort Frontenac lay to the northward, fifty
miles or more across the lake. Niagara lay to the
westward, at the distance of four or five days by
boat or canoe along the south shore. At Fron
tenac there was a French force of fourteen hun
dred regulars and Canadians.^ They had vessels
and canoes to cross the lake and fall upon Oswego
as soon as Shirley should leave it to attack Nia
gara ; for Braddock's captured papers had revealed
to them the English plan. If they should take it,
Shirley would be cut off from his supplies and
placed in desperate jeopardy, with the enemy in
his rear. Hence it is that John Shirley insists
on taking Frontenac before attempting Niagara.
But the task was not easy ; for the French force
1 The young author of this letter was, like his brother, a victim of
the war.
"Permit me, good sir, to offer you my hearty condolence upon the
death of my friend Jack, whose worth I admired, and feel for him more
than I can express. . . . Few men of his age had so many friends." Gov
ernor Morris to Shirley, 27 Nov, 1755.
"My heart bleeds for Mr. Shirley. He must be overwhelmed with
Grief when he hears of Capt. John Shirley's Death, of which I have an
Account by the last Post from New York, where he died of a Flux and
Fever that he had contracted at Oswego. The loss of Two Sons in one
Campaign scarcely admits of Consolation. I feel the Anguish of the un
happy Father, and mix my Tears very heartily with his. I have had an
intimate Acquaintance with Both of Them for many Years, and know
well their inestimable Value." Morris to Dinwiddie, 29 Nov. 1765.
* Bigot au Ministre, 27 Aout, 1755.

1755.] DIFFICULTIES. 325
at the former place was about equal in effective
strength to that of the English at Oswego. At
Niagara, too, the French had, at the end of Au
gust, nearly twelve hundred Canadians and In
dians from Fort Duquesne and the upper lakes. ^
Shirley was but imperfectly informed by his
scouts of the unexpected strength of the opposi
tion that awaited him ; but he knew enough to see
that his position was a difficult one. His move
ment on Niagara was stopped, first by want of
provisions, and secondly because he was check
mated by the troops at Frontenac. He did not
despair. Want of 'courage was not among his
failings, and he was but too ready to take risks.
He called a council of officers, told them that the
total number of men fit for duty was thirteen
hundred and seventy-six, and that as soon as
provisions enough should arrive he would embark
for Niagara with six hundred soldiers and as many
Indians as possible, leaving the rest to defend
Oswego against the expected attack from Fort
Frontenac.^ "All I am uneasy about is our provisions,"
writes John Shirley to his friend Morris; "our
men have been upon half allowance of bread these
three weeks past, and no rum given to 'em. My
father yesterday called all the Indians together
and made 'em a speech on the subject of General
Johnson's engagement, which he calculated to in
spire them with a spirit of revenge." After the
1 Bigot au Ministre, 5 Sept. 1755.
2 Minutes of a Council of War at Oswego, 18 Sept. 1755

326 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR. [1755
speech he gave them a bullock for a feast, which
they roasted and ate, pretending that they were
eating the Governor of Canada ! Some provisions
arriving, orders were given to embark on the next
day ; but the officers murmured their dissent.
The weather was persistently bad, their vessels
would not hold half the party, and the bateaux,
made only for river navigation, would infallibly
founder on the treacherous and stormy lake. " All
the field-officers," says John Shirley, " think it too
rash an attempt ; and I have heard so much of it
that I think it my duty to let my father know
what I hear." Another councU was called; and
the General, reluctantly convinced of the danger,
put the question whether to go or not. The situa
tion admitted but one reply. The council was of
opinion that for the present the enterprise was
impracticable ; that Oswego should be strength
ened, more vessels built, and preparation made to
renew the attempt as soon as spring opened.^ All
thoughts of active operations were now suspended,
and during what was left of the season the troops
exchanged the musket for the spade, saw, and
axe. At the end of October, leaving seven hun
dred men at Oswego, Shhley returned to Albany,
and narrowly escaped drowning on the way, while
passing a rapid in a whale-boat, to try the fitness
of that species of craft for river navigation.^
1 Minutes of a Council of War at Oswego, 27 Sept. 1755.
2 On the Niagara expedition, Braddock's Instructions to Major-General
Shirley. Correspondence of Shirley, \755. Conduct of Major-General Shir
ley (London, 1758). Letters of John Shirley iu Pennsylvania Archives, II.
Bradstreet to Shirley, 17 Aug. 1755. MSS. in Massachusetts Archives.

"55. J SHIRLEY AND JOHNSON. 327
Unfortunately for him, he had fallen out with
Johnson, whom he had made what he was, but
who now turned against him, — a seeming ingrati
tude not whoUy unprovoked. Shirley had diverted
the New Jersey regiment, destined originally for
Crown Point, to his own expedition against Nia
gara. Naturally inclined to keep all the reins in
his own hands, he had encroached on Johnson's
new office of Indian superintendent, held confer
ences with the Five Nations, and employed agents
of his own to deal with them. These agents were
persons obnoxious to Johnson, being allied with
the clique of Dutch traders at Albany, who hated
him because he had supplanted them in the direc
tion of Indian affairs ; and in a violent letter to
the Lords of Trade, he inveighs against their
"licentious and abandoned proceedings," "villa-
nous conduct," "scurrilous falsehoods," and "base
and insolent behavior." ^ " I am considerable
enough," he says, " to have enemies and to be
envied ; " ^ and he declares he has proof that Shir
ley told the Mohawks that he, Johnson, was an
upstart of his creating, whom he had set up and
could puU down. Again, he charges Shirley's
agents with trying to " debauch the Indians from
joining him ; " while Shirley, on his side, retorts
the same complaint against his accuser.^ When,
Review of Military Operations in North America, Gentleman's Magazine,
1757, p. 73. London Magazine, 1759, p. 594. Trumbull, Hist. Connecii
cut, II. 370.
1 Johnson to the Lords of Trade, 3 Sept. 1755.
2 Johnson to the Lords of Trade, 17 Jan. 1756.
8 John Shirley to Governor Morris, 12 Aug. 1755.

328 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAIt. [1755
by the death of Braddock, Shirley became com
mander-in-chief, Johnson grew so restive at being
subject to his instructions that he declined to hold
the management of Indian affairs unless it was
made independent of his rival. The dispute be
came mingled with the teapot-tempest of New
York provincial politics. The Lieutenant-Gover
nor, Delancey, a politician of restless ambition
and consummate dexterity, had taken umbrage at
Shirley, of whose rising honors, not borne with
remarkable humility, he appears to have been
jealous. Delancey had hitherto favored the Dutch
faction in the Assembly, hostile to Johnson; but
he now changed attitude, and joined hands with
him against the object of their common dislike.
The one was strong in the prestige of a loudly-
trumpoted victory, and the other had means
of influence over the Ministry. Their coali
tion boded ill to ShUley, and he soon felt its
effects.-^ The campaign was now closed, — a sufficiently
active one, seeing that the two nations were nomi
nally at peace. A disastrous rout on the Monon
gahela, failure at Niagara, a barren victory at
Lake George, and three forts captured in Acadia,
were the disappointing results on the part of Eng
land. Nor had her enemies cause to boast. The
Indians, it is true, had won a battle for them : but
they had suffered mortifying defeat from a raw
^ On this affair, see various papers in N, Y. Col, Docs,, VI., VII.
Smith, Hist. New York, Part II., Chaps. IV. V. Review of Military Opera
tions in North America. Both Smith and Livingston, the author of the
Revieic, were personally cognizant of the course of the dispute.

li'oS./ UPRISING OF THE WEST. 329
militia ; their general was a prisoner ; and they
had lost Acadia past hope.
The campaign was over ; but not its effects. It
remains to see what befell from the rout of Brad
dock and the unpardonable retreat of Dunbar
from the frontier which it was his duty to. de
fend. Dumas had replaced Contrecceur in the
command of Fort Duquesne; and his first care
was to set on the Western tribes to attack the
border settlements. His success was triumphant.
The Delawares and Shawanoes, old friends of the
English, but for years past tending to alienation
through neglect and ill-usage, now took the lead
against them. Many of the Mingoes, or Five
Nation Indians on the Ohio, also took up the
hatchet, as did various remoter tribes. The West
rose like a nest of hornets, and swarmed in
fury against the English frontier. Such was
the consequence of the defeat of Braddock aided
by the skilful devices of the French commander.
" It is by means such as I have mentioned," says
Dumas, " varied in every form to suit the occa
sion, that I have succeeded in ruining the three
adjacent provinces, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and
Virginia, driving off the inhabitants, and totally
destroying the settlements over a tract of country
thirty leagues wide, reckoning from the Une of
Fort Cumberland. M. de Contrecceur had not
been gone a week before I had six or seven dif
ferent war-parties in the field at once, always
accompanied by Frenchmen. Thus far, we have
lost only two officers and a few soldiers ; but the

330 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR. [1755.
Indian villages are full of prisoners of every age
and sex. The enemy has lost far more since the
battle than on the day of his defeat." ^
Dumas, required by the orders of his superiors
to wage a detestable warfare against helpless
settlers and their families, did what he could to
temper its horrors, and enjoined the officers who
went with the Indians to spare no effort to pre
vent them from torturing prisoners.^ The at
tempt should be set do-wn to his honor ; but it
did not avail much. In the recOrd of cruelties
committed this year on the borders, we find re
peated instances of children scalped alive. "They
kill all they meet," writes a French priest; "and
after having abused the women and maidens, they
slaughter or burn them." ^
Washington was now in command of the Vir
ginia regiment, consisting of a thousand men,
raised afterwards to fifteen hundred. With these
he was to protect a frontier of three hundred and
fifty miles against more numerous enemies, who
could choose their time and place of attack. His
headquarters were at Winchester. His men were
an ungovernable crew, enlisted chiefly on the tur
bulent border, and resenting every kind of dis
cipline as levelling them with negroes ; while the
1 Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756.
^ Memoires de Famille de I'Abbg Casgrain, -cited in Le Foyer Canadien,
III. 26, where an extract is given from an order of Dumas to Baby, a
Canadian officer. Orders of Contrecosur and Ligneris to the same effect
are also given. A similar order, signed by Dumas, was found iu the pocket
of Douville, an officer killed by the English on the frontier. Writings of
Washington, II. 137, note.
' Rev. Claude Godefroy Cocquard, S. J,, a son Fr'ere, Mars (1), 1757.

.'.755. 1 MISERY OF THE FRONTIERS. 331
sympathizmg House of Burgesses hesitated for
months to pass any law for enforcing obedience,
lest it should trench on the liberties of free white
men. The service was to the last degree unpopu
lar. "If we talk of obliging men to serve their
country," wrote Landon Carter, " we are sure to
hear a fellow mumble over the words 'liberty'
and ' property ' a thousand times." ^ The people,
too, were in mortal fear of a slave insurrection,
and therefore dared not go far from home.^
Meanwhile a panic reigned along the border.
Captain Waggoner, passing a gap in the Blue
Ridge, could hardly make his way for the crowd
of fugitives. "Every day," writes Washington,
" we have accounts of such cruelties and barbari
ties as are shocking to human nature. It is not
possible to conceive the situation and danger of
this miserable country. Such numbers of French
and Indians are all around that no road is safe."
These frontiers had always been at peace. No
forts of refuge had thus far been built, and the
scattered settlers had no choice but flight. Their
first impulse was to put wife and children beyond
reach of the tomahawk. . As autumn advanced,
the invading bands grew more and more audacious.
Braddock had opened a road for them by which
they could cross the mountains at their ease ; and
scouts from Fort Cumberland reported that this
road was beaten by as many feet as when the
English army passed last summer. Washington
1 Extract in Writings of Washington, II. 1 45, note.
2 Letters of Dinwiddie, 1755.

332 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR. [1755,1756.
was beset with difficulties. Men and officers alike
were unruly and mutinous. He was at once
blamed for their disorders and refused the means
of repressing them. Envious detractors published
slanders against him. A petty Maryland captain,
who had once had a commission from the King,
refused to obey his orders, and stirred up factions
among his officers. Dinwiddie gave him cold sup
port. The temper of the old Scotchman, crabbed
at the best, had been soured by disappointment,
vexation, weariness, and ill-health. He had, be
sides, a friend and countryman. Colonel Innes,
whom, had he dared, he would gladly have put in
Washington's place. He was full of zeal in the
common cause, and wanted to direct the defence of
the borders from his house at Williamsburg, two
hundred miles distant. Washington never hesi
tated to obey ; but he accompanied his obedience
by a statement of his own convictions and his
reasons for them, which, though couched in terms
the most respectful, galled his irascible chief. The
Governor acknowledged his merit ; but bore him no
love, and sometimes wrote to him in terms which
must have tried his high temper to the utmost.
Sometimes, though rarely, he gave words to his
emotion. " Your Honor," he wrote in April, " may see to
what unhappy straits the distressed inhabitants
and myself are reduced. I see inevitable destruc
tion in so clear a light, that unless vigorous meas
ures are taken by the Assembly, and speedy
assistance sent from below, the poor inhabitants

1755, 1756.] WASHmOTON. 333
that are now in forts must unavoidably fall, whUe
the remainder are flying before the barbarous foe.
In fine, the melancholy situation of the people ; the
little prospect of assistance ; the gross and scanda
lous abuse cast upon the officers in general, which
is reflecting upon me in particular for suffering
misconduct of such extraordinary kinds ; and the
distant prospect, if any, of gaining honor and repu
tation in the service, — cause me to lament the hour
that gave me a commission, and would induce me
at any other time than this of imminent danger
to resign, without one hesitating moment, a com
mand from which I never expect to reap either
honor or benefit, but, on the contrary, have almost
an absolute certainty of incurring displeasure be
low, while the murder of helpless families may be
laid to my account here.
" The supplicating tears of the women and mov
ing petitions of the men melt me into such deadly
sorrow, that I solemnly declare, if I know my own
mind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the
butchering enemy, provided that would contribute
to the people's ease." -^
In the turmoil around him, patriotism and pub
lic duty seemed all to be centred in the breast of
one heroic youth. He was respected and gen
erally beloved, but he did not kindle enthusiasm.
His were the qualities of an unflagging courage,
an all-enduring fortitude, and a deep trust. He
showed an astonishing maturity of character, and
the kind of mastery over others which begins
1 Writings of Washington, II. 143.

334 SHIRLEY BORDER WAR 11755,1756
with mastery over self. At twenty-four he was
the foremost man, and acknowledged as such,
along the whole long line of the western border.
To feel the situation, the nature of these fron
tiers must be kept in mind. Along the skirts of
the southern and middle colonies ran for six or
seven hundred miles a loose, thin, dishevelled
fringe of population, the half-barbarous pioneers
of advancing civilization. Their rude dwellings
were often miles apart. Buried in woods, the
settler lived in an appalling loneliness. A low
browed cabin of logs, with moss stuffed in the
chinks to keep out the wind, roof covered with
sheets of bark, chimney qf sticks and clay, and
square holes closed by a shutter in place of win
dows ; an unkempt matron, lean with hard work,
and a brood of children with bare heads and tat
tered garments eked out by deerskin, — such was
the home of the pioneer in the remoter and wilder
districts. The scene around bore witness to his
labors. It was the repulsive transition from
savagery to civilization, from the forest to the
farm. The victims of his axe lay strewn about
the dismal " clearing " in a chaos of prostrate
trunks, tangled boughs; and withered leaves, wait
ing for the fire that was to be the next agent in
the process of improvement ; while around, voice
less and grim, stood the living forest, gazing on
the desolation, and biding its own day of doom.
The owner of the cabin was miles away, hunting
in the woods for the wild turkey and venison
which were the chief food of himself and hia

1755,1756.] SAVAGE RAIDS. 335
family till the soil could be tamed into the bear
ing of crops.
Towards night he returned ; and as he issued
from the forest shadows he saw a column of blue
smoke rising quietly in the still evening air. He
ran to the spot ; and there, among the smoulder
ing logs of his dwelling, lay, scalped and mangled,
the dead bodies of wife and children. A war-
party had passed that way. Breathless, palpi
tating, his brain on fire, he rushed through the
thickening night to carry the alarm to his nearest
neighbor, three miles distant.
Such was the character and the fate of many
incipient settlements of the utmost border. Far
ther east, they had a different aspect. Here,
small farms with well-built log-houses, cattle,
crops of wheat and Indian corn, were strung at
intervals along some woody valley of the lower
AUeghanies : yesterday a scene of hardy toil ; to
day swept with destruction from end to end.
There was no warning ; no time for concert, per
haps none for flight. Sudden as the leaping pan
ther, a pack of human wolves burst out of the
forest, did their work, and vanished.
If the country had been an open one, like the
plains beyond the Mississippi, the situation would
have been less frightful ; but the forest was every
where, rolled over hill and valley in billows of
interminable green, — a leafy maze, a mystery of
shade, a universal hiding-place, where murder
might lurk unseen at its victim's side, and Nature
seemed formed to nurse the mind with wild and

336 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR. [1755, 1756.
dark imaginings. The detail of blood is set down
in the untutored words of those who saw and felt
it. But there was a suffering that had no record,
— the mortal fear of women and children in the
solitude of their wilderness homes, haunted, wak
ing and sleeping, with nightmares of horror that
were but the forecast of an imminent reality.
The country had in past years been so peaceful,
and the Indians so friendly, that many of the
settlers, especially on the Pennsylvanian border,
had no arms, and were doubly in need of help from
the Government. In Virginia they had it, such
as it was. In Pennsylvania they had for months
none whatever ; and the Assembly turned a deaf
ear to their cries.
Far to the east, sheltered from danger, lay
staid and prosperous Philadelphia, the home of
order and thrift. It took its stamp from the
Quakers, its original and dominant population,
set apart from the other colonists not only in char
acter and creed, but in the outward symbols of a
peculiar dress and a daily sacrifice of grammar
on the altar of religion. The even tenor of their
lives counteracted the effects of climate, and they
are said to have been perceptibly more rotund in
feature and person than their neighbors. Yet, ,
broad and humanizing as was their faith, they
were capable of extreme bitterness towards op
ponents, clung tenaciously to power, and were
jealous for the ascendency of their sect, which
had begun to show signs of wavering. On other
sects they looked askance ; and regarded the

1755, 1756.] PENNSYLVANLAN DISPUTES. 337
Presbyterians in particular with a dislike which in
moments of crisis rose to detestation.^ They held it
sin to fight, and above all to fight against Indians.
Here was one cause of military paralysis. It
was reinforced by another. The old standing
quarrel between governor and assembly had grown
more violent than ever ; and this as a direct con
sequence of the public distress, which above all
things demanded harmony. The dispute turned
this time on a single issue, — that of the taxation
of the proprietary estates. The estates in ques
tion consisted of vast tracts of wild land, yield
ing no income, and at present to a great extent
worthless, being overrun by the enemy.^ The
Quaker Assembly had refused to protect them ;
and on one occasion had rejected an offer of the
proprietaries to join them in paying the cost of
their defence.® But though they would not de
fend the land, they insisted on taxing it; and
farther insisted that the taxes upon it should be
laid by the provincial assessors. By a law of the
province, these assessors were chosen by popular
vote ; and in consenting to this law, the proprie
taries had expressly provided that their estates
1 See a crowd of party pamphlets, Quaker against Presbyterian,
which appeared at Philadelphia in 1764, abusively acrimonious on both
sides. ^ The productive estates of the proprietaries were taxed through the
tenants. 8 The proprietaries offered to contribute to the cost of building and
maintaining a fort on the spot where the French soon after built Fort
Duquesne. This plan, vigorously executed, would have_ saved the pro
vince from a deluge of miseries. One of the reasons assigned by the
Assembly for rejecting it was that it would irritate the enemy. See
tupra, p. 60.
VOL. I. — 22

338 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR. [1755,1756
should be exempted from all taxes to be laid by
officials in whose appointment they had no voice.-"
Thomas and Richard Penn, the present proprie
taries, had debarred their deputy, the Governor,
both by the terms of his commission and by
special instruction, from consenting to such tax
ation, and had laid him under heavy bonds to
secure his obedience. Thus there was another
side to the question than that of the Assembly;
though our American writers have been slow to
acknowledge it.
Benjamin Franklin was leader in the Assembly
and shared its views. The feudal proprietorship
of the Penn family was odious to his democratic
nature. It was, in truth, a pestilent anomaly, re
pugnant to the genius of the people ; and the dis
position and character of the present proprietaries
did not tend to render it less vexatious. Yet there
were considerations which might have tempered
the impatient hatred with which the colonists re
garded it. The first proprietary, William Penn, had
used his feudal rights in the interest of a broad
liberalism ; and through them had established the
popular institutions and universal tolerance which
made Pennsylvania the most democratic province
in America, and nursed the spirit of liberty which
now revolted against his heirs. The one absorbing
passion of Pennsylvania was resistance to their
deputy, the Governor. The badge of feudalism,
though light, was insufferably irritating ; and the
sons of William Penn were moreover detested by
1 A Brief View of the Conduct of Pennsylvania for the year 1755i

1765, 1756.] CHARACTER OF THE POPULATION. 339
the Quakers as renegades from the faith of their
father. Thus the immediate political conflict en
grossed mind and heart; and in the rancor of
their quarrel with the proprietaries, the Assem
bly forgot the French and Indians.
In Philadelphia and the eastem districts the
Quakers could ply their trades, tend their shops,
tUl their farms, and discourse at their ease on
the wickedness of war. The midland counties,
too, were for the most part tolerably safe. They
were occupied mainly by crude German peasants,
who nearly equalled in number all the rest of the
population, and who, gathered at the centre of
the province, formed a mass politically indigesti
ble. Translated from servitude to the most ample
liberty, they hated the thought of military service,
which reminded them of former oppression, cared
little whether they lived under France or Eng
land, and, thinking themselves out of danger,
had no mind to be taxed for the defence of
others. But while the great body of the Ger
mans were sheltered from harm, those of them
who lived farther westward were not so fortu
nate. Here, mixed with Scotch Irish Presbyte
rians and Celtic Irish Catholics, they formed a
rough border population, the discordant elements
of which could rarely unite for common action ;
yet, though confused and disjointed, they were a
living rampart to the rest of the colony. Against
them raged the furies of Indian war; and, mad
dened with distress and terror, they cried' aloud
for help.

340 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR. [1755
Petition after petition came from the borders
for arms and ammunition, and for a militia law to
enable the people to organize and defend them
selves. The Quakers resisted. " They have taken
uncommon pains," writes Governor Morris to Shir
ley, " to prevent the people from taking up arms."'
Braddock's defeat, they declared, was a just judg
ment on him and his soldiers for molestmg the
French in their settlements on the Ohio.^ A bUl
was passed by the Assembly for raising fifty thou
sand pounds for the King's use by a tax which
included the proprietary lands. The Governor,
constrained by his instructions and his bonds, re
jected it. " I can only say," he told them, " that
I will readily pass a bill for striking any sum in
paper money the present exigency may require,
provided funds are established for sinking the
same in five years." Messages long and acrimo
nious were exchanged between the parties. The
Assembly, had they chosen, could easily have raised
money enough by methods not involving the point
in dispute ; but they thought they saw in the
crisis a means of forcing the Governor to yield.
The Quakers had an alternative motive : if the
Governor gave way, it was a political victory ; if
he stood fast, their non-resistance principles would
triumph, and in this triumph their ascendency as
a sect would be confirmed. The debate grew every
day more bitter and unmannerly. The Governor
could not yield ; the Assembly would not. There
1 Morris to Shirley, 16 Aug. 1755.
2 Morris to Sir Thomas Robinson, 28 Aug. 1755.

1755.] THE PENNSYLVANIA QUARREL. 341
was a complete deadlock. The Assembly requested
the Governor "not to make himself the hateful
instrument of reducing a free people to the abject
state of vassalage." ' As the raising of money
and the control of its expenditure was in their
hands ; as he could not prorogue or dissolve them,
and as they could adjourn on their own motion to
such time as pleased them ; as they paid his sup
port, and could withhold it i£ he offended them,
— which they did in the present case, — it seemed
no easy task for him to reduce them to vassalage.
" What must we do," pursued the Assembly, " to
please this kind governor, who takes so much
pains to render us obnoxious to our sovereign and
odious to our fellow-subjects ? If we only tell him
that the diflSculties he meets with are not owing to
the causes he names, — which indeed have no exist
ence, — but to his own want of skill and abilities
for his station, he takes it extremely amiss, and says
'we forget all decency to those in authority.' We
are apt to think there is likewise some decency
due to the Assembly as a part of the government ;
and though we have not, like the Governor, had
a courtly education, but are plain men, and must be
very imperfect in our politeness, yet we think we
liave no chance of improving by his example." ^
Again, in another Message, the Assembly, with a
thrust at Morris himself, tell him that colonial
governors have often been " transient persons, of
broken fortunes, greedy of money, destitute of aU
1 Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 584.
2 Message of the Assembly to the Governor, 29 Sept. 1755 (written by
Eranklin), in Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 631, 632.

342 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR, [1755
concern for those they govern, often their enemies,
and endeavoring not only to oppress, but to defame
them." ' In such unseemly fashion was the battle
waged. Morris, who was himself a provincial,
showed more temper and dignity ; though there was
not too much on either side. " The Assembly," he
wrote to Shirley, " seem determined to take ad
vantage of the country's distress to get the whole
power of government into their own hands."
And the Assembly proclaimed on their part that
the Governor was taking advantage of the coun
try's distress to reduce the province to " Egyptian
bondage." Petitions poured in from the miserable frontiers
men. " How long will those in power, by their
quarrels, suffer us to be massacred ? " demanded
William Trent, the Indian trader. " Two and forty
bodies have been buried on Patterson's Creek ; and
since they have killed more, and keep on killing." h
Early in October news came that a hundred per
sons had been murdered near Fort Cumberland.
Repeated tidings followed of murders on the Sus
quehanna ; then it was announced that the war-
parties had crossed that stream, and were at their
work on the eastern side. Letter after letter came
from the sufferers, bringing such complaints as
this : " We are in as- bad circumstances as ever
any poor Christians were ever in ; for the cries of
widowers, widows, fatherless and motherless chU
dren, are enough to pierce the most hardest of
1 Writings of Franklin, IIL 447. The Assembly at first suppuessed
this paper, but afterwards printed it.
'^ Trent to James Burd, 4 Oct. 1755.

1755.] GOVERNOR AND ASSEMBLY. 343
hearts. Likewise it 's a very sorrowful spectacle to
see those that escaped with their lives with not
a mouthful to eat, or bed to lie on, or clothes to
cover their nakedness, or keep them warm-, but all
they had consumed into ashes. These deplorable
circumstances cry aloud for your Honor's most
wise consideration ; for it is really very shocking
for the husband to see the wife of his bosom her
head cut off, and the children's blood drunk like
water, by these bloody and cruel savages." '
Morris was greatly troubled. " The conduct of
the Assembly," he wrote to Shirley, "is to me
shocking beyond parallel." " The inhabitants are
abandoning their plantations, and we are in a
dreadful situation," wrote John Harris from the
east bank of the Susquehanna. On the next day
he wrote again : " The Indians are cutting us off
every day, and I had a certain account of about
fifteen hundred Indians, besides French, being on
their march against us and Virginia, and now close
on our borders, their scouts scalping our families
on our frontiers daily." The report was soon con
firmed ; and accounts came that the settlements
in the valley called the Great Cove had been
completely destroyed. All this was laid before
the Assembly. They declared the accounts exag
gerated, but confessed that outrages had been
committed ; hinted that the fault was with the
proprietaries ; and asked the Governor to explain
why the Delawares and Shawanoes had become
unfriendly. " If they have suffered wrongs," said
1 Adam Hoops to Govemor Morris, 3 Nov. 1755.

344 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR. [1755.
the Quakers, "we are resolved to do all in our
power to redress them, rather than entail upon
ourselves and our posterity the calamities of a
cruel Indian war." The Indian records were
searched, and several days spent in unsuccessful
efforts to prove fraud in a late land-purchase.
Post after post still brought news of slaughter.
The upper part of Cumberland County was laid
waste. Edward Biddle wrote from Reading : " The
drum is beating and bells ringing, and all the
people under arms. This night we expect an
attack. The people exclaim against the Quakers."
" We seem to be given up into the hands of a
merciless enemy," wrote John Elder from Paxton.
And he declares that more than forty persons
have been killed in that neighborhood, besides num
bers carried off. Meanwhile the Governor and
Assembly went on fencing with words and ex
changing legal subtleties ; "whUe, with every cry
of distress that rose from the west, each hoped
that the other would yield.
On the eighth of November the Assembly laid
before Morris for his concurrence a bill for emit
ting bills of credit to the amount of sixty thou
sand pounds, to be sunk in four years by a tax
including'the proprietary estates.^ "I shall not,"
he replied, " enter into a dispute whether the pro
prietaries ought to be taxed or not. It is suffi
cient for me that they have given me no power in
that case ; and I cannot think it consistent either
with my duty or safety to exceed the powers of my
1 Colonial Records of Pa,, VI. 682.

1755.] GOVERNOR AND ASSEMBLY. 345
commission, much less to do what that commission
expressly prohibits." ' He stretched his authority,
however, so far as to propose a sort of compromise
by which the question should be referred to the
King ; but they refused it ; and the quarrel and the
murders went on as before. "We have taken,"
said the Assembly, " every step in our power,
consistent with the just rights of the freemen of
Pennsylvania, for the relief of the poor distressed
inhabitants ; and we have reason to believe that
they themselves would not wish us to go farther.
Those who would give up essential liberty to
purchase a Uttle temporary safety deserve neither
liberty nor safety." ^ Then the borderers de
served neither ; for, rather than be butchered, they
would have let the proprietary lands lie untaxed
for another year. " You have in all," said the
Governor, " proposed to me five money bills, three
of them rejected because contrary to royal instruc
tions ; the other two on account of the unjust
method proposed for taxing the proprietary estate.
If you are disposed to relieve your country, you
have many other ways of granting money to which
I shall have no objection. I shall put one proof
more both of your sincerity and mine in our pro
fessions of regard for the public, by offering to
agree to any bill in the present exigency which it
is consistent with my duty to pass ; lest, before our
present disputes can be brought to an issue, we
1 Message of the Govemor to the Assembly, 8 Nov. 1755, in Colonial
Records of Pa,, VI. 684.
2 Message of the Assembly to the Govemor, 11 Nov. Ibid., VI. 692. The
words are Franklin's.

346 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR. [1755.
should neither have a privilege to dispute about,
nor a country to dispute in." ^ They stood fast ;
and with an obstinacy for which the Quakers were
chiefly answerable, insisted that they would give
nothing, except by a bill taxing real estate, and
including that of the proprietaries.
But now the Assembly began to feel the ground
shaking under their feet. A paper, called a " Rep
resentation," signed by some of the chief citizens,
was sent to the House, calling for measures of
defence. "You will forgive us, gentlemen," such
was its language, " if we assume characters some
what higher than that of humble suitors praying
for the defence of our lives and properties as a
matter o£ grace or favor on your side. You -will
permit us to make a positive and immediate de
mand of it." ^ This drove the Quakers mad.
Preachers, male and female, harangued in the
streets, denouncing the iniquity of war. Three
of the sect from England, two women and a man,
invited their brethren of the Assembly to a private
house, and fervently exhorted them to stand firm.
Some of the principal Quakers joined in an ad
dress to the House, in which they declared that
any action on its part "inconsistent with the
peaceable testimony we profess and have borne
to the world appears to us in its consequences to
be destructive of our religious Uberties."^ And
they protested that they would rather "suffer"
i Message of the Govemor to the Assembly, 22 Nov. 1755, si Colonial
Records of Pa., VI. 714.
2 Pennsylvania Archives, IL 485.
8 Ibid., il. 487

1755.] A RISING STORM. 347
than pay taxes for such ends. Consistency, even
in folly, has in it something respectable ; but the
Quakers were not consistent. A few years after, >
when heated with party-passion and excited by
reports of an irruption of incensed Presbyterian
borderers, some of the pacific sectaries armed for
battle ; and the streets of Philadelphia beheld the
curious conjunction of musket and broad-brimmed
hat.^ The mayor, aldermen, and common council
next addressed the Assembly, adjuring them, "in
the most solemn manner, before God and in the
name of all our fellow-citizens," to provide for
defending the lives and property of the people.^
A deputation from a band of Indians on the Sus
quehanna, still friendly to the province, came to
ask whether the English meant to fight or not ;
for, said their speaker, " if they will not stand by
us, we will join the French." News came that
the settlement of Tulpehocken, only sixty miles
distant, had been destroyed ; and then that the
Moravian settlement of Gnadenhiitten was burned,
and nearly all its inmates massacred. Colonel
William Moore wrote to the Governor that two
thousand men were coming from Chester County
to compel him and the Assembly to defend the
province; and Conrad Weiser wrote that more
were coming from Berks on the same errand.
Old friends of the Assembly began to cry out
against them. Even the Germans, hitherto their
' See Conspiracy of Pontiac, II. 143, 152.
' A Remonstrance, etCy in Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 734.

348 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR. ;i755.
fast allies, were roused from their attitude of
passivity, and four hundred of them came in pro
cession to demand measm'es of war. A band of
frontiersmen presently arrived, bringing in a
wagon the bodies of friends and relatives lately
murdered, displaying them at the doors of the
Assembly, cursing the Quakers, and threatening
vengeance.^ Finding some concession necessary, the House
at length passed a militia law, — probably the most
futile ever enacted. It specially exempted the
Quakers, and constrained nobody; but declared it
lawful, for such as chose, to form themselves into
companies and elect officers by ballot. The com
pany officers thus elected might, if they saw fit,
elect, also by ballot, colonels, lieutenant-colonels,
and majors. These last might then, in conjunc
tion with the Governor, frame articles of war ; to
which, however, no officer or man was to be sub
jected unless, after three days' consideration, he
subscribed them in presence of a justice of the
peace, and declared his willingness to be bound
by them.^
This mockery could not appease the people ;
the Assembly must raise money for men, arms,
forts, and all the detested appliances of war.
Defeat absolute and ignominious seemed hanging
over the House, when an incident occurred which
1 Mante, 47 ; Entick, I. 377.
^ This remarkable bill, drawn by Franklin, was meant for political rathei
than military effect. It was thought that Morris would refuse to pass it,
and could therefore be accused of preventing the province from defending
itself ; but he avoided the snare by signing it.

1755.] DEFEAT OF THE ASSEMKLY. 349
gave them a decent pretext for retreat. The
Governor informed them that he had just received
a letter from the proprietaries, giving to the prov-
ince five thousand pounds sterling to aid" in its
defence, on condition that the money should be
accepted as a free gift, and not as their proportion
of any tax that was or might be laid by the As
sembly. They had not learned the deplorable
state of the country, and had sent the money in
view of the defeat of Braddock and its probable
consequences. The Assembly hereupon yielded,
struck out from the bUl before them the clause
taxing the proprietary estates, and, thus amended,
presented it to the Governor, who by his signature
made it a law.^
The House had failed to carry its point. The
result disappointed Franklin, and doubly disap
pointed the Quakers. His maxim was : Beat the
Governor first, and then beat the enemy ; theirs :
Beat the Governor, and let the enemy alone.
The measures that followed, directed in part by
Franklin himself, held the Indians in check, and
mitigated the distress of the western counties ;
yet there was no safety for them throughout the
two or three years when France was cheering on
her hell-hounds against this tormented frontier.
As in Pennsylvania, so in most of the other
colonies there was conflict between assemblies and
governors, to the unspeakable detriment of the
public service. In New York, though here no
obnoxious proprietary stood between the people
I Minutes of Council, 27 Nov. 1755.

350 SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR. [1755j 1756.
and the Crown, the strife was long and severe.
The point at issue was an important one, —
whether the Assembly should continue their prac
tice of granting yearly supplies to the Governor,
or should establish a permanent fund for the ordi
nary expenses of government, — thus placing him
beyOnd their control. The result was a victory
for the Assembly.
Month after month the great continent lay
wrapped in snow. Far along the edge of the
western wilderness men kept watch and ward
in lonely blockhouses, or scoured the forest on
the track of prowling war-parties. The provin
cials in garrison at forts Edward, William Henry,
and Oswego dragged out the dreary winter; while
bands of New England rangers, muffled against
the piercing cold, caps of fur on their heads, hatch
ets in their belts, and guns in their mittened hands,
glided on skates along the gleaming ice-floor of
Lake George, to spy out the secrets of Ticonder
oga, or seize some careless sentry to tell them
tidings of the foe. Thus the petty war went on ;
but the big war was frozen into torpor, ready,
like a hibernating bear, to wake again with the
birds, the bees, and the flowers.-^

1 On Pennsylvanian disputes, — A Brief State of the Province of Pennsyl
vania (London, 1755). A Brief View of the Conduct of Pennsylvania
(London, 1756). These are pamphlets on the Governor's side, by Wil
liam Smith, D.D., Provost of the College of Pennsylvania. An Answer.
to an invidious Pamphlet, intituled a Brief Slate, etc. (London, 1755).
Anonymous. A True and Impartial State of the Province of Pennsylvania
(Philadelphia, 1759). Anonymous. The last two works attack the first
two with great vehemence. The True and Impartial State is an able pre
sentation of the case of the Assembly, omitting, however, essential facts.

1755,1756.] THE EVIDENCE. 351
But the most elaborate work on the subject is the Historical Review of the
Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania, inspired and partly written
by Franklin. It is hotly partisan, and sometimes sophistical and unfair.
Articles on the quarrel will also be found ia the provincial newspapers,
especially the New York Mercury, and in the Gentleman's Magazine for
1755 and 1756. But it is impossible to get any clear and just view of it
without wading through thf iitenoinable documents concerning it in
the Colonial Records of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Archives.

CHAPTER XI.
1712-1756.
MONTCALM.
War declared. — State of Europe. — Pompadour and Mabia
Theresa. — Infatuation of the French Court. — The Euro
pean War. — Montcalm to command in America. — His early
Life. — An intractable Pupil. — His Marriage. — His Family.
— His Campaigns. — Preparation for America. — His Asso
ciates. — -LiiYis, Bourlamaque, Bougainville. — Embarkation.
— The Voyage. — Arrival. — Vaudreuil. — Forces op Canada.
— Troops op the Line, Colony Troops, Militia, Indians. —
The Military Situation. — Capture of Fokt Bull. — Mont
calm AT Ticonderoga.
On the eighteenth of May, 1756, England, after
a year of open hostUity, at length declared war.
She had attacked France by land and sea, turned
loose her ships to prey on French commerce, and
brought some three hundred prizes into her ports.
It was the act of a weak Government, supplying by
spasms of violence what it lacked in considerate
resolution. France, no match for her amphibious
enemy in the game of marine depredation, cried
out in horror ; and to emphasize her complaints and
signalize a pretended good faith which her acts
had belied, ostentatiously released a British frigate
captured by her cruisers. She in her turn declared
war on the ninth of June : and now began the
most terrible conflict of the eighteenth century;

1756.] FREDERIC OF PRUSSIA.. 353
one that convulsed Europe and shook America,
India, the coasts of Africa, and the islands of the
sea. In Europe the ground was trembling already
with the coming earthquake. Such smothered
discords, such animosities, ambitions, jealousies,
possessed the rival governments ; such entangle
ments of treaties and alliances, offensive or defen
sive, open or secret, — that a blow at one point
shook the whole fabric. Hanover, like the heel of
Achilles, was the vulnerable part for which Eng
land was always trembling. Therefore she made a
defensive treaty with Prussia, by which each party
bound itself to aid the other, should its territory be
invaded. England thus sought a guaranty against
France, and Prussia against Russia. She had need.
Her King, Frederic the Great, had drawn upon
himself an avalanche. Three women — two em
presses and a concubine — controUed the forces
of the three great nations, Austria, Russia, and
France ; and they all hated him : Elizabeth of
Russia, by reason of a distrust fomented by secret
intrigue and turned into gall by the biting tongue
of Frederic himself, who had jibed at her amours,
compared her to Messalina, and called her "in-
fame catin du Nord ;" Maria Theresa of Austria,
because she saw in him a rebellious vassal of the
Holy Roman Empire, and, above all, because he
had robbed her of Silesia ; Madame de Pompadour,
because when she sent him a message of. compli
ment, he answered, " Je ne la connais pas," for
bade his ambassador to visit her, and in his
VOL. I. — 23

354 MONTCALM. [1756.
mocking wit spared neither her nor her royal lover.
Feminine pique, revenge, or vanity had then at their
service the mightiest armaments of Europe.
The recovery of Silesia and the punishment of
Frederic for his audacity in seizing it, possessed
the mind of Maria Theresa with the force of a
ruling passion. To these ends she had joined her
self in secret league with Russia ; and now at the
prompting of her minister Kaunitz she courted
the alliance of France. It was a reversal of the
hereditary policy of Austria ; joining hands with
an old and deadly foe, and spurning England, of
late her most trusty ally. But France could give
powerful aid against Frederic ; and hence Maria
Theresa, virtuous as she was high-born and proud,
stooped to make advances to the all-powerful mis
tress of Louis XV., wrote her flattering letters, and
addressed her, it is said, as "Ma chere cousine."
Pompadour was delighted, and could hardly do
enough for her imperial friend. She ruled the
King, and could make and unmake ministers at
will. They hastened to do her pleasure, dis
guising their subserviency by dressing it out in
specious reasons of state. A conference at her
summer-house, called Babiole, " Bawble," prepared
the way for a treaty which involved the nation in
the anti-Prussian war, and made it the instrument
of Austria in the attempt to humble Frederic, —
an attempt which if successful would give the he
reditary enemy of France a predominance over
Germany. France engaged to aid the cause with
twenty-four thousand men ; but in the zeal of her

1756.] INFATUATION OF FRANCE. 355
rulers began with a hundred thousand. Thus the
three great Powers stood leagued against Prussia.
Sweden and Saxony joined them ; and the Empire
itself, of which Prussia was a part, took arms
against its obnoxious member.
Never in Europe had power been more central
ized, and never in France had the reins been held
by persons so pitiful, impelled by motives so con-'
temptible. The levity, vanity, and spite of a
concubine became a mighty engine to influence
the destinies of nations. Louis XV., enervated by
pleasures and devoured by ennui, still had his
emotions; he shared Pompadour's detestation of
Frederic, and he was tormented at times by a
lively fear of damnation. But how; damn a king
who had entered the lists as champion of the
Church? England was Protestant, and so was
Prussia; Austria was supremely Catholic. Was
it not a merit in the eyes of God to join her in
holy war against the powers of heresy ? The King
of the Parc-aux-Cerfs would propitiate Heaven by
a new crusade.
Henceforth France was to turn her strength
against her European foes ; and the American
war, the occasion of the universal outbreak, was to
hold in her eyes a second place. The reasons were
several : the vanity of Pompadour, infatuated
by the advances of the Empress-Queen, and eager
to secure her good graces ; the superstition of
the King ; the anger of both against Frederic ; the
desire of D'Argenson, minister of war, that the
army, and not the navy, should play the foremost

356 MONTCALM. [1712.
part ; and the passion of courtiers and nobles, ig
norant of the naval service, to win laurels in a con
tinental war, — all conspired to one end. It was
the interest of France to turn her strength against
her only dangerous rival ; to continue as she had
begun, in building up a naval power that could
face England on the seas and sustain her own
rising colonies in America, India, and the West
Indies : for she too might have multiplied her
self, planted her language and her race over all
the globe, and grown with the growth of her
children, had she not been at the mercy of an
effeminate profligate, a mistress turned procur
ess, and the favorites to whom they delegated
power. Still, something must be done for the American
war ; at least there must be a new general to
replace Dieskau. None of the Court favorites
wanted a command in the backwoods, and the
minister of war was free to choose whom he
would. His choice fell on Louis Joseph, Marquis
de Montcalm-Gozon de Saint-V^ran.
Montcalm was born in the south of France, at the
Chateau of Candiac, near Nimes, on the twenty-
ninth of February, 1712. At the age of six he
was placed in the charge of one Dumas, a natural
son of his grandfather. This man, a conscientious
pedant, with many theories of education, ruled
his pupil stiffly; and, before the age of fifteen,
gave him a good knowledge of Latin, Greek,
and history. Young Montcalm had a taste for
books, continued his reading in such intervals

1718-1727.] HIS BOYHOOD. 357
of leisure as camps and garrisons afforded, and
cherished to the end of his life the ambition
of becoming a member of the Academy. Yet,
with all his liking for study, he sometimes re
volted against the sway of the pedagogue who
wrote letters of complaint to his father protesting
against the " judgments of the vulgar, who, con
trary to the experience of ages, say that if children
are well reproved they wUl correct their faults."
Dumas, however, was not without sense, as is
shown by another letter to the elder Montcalm,
in which he says that the boy had better be igno
rant of Latin and Greek " than know them as
he does without knowing how to read, write, and
speak French well." The main difficulty was to
make him write a good hand, — a point in which
he signally faUed to the day of his death. So re
fractory was he at times, that his master despaired.
" M. de Montcalm," Dumas informs the father,
" has great need of docility, industry, and willing
ness to take advice. What will become of him ? "
The pupil, aware of these aspersions, met them
by writing to his father his own ideas of what his
aims should be. " First, to be an honorable man,
of good morals, brave, and a Christian. Secondly,
to read in moderation; to know as much Greek
and Latin as most men of the world ; also the
four rules of arithmetic, and something of history,
geography, and French and Latin belles-lettres, as
well as to have a taste for the arts and sciences.
Thirdly, and above all, to be obedient, docUe, and
very submissive to your orders and those of my

358 MONTCALM. [1727-1735
dear mother ; and also to defer to the advice of
M. Dumas. Fourthly, to fence and ride as well
as my small abUities will permit." ^
If Louis de Montcalm failed to satisfy his pre
ceptor, he had a brother who made ample amends.
Of this infant prodigy it is related that at six
years he knew Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and
had some acquaintance with arithmetic, French
history, geography, and heraldry. He was des
tined for the Church, but died at the age of seven ;
his precocious brain having been urged to fatal
activity by the exertions of Dumas.
Other destinies and a more wholesome growth
were the lot of young Louis. At fifteen he joined
the army as ensign in the regiment of Hainaut.
Two years after, his father bought him a captaincy,
and he was first under fire at the siege of Philips-
bourg. His father died in 1735, and left him
heir to a considerable landed estate, much em
barrassed by debt. The Marquis de la Fare, a
friend of the family, soon after sought for him
an advantageous marriage to strengthen his posi
tion and increase his prospects of promotion ;
and he accordingly espoused Mademoiselle Ang^-
lique Louise Talon du Boulay, — a union which
brought him influential alliances and some prop
erty. Madame de Montcalm bore him ten chil
dren, of whom only two sons and four daughters
were living in 1752. " May God preserve them
all," he writes in his autobiography, "and make
them prosper for this world and the next ! Per-
1 This passage is given by Somervogel from the original letter.

1741-1746.] HIS EARLY CAMPAIGNS. 359
haps it wUl be thought that the number is large
for so moderate a fortune, especially as four of
them are girls; but does God ever abandon his
chUdren in their need ?
" ' Aux petits des oiseaux il donne la piture,
Et sa bonte s'etend sur toute la nature.' "
He was pious in his soldierly way, and ardently
loyal to Church and King.
His family seat was Candiac ; where, in the in
tervals of campaigning, he found repose with his
wife, his children, and his mother, who was a
woman of remarkable force of character and who
held great influence over her son. He had a strong
attachment to this home of his childhood ; and in
after years, out of the midst of the American
wilderness, his thoughts turned longingly towards
it. " Quand reverrai-je mon cher Candiac ! "
In 1741 Montcalm took part in the Bohemian
campaign. He was made colonel of the regiment
of Auxerrois two years later, and passed unharmed
through the severe campaign of 1744. In the
next year he fought in Italy under Mar^chal de
MaUlebois. In 1746, at the disastrous action
under the walls of Piacenza, where he twice ral
lied his regiment, he received five sabre-cuts, —
two of which were in the head, — and was made
prisoner. Returning to France on parole, he was
promoted in the year following to the rank of
brigadier; and being soon after exchanged, re
joined the army, and was again wounded by a
musket-shot. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle now

360 MONTCALM. "^ [1755, 1756.
gave him a period of rest.^ At length, being on
a visit to Paris late in the autumn of 1755, the
minister, D'Argenson, hinted to him that he might
be appointed to command the troops in America.
He heard no more of the matter till, after his
return home, he received from D'Argenson a let
ter dated at Versailles the twenty-fifth of Janu
ary, at midnight. " Perhaps, Monsieur," it began,
"you did not expect to hear from me again on
the subject of the conversation I had with you
the day you came to bid me farewell at Paris.
Nevertheless I have not forgotten for a moment
the suggestion I then made you ; and it is with
the greatest pleasure that I announce to you that
my views have prevailed. The King has chosen
you to command his troops in North America,
and will honor you on your departure with the
rank of major-general."
The Chevalier de Levis, afterwards Marshal of
France, was named as his second in command,
with the rank of brigadier, and the Chevalier de
Bourlamaque as his third, with the rank of col
onel ; but what especially pleased him was the
appointment of his eldest son to command a regi
ment in France. He set out from Candiac for
the Court, and occupied himself on the way with
reading Charlevoix. " I take great pleasure in
} The account of Montcalm up to this time is chiefly from his unpub
lished autobiography, preserved by his descendants, and entitled Memoires
pour servir a I'Histoire de ma Vie, Somervogel, Comme on servait autre
fois ; Bonnechose, Montcalm et le Canada ; Martin, Le Marquis de Mont
calm ; Eloge de Montcalm ; Autre Eloge de Montcalm ; Memoires sur le
Canada, 1749-1760, and other writings in print and manuscript have
also been consulted.

1756.] PREPARES FOR DEPARTURE. 361
it," he writes from Lyons to his mother; "he
gives a pleasant account of Quebec. But be com
forted ; I shall always be glad to come home."
At Paris he writes again : " Don't expect any
long letter from me before the first of March ;
all my business will be done by that time, and I
shall begin to breathe again. I have not yet
seen the Chevalier de Montcalm [his son]. Last
night I came from Versailles, and am going back
to-morrow. The King gives me twenty-five thou
sand francs a year, as he did to M. Dieskau, be
sides twelve thousand for my equipment, which
will cost me above a thousand crowns more ; but
I cannot stop for that. I embrace my dearest
and all the family." A few days later his son
joined him. " He is as thin and delicate as ever,
but grows prodigiously tall."
On the second of March he informs his mother,
" My affairs begin to get on. A good part of the
baggage went off the day before yesterday in the
King's wagons ; an assistant-cook and two. livery
men yesterday. I have got a good cook. Esteve,
my secretary, will go on the eighth ; Joseph and
D^jean will follow me. To-morrow evening I go
to Versailles till Sunday, and will write from there
to Madame de Montcalm [his wife]. I have three
aides-de camp ; one of them, Bougainville, a man
of parts, pleasant company. Madame Mazade
was happily delivered on Wednesday ; in ex
tremity on Friday with a malignant fever ; Sat
urday and yesterday, reports favorable. I go
there twice a day, and am just going now. She

362 MONTCALM. [1756.
has a girl. I embrace you all." Again, on the
fifteenth : "In a few hours I set out for Brest.
Yesterday I presented my son,' with whom I am
well pleased, to all the royal family. I shall have
a secretary at Brest, and wUl write more at
length." On the eighteenth he writes from
Rennes to his wife : " I arrived, dearest, this morn
ing, and stay here all day. I shall be at Brest on
the twenty-first. Everything will be on board on
the twenty-sixth. My son has been here since
yesterday for me to coach him and get him a uni
form made, in which he will give thanks for his
regiment at the same time that I take leave in my
embroidered coat. Perhaps I shall leave debts
behind. I wait impatiently for the bills. You
have iny will ; I wish you would get it copied, and
send it to me before I sail."
Reaching Brest, the place of embarkation, he
writes to his mother : " I have business on hand
still. My health is good, and the passage will be a
time of rest. I embrace you, and my dearest, and
my daughters. Love to all the family. I shaU
write up to the last moment."
No translation can give an idea of the rapid,
abrupt, elliptical style of this familiar correspon
dence, where the meaning is sometimes suggested
by a single word, uninteUigible to any but those
for whom it is written.
At the end of March Montcalm, with all his
following, was ready to embark ; and three ships
of the line, the " Leopard," the " Heros," and the
•• lUustre," fitted out as transports, were ready to

i756.] LfiVIS; BOUGAINVILLE. 363
receive the troops ; while the General, with Lgvis
and Bourlamaque, were to take passage in the frig
ates " Licorne," " Sauvage," and " Sirene." "I
like the Chevalier de L^vis," says Montcalm, "and
I think he likes me." His first aide-de-camp,
Bougainville, pleased him, if possible, still more.
This young man, son of a notary, had begun life as
an advocate in the Parliament of Paris, where
his abilities and learning had already made him
conspicuous, when he resigned the gown for the
sword, and became a captain of dragoons. He
was destined in later life to win laurels in an
other career, and to become one of the most illus
trious of French navigators. Montcalm, himself a
scholar, prized his varied talents and accomplish
ments, and soon learned to feel for him a strong
personal regard.
The troops destined for Canada were only two
battalions, one belonging to the regiment of La
Sarre, and the other to that .of Royal Roussillon.
Louis XV. and , Pompadour sent a hundred thou
sand men to fight the battles of Austria, and could
spare but twelve hundred to reinforce New France.
These troops marched into Brest at early morning,
breakfasted in the town, and went at once on
board the transports, " with an incredible gayety,"
says Bpugainville. " What a nation is ours !
Happy he who commands it, and commands it
worthily !' " ^ Montcalm and he embarked in the
" Licorne," and saUed on the third of AprU, leaving
1 Journal de Bougainville. This is a fragment; his Journal propel
begins a few weeks later.

364 MONTCALM. [1756.
L^vis and Bourlamaque to follow a few days
after.^ The voyage was a rough one. "I have been
fortunate," writes Montcalm to his wife, " in not
being ill nor at all incommoded by the heavy gale
we had in Holy Week. It was not so with those
who were with me, especially M. Esteve, my sec
retary, and Joseph, who suffered cruelly, — seven
teen days without being able to take anything but
water. The season was very early for such a
hard voyage, and it was fortunate that the winter
has been so mild. We had very favorable
weather till Monday the twelfth ; but since then
till Saturday evening we had rough weather, with
a gale that lasted ninety hours, and put us in real
danger. The forecastle was always under water,
and the waves broke twice over the quarter-deck.
From the twenty-seventh of April to the eveniug
of the fourth of May we had fogs, great cold, and
an amazing quantity of icebergs. On the thir
tieth, when luckily the fog lifted for a time, we
counted sixteen of them. The day before, one
drifted under the bowsprit, grazed it, and might
have crushed us if the deck-officer had not called
out quickly. Luff. After speaking of our troubles
and sufferings, I must tell you of our pleasures,
which were fishing for cod and eating it. The
taste is exquisite. The head, tongue, and liver are
morsels worthy of an epicure. Still, I would not
advise anybody to make the voyage for their sake.
My health is as good as it has been for a long
' Levis a  , 5 Avril, 1756.

1756.] THE VOYAGE. 365
time. I found it a good plan to eat little and
take no supper; a little tea now and then, and
plenty of lemonade. Nevertheless I have taken
very little liking for the sea, and think that when
I shall be so happy as to rejoin you I shall end
my voyages there. I don't know when this letter
will go. I shall send it by the first ship that
returns to France, and keep on writing till then.
It is pleasant, I know, to hear particulars about
the people one loves, and I thought that my
mother and you, my dearest and most beloved,
would be glad to read all these dull details. We
heard Mass on Easter Day. All the week before,
it was impossible, because the ship rolled so that
I could hardly keep my legs. If I had dared,
I think I should have had myself lashed fast. I
shall not soon forget that Holy Week."
This letter was written on the eleventh of May,
in the St. Lawrence, where the ship lay at anchor,
ten leagues below Quebec, stopped by ice from
proceeding farther. Montcalm made his way to the
town by land, and soon after learned with great
satisfaction that the other ships were safe in the
river below. "I see^" he writes again, "that I
shall have plenty of work. Our campaign will
soon begin. Everything is in motion. Don't
expect details about our operations; generals
never speak of movements till they are over.
I can only tell you that the winter has been quiet
enough, though the savages have made great
havoc in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and carried
off, according to their custom, men, women, and

366 MONTCALM. [1756
children. I beg you will have High Mass said
at Montpellier or Vauvert to thank God for our
safe arrival and ask for good success in future." ^
Vaudreuil, the governor-general, was at Mont
real, and Montcalm sent a courier to inform him
of his arrival. He soon went thither in person,
and the two rnen met for the first time. The new
general was not welcome to Vaudreuil, who had
hoped to command the troops himself, and had
represented to the Court that it was needless and
inexpedient to send out a general officer from
France.^ The Court had not accepted his views ; '
and hence it was with more curiosity than satis
faction that he greeted the colleague who had been
assigned him. He saw before him a man of small
stature, with a lively countenance, a keen eye,
and, in moments of animation, rapid, vehement
utterance, and nervous gesticulation. Montcalm,
we may suppose, regarded the Governor with no
less attention. Pierre Francois Rigaud, Marquis
de Vaudreuil, was son of Philippe de Vaudreuil,
who had governed Canada early in the century;
and he himself had been governor of Louisiana.
He had not. the force of character which his posi
tion demanded, lacked decision in times of crisis ;
and though tenacious of authority, was more jeal
ous in asserting than self-reliant in exercising it.
One of his traits was a sensitive egotism, which

^ These extracts are translated from copies of the original letters, in
possession of the present Marquis de Montcalm.
* Vaudreuil au Ministre, 30 Oct. 1755.
• Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, F€v, 1756.

1756.] VAUDREUn.. 367
made him forward to proclaim his own part in
every success, and to throw on others the burden of
every failure. He was facile by nature, and capa
ble of being led by such as had skill and temper
for the task. But the impetuous Montcalm was
not of their number ; and the fact that he was born
in France would in itself have thrown obstacles
in his way to the good graces of the Governor.
Vaudreuil, Canadian by birth, loved the colony
and its people, and distrusted Old France and all
that came out of it. He had been bred, moreover,
to the naval service ; and, like other Canadian
governors, his official correspondence was with
the minister of marine, while that of Montcalm'
was with the minister of war. Even had Nature
made him less suspicious, his relations with the
General would have been critical. Montcalm com
manded the regulars from France, whose very
presence was in the eyes of Vaudreuil an evil,
though a necessary one. Their chief was; it is
true, subordinate to him in virtue of his office of
governor ; ^ yet it was clear that for the conduct
of the war the trust of the Government was
mainly in Montcalm ; and the Minister of War
had even suggested that he should have the im
mediate command, not only of the troops from
France, but of the colony regulars and the militia.
An order of the King to this effect was sent to
VaudreuU, with instructions to communicate it to
' Le Ministre a Vaudreuil, 15 Mars, 1756. Commission du Marquis de
Montcalm, Memoire du Roy pour servir d'instruction au Marquis de
Montcalm.

368 MONTCALM. [1756.
Montcalm or withhold it, as he should think best.'
He lost no time in replying that the General " ought
to concern himself with nothing but the command
of the troops from France ; " and he returned the
order to the minister who sent it.^ The Gover
nor and the General represented the two parties
which were soon to divide Canada, — those of
New France and of Old.
A like antagonism was seen in the forces com
manded by the two chiefs. These were of three
kinds, — the troupes de terre, troops of the line,
or regulars from France ; the troupes de la marine,
or colony regulars ; and lastly the militia. The
first consisted of the four battalions that had
come over with Dieskau and the twO that had
come with Montcalm, comprising in all a little
less than three thousand men.^ Besides these,
the battalions of Artois and Bourgogne, to the
number of eleven hundred men, were in garrison
at Louisbourg. All these troops wore a white
uniform, faced with blue, red, yellow, or violet,*
1 Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, 1756. Le Ministre a Vau
dreuil, 15 Mars, 1756.
2 Vaudreuil au Ministre, 16 Juin, 1756. "Qu'il ne se mele que du
commandement des troupes de terre."
5 Of about twelve hundred who came with Montcalm, nearly three
hundred were now in hospital. The four battalions that came with
Dieskau are reported at the end of May to have sixteen hundred and
fifty-three effective men. hat de la Situation actuelle des Bataillons,
appended to Montcalm's despatch of 12 June. Another document. Detail
de ce qui s'est passe en Canada, Juin, 1755, jusqu'a .luin, 1756, sets the
united effective strength of the battalions in Canada at twenty-six hun
dred and seventy-seven, which was Increased by recruits which arrived
from France about midsummer.
* Except, perhaps, the battalion of B^arn, which formerly wore, and
possibly wore still, a uniform of light blue.

1756.] TROOPS m CANADA. 369
a black three-cornered hat, and gaiters, generally
black, from the foot to the knee. The subaltern
officers in the French service were very numerous,
and were drawn chiefly from the class of lesser
nobles. A well-informed French writer calls them
"a generation of petits-maitres, dissolute, frivo
lous, heedless, light- witted ; but brave always,
and ready to die with their soldiers, though not
to suffer with them." ^ In fact the course of
the, war was to show plainly that in Europe the
regiments of France were no longer what they
had once been. It was not so with those who
fought in America. Here, for enduring gaUan
try, officers and men alike deserve nothing but
praise. The troupes de la marine had for a long time
formed the permanent military establishment of
Canada. Though attached to the naval depart
ment, they served on land, and were employed
as a police within the limits of the colony,'or as
garrisons of the outlying forts, where their officers
busied themselves more with fur-trading than with
their military duties. Thus they had become ill-
disciplined and inefficient, till the hard hand of
Duquesne restored them to order. They origi
nally consisted of twenty-eight independent com-
. panics, increased in 1750 to thirty companies,
at first of fifty, and afterwards of sixty-five men
each, forming a total of nineteen hundred and
fifty rank and file. In March, 1757, ten more
1 Susane, Ancienne Infanierie Frangaise. In the atlas of this work are
colored plates of the uniforms of all the regiments of foot.
VOL. I. — 24

370 MONTCALM. [1756.
companies were added. Their uniform was not
unlike that of the troops attached to the War
Department, being white, with black facings. They
were enlisted for the most part in France; but
when their term of service expired, and even be
fore, m time of peace, they were encouraged to
become settlers in the colony, as was also the case
with their officers, of whom a great part were of
European birth. Thus the relations of the troupes
de la marine with the colony were close ; and they
formed a sort of connecting link between the
troops of the line and the native mUitia.^ Be
sides these colony regulars, there was a company
of colonial artillery, consisting this year of seventy
men, and replaced in 1757 by two companies of
fifty men each.
AU the effective male population of Canada,
from fifteen years to sixty, was enrolled in the
militia, and called into service at the will of the
Governor. They received arms, clothing, equip
ment, and rations from the King, but no pay;
and instead of tents they made themselves huts
of bark or branches. The best of them were
drawn from the upper parts of the colony, where
habits of bushranging were still in full activity.
Their fighting qualities were much like those of
the Indians, whom they rivalled in endurance
^ On the troupes de la marine, — Memoire pour servir d'instruction a MM.
Jonquiere et Bigot, 30 Avril, 1749. Ordres du Roy et Dgpeches des Minis
tres, ITbO, Ibid., 1755, Ibid,, \757, Instruction pour Vaudreuil, 22 Mars,
1755. Ordonnance pour I' Augmentation de Soldats dans les Compagnies de
Canada, 14 Mars, 1755. Duquesne au Ministre, 26 Oct, 1753. Ibid., 30
Oct, 1753. Ibid,, 29 Fev, 1754. Duquesne h Marin, 27 Ao&t, 1753. Atlas
de Susane.

1756.1 CANADIAN MILITIA. 371
and in the arts of forest war. As bush-fighters
they had few equals; they fought well behind
earthworks, and were good at a surprise or sud
den dash; but for regular battle on the open
field they were of small account, being disorderly,
and apt to break and take to cover at the moment
of crisis. They had no idea of the great opera
tions of war. At first they despised the regulars
for their ignorance of woodcraft, . and thought
themselves able to defend the colony alone ; while
the regulars regarded them in turn with a con
tempt no less unjust. They were excessively
given to gasconade, and every true Canadian
boasted himself a match for three Englishmen
at least. In 1750 the militia of all ranks counted
about thirteen thousand; and eight years later
the number had increased to about fifteen thou
sand.-' Until the last two years of the war, those
employed in actual warfare were but few. Even
in the critical year 1758 only about eleven hun
dred were called to arms, except for two or three
weeks in summer ; ^ though about four thousand
were employed in transporting troops and supplies,
for which service they received pay.
To the white fighting force of the colony are to
be added the red men. The most trusty of them
were the Mission Indians, living within or near
the settled limits of Canada, chiefly the Hurons of
Lorette, the Abenakis of St. Francis and Batiscan,
' Recapitulation des Milices du Gouvernement de Canada, 1750. Denom-
brement des Milices, 1758, 1759. On the militia, see also Bougainville in
Margry, Relations et Memoires inedits, 60, and N, Y, Col. Docs,, X. 680.
* Montcalm au Ministre, 1 Sept, 1758.

372 MONTCALM. [1756
the Iroquois of Caughnawaga and La Presenta
tion, and the Iroquois and Algonkins at the Two
Mountains on the Ottawa. Besides these, all the
warriors of the west and north, from Lake Supe
rior to the Ohio, and from the AUeghanies to the
Mississippi, were now at the beck of France. As
to the Iroquois or Five Nations who still remained
in their ancient seats within the present limits of
New York, their power and pride had greatly
fallen; and crowded as they, were between the
French and the English, they were in a state of
vacillation, some' leaning to one side, some to
the other, and some to each in turn. As a whole,
the best that France could expect from them
was neutrality.
Montcalm at Montreal had more visits than he
liked from his red allies. " They are vilains mes
sieurs," he informs his mother, " even when fresh
from their toilet, at which they pass their lives.
You would not believe it, but the men always
carry to war, along with their tomahawk and gun,
a mirror to daub their faces with various colors,
and arrange feathers on their heads and rings in
their ears and noses. They think it a great beauty
to cut the rim of the ear and stretch it till it
reaches the shoulder. Often they wear a laced
coat, with no shirt at all. You would take them
for so many masqueraders or devils. One needs
the patience of an angel to get on with them.
Ever since I have been here, I have had nothing
but visits, harangues, and deputations of these
gentry. The Iroquois ladies, who always take

1756.] HIS IMPRESSIONS OF CANADA. 373
part in their government, came also, and did me
the honor to bring me belts of wampum, which
will oblige me to go to their village and sing
the war-song. They are only a little way off.
Yesterday we had eighty-three warriors here,
who have gone out to fight. They make war
with astounding cruelty, sparing neither men,
women, nor children, and take off your scalp
very neatly, — an operation which generally kills
you. " Everything is horribly dear in this country ;
and I shall find it hard to make the two ends of
the year meet, with the twenty-five thousand francs
the King gives me. The Chevalier de L^vis did
not join me tUl yesterday. His health is excellent.
In a few days I shall send him to one camp, and
M. de Bourlamaque to another ; for we have three
of them : one at Carillon, eighty leagues from here,
towards the place where M. de Dieskau had his
affair last year ; another at Frontenac, sixty leagues ;
and the third at Niagara, a hundred and forty
leagues. I don't know when or whither I shall go
myself; that depends on the movements of the
enemy. It seems to me that things move slowly
in this new world ; and I shall have to moderate
my activity accordingly. Nothing but the King's
service and the wish to make a career for my son
could prevent me from thinking too much of my
expatriation, my distance from you, and the dull
existence here, which would be duller still if I did
not manage to keep some Uttle of my natural
gayety."

374 MONTCALM. [1756,
The military situation was somewhat perplexing.
Iroquois spies had brought reports of great prepa
rations on the part of the English. As neither
party dared offend these wavering tribes, their
warriors could pass with impunity from one to the
other, and were paid by each for bringing informa
tion, not always trustworthy. They declared that
the English were gathering in force to renew the
attempt made by Johnson the year before against
Crown Point and Ticonderoga, as well as that
made by Shirley against forts Frontenac and Nia
gara. Vaudreuil had spared no effort to meet the
double danger. Lotbiniere, a Canadian engineer,
had been busied during the winter in fortifying
Ticonderoga, while Pouchot, a captain in the bat
talion of Beam, had rebuilt Niagara, and two
French engineers were at work in strengthening
the defences of Frontenac. The Governor even
hoped to take the offensive, anticipate the move
ments of the English, capture Oswego, and obtain
the complete command of Lake Ontario. Early in
the spring a blow had been struck which materially
aided these schemes.
The English had built two small forts to guard
the Great Carrying Place on the route to Oswego.
One of these. Fort WUliams, was on the Mohawk ;
the other. Fort Bull, a mere collection of store
houses surrounded by a palisade, was four miles
distant, on the bank of Wood Creek. Here a
great quantity of stores atid ammunition had
imprudently been collected against the opening
campaign. In February Vaudreuil sent Lery, a

1756.] FORT BULL. 375
colony officer, with three hundred and sixty-two
picked men, soldiers, Canadians, and Indians, to
seize these two posts. Towards the end of March,
after extreme hardship, they reached the road
that connected them, and at half-past five in the
morning captured twelve men going with wagons
to Fort Bull. Learning from them the weakness
of that place, they dashed forward to surprise it.
The "thirty provincials of Shirley's regiment who
formed the garrison had barely time to shut the
gate, while the assailants fired on them through
the loopholes, of which they got possession in the
tumult. Lery called on the defenders to yield ;
but they refused, and pelted the French for an
hour with bullets and hand-grenades. The gate
was at last beat down with axes, and they were
summoned again ; but again refused, and fired
hotly through the opening. The French rushed
in, shouting Vive le roi, and a frightful struggle
followed- All the garrison were killed, except
two or three who hid themselves till the slaughter
-was over ; the fort was set on fire and blown to
atoms by the explosion of the magazines ; and
Lery then withdrew, not venturing to attack Fort
Williams. Johnson, warned by Indians of the
approach of the French, had pushed up the Mo
hawk with reinforcements ; but came too late.-'
1 Bigot au Ministre, 12 Avril, 1756. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 1 Juin,
1756. Ibid,, 8 Juin, 1756. Journal de ce qui s'est passe en Canada depuis le
Mois d'Octobre, 1755, jusqu'au Mois de Juin, 1756. Shirley to Fox, 7 May,
1756. Conduct of Major General-Shirley briefly stated. Information of
Captain John Vicars, of the Fiftieth {Shirley's) Regiment. Eastburn, Faith
ful Narrative, Entick, I 471. The ¦ French accounts place the number
of English at sixty or eighty.

376 MONTCALM. [1756
VaudreuU, who always exaggerates any success
in which he has had part, says that besides bombs,
bullets, cannon-baUs, and other munitions, forty-
five thousand pounds of gunpowder were destroyed
on this occasion. It is certain that damage
enough was done to retard English operations
in the direction of Oswego sufficiently to give the
French time for securing all their posts on Lake
Ontario. Before the end of June this was in
good measure done. The battalion of B^arn lay
encamped before the now strong fort of Niagara,
and the battalions of Guienne and La Sarre, with
a body of Canadians, guarded' Frontenac against
attack. Those of La Reine and Languedoc had
been sent to Ticonderoga, while the Governor,
with Montcalm and Levis, still remained at Mont
real watching the turn of events.^ Hither, too,
came the intendant Francois Bigot, the most ac
complished knave in Canada, yet indispensable
for his vigor and executive skill ; Bougainville,
who had disarmed the jealousy of Vaudreuil, and
now stood high in his good graces ; and the Ad
jutant-General, Montreuil, clearly a vain and prag
matic personage, who, having come to Canada
with Dieskau the year before, thought it behooved
him to give the General the advantage of his ex
perience. " I like M. de Montcalm very much,"
he writes to the minister, " and will do the im
possible to deserve his confidence. I have spoken
to him in the same terms as to M. Dieskau ; thus :
' Trust only the French regulars for an expedition,
1 Correspondance de Montcalm, Vaudreuil, et Levis.

I756.J TICONDEROGA THREATENED. 377
but use the Canadians and Indians to harass the
enemy. Don't expose yourself ; send me to carry
your orders to points of danger.' The colony
officers do not like those from France. The Ca
nadians are independent, spiteful, lying, boastful ;
very good for skirmishing, very brave behind a
tree, and very timid when not under cover. 1
think both sides will stand on the defensive. It
does not seem to me that M. de Montcalm means
to attack the enemy ; and I think he is right. In
this country a thousand men could stop three
thousand." '
" M. de Vaudreuil overwhelms me with civili
ties," Montcalm writes to the Minister of War.
" I think that he is pleased with my conduct to
wards him, and that it persuades him there are
general officers in France who can act under his
orders without prejudice or ill-humor." ^ "I am
on good terms with him," he says again ; " but not
in his confidence, which he never gives to anybody
from France. His intentions are good, but' he is
slow and irresolute." ^
Indians presently brought word that ten thou- ,
sand English were coming to attack Ticonderoga.
A reinforcement of colony regulars was at once
despatched to join the two battalions already there ;
a third battalion, Royal Roussillon, was sent after
them. The militia were .called out and ordered to
1 Montreuil au Ministre, 12 .luin, 1756. The original is in cipher.
^ Montcalm au Ministre, 12 Juin, 1756.
' Ibid,, 19 Juin, 1756. " Je suis bien avec luy, sans sa confiance, qu'il
ne donne jamais k personne de la France." Erroneously rendered in
A^. Y. Col. Docs., X. 421.

378 MONTCALM. [1756
follow with all speed, while both MontcaUn and
Levis hastened to the supposed scene of dan
ger.-' They embarked in canoes on the Richelieu,
coasted the shore of Lake Champlain, passed Fort
Frederic or Crown Point, where all was activity
and bustle, and reached Ticonderoga at the end of
June. They found the fort, on which Lotbiniere
had been at work all winter, advanced towards
completion. It^ stood on the crown of the promon
tory, and was a square with four bastions, a ditch,
blown in some parts out of the solid rock, bomb-
proofs, barracks of stone, and a system of exterior
defences as yet only begun. The rampart con
sisted of two parallel walls ten feet apart, built of
the trunks of trees, and held together by transverse
logs dovetaUed at both ends, the space between
being filled with earth and gravel well packed.^
Such was the first Fort Ticonderoga, or Carillon,
— a structure quite distinct from the later fort of
which the ruins still stand on the same spot. The
forest had been hewn away for some distance
around, and the t6nts of the regulars and huts of
the Canadians had taken its place ; innumerable
bark canoes lay along the strand, and gangs of
men toiled at the unfinished works.
Ticonderoga was now the most advanced posi
tion of the French, and Crown Point, which had
before held that perUous honor, was in the second
line. Levis, to whom had been assigned the
1 Montcalm au Ministre, 26 Juin, 1756. Detail de ce qui s'est pass6,
Oct, 1755 — Juin, 17,56.
2 Lotbiniere au Ministre, 31 Oct. 1756. Montcalm au Ministre, 20 Juillet,
1756.

1756.J LEVIS. 379
permanent command of this post of danger, set
out on foot to explore the neighboring woods and
mountains, and slept out several nights before he
reappeared at the camp. " I do not think," says
Montcalm, "that many high officers in Europe
would have occasion to take such tramps as this.
I cannot speak too well of him. Without being
a man of brilliant parts, he has good experience,
good sense, and a quick eye ; and, though I had
served with him before, I never should have
thought that he had such promptness and effi
ciency. He has turned his campaigns to good
account." ' Levis writes of his chief with equal
warmth. " I do not know if the Marquis de
Montcalm is pleased with me, but I am sure that
1 am very much so with him, and shall always
be charmed to serve under his orders. It is not
for me, Monseigneur, to speak to you of his merit
and his talents. You know him better than
anybody else ; but I may have the honor of assur
ing you that he has pleased everybody in this
colony, and manages affairs with the Indians
extremely well." ^
The danger from the English proved to be
still remote, and there was ample leisure in the
camp. Duchat, a young captain in the battalion
of Languedoc, used it in writing to his father a
long account of what he saw about him, — the for
ests full of game ; the ducks, geese, and partridges ;
the prodigious flocks of wild pigeons that darkened
1 Montcalm au Ministre, 20 Juillet, 1756.
2 L^vis au Ministre, 17 Juillet, 1756.

380 MONTCALM. [1758.
the air j the bears, the beavers ; and above all the
Indians, their canoes, dress, ball-play, and dances.
"We are making here," says the military prophet,
" a place that history will not forget. The Eng
lish colonies have ten times more people than
ours ; but these wretches have not the least knowl
edge of war, and if they go out to fight, they
must abandon wives, children, and all that they
possess. Not a week passes but the French send
them a band of hairdressers, whom they would
be very glad to dispense with. It is incredible
what a quantity of scalps they bring us. In Vir
ginia they have committed unheard-of cruelties,
carried off families, burned a great many houses,
and killed an infinity of people. These miserable
English are in the extremity of distress, and repent
too late the unjust war they began against us. It
is a pleasure to make war in Canada. One is
troubled neither with horses nor baggage; the
King provides everything. But it must be con
fessed that if it costs no money, one pays for it
in another way, by seeing nothing but pease and
bacon on the mess-table. Luckily the lakes are
full of fish, and both officers apd soldiers have to
turn fishermen."'
Meanwhile, at the head of Lake George, the raw
bands of ever-active New England were mustering
for the fray.
1 Relation de M. Duchat, Capitaine au Regiment de Languedoc, ecrite
au Camp de Carillon, 15 Juillet, 1756.

CHAPTER Xn.
1756.
OSWEGO.
The new Campaign. — Untimely Change op Commanders. —
Eclipse op Shirley. — Earl op Loudon. — Muster of Provin
ciALS. — New England Levies. — Winslow at Lake George. —
Johnson and the Five Nations. — Bradstreet and his Boat
men. — Fight on the Onondaga. — Pestilence at Oswego.—
Loudon and the Provincials. — New England Camps. — Armi
Chaplains. —A sudden Blow. — Montcalm attacks Oswego.—
Its Fall.
When, at the end of the last year, Shirley re-
turned from his bootless Oswego campaign, he
called a council of war at New York and laid
before it his scheme for the next summer's opera
tions. It was a comprehensive one : to master
Lake Ontario by an overpowering naval force and
seize the French forts upon it, Niagara, Frontenac,
and Toronto ; attack Ticonderoga and Crown Point
on the one hand, and Fort Duquesne on the other,
and at the same time perplex and divide the
enemy by an inroad down the Chaudiere upon the
settlements about Quebec.^ The council approved
the scheme ; but to execute it the provinces must
raise at least sixteen thousand men. This they
1 Minutes of Council qf War held at New York, 12 and 13 Dec. 1755.
Shirley to Robinson, 19 Dec, 1755. The Conduct of Major-General Shirley
briefly stated. Review of Military Operations in North America.

382 OSWEGO. [1750.
refused to do. Pennsylvania and Virgmia would
take no active part, and were content with defend
ing themselves. The attack on Fort Duquesne
was therefore abandoned, as was also the diversion
towards Quebec. The New England colonies were
discouraged by Johnson's failure to take Crown
Point, doubtful of the military abilities of Shirley,
and embarrassed by the debts of the last cam
paign; but when they learned that Parliament
would grant a sum of money in- partial compensa
tion for their former sacrifices,^ they plunged into
new debts without hesitation, and raised more men
than the General had asked; though, with their
usual jealousy, they provided that their soldiers
should be employed for no other purpose than the
attack on Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Shirley
chose John Winslow to command them, and gave
him a commission to that effect ; while he, to
clinch his authority, asked and obtained supple
mentary commissions from every government that
gave men to the expedition.^ For the movement ,
against the forts of Lake Ontario, which Shirley
meant to command in person, he had the remains
of his own and Pepperell's regiments, the two
shattered battalions brought over by Braddock,
the " Jersey Blues," four provincial companies from
North Carolina, and the four King's companies of
1 Lords of Trade to Lords of the Treasury, 12 Feb, 1756. Fox to Ameri
can Governors, 13 March, 1756. Shirley to Phipps, 15 June, 1756. The sum
was £115,000, divided in proportion to the expense incurred by the several
colonies ; Massachusetts having £54,000, Connecticut £26,000, and New
York £15,000, the rest being given to New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and
New Jersey.
2 Letter and Order Books of General Winslow, 1756.

1756.] RfiCALL OF SHIRLEY. 383
New York. His first care was to recruit their
ranks and raise them to their full complement ;
which, when effected, would bring them up to the
insufficient strength of about forty-four hundred
men. While he was struggling with contradictions
and cross purposes, a withering blow fell upon
him; he learned that he was superseded in the
command. The cabal formed against him, with
Delancey at its head, had won over Sir Charles
Hardy, the new governor of New York, and had
painted' Shirley's conduct in such colors that the
Ministry removed him. It was essential for the
campaign that a successor should be sent at once,
to form plans on the spot and make preparations
accordingly. The Ministry were in no such haste.
It was presently announced that Colonel Daniel
Webb would be sent to America, followed by
General James Abercromby ; who was to be fol
lowed in turn by the Earl of Loudon, the destined
commander-in-chief. Shirley was to resign his
command to Webb, Webb to Abercromby, and
Abercromby to Loudon.-' It chanced that the two
former arrived in June at about the same time,
while the Earl came in July ; and meanwhile it
devolved on Shirley to make ready for them.
Unable to divine what their plans would be, he
prepared the campaign in accordance with his
own.

1 Fox to Shirley, 13 March, 1756. Ibid,, 31 March, 1756. Order to Colonel
Webb, 31 March, 1756. Order to Major-General Abercromby, 1 April, 1756
Halifax to Shirley, 1 April, 1756. Shirley to Fox, 13 June, 1756.

384 OSWEGO. [1750.
His star, so bright a twelvemonth before, was
now miserably dimmed. In both his public alid
private life he was the butt of adversity. He had
lost two promising sons ; he had made a mortify
ing failure as a soldier; and triumphant enemies
were rejoicing in his fall. It is to the credit of his
firmness and his zeal in the cause that he set him
self to his task with as much vigor as if he, and
not others, were to gather the fruits. His chief
care was for his favorite enterprise in the direction
of Lake Ontario. Making Albany his headquar
ters, he rebuilt the fort at the Great Carrying
Place destroyed in March by the French, sent
troops to guard the perilous route to Oswego, and
gathered provisions and stores at the posts along
the way.
Meanwhile the New England men, strengthened
by the levies of New York, were mustering at
Albany for the attack of Crown Point. At the
end of May they moved a short distance up the
Hudson, and encamped at a place called Half-
Moon, where the navigation was stopped by rap
ids. Here and at the posts above were gathered
something more than five thousand men, as raw
and untrained as those led by Johnson in the
summer before.-' The four New England colonies
were much alike in their way of raising and
equipping men, and the example of Massachu
setts may serve for them all. The Assembly or
" General Court " voted the required number, and
chose a committee of war authorized to impress
1 Letter and Order Books of Winslow, 1756.

1756.1 NEW ENGLAND LEVIES. 385
provisions, munitions, stores, clothing, tools, and
other necessaries, for which fair prices were to
be paid within six months. The Governor issued
a proclamation calling for volunteers. If the full
number did not appear within the time named,
the colonels of 'militia were ordered to muster
their regiments, and immediately draft out of
them men enough to meet the need. A bounty
of six dollars was offered this year to stimulate
enlistment, and the pay of a private soldier was
fixed at one pound six shillings a month, Massa
chusetts currency. If he brought a gun, he had
an additional bounty of two dollars. A powder-
horn, bullet-pouch, blanket, knapsack, and " wooden
bottle," or canteen, were supplied by the province ;
and if he brought no gun of his own, a musket
was given him, f Or which, as for the other arti
cles, he was to account at the end of the cani-
paign. In the next year it was announced that
the soldier should receive, besides his pay, " a
coat and soldier's hat." The coat was of coarse
blue cloth, to which breeches of red or blue were
afterwards added. Along with liis rations, he
was promised a gill of rum each day, -a privUege
of which he was extremely jealous, deeply re
senting every abridgment of it. He was enlisted
for the campaign, and could not be required to
serve above a year at farthest.
The complement of a regiment was five hun
dred, divided into companies of fifty ; and as the
men and officers of each were drawn from the
same neighborhood, they generally knew each
VOL. I. — 25

386 OSWEGO. [1756
other. The officers, though nominally appointed
by the Assembly, were for the most part the vir
tual choice of the soldiers themselves, from whom
they were often indistinguishable in character and
social standing. Hence discipline was weak. The
pay — or, as it was called, the wages — of a colonel
was twelve pounds sixteen shillings, Massachusetts
currency, a month ; that of a captain, five pounds
eight shUlings, — an advance on the pay of the last
year ; and that of a chaplain, six pounds eight shil
lings.^ Penalties were enacted against " irreligion,
immorality, drunkenness, debauchery, and pro-
faneness." The ordinary punishments were the
wooden horse, irons, or, in bad cases, flogging.
Much difficulty arose from the different rules
adopted by the various colopies for the regula
tion of their soldiers. Nor was this the only
source of trouble. Besides its war committee,
the Assembly of each of the four New England
colonies chose another committee " for clothing,
arming, paying, victualling, and transporting "
its troops. They were to go to the scene of
operations, hire wagons, oxen, and horses, build
boats and vessels, and charge themselves with
the conveyance of aU supplies belonging to their
respective governments. They were to keep in
correspondence with the committee of war at
home, to whom they were responsible ; and the
officer commanding the contingent of their colony
was required to furnish them with guards and
escorts. Thus four independent committees were
1 Vote of General Court, 26 Feb, 1756.

1756.] PROVINCIAL DIFFICULTIES. 387
engaged in the work of transportation at the same
time, over the same roads, for the same object.
Each colony chose to keep the control of its prop
erty in its own hands. The inconveniences were
obvious. "I wish to God," wrote Lord Loudon
to Winslow, "you could persuade your people to
go all one way." The committees themselves did
not always find their task agreeable. One of
their number, John Ashley, of Massachusetts,
writes in dudgeon to Governor Phipps : " Sir, I
am apt to think that things have been misrepre
sented to your Honor, or else I am certain I
should not suffer in my character, and be styled
a damned rascal, and ought to be put in irons,
etc., when I am certain I have exerted my-_
self to the utmost of my ability to expedite the
business assigned me by the General Court." At
length, late in the autumn, Loudon persuaded the
colonies to forego this troublesome sort of inde
pendence, and turn over their stores to the com
missary-general, receipts being duly given.'
From Winslow's headquarters at Half-Moon a
road led along the banks of the Hudson to Still
water, whence there was water carriage to Sara
toga. Here stores were again placed in wagons
and carried several miles to Upper Falls ; thence
1 The above particulars are gathered from the voluminous papers in
the State House at Boston, Archives, Military, Vols. LXXV., LXXVI.
These contain the military acts of the General Court, proclamations,
reports of committees, and other papers relating to military affairs in
1755 and 1756. The Letter and Order Books of Winslow, iu the Library
of the Massachusetts Historical Society, have supplied much concurrent
matter. See also Colonial Records of R, I,, V., and Provincial Papers
ofN, H,, VI.

388 OSWEGO. [1756,
by boat to Fort Edward; and thence, fourteen
mUes across country, to Fort WiUiam Henry at
Lake George, where the army was to embark for
Ticonderoga. Each of the points of transit below
Fort Edward was guarded by a stockade and two
or more companies of provincials. They were
much pestered by Indians, who now and then
scalped a straggler, and escaped with their usual
nimbleness. From time to time strong bands of
Canadians and Indians approached by way of
South Bay or Wood Creek, and threatened more
serious mischief. It is surprising that some of
the trains were not cut off, for the escorts were
often reckless and disorderly to the last degree.
Sometimes the invaders showed great audacity.
Early in June Colonel Fitch at Albany scrawls a
hasty note to Winslow : " Friday, 11 o'clock : Sir,
about half an hour since, a party of near fifty
French and Indians had the impudence to come
down to the river opposite to this city and capti
vate two men ; " and Winslow replies with equal
quaintness : " We daily discover the Indians about
us ; but not yet have been so happy as to obtain
any of them." ¦'
Colonel Jonathan Bagley commanded at Fort
William Henry, where gangs of men were busied
tinder his eye in building three sloops and making
several hundred whaleboats to carry the army
to Ticonderoga. The season was advancing fast,
1 Vaudreuil, in his despatch of 12 August, gives particulars of these
raids, with an account of the scalps taken ou each occasion. He thought
the results disappointing.

1756.J A TROUBLESOME ENEMY. 389
and Winslow urged him to hasten on the work;
to which the humorous Bagley answered : " Shall
leave no stone unturned ; every wheel shall go
that rum and human flesh can move." ^ A fort
night after he reports: "I must really confess I
have almost wore the men out, poor dogs. Pray
where are the committee, or what are they about ? "
He sent scouts to watch the enemy, with results
not quite satisfactory. " There is a vast deal of
news here ; every party brings abundance, but all
different." Again, a little later: "I constantly
keep out small scouting parties to the eastward
and westward of the lake, and make no discovery
but the tracks of small parties who are plaguing
us constantly; but what vexes me most, we
can't catch one of the sons of  '¦  . I have
sent out skulking parties some distance from the
sentries in the night, to lie still in the bushes to
intercept them ; but the flies are so plenty, our
people can't bear them." ^ Colonel David Wooster,
at Fort Edward, was no more fortunate in his
attempts to take satisfaction on his midnight visi
tors; and reports that he has not thus far been
able " to give those villains a dressing." ^ The
English, however, were fast learning the art of
forest war, and the partisan chief. Captain Robert
Rogers, began already to be famous. On the
seventeenth of June he and his band lay hidden
in the bushes within the outposts of Ticonderoga,
1 Bagley to Winslow, 2 July, 1756.
2 Ibid., 15 Juhi, 1756.
5 Wooster to Winslow, 2 June, 1756.

390 OSWEGO. [1756.
and made a close survey of the fort and surround
ing camps.^ His report was not cheering. Win
slow's so-called army had now grown to nearly
seven thousand men ; and these, it was plain, were
not too many to drive the French from their
stronghold. While Winslow pursued his preparations, tried
to settle disputes of rank among the colonels of
the several colonies, and strove to bring order out
of the little chaos of his command. Sir William
Johnson was engaged in a work for which he was
admirably fitted. This was the attaching of the
Five Nations to the English interest. Along with
his patent of baronetcy, which reached him about
this time, he received, direct from the Crown, the
commission of " Colonel, Agent, and Sole Super
intendent of the Six Nations and other Northern
Tribes." ^ Henceforth he was independent of
governors and generals, and responsible to the
Court alone. His task was a difficult one. The
Five Nations would fain have remained neutral,
and let the European rivals fight it out; but, on
account of their local position, they could not.
The exactions and lies of the Albany traders, the
frauds of land-speculators, the contradictory action
of the different provincial governments, joined to
English weakness and mismanagement in the last
war, all conspired to alienate them and to aid the
efforts of the French agents, who cajoled and

^ Report of Rogers, 19 June, 1756. Much abridged in his published
Journals, ''¦ Fox to Johnson, 13 Maich, 1756. Papers of Sir William Johnson.

t756.] EFFORTS OF JOHNSON. 391
threatened them by turns. But for Johnson
these intrigues would have prevailed. He had
held a series of councUs with them at Fort John
son during the winter, and not only drew from
them a promise to stand by the English, but per
suaded all the confederated tribes, except the
Cayugas, to consent that the English should build
forts near their chief towns, under the pretext of
protecting them from the French.^
In June he went to Onondaga, well escorted,
for the way was dangerous. This capital of the
Confederacy was under a cloud. It had just lost
one Red Head, its chief sachem ; and first of all
it behooved the baronet to condole their affliction.
The ceremony was long, with compliments, lugu
brious speeches, wampum-belts, the scalp of an
enemy to replace the departed, and a final glass
of rum for each of the assembled mourners. The
conferences lasted a fortnight ; and when Johnson
took his leave, the tribes stood pledged to lift the
hatchet for the English.^
When he returned to Fort Johnson a fever
seized him, and he lay helpless for a time ; then
rose from his sick bed to meet another congrega
tion of Indians. These were deputies of the Five
Nations, with Mohegans from the Hudson, and
Delawares and Shawanoes from the Susquehanna,
1 Conferences between Sir William Johnson and the Indians, Dec, 1755, to
Feb, 1756, in N, Y. Col, Docs., VII. 44-74. Account of Conferences held
and Treaties made between Sir William Johnson, Bart., and the Indian
Nations qf North America (London, 1756).
2 Minutes of Councils at Onondaga, 19 June to 3 July, 1756, in N. Y.
Col. Docs., VII. 134-150.

392 OSWEGO. [1756
whom he had persuaded to visit him in hope that
he might induce them to cease from murdering the
border settlers. All then tribesmen were in arms
against the English ; but he prevailed at last, and
they accepted the war-belt at his hands. The
Delawares complained that their old conquerors,
the Five Nations, had forced them " to wear the
petticoat," that is, to be counted not as warriors
but as women. Johnson, in presence of all the
Assembly, now took off the figurative garment,
and pronounced them henceforth men. A grand
war-dance followed. A hundred and fifty Mo
hawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Delawares, Shawanoes,
and Mohegans stamped, whooped, and yelled all
night .^ In spite of Piquets the two Joncaires,
and the rest of the French agents, Johnson had
achieved a success. But would the Indians keep
their word ? It was more than doubtful. While
some of them treated with him on the Mohawk,
others treated with Vaudreuil at Montreal.^ A
display of military vigor on the English side,
crowned by some signal victory, would alone make
their alliance sure.
It was not the French only who thwarted the
efforts of Johnson; for while he strove to make
friends of the Delawares and Shawanoes, Governor
Morris of Pennsylvania declared war against them,
and Governor Belcher of New Jersey followed his
example ; though persuaded at last to hold his
1 Minutes of Councils at Fort Johnson, 9 July to 12 July, in N. Y. CoL
Docs., VIL 1,52-160.
2 Conferences between M. de Vaudreuil and the Five Nations, 28 July to
20 Aug., in N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 445-45a

.'756:] BRADSTREET'S BOATMEN. 393
hand till the baronet had tried the virtue of pacific
measures.-' What Shirley longed for was the collecting of
a body of Five Nation warriors at Oswego to aid
him in his cherished enterprise against Niagara
and Frontenac. The warriors had promised him
to come ; but there was small hope that they
would do so. Meanwhile he was at Albany pur
suing his preparations, posting his scanty force in
the forts newly built on the Mohawk and the Great
Carrying Place, and sending forward stores and
provisions. Having no troops to spare for escorts,
he invented a plan which, like everything he did,
was bitterly criticised. He took into pay two
thousand boatmen, gathered from all parts of
the country, including many whalemen from the
eastern coasts of New England, divided them into
companies of fifty, armed each with a gun and a
hatchet, and placed them under the command of
Lieutenant-Colonel John Bradstreet.^ Thus organ
ized, they would, he hoped, require no escort.
Bradstreet was a New England officer who had
been a captain in the last war, somewhat dogged
and self-opinioned, but brave, energetic, and well
fitted for this kind of service.
In May Vaudreuil sent Coulon de Villiers with
eleven hundred soldiers, Canadians, and Indians,
to harass Oswego and (mt its communications
1 Johnson to Lords of Trade, 28 May, 1756. Ibid., 17 July, 1756.
Johnson to Shirley, 24 April, 1756. Colonial Records of Pa., VII. 75, 88,
194. 2 Shirley to Fox, 7 May, 1756. Shirley to Abercromby, 27 June, 1756,
Loudon to Fox, 19 Aug. 1756.

394 OSWEGO. [175a
with Albany.' Nevertheless Bradstreet safely con
ducted a convoy of provisions and mUitary stores to
the garrison ; and on the third of July set out on
his return with the empty boats. The party were
pushing their way up the river in three divisions.
The first of these, consisting of a hundred boats
and three hundred men, with Bradstreet at their
head, were about nine miles from Oswego, when,
at three in the afternoon, they received a heavy
volley from the forest on the east bank. It
was fired by a part of Villiers' command, consis
ting, by English accounts, of about seven hundred
men. A considerable number of the boatmen
were killed or disabled, and the others made for
the shelter of the western shore. Some prisoners
were taken in the confusion ; and if the French
had been content to stop here, they might fairly
have claimed a kind of victory : but, eager to
push their advantage, they tried to cross under
cover of an island just above. Bradstreet saw the
movement, and landed on the island with six or
eight followers, among whom was young Cap
tain Schuyler, afterwards General Schuyler of the
Revolution. Their fire kept the enemy in check
till others joined them, to the number of about
twenty. These a second and a third time beat
back the French, who now gave over the attempt,
and made for another ford at some distance above.
Bradstreet saw their intention ; and collecting two
hundred and fifty men, was about to advance up
the west bank to oppose them, when Dr. Kirkland,
> Detail de ce qui s'est passe en Canada, Oct. 1755 — Juin, 1756.

1756.] BRADSTREET'S FIGHT. 395
a surgeon, came to tell him that the second division
of boats had come up, and that the men had landed.
Bradstreet ordered them to stay where they were,
and defend the lower crossing : then hastened for
ward ; but when he reached the upper ford, the
French had passed the river, and were ensconced
in a pine-swamp near the shore. Here he attacked
them ; and both parties fired at each other from
behind trees for an hour, with little effect. Brad
street at length encouraged his men to make a
rush at the enemy, who were put to flight and
driven into the river, where many were shot or
drowned as they tried to cross. Another party of
the French had meanwhile passed by a ford still
higher up to support their comrades ; but the fight
was over before they reached the spot, and they in
their turn were set upon and driven back across
the stream. Half an hour after. Captain Patten
arrived from Onondaga with the grenadiers of
Shirley's regiment ; and late in the evening two
hundred men came from Oswego to reinforce the
victors. In the morning Bradstreet prepared to
follow the French to their camp, twelve miles dis
tant; but was prevented by a heavy rain which
lasted all day. On the Monday following, he and
his men reached Albany, bringing two prisoners,
eighty French muskets, and many knapsacks picked
up in the woods. He had lost between sixty and
seventy killed, wounded, and taken. ^
' Letter of J. Choate, Albany, 12 July, 1756, in Massachusetts Archives,
LV. Three Letters from Albany, July, Aug. 1756, in Doc. Hist. ofN. Y,,
I. 482. Review of Military Operations. Shirley to Fox, 26 July, 1756.
Abercromby to Sir Charles Hardy, 11 July, 1756. Niles, in Mass, Hist,

396 OSWEGO. [175&
This affair was trumpeted through Canada as
a victory of the French. Their notices of it are
discordant, though very brief. One of them says
that Villiers had four hundred men. Another
gives him five hundred, and a third eight hundred,
against fifteen hundred English, of whom they
killed eight hundred, or an Englishman apiece. A
fourth writer boasts that six hundred Frenchmen
killed nine hundred English. A fifth contents
himself with four hundred ; but thinks that forty
more would have been slam if the Indians had not
fired too soon. He says "further that there were
three hundred boats ; and presently forgetting
himself, adds that five hundred were , taken or
destroyed. A sixth announces a great capture of
stores and provisions, though all the boats were
empty. A seventh reports that the Canadians
killed about three hundred, and would have killed
more but for the bad quality of their tomahawks.
An eighth, with rare modesty, puts the English
loss at fifty or sixty. That of Villiers is given in
every proportion of killed or wounded, from one
up to ten. Thus was Canada roused to martial
ardor, and taught to look for future triumphs
cheaply bought.-'
Coll., Fourth Series, V. 417. Lossing, Life of Schuyler, I. 131 (1860).
Mante, 60. Bradstreet's conduct ou this occasion afterwards gained for
him the warm praises of Wolfe.
1 Nouvelles du Camp etabli au Portage de Chouaguen, premiere Relation.
Ibid., Scconde Relation, 10 Juillet, 1756. Bougainville, Journal, who gives
the report as he heard it. Lettre du R, P, Cocquard, S. J., 1756. Vau
dreuil au Ministre, 10 Juillet, 1756. Ursulines de Quebec,ll. 292. N. Y,
Col. Docs., X. 434, 467, 477, 483. Some prisoners taken in the first attack
were brought to Montreal, where their presence gave countenance to thase
fabrications.

'756.] STATE OF THE GARRISON. 397
The success of Bradstreet silenced for a time the
enemies of Shirley. His cares, however, redoubled.
He was anxious for Oswego, as the two prisoners
declared that the French meant to attack it, in
stead of waiting to be attacked from it. Nor
was the news from that quarter reassuring. The
engineer, Mackellar, wrote that the works were
incapable of defence ; and Colonel Mercer, the
commandant, reported general discontent in the
garrison.^ Captain John Vicars, an invalid officer
of Shirley's regiment, arrived at Albany with yet
more deplorable accounts. He had passed the win
ter at Oswego, where he declared the dearth of
food to have been such that several councils of
war had been held on the question of abandoning
the place from sheer starvation. More than half
his regiment died of hunger or disease ; and, in his
own words, " had the poor fellows lived they must
have eaten one another." Some of the men were
lodged in barracks, though without beds, while
many lay all winter in huts on the bare , ground.
Scurvy and dysentery made frightful havoc. " In
January," says Vicars," we were informed by the
Indians that we were to be attacked. The gar
rison was then so weak that the strongest guard
we proposed to mount was a subaltern and twenty
men ; but we were seldom able to mount more
than sixteen or eighteen, and half of those were
obliged to have sticks in their hands to support
them. The men were so weak that the sentries
often fell down on their posts, and lay there tUl
1 Mackellar to Shirley, .Tune, 1756. Mercer to Shirley, 2 July, 1756.

398 OSWEGO. [1756.
the relief came and lifted them up." His own
company of fifty was reduced to ten. The other
regiment of the garrison, Pepperell's, or the fifty-
first, was quartered at Fort Ontario, on the other
side of the river ; and being better sheltered, suf
fered less.
The account given by Vicars of the state of the
defences was scarcely more fiattering. He reported
that the principal fort had no cannon on the side
most exposed to attack. Two pieces had been
mounted on the trading-house in the centre; but
as the concussion shook down stones from the -wall
whenever they were fired, they had since been
removed. The second work, called Fort Ontario,
he had not seen since it was finished, having been
too ill to cross the river. Of the third, called
New Oswego, or " Fort Rascal," he testifies thus :
"It never was finished, and there were no loop
holes in the stockades ; so that they could not fire
out of the fort but by opening the gate and firing
out of that." ^
Through the spring and early summer Shirley
was gathering recruits, often of the meanest
quality, and sending them to Oswego to fill out
the two emaciated regiments. The place must be
defended at any cost. Its fall would ruin not
only the enterprise against Niagara and Frontenac,
but also that against Ticonderoga and Crown
Point ; since, having nothing more to fear on Lake
1 Information of Captain John Vicars, of the Fiftieth {Shirley's) Regiment,
enclosed with a despatch of Lord Loudon. Vicars was a veteran British
officer who left Oswego with Bradstreet on the third of July. Shirleij
to Loudon, 5 Sept. 1756.

1756.J LOUDON. 399
Ontario, the French could unite their whole force
on Lake Champlain, whether for defence or
attack. Towards the end of June Abercromby and
Webb arrived at Albany, bringing a reinforcement
of nine hundred regulars, consisting of Ot way's
regiment, or a part of it, and a body of High
landers. " Shirley resigned his command, and Aber
cromby requested him to go to New York, wait
there tUl Lord Loudon arrived, and lay before
him the state of affairs.-' ShiWey waited till the
twenty-tMrd of July, when the Earl at length
appeared. He was a rough Scotch lord, hot and
irascible ; and the communications of his prede
cessor, made, no doubt, in a manner somewhat
pompous and self-satisfied, did not please him.
" I got from Major-General Shirley," he says, " a
few papers of very little use ; only he insinuated
to me that I would find everything prepared, and
have nothing to do but to pull laurels; which I
understand was his constant conversation before
my arrival." ^
Loudon sailed up the Hudson in no placid mood.
On reaching Albany he abandoned the attempt
against Niagara and Frontenac ; and had resolved
¦ to turn his whole force against Ticonderoga, when
he was met by an obstacle that both perplexed
and angered him. By a royal order lately issued,
all general and field officers with provincial
commissions were to take rank only as eldest
1 Shirley to Fox, 4 July, 1756.
2 Loudon {to Foxi), 19 Aug. 1756.

400 OSWEGO. [1756.
captains when serving in conjunction with reg
ular troops.^ Hence, the whole provincial army,
as Winslow observes, might be put under the com
mand of any British major.^ The announcement
of this regulation naturally caused great discon
tent. The New England officers held a meeting,
and voted with one voice that in their belief its
enforcement would break up the provincial army
and prevent the raising of another. Loudon,
hearing of this, desired Winslow to meet him at
Albany for a conference on the subject. Thither
Winslow went with some of his chief officers.
The Earl asked them to dinner, and there was
much talk, with no satisfactory result ; whereupon,
somewhat chafed, he required Winslow to answer
in writing, yes or no, whether the provincial offi
cers would obey the commander-in-chief and act
in conjunction with the regulars. Thus forced
to choose between acquiescence and flat mutiny,
they declared their submission to his orders, at
the same time asking as a favor that they might
be aUowed to act independently ; to which Loudon
gave for the present an unwilling assent. Shirley,
who, in spite of his removal from command, had the
good of the service deeply at heart, was much
troubled at this affair, and wrote strong letters
to Winslow in the interest of harmony.^
1 Order concerning the Rank of Provincial General and Field Officers in
North America. Given at our Court at Kensington, 12 May, 1756.
2 Winslow to Shirley, 21 Aug. 1756.
5 Correspondence of Loudon, Abercromby, and Shirley, July, Aug, 1756.
Record of Meeting of Provincial Officers, July, 1756. Letter and Order
Books qf Winslow.

1756.] PROVINCIAL CAMPS. 401
Loudon next proceeded to examine the state of
the provincial forces, and sent Lieutenant-Colonel
Burton, of the regulars, to observe and report upon
it. Winslow by this time had made a forward
movement, and was now at Lake George with
nearly half his command, while the rest were at
Fort Edward under Lyman, or in detachments at
Saratoga and the other small posts below. Bur
ton found Winslow's men encamped with their
right on what are now the grounds of Fort Wil
liam Henry Hotel, and their left extending south
ward between the mountain in their front- and
the marsh in their rear. " There are here," he
reports, "about twenty-five hundred men, five
hundred of them sick, the greatest part of them
what they call poorly ; they bury from five to
eight daily, and officers in proportion; extremely
indolent, and dirty to a degree." Then, in ver
nacular English, he describes the infectious con
dition of the fort, which was full of the sick.
" Their camp," he proceeds, " is nastier than any
thing I could conceive ; their  , kitchens,
graves, and places for slaughtering cattle all
mixed through their encampment ; a great waste
of provisions, the men having just what they
please ; no great command kept up. Colonel Grid-
ley governs the general; not in the least alert;
only one advanced guard of a subaltern and
twenty-four men. The cannon and stores in great
confusion." Of the camp at Fort Edward he
gives a better account. " It is much cleaner than
at Fort William Henry, but not sufficiently so to
VOL. I. — 26

402 OSWEGO. II758
keep the men healthy; a much better command
kept up here. General Lyman very ready to order
out to work and to assist the engineers with any
number of men they require, and keeps a succes
sion of scouting-parties out towards Wood Creek
and South Bay." ^
The prejudice of the regular officer may have
colored the picture, but it is certain that the san
itary condition of the provincial camps was ex
tremely bad. "A grievous sickness among the
troops," writes a Massachusetts surgeon at Fort
Edward ; "we bury five or six a day. Not more
than two thirds of our army fit for duty. Long
encampments are the bane of New England
men." ^ Like aU raw recruits, they did not know
how to take care of themselves; and their offi
cers had not the experience, knowledge, or habit
of command to enforce sanitary rules. The same
evils were found among the .Canadians when
kept long in one place. Those in the camp of
Villiers are reported at this time as nearly aU
sick.^ Another penman, very different from the mili
tary critic, was also on the spot, noting down
every day what he saw and felt. This was John
Graham, minister of Suffield, in Connecticut, and
now chaplain of Lyman's regiment. His spirit,
by nature far from buoyant, was depressed by
bodily ailments, and 5till more by the extremely
1 Burton to Loudon, 27 Aug, 1756.
2 Dr, Thomas Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 28- Aug. 1756.
• Bougainville, Journal.

1756.] IRIALS OF A CHAPLAIN. 403
secular character of his present surroundings. It
appears by his Diary that he left home "under
great exercise of mind," and was detained at Al
bany for a time, being, as he says, taken with an
ague-fit and a quinsy ; ,but at length he reached the
camp at Fort Edward, where deep despondency fell
upon him. " Labor under great discouragements,"
«ays the Diary, under date of July twenty-eighth ;
" for find my business but mean in the esteem" of
many, and think there 's not much for a chap
lain to do." Again, Tuesday, August seventeenth :
"Breakfasted this morning with the General.
But a graceless meal ; never a blessing asked,
nor thanks given. At the evening sacrifice a more
open scene of wickedness. The General and head
ofS.cers, with some of the regular officers, in Gen-
,eral Lyman's tent, within four rods of the place
of public prayers. Ncfne came to prayers ; but they
fixed a table without the door of the tent, where
a head colonel was posted to make punch in the
sight of all, they within drinking, talking, and
laughing during the whole of the service, to the
disturbance and disaffection of most present.
This was not only a bare neglect, but an open
contempt, of the worship of God by the heads of
¦this army. 'Twas but last Sabbath that General
Lyman spent the time of divine service in the
afternoon in his tent, drinking in company with
Mr. Gordon, a regular officer. I have oft heard
cursing and swearing in his presence by some
provincial field-officers, but never heard a reproof
nor so much as a check to them come from his

404 OSWEGO. [1756.
mouth, though he never uses such language him
self. Lord, what is man ! Truly, the May-game
of Fortune ! Lord, make me know my duty, and
what I ought to do ! "
That night his sleep was broken and his soul
troubled by angry voices under his window, where
one Colonel Glasier was berating, in unhallowed
language, the captain of the guard ; and here the
chaplain's Journal abruptly ends.^
A brother minister, bearing no likeness to the
worthy Graham, appeared on the, same spot some
time after. This was Chaplain William Crawford,
of Worcester, who, having neglected to bring
money to the war, suffered much annoyance, ag
gravated by what he thought a want of due
consideration for his person and office. His in
dignation finds vent in a letter to his townsman,
Timothy Paine, member of the General Court :
" No man can reasonably expect that I can with
any propriety discharge the duty of a chaplain
when I have nothing either to eat or drink, nor
any conveniency to write a line other than to sit
down upon a stump and put a piece of paper
upon my knee. As for Mr. Weld [another chap
lain], he is easy and silent whatever treatment
he meets with, and I suppose they thought to
find me the same easy and ductile person ; but
may the wide yawning earth devour me first !
The state of the camp is just such as one at
1 I owe to my friend George S. Hale, Esq., the opportunity of exam
ining the autograph Journal ; it has since been printed in the Magazine
qf American History for March, 1882.

1756.] ANXIETY. 405
home would guess it to be, — nothing bu.t a hurry
and confusion of vice and wickedness, with a
Stygian atmosphere to breathe in." ^ The vice
and wickedness of which he complains appear to
have consisted in a frequent infraction of the
standing order against " Curseing and Swareing,"
as well as of that which required attendance on
daily prayers, and enjoined " the people to ap
pear in a decent manner, clean and shaved," at
the two Sunday sermons.^
At the beginning of August Winslow wrote to
the committees of the several provinces : " It
looks as if it won't be long before we are fit for
a remove," — that is, for an advance on Ticon
deroga. On the twelfth Loudon sent Webb with
the forty-fourth regiment and some of Bradstreet's
boatmen to reinforce Oswego.^ They had been
ready for a month ; but confusion and misunder
standing arising from the change of command
had prevented their departure.* Yet the utmost
anxiety had prevailed for the safety of that im
portant post, and on the twenty-eighth Surgeon
Thomas Williams wrote : " Whether Oswego is
yet ours is uncertain. Would hope it is, as the
1 The autograph letter is in Massachusetts Archives, LVI. no. 142. The
same volume contains a letter from Colonel Frye, of Massachusetts, iu
which he speaks of the forlorn condition in which Chaplain Weld reached
the camp. Of Chaplain Crawford, he says that he came decently clothed,
but without bed or blanket, till he,. Frye, lent them to him, and got
Captain Learned to take him into his tent. Chaplains usually had a
separate tent, or shared that of the colonel.
^ Letter and Order Books of Winslow.
2 Loudon {to Fox? ), 19 Aug, 1756.
^ Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated, Shirley to Loudon,
4 Sept 1756. Shirley to Fox, 16 Sept. 1756.

406 OSWEGO. [1756.
reverse would be such a terrible ^ shock as the
country never felt, and may be a sad omen of
what is coming upon poor sinful New England.
Indeed we can't expect anything but to be se
verely chastened till we are humbled for our
pride and haughtiness." ¦'
, His foreboding proved true. Webb had scarcely
reached the Great Carrying Place, when tidings of
disaster fell upon him like a thunderbolt. The
French had descended in force upon Oswego, taken
it with all its garrison ; and, as report ran, were
advancing into the province, six thousand strong.
Wood Creek had just been cleared, with great
labor, of the trees that choked it. Webb ordered
others to be felled and thrown into- the stream to
stop the progress of the enemy ; then,; with shame
ful precipitation, he burned the forts of the Car
rying Place, and retreated down the Mohawk to,
German Flats. Loudon ordered Winslow to think
no more of Ticonderoga, but to stay where he
was and hold the French in check. All was
astonishment and dismay at the sudden blow.
" Oswego has changed masters, and I think we
may justly fear that the whole of our country
will soon follow, unless a merciful God prevent,
and awake a sinful people to repentance and re
formation." Thus wrote Dr. Thomas Williatos
to his wife from the camp at Fort Edward.
" Such a shocking affair has never found a place
in English annals," wrote the surgeon's young
relative, Colonel WiUiam Williams. "The loss
1 Thomas Williams ta Colonel Israel Williams, 28 Aug. 1756.

1756.1 PREPARATION' AGAINST IT. 407
is beyond account ; but the dishonor done His
Majesty's arms is infinitely greater." ^ It re
mains to see how the catastrophe befell.
Since VaudreuU became chief of the colony he
had nursed the plan of seizing Oswego, yet hesi
tated to attempt it. Montcalm declares that he
confirmed the Governor's wavering purpose ; but
Montcalm himself had hesitated. In July, how
ever, there came exaggerated reports that, the Eng
lish were moving upon Ticonderoga in greatly
increased numbers; and both Vaudreuil and the
General conceived that a feint against Oswego
would draw offi the strength of the assailants, and,
if promptly and secretly executed, might even be
tumed successfully into a real attack. Vaudreuil
thereupon recalled Montcalm from Ticonderoga.^
Leaving that, post in the keeping of L^vis and
three thousand men, he embarked on Lake Cham
plain, rowed day and night, and reached Montreal
on the nineteenth. Troops were arriving from
Quebec,* and Indians from the far west. A band
of Menomonies from beyond Lake Michigan, naked,
painted, plumed, greased, stamping, uttering sharp
yelps, shaking feathered lances, brandishing toma
hawks, danced the war-dance before the Governor,
to the thumping of the Indian drum. Bougain-
viUe looked on astonished, and thought of the
Pyrrhic dance of the Greeks.
Montcalm and he left Montreal on the twenty-
first, and reached Fort Frontenac in eight days.
^ Colonel William Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 30 Aug, 1756.
" Vaudreuil au Ministre, 12 Aoiit, 1756 Montcalm a sa Femme, 20
Juillet, 1756.

408 OSWEGO. [175&
Rigaud, brother of the Governor, had gone tbither
some time before, and crossed with seven hundred
Canadians to the south side of the lake, where
Villiers was encamped at Niaour^ Bay, now
Sackett's Harbor, with such of his detachment as
war and disease had spared. Rigaud relieved himj
and took command of the united bands. With
their aid the engineer, Descombles, reconnoitred the
English forts, and came back with the report that
success was certain.-' It was but a confirmation
of what had already been learned from deserters
and prisoners, who declared that the main fort
was but a lOopholed wall held by six or seven
hundred men, ill fed, discontented, and mutinous.^
Others said that they had been driven to desert
by the want of good food, and that within a year
twelve hundred men had died of disease at
Oswego.^ The battalions of La Sarre, Guienne, and B^arn,
with the colony regulars, a body of Canadians, and
about two hundred and fifty Indians, were des
tined for the enterprise. The whole force was a
little above three thousand, abundantly supplied
with artillery. La Sarre and Guienne were already
at Fort Frontenac. B^arn was at Niagara, whence
it arrived in a few days, much buffeted by the
storms of Lake Ontario. On the fourth of August
all was ready. Montcalm embarked at night with
' Vaudreuil au Ministre, 4 Aout, 1756. Vaudreuil a Bourlamaque,
— Juin, 1756.
2 Bougainville, Journal.
8 Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Juillet, 1756. Resume des Nouvelles d*
Canada, Sept. 1756.

1756.] MONTCALM ATTACKS IT. 409
the first division, crossed in darkness to Wolf
Island, lay there hidden all day, and embarking
again in the evening, joined Rigaud at Niaour^
Bay at seven o'clock in the morning of the sixth.
The second division followed, with provisions,
hospital train, and eighty artillery boats ; and on
the eighth all were united at the bay. On the
ninth Rigaud, covered by the universal forest,
marched in advance to protect the landing of the
troops. Montcalm followed with the first division ;
and, coasting the shore in bateaux, landed at
midnight of the tenth within half a league of the
first English fort. Four cannon were planted in
battery upon the strand, and the men bivouacked
by their boats. So skilful were the assailants and
so careless the assailed that the English' knew
nothing of their danger, till in the morning, a
reconnoitring canoe discovered the invaders. Two
armed vessels soon came to cannonade them ; but
their light guns were no match for the heavy
artillery of the French, and they were forced to
keep the offing.
Descombles, the engineer, went before dawn to
reconnoitre the fort, with several other officers
and a party of Indians. While he was thus em
ployed, one of these savages, hungry for scalps,
took him in the gloom for an Englishman, and
shot him dead. Captain Pouchot, of the battalion
of Beam, replaced him ; and the attack was pushed
vigorously. The Canadians and Indians, swarm
ing through the forest, fired all day on the fort
under cover of the trees. The second division

410 i OSWEGO. [1758,
came up with twenty-two more cannon; and at
night the first parallel was marked out, at a hun
dred and eighty yards from the rampart. Stumps
were grubbed up, fallen trunks shoved aside, and
a trench dug, sheltered by fascines, gabions, and a
strong abattis.
Fort Ontario, counted as the best of the three
forts at Oswego, stood on a high plateau at the
east or right side of the river where it entered the
lake. It was in the shape of a star, and waa
formed of trunks of trees- set, upright in the
ground, hewn flat on two sides; and closely fitted
together, — an excellent defence against musketry
or swivels, but worthless against cannon. The
garrison, three hundred and seventy in all, were
the remnant of Pepperell's regiment, joined to raw
recruits lately sent up to fill the places of the sick
and dead. They had eight small cannon and a
mortar, with which on the next day, Friday, the
thirteenth, they kept; up a brisk, fire till towards
night ; when, after growing more rapid for a time,
it ceased, and the fort showed no sign of life. Not
a cannon had yet, opened on them from the
trenches ; but it was certain that with the French
artillery once in action, their wooden rampart
would be shivered to splinters. Hence it was
that Colonel Mercer, commandant at Oswego,
thinking it better to lose the fort than to lose
both fort and garrison, signalled to thein from
across the river to abandon their position and join
him on the other side. Boats were sent to bring
them off ; and they passed over unmolested, after

X756.] ITS CONDITION. 411
spiking their cannon and firing off their ammu
nition or throwing it into the well.
The fate of Oswego was now sealed. The prin
cipal work, called Old Oswego, or Fort Pepperell,
stood at the mouth of the river on the, west side,
nearly opposite Fort Ontario, and less than five
hundred yards distant from it. The trading-house,
which formed the centre of the place, was built
of rough stone laid in clay, and the wall which
enclosed it was of the same materials ; both
would crumble in an instant at the touch of. a
twelve-pound shot. Towards the west and south
they had been protected by an outer line of earth
works, mounted with cannon, and forming an
entrenched camp ; while the side towards Fort
Ontario was left wholly exposed, in the rash con
fidence that this work, standing on the opposite
heights, would guard against, attack from that
quarter. On a hill, a fourth of a mile beyond Old
Oswego, stood the unfinished stockade called New
Oswego, Fort George, or, by reason of its worth
lessness, Fort Rascal. It had served as a cattle
pen before the- French appeared, but was now occu
pied by a hundred and fifty Jersey provincials.
Old Oswego with its outwork was held by Shirley's
regiment, chiefly invalids and raw recruits, to
whom were now joined the garrison of Fort
Ontario and a number of sailors, boatmen, and
laborers. Montcalm lost no time. As soon as darkness set
in he began a battery at the brink of the height
on which stood the captured fort. His whole

412 OSWEGO. [1756.
force toiled all night, digging, setting gabions, and
dragging up cannon, some of which had been
taken from Braddock. Before daybreak twenty
heavy pieces had been brought to the spot, and
nine were already in position. The work had
been so rapid that the English imagined their ene
mies to number six thousand at least. The bat
tery soon opened fire. Grape _ and round shot
swept the intrenchment and crashed through the
rotten masonry. The English, says a French offi
cer, " were exposed to their shoe-buckles." Their
artillery was pointed the wrong way, in expecta
tion of an attack, not from the east, but from the
west. They now made a shelter of pork-barrels,
three high and three deep, planted cannon behind
them, and returned the French fire with some
effect. Early in the morning Montcalm had ordered
Rigaud to cross the river with the Canadians and
Indians. There was a ford three quarters of a
league above the forts ; '~ and here they passed over
unopposed, the English not having discovered the
movement.^ The only danger was from the river.
Some of the men were forced to swim, others
waded to the waist, and others to the neck ; but
they all crossed safely, and presently showed them
selves at the edge of the woods, yelling and firing
their guns, too far for much execution, but not too
far to discourage the garrison.
The garrison were already disheartened. Colonel
Mercer, the soul of the defence, had just been cut in
1 Bougainville, Journal, 2 Pouchot, I. 76.

1756.] ITS CAPTURE. 413
two by a cannon-shot while directing the gunners.
Up to this time the defenders had behaved with
'Spirit; but despair now seized them, increased by
the screams and entreaties of the women, of whom
there were more than a hundred in the place.
There was a council of officers, and then the white
flag was raised. Bougainville went to propose terms
of capitulation. " The cries, threats, and hideous
bowlings of our Canadians and Indians," says
Vaudreuil, " made them quickly decide." " This,"
observes the Reverend Father Claude Godefroy
Cocquard, " reminds me of the fall of Jericho be
fore the shouts of the Israelites." The English
surrendered prisoners of war, to the number, ac
cording to the Governor, of sixteen hundred,^
which included the sailors, laborers, and women.
The Canadians and Indians broke through all
restraint, and fell to plundering. There was an
opening of rum-barrels and a scene of drunken
ness, in which some of the prisoners had their
share; while others tried to escape in the confu
sion, and were tomahawked by the excited sava
ges. Many more would have been butchered, but
for the efforts of Montcalm, who by unstinted
promises succeeded in appeasing his ferocious
1 VaudreuU au Ministre, 20 Aout, 1756. He elsewhere makes the num
ber somewhat greater. That the garrison, exclusive of civilians, did not
exceed at the utmost fourteen hundred, is shown by Shirley to Loudon,
5 Sept. 1756. Loudon had charged Shirley -with leaving Oswego weakly
garrisoned ; and Shirley replies by alleging that the troops there were in
number as above. It was of course his interest to make them appear as
numerous as possible. In the printed Conduct of Major-General Shirley
briefly stated, they are put at only teu hundred and fifty.

414 OSWEGO. [1756.
allies, whom he dared not offend. "It will cost
the King," he says, "eight or ten thousand livres
in presents."^
The loss on both sides is variously given. By
the most trustworthy accounts, that of the Eng
lish did not reach fifty killed, and that of the
French was still less. In the forts and vessels
were found above a hundred pieces of artillery,
most of them' swivels and other light guns, with
a large quantity of powder, shot, and shell. The
victors burned the forts and the vessels on the
stocks, destroyed such provisions and stores as
they could not carry away, and made the place a
desert. The priest Piquet, who had joined the
expedition, planted amid the ruin a tall cross,
graven with the words. In hoc signo vincunt ; and
near it was set a pole bearing the arms of France,
with the inscription, Manibus date lilia plenis.
Then the army decamped, loaded with prisoners
and spoil, descended to Montreal, hung the cap
tured flags in the churches, and sang Te Deum
in honor of their triumph -
It was the greatest that the French arms had
yet achieved in America. The defeat of Brad
dock was an Indian victory ; this last exploit
was the result of bold enterprise and skUful tac
tics. With its laurels came its fruits. Hated
Oswego had been laid in ashes, and the would-be
1 Several English writers say, however, that fifteen or twenty young
men were given up to the Indians to be adopted in place of warriors lately
killed.

1756.] RESULTS OF ITS FALL. 415
assailants forced to a vain and hopeless defence.
France had conquered the undisputed command
of Lake Ontario, and her communications with
the West were safe. A small garrison at Nia
gara and another at Frontenac would now hold
those posts against any effort that the EngUsh
could make this year; and the whole French force
could concentrate at Ticonderoga, repel the threat
ened attack, and perhaps retort it by seizing Al
bany. If the English, on the other side, had lost
a great material advantage, they had lost no less
in honor. The news of the surrender was re
ceived with indignation in England and in the
colonies. Yet the behavior of the garrison was
not so discreditable as it seemed. The position
was indefensible, and they could have held out a,t
best but a few days more. They yielded too soon ;
but unless Webb had come to their aid, which
was not to be expected, they must have yielded
at last.
The French had scarcely gone, when two Eng
lish scouts, Thomas Harris and James Conner,
came with a party of Indians to the scene of
desolation. The ground was strewn with broken
casks and bread sodden with rain.' The re
mains of burnt bateaux and whaleboats were
scattered along the shore. The great stone trad
ing-house in the old fort was a smoking ruin ;
Fort Rascal was still burning on the neighboring
hill ; Fort Ontario was a mass of ashes and
charred logs, and by it stood two poles on which

416 OSWEGO. [1756.
were written words which the visitors did not
understand. They went back to Fort Johnson
with their story ; and Oswego reverted for a time
to the bears, foxes, and wolves.-'
1 On the capture of Oswego, the authorities examined have been very
numerous, and only the best need be named. Livre d' Ordres, Campagne
de 1756, contains all orders from headquarters. Memoire pour servir
d'instruction a M, le Marquis de Montcalm, 21 Juillet, 1756, signg Vau
dreuil. Bougainville, Journal. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Juin, 1756
(designs against Oswego). Ibid., 13 Aout, 1755. Ibid,, 30 Aoiit, Pou
chot, I. 67-81. Relation de la Prise des Forts de Chouaguen. Bigot au
Ministre, 3 Sept. 1756. Journal du Siege de Chouaguen. Precis des
£venements, 1756. Montcalm au Ministre, 20 Juillet, 1756. Ibid., 28
Aout, 1756. Desandrouins a  , meme date. Montcalm a sa Femme, 30
Aoik, Translations of several of the above papers, along with others
less important, will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., X., and Doc. Hist.
N, Y,, 1,
State of Facts relating to the Loss of Oswego, in London Magazine for
1757, p. 14. Correspondence of Shirley. Correspondence, of Loudon. Lit-
tlehales to Loudon, 30 Aug. 1756. Hardy to Lords of Trade, 5 Sept, 1756.
Conduct of Major- General Shirley briefly stated. Declaration of some Sol
diers of Shirley's Regiment, in N. Y. Col, Docs,, VII. 126. Letter from an.
officer present, in Boston Evening Post of 16 May, 1757. The published
plans and drawings of Oswego at this time are very inexact.

CHAPTER Xm.
1756, 1767.
PARTISAN WAR.
Pailuke op Sbirlet's Plan. — Causes. — Loudon and Shielet. —
Close of the Campaign. — The Western Bordek. — Armstrong
destroys Kittanning. — The Scouts op Lake George. —
War Parties from Ticonderoga. — Robert Rogers. — The
Rangers. — Their Hardihood and Daring. — Disputes as to
Quarters op Troops. — Expedition of. Rogers. — A Desperate
BuSH-FiGHT. — Enterprise of Vaudreuil. — Rigaud attacks
Fort William Henry.
Shirley's grand scheme for cutting New France
in twain had come to wreck. There was -an
element of boyishness in him. He made bold
plans without weighing too closely his means of
executing them. The year's campaign would in
all likelihood have succeeded if he could have
acted promptly ; if he had had ready to his hand a
well-trained and well-officered force, furnished with
material of war and means of transportation, and
prepared to move as soon as the streams and lakes
of New York were open, while those of Canada
were still sealed with ice. But timely action was
out of his power. The army that should have
moved in April was not ready to move till August.
Of the nine discordant semi-republics whom he
asked to join in the work, three or four refused,
some of the others were lukewarm, and all were
VOL. I. — 27

418 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
.slow. Even Massachusetts, usually the foremost,
faUed to get aU her men into the field tUl the
season was nearly^ ended. Having no military
establishment, the colonies were forced to impro
vise a new army for every campaign. Each of
them watched its neighbors, or, jealous^ lest it
should do more than its just share, waited for
them t"o begin. Each popular assembly acted
under the eye of a fragal constituency, who, hav
ing little money, were as chary of it as their
descendants are lavish; and most of them were
shaken by internal conflicts, more absorbing than
the great question on which hung the fate of the
continent. Only the four New England colonies
were fuUy earnest for the war, and one, even of
these, was ready to use the crisis as a means of
extorting concessions from its Governor in return
for grants of money and men. When the lagging
contingents came together at last, under a com
mander whom none of them trusted, they were
met by strategical difficulties which would have
perplexed older soldiers and an abler general;
for they were forced to act on the circumfer
ence of a vast semicircle, in a labyrinth of for
ests, without roads, and choked with every kind of
obstruction. Opposed to them was a trained army, well or
ganized and commanded, focused at Montreal, and
moving for attack or defence on two radiating
lines, — one towards Lake Ontario, and the other
towards Lake Champlain, — supported by a martial
peasantry, supplied from France with money and

1756.] GLOOMY PROSPECTS. 419
material, dependent on no popular vote, having no
will but that of its chief, and rea^y on the instant
to strike to right or left as the need required. It
was a compact military absolutism confronting
a heterogeneous group of industrial democracies,
where the force of numbers was neutralized by
diffusion and incoherence. A long and dismal
apprenticeship waited them before they could hope
for success ; nor could they ever put forth their
full strength without a radical change of political
conditions and an awakened consciousness of com
mon interests and a common cause. It was the
sense of powerlessness arising from the want of
union that, after the fall of Oswego, spread alarm
through the northern and middle colonies, and
drew these desponding words from William Liv
ingston, of New Jersey : " The colonies are nearly
exhausted, and their funds already anticipated by
expensive unexecuted projects. Jealous are they
of each other; some ill-constituted, others shaken
with intestine divisions, and, if I may be allowed
the expression, parsimonious even to prodigality.
Our assemblies are diffident of their governors,
governors despise their assemblies ; and both mutu
ally misrepresent each other to the Court of Great
Britain." Military measures, he proceeds, demand
secrecy and despatch ; but when so many divided
provinces must agree to join in them, secrecy and
despatch are impossible. In conclusion he ex
claims: "Canada must be demolished, — Delenda
est Carthago, — or we are undone." ^ But Loudon
' Review of Military Operations, 187, 189 (Dublin, 1757).

420 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
was not Scipio, and cis-Atlantic Carthage was to
stand for some .time longer.
The Earl, in search of a scapegoat for the loss
of Oswego, naturally chose Shirley, attacked him
savagely, told him that he was of no use in
America, and ordered him to go home to England
without delay.' Shirley, who was then in Boston,
answered this indecency with dignity and effect.^
The chief fault was with Loudon himself, whose
late arrival in America had caused a change of
command and of plans in the crisis of the cam
paign. Shirley well knew the weakness of Os
wego ; and in early spring had sent two engineers
to make it defensible, with particular instructions
to strengthen Fort Ontario.^ But they, thinking
that the chief danger lay on the west and south,
turned all their attention thither, and neglected
Ontario till it was too late. Shirley was about
to reinforce Oswego with a strong body of troops
when the arrival of Abercromby took the control
out of his hands and caused ruinous delay. He
cannot, however, be acquitted of mismanagement
in failing to supply the place with wholesome
provisions in the preceding autumn, before the
streams were stopped with ice. Hence came the
ravages of disease and famine which, before
spring, reduced the garrison to a hundred and
1 Loudon to Shirley, 6 Sept. 1756.
^ The correspondence on both sides is before me, copied from the ori
ginals in the Public Record Office.
8 " The principal thing for which I sent Mr. Mackellar to Oswego was
to strengthen Fort Ontario as much as he possibly could." Shirley to
Loudon, 4 Sept, 1756.

1756.] SHIRLEY. 421
forty effective men. Yet there can be no doubt
that the change of command was a blunder.
This is the view of Franklin, who knew Shirley
well, and thus speaks of him : " He would in my
opinion, if continued in place, have made a much
better campaign than that of Loudon, which was
frivolous, expensive, and disgraceful to our na
tion beyond conception. For though Shirley was
not bred a soldier, he was sensible and sagacious
in himself, and attentive to good advice from
others, capable of forming judicious plans, and
quick and active in carrying them into execution." ^
He sailed for England in the autumn, disappointed
and poor; the bull-headed Duke of Cumberland
had been deeply prejudiced against him, and it
was only after long waiting that this strenuous
champion of British interests was rewarded in
his old age with the petty government of the
Bahamas. Loudon had now about ten thousand men at
his command, though not all fit for duty. They
were posted from Albany to Lake George. The
Earl himseU was at Fort Edward, while about
three thousand of the provincials still lay, under
Winslow, at the lake. Montcalm faced them at
Ticonderoga, with five thousand three hundred
regulars and Canadians, in a position where they
could defy three times their number.^ " The sons
of Belial are too strong for me," jocosely wrote
1 Works of Franklin, I. 220.
2 " Nous sommes tant a Carillon qu'aux postes avancfe 5,300 hommes."
Bougainville, Journal,

422 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
Winslow;^ and he set himself to intrenching his
camp ; then had the forest cut down for the spa,ce
of a mile from the lake to the mountains, so that
the trees, lying in what he calls a " promiscuous
manner," formed an almost impenetrable abatis.
An escaped prisoner told him that the French
were coming to visit him with fourteen thousand
men;^ but Montcalm thought no more of stir
ring than Loudon himseU ; and each stood watch
ing the other, with the lake between them, till
the season closed.
Meanwhile the western borders were still rav
aged by the tomahawk. New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia all writhed
under the infliction. Each had made a chain of
blockhouses and wooden forts to cover its frontier,
and manned them with disorderly bands, lawless,
and almost beyond control.^ The case was at
the worst in Pennsylvania, where the tedious quar
relling of Governor and Assembly, joined to the
doggedly pacific attitude of the Quakers, made
vigorous defence impossible. Rewards were of
fered for prisoners and scalps, so bountiful that
the hunting of men would have been a profitable
vocation, but for the extreme wariness and agility
of the game.* Some of the forts were well built
stockades ; others were almost worthless ; but the
1 Winslow to Loudon, 29 Sept. 1756.
2 Examination of Sergeant James Archibald.
8 Iu the Public Record Office, America and West Indies, LXXXII., is
a manuscript map sho-ndng the positions of such of these posts as were
north of Virginia. They are thirty-five in number, from the head of
James River to a point west of Esopus, on the Hudson.
* Colonial Records of Pa,, VIL 76.

1756.] ATTACK ON KITTANNING. 423
enemy rarely molested even the feeblest of them,
preferring to ravage the lonely and unprotected
farms. There were two or three exceptions. A
Virginian fort was attacked by a war-party under
an officer named DouvUle, who was killed, and
his followers were put to flight.-' The assailants
were more fortunate at a small stockade called
Fort Granville, on the Juniata. A large body of
French and Indians attacked it in August while
most of the garrison were absent protecting the
farmers at their harvest ; they set it on fire, and,
in spite of a most gallant resistance by the young
lieutenant left in command, took it, and killed all
but one of the defenders.^
What sort of resistance the Pennsylvanian bor
derers would have made under political circum
stances less adverse may be inferred from an
exploit of Colonel John Armstrong, a settler of
Cumberland. After the loss of Fort Granville the
Governor of the province sent him with three
hundred men to attack the Delaware town of
Kittanning, a populous nest of savages on the
Alleghany, between the two French posts of
Duquesne and Venango. Here most of the war-
parties were fitted out, and the place was full of
stores and munitions furnished by the French.
Here, too, lived the redoubted chief called Captain
Jacobs, the terror of. the English border. Armstrong
set out from Fort Shirley, the farthest outpost, on
the last of August, and,, a week after, was within
1 Washington to Morris, — April, 1756.
2 Colonial Records of Pa,, VII. 232, 242 ,- Pennsylvania Archives, IL 744

424 PARTISAN WAR. [1756
six miles of the Indian town. By rapid marching
and rare good luck, his party had escaped discovery.
It was ten o'clock at night, with a bright moon.
The guides were perplexed, and knew neither the
exact position of the place nor the paths that led
to it. The adventurers threaded the forest in sin
gle file, over hUls and through hollows, bewildered
and anxious, stopping to watch and listen. At
length they heard in the distance the beating of
an Indian drum and the whooping of warriors
in the war-dance. Guided by the sounds, they
cautiously moved forward, till those in the froht,
scrambling down a rocky hill, found themselves
on the banks of the Alleghany, about a hundred
rods below Kittanning. The moon was near set
ting ; but they could dimly see the town beyond
a great intervening field of corn. " At that
moment," says Armstrong, " an Indian whistled in
a very singular manner, about thirty perches from
our front, in the foot of the cornfield." He thought
they were discovered ; but one Baker, a soldier
well versed in Indian ways, told him that it was
only some village gallant calling to a young squaw.
The party then crouched in the bushes, and kept
silent. The moon sank behind the woods, and
fires soon glimmered through the field, kindled to
drive off mosquitoes by some of the Indians who, as
the night was warm, had come out to sleep in the
open air. The eastern sky began to redden with
the approach of day. Many of the party, spent
with a rough march of thirty miles, had fallen
asleep. They were now cautiously roused ; and

1766.J KITTANNING DESTROYED. 425
Armstrong ordered nearly half of them to make
their way along the ridge of a bushy hill that
overlooked the to-wn, till they came opposite to it,
in order to place it between two fires. Twenty
minutes were allowed them for the movement ; but
they lost their way in the dusk, and reached their
station too late. When the time had expired,
Armstrong gave the signal to those left with him,
who dashed into the cornfield, shooting down
the astonished savages or driving them into the
village, where they turned and made -desperate
fight. It was a cluster of thirty log-cabins, the prin
cipal being that of the chief, Jacobs, which was
loopholed for musketry, and became the centre
of resistance. The fight was hot and stubborn.
Armstrong ordered the town to be set on fire,
which was done, though not without loss ; for the
Delawares at this time were commonly armed
with rifles, and used them well. Armstrong him
self was hit in the shoulder. As the flames rose
and the smoke grew thick, a warrior in one of the
houses sang his death-song, and a squaw in the
same house was heard to cry and scream. Rough
voices silenced her, and then the inmates burst
out, but were instantly killed. The fire caught
the house of Jacobs, who, trying to escape through
an opening in the roof, was shot dead. Bands
of Indians were gathering beyond the river, firing
from the other bank, and even crossing to help
their comrades ; but the assailants held to their
work till the whole place was destroyed. " During

426 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
the burning of the houses," says Armstrong, " we
were agreeably entertained by the quick succession
of charged guns, gradually firing off as reached by
the fire ; but much more so with the vast explosion
of sundry bags and large kegs of gunpowder,
wherewith almost every house abounded ; the pris
oners afterwards informing us that the Indians
had frequently said they had a sufficient stock
of ammunition for ten years' war with the
English." These prisoners were eleven men, women, and
children, captured in the border settlements, and
now delivered by their countrymen. The day
was far spent when the party withdrew, carrying
their wounded on Indian horses, and nioving per
force with extreme slowness, though expecting an
attack every moment. None took place ; and they
reached the settlements at last, having bought
their success with the loss of seventeen killed
and thirteen wounded.^ A medal was given to
each officer, not by the Quaker-ridden Assembly,
but by the city council of Philadelphia.
The report of this affair made by Dumas, com
mandant at Fort Duquesne, is worth noting. Pie
says that Attique, the French name of Kittanning,
was attacked by "le G^n^ral Wachinton," with
three or four hundred men on horseback ; that the
Indians gave way ; but that five or six Frenchmen
who were in the town held the English in check
1 Report of Armstrong to Governor Denny, 14 Sept, 1756, in Colonial
Records of Pa., VII. 257, — a modest yet very minute account. A List oJ
the Names of the Persons killed, wounded, and missing in the late Expedition
against the Kittanning. Haiard, Pennsylvania Register, I. 366.

1756.] BOASTS OF VAUDREUIL. 427
till the fugitives rallied ; that Washington and his
men then took to flight, and would have been pur
sued but for the lo^s of some barrels of gunpow
der which chanced to explode during the action.
Dumas adds that several large parties are now
on the track of the enemy, and he hopes will cut
them to pieces. He then asks for a supply of pro
visions and merchandise to replace those which
the Indians of Attique had lost by a fire.' Like
other officers of the day, he -would admit noth
ing but successes in the department under his
command. Vaudreuil wrote singular despatches at this
time to the minister at Versailles. He takes
credit to himself for the number of war-parties
that his officers kept always at work, and fills
page after page with details of the coups they had
struck; how one brought in two English scalps,
another three, another one, and another seven.
He ov/ns that they committed frightful cruelties,
mutilating and sometimes burning their prisoners ;•
but he expresses no regret, and probably felt none,
since he declares that the object of this murderous
warfare was to punish the English till they longed
for peace.^
The waters and mountains of Lake George, and
not the western borders, were the chief centre of
partisan war. Ticonderoga was a hornet's nest,
pouring out swarms of savages to infest the high-
1 Dumas a Vaudreuil, 9 Sept. 1756, cited in Bigot au Ministre, 6 Oct
1756, and in Bougainville, Journal.
^ Depiches de Vaudreuil, 1756.

428 PARTISAN WAR. [175a
ways and byways of the wilderness. The English
at Fort William Henry, having few Indians, could
not retort in kind ; but they kept their scouts and
rangers in active movement. What they most
coveted was prisoners, as sources of information.
One Kennedy, a lieutenant of provincials, with
five followers, white and red, made a march of
rare audacity, passed all the French posts, took
a scalp and two prisoners on the Richelieu, and
burned a magazine of provisions between Montreal
and St. John. The party were near famishing on
the way back ; and Kennedy was brought into
Fort William Henry in a state of temporary in
sanity from starvation.' Other provincial officers,
Peabody, Hazen, Waterbury, and Miller, won a
certain distinction in this adventurous service,
though few were so conspicuous as the blunt and
sturdy Israel Putnam. Winslow writes in October
that he has just returned from the best " scout "
yet made, and that, being a man of strict truth, he
may be entirely trusted.^ Putnam had gone with
six followers down Lake George in a whaleboat to
a point on the east side, opposite the present vil
lage of Hague, hid the boat, crossed northeasterly
to Lake Champlain, three miles from the French
fort, climbed the mountain that overlooks it, and
made a complete reconnoissance ; then approached
it, chased three Frenchmen, who escaped within
the lines, climbed the mountain again, and moving
' Minute of Lieutenant Kennedy's Scout, Winslow to Loudon, 20
Sept, 1756.
'¦ Winslow to Loudon, 16 Oct, 1756.

1756.] A WAR-PARTY. 429
westward along the ridge, made a minute survey
of every outpost between the fort and Lake
George.' These adventures were not always for
tunate. On the nineteenth of September Captain
Hodges and fifty men were ambushed a few mUes
from Fort William Henry by thrice their number
of Canadians and Indians, and only six escaped.
Thus the record stands in the Letter Booh of
Winslow.^ By visiting the encampments of Ticon
deroga, one may learn how the blow was struck.
After much persuasion, much feasting, and much
consumption of tobacco and - brandy, four hundred
Indians, Christians from the Missions and heathen
from the far west, were persuaded to go on a grand
war-party with the Canadians. Of these last there
were a hundred, — a wild crew, bedecked and be
daubed like their Indian companions. Periere, an
officer of colony regulars, had nominal command
of the whole ; and among the leaders of the Cana
dians was the famous bushfighter, Marin. Bou
gainville was also of the party. In the evening
of the sixteenth they all embarked in canoes at
the French advance-post commanded by Contre
cceur, near the present steamboat-landing, passed
in the gloom under the bare steeps of Rogers Rock,
paddled a few hours, landed on the west shore,
and sent scouts to reconnoitre. These came back
with their reports on the next day, and an Indian
crier called the chiefs to council. Bougainville
describes them as they stalked gravely to the
> Report of a Scout to Ticonderoga, Oct, 1756, signed Israel Putnam.
' Compare Massachusetts Archives, LXXVI. 81.

430 PARTISAN WAR. [1756
place of meeting, wrapped in colored blankets,
with lances in their hands. The accomplished
young aide-de-camp studied his strange compan
ions with an interest not unmixed with disgust.
" Of all caprice," he says, " Indian caprice is the
most capricious." They were insolent to the
French, made rules for them which they did not
observe themselves, and compelled the whole party
to move when and whither they pleased. Hiding
the canoes, and lying close in the forest by day,
they all held their nocturnal course southward,
by the lofty heights of Black Mountain, and
among the islets of the Narrows, till the eight
eenth. That night the Indian scouts reported
that they had seen the fires of an encampment
on the west shore ; on which the whole party
advanced to the attack, an hour before dawn,
fiUng silently under the dark arches of the forest,
the Indians nearly naked, and streaked with their
war-paint of vermilion and soot. When they
reached the spot, they found only the smoulder
ing fires of a deserted bivouac. Then there was
a consultation; ending, after much dispute, with
the choice by the Indians of a hundred and ten
of their most active warriors to attempt some
stroke in the neighborhood of the English fort.
Marin joined them with thirty Canadians, and
they set out on their errand; while the rest en
camped to await the result. At night the adven
turers returned, raising the death-cry and firing
their guns; somewhat depressed by losses they
had suffered, but boasting that they had sur-

1756.] ROBERT ROGERS. 431
prised fifty-three English, and killed or taken all
but one. It was a modest and perhaps'an in vol-
untary exaggeration. " The very recital of the
cruelties they committed on the battle-field is hor
rible," writes Bougainville. " The ferocity and
insolence of these black-souled barbarians makes
one shudder. It is an abominable kind of war.
The air one breathes is contagious of insensi-
bUity and hardness." ^ This was but one of many
such parties sent out from Ticonderoga this year.
Early in September a band of New England
rangers came to'Winslow's camp, with three pris
oners taken within the lines of Ticonderoga.
Their captain was Robert Rogers, of New Hamp
shire, — a strong, well-knit figure, in dress and
appearance more woodsman than soldier, with a
clear, bold eye, and features that would have been
good but for the ungainly proportions of the nose.^
He had passed his boyhood in the rough surround
ings of a frontier viUage. Growing to manhood,
he engaged in some occupation which, he says,
led him to frequent journeyings in the wilderness
between the French and English settlements, and
gave him a good knowledge of both.^ It taught
him also to speak a little French. He does not
disclose the nature of this mysterious employment ;
but there can be little doubt that it was a smug
gling trade with Canada. His character leaves
much to be desired. He had been charged with
1 Bougainville, Journal,
^ A large engraved portrait of him, nearly at full length, is before m^
printed at London in 1776.
^ Rogers, Journals, Introduction (1765).

432 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
forgery, or complicity *in it, seems to have had
no scruple in matters of business, and after the
war was accused of treasonable dealings with the
French and Spaniards in the west.^ He was am
bitious and violent, yet able in more ways than
one, by no means uneducated, and so skilled in
woodcraft, so energetic and resolute, that his
services were invaluable. In recounting his own
adventures, his style is direct, simple, without
boasting, and to all appearance without exag
geration. During the past summer he had raised
a band of men, chiefly New Hampshire border
ers, and made a series of daring excursions which
gave him a prominent place in this hardy by
play of war. In the spring of the present year
he raised another company, and was commissioned
as its captain, with his brother Richard as his first
lieutenant, and the intrepid John Stark as his
second. In July still another company was formed,
and Richard Rogers was promoted to command it.
Before the following spring there were seven such ;
and more were afterwards added, forming a bat
talion dispersed on various service, but all under
the orders of Robert Rogers, with the rank of
major.^ These rangers wore a sort of woodland
uniform, which varied in the different companies,
and were armed with smooth-bore guns, loaded
with buckshot, bullets, or sometimes both.
1 Provincial Papers of New Hampshire, VI. 364. Correspondence of
Gage, 1766. N, Y, Col. Docs., VII. 990. Caleb Stark, Memoir and Cor- ,
respondence of John Stark, 386.
2 Rogers, Journals. Report of the Adjutant-General of New Hampshire
(1866), IL 158, 159.

1756.] THE RANGERS. 433
The best of them were commonly employed on
Lake George ; and nothing can surpass the ad
venturous hardihood of their lives. Summer and
winter, day and night, were alike to them. Em
barked in whaleboats or birch-canons, they glided
under the silent moon or in the languid glare of
a breathless August day, when islands floated in
dreamy haze, and the hot air was thick with odors
of the pine ; or in the bright October, when the
jay screamed from the woods, squirrels gathered
their winter hoard, and congregated blackbirds
chattered farewell to their summer haunts ; when
gay mountains basked in light, maples dropped
leaves of rustling gold, sumachs glowed like rubies
under the dark green of the unchanging spruce,
and mossed rocks with all their painted plumage
lay double in the watery mirror : that festal evening
of the year, when jocund Nature disrobes herself,
to wake again refreshed in the joy of ~ her undying
spring. Or, in the tomb-like silence of the winter
forest, with breath frozen on his beard, the ran
ger strode on snow-shoes over the spotless drifts ;
and, like Durer's knight, a ghastly death stalked.
ever at his side. There were those among them
for whom this stern life had a fascination that
made all other existence tame.
Rogers and his men had been in active move
ment since midwinter. In January they skated
down Lake George, passed Ticonderoga, hid them
selves by the forest-road between that post andi
Crown Point, intercepted two sledges loaded with
provisions, and carried the drivers to Fort William
VOL. I. — 28

434 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
Henry. In February they climbed a hill near
Crown Point and made a plan of the works ; then
lay in ambush by the road from the fort to the
neighboring village, captured a prisoner, burned
houses and barns, killed fifty cattle, and returned
without loss. At the end of the month they
went again to Crown Point, burned more houses
and barns, and reconnoitred Ticonderoga on the
way back. Such excursions were repeated through
out the spring and summer. The reconnoissance
of Ticonderoga and the catching of prisoners there
for the sake of information were always capital
objects. The valley, four miles in extent, that lay
between the foot of Lake George and the French
fort, was at this time guarded by four distinct
outposts or fortified camps. Watched as it was
at all points, and ranged incessantly by Indians in
the employ of France, Rogers and his men knew
every yard of the ground. On a morning in May
he lay in ambush with eleven followers on a path
between the fort and the nearest camp. A large
body of soldiers passed ; the rangers counted a
hundred and eighteen, and lay close in their hid
ing-place. Soon after came a party of twenty-two.
They fired on them, killed six, captured one, and
escaped with him to Fort Williani Henry. In
October Rogers was passing with twenty men in
two whaleboats through the seeming solitude of
the Narrows when a voice called to them out of
the woods. It was that of Captain Shepherd,
of the New Hampshire regiment, who had been
captured two months before, and had lately made

1786.] EXPLOITS OF ROGERS. 435
his escape. He told them that the French had the
fullest information of the numbers and movements
of the English ; that letters often reached them
from within the English lines ; and that Lydius, a
Dutch trader at Albany, was their principal corre
spondent.^ Arriving at Ticonderoga, Rogers cau
tiously approached the fort, till, about noon, he
saw a sentinel on the road leading thence to the
woods. Followed by five of his men, he walked
directly towards -him. The man challenged, and
Rogers answered in French. Perplexed for a mo
ment, the soldier buffered , him to approach ; till,
seeing his mistake, he called out in amazement,
" Qui etes vous ? " " Rogers," was the answer ;
and the sentinel was seized, led in hot haste to
the boats, and carried to the English fort, where
he gave important information.
An exploit of Rogers towards midsummer
greatly perplexed the French. He embarked at
the end of June with fifty men in five whaleboats,
made light and strong, expressly for this service,
rowed about ten miles down Lake George, landed
on the east side, carried the boats sis miles over a
gorge of the mountains, launched them again in
South Bay, and rowed down the narrow prolonga
tion of Lake Champlain under cover of darkness.
At dawn they were within six miles of Ticon
deroga. They landed, hid their boats, and lay
close aU day. Embarking again in the evening,
'^ Letter and Order Books of Winslow. "OneLydiass . . .whom we sus
pect for a French spy ; he lives better than anybody, without any visible
means, and his daughters have had often presents from Mr. Vaudreuil."
Loudon, {to Foxf), 19 Aug. 1756.

436 PARTISAN WAR. [1756
they rowed with muffled oars under the shadow
of the eastern shore, and passed so close to the
French fort that they heard the voices of the
sentinels calling the watchword. In the morning
they had left it five miles behind. Again they
hid in the woods ; and from their lurking-place
saw bateaux passing, some northward, and some
southward, along the narrow lake. Crown Point
was ten or twelve, miles farther on. They tried to
pass it after nightfall, but the sky was too clear
and the stars too bright ; and as they lay hidden
the next day, nearly a hundred boats passed before
them on the way to Ticonderoga. Some other boats
which appeared about noon landed near them, and
they watched the soldiers at dinner, within a mus
ket-shot of their lurking-place. The next night
was more favorable. They embarked at nine in
the evening, passed Crown Point unseen, and hid
themselves as before, ten miles below. It was
the seventh of July. Thirty boats and a schooner
passed them, returning towards Canada. On
the next night they rowed fifteen miles farther,
and then sent men to reconnoitre, who reported
a schooner at anchor about a mile off. They
were preparing to board her, when two sloops
appeared, coming up the lake at but a short dis
tance from the land. They gave them a volley,
and called on them to surrender ; but the crews
put off in boats and made for the opposite shore.
They followed and seized them. Out of twelve
men their fire had killed three and wounded two,
one of whom, says Rogers in his report, " could

x756.] PERPLEXITY OF THE FRENCH. 437
not march, therefore we put an end to him, to
prevent discovery." ^ They sank the vessels,
which were laden with wine, brandy, and flour,
hid their boats on the west shore, and returned
on foot with their prisoners.^
Some weeks after, Rogers returned to the place
where he had left the boats, embarked in them,
reconnoitred the lake nearly to St. John, hid them
again eight miles north of Crown Point, took three
prisoners near that post, and carried them to Fort
WUliam Henry. In the next month the French
found several English boats in a small cove north
of Crown Point. Bougainville propounds five dif
ferent hypotheses to account for their being there ;
and exploring parties were sent out in the vain
attempt to find some water passage by which they
could have reached the spot without passing under
the guns of two French forts. ^
The French, on their side, still kept their war-
parties in motion, and Vaudreuil faithfully chroni
cled in his despatches every English scalp they
brought in. He believed in Indians, and sent them
to Ticonderoga in numbers that were sometimes
embarrassing. Even Pottawattamies from Lake
Michigan were prowling about Winslow's camp
and silently kiUing his sentinels with arrows, while
1 Report of Rogers to Sir William Johnson, July, 1756. This incident
is suppressed in the printed Journals, which merely say that the man
" soon died."
^Rogers, Journals, 20. Shirley to Fox, 26 July, 1756. "This after
noon Capt. Rogers came down with 4 scalps and 8 prisoners which he
took on Lake Champlain, between 20 and 30 miles beyond Crown Point."
Surgeon Williams to his Wife, 16 July, 1756.
^ Bougainville, Journal.

438 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
their " medicine men " remained at Ticonderoga
practising sorcery and divination to aid the war
riors or learn how it fared with them. Bougainville
writes in his Journal on the fifteenth of October :
" Yesterday the old Pottawattamies who have
stayed here ' made medicine ' to get news of their
brethren. The lodge trembled, the sorcerer sweated
drops of blood, and the devil came at last and told
him that the warriors would come back with scalps
and prisoners. A sorcerer in the medicine lodge
is exactly like the Pythoness on the tripod or the
witch Canidia invoking the shades." The diviner
was not wholly at fault. Three days after, the
warriors came back with a prisoner.^
Till November, the hostile forces continued to
watclx each other from the opposite ends of Lake
George. Loudon repeated his orders to Winslow
to keep the defensive, and wrote sarcastically to
the Colonial Minister : " I think I shall be able to
prevent the provincials doing anything very rash,
without their having it in their power to talk in
the language of this country that they could have
taken all Canada if they had not been prevented
by the King's servants." Winslow tried to colisole
himself for the failure of the campaign, and wrote
in his odd English to Shirley : " Am sorry that this
year's performance has not succeeded as was in
tended ; have only to say I pushed things to the
utmost of my power to have been sooner in motion,
which was the only thing that should have carried
1 This kind of divination was practised by Algonkin tribes from the
earliest times. See Pioneers of France in the New World, 315.

1756, 1757.] QUARTERING TROOPS. 439
us to Crown Point ; and though I am sensible that
we are doing our duty in acting on the defensive,
yet it makes no eclate [sic], and answers to little
purpose in the eyes of my constituents."
On the first of the month the French began to
move off towards Canada, and before many days
Ticonderoga was left in the keeping of five or six
companies.^ Winslow's men followed their example.
Major Eyre, with four hundred regulars, took pos
session of Fort William Henry, and the provincials
marched for home, their ranks thinned by camp
diseases and small-pox.^ In Canada the regulars
were quartered on the inhabitants, who took the
infliction as a matter of course. In the English
provinces the question was not so simple. Most
of the British troops were assigned to Philadelphia,
New York, and Boston ; and Loudon demanded free
quarters for them, according to usage then prevail
ing in England during war. Nor was the demand
in itself unreasonable, seeing that the troops were
sent over to fight the battles of the colonies. In
PhUadelphia lodgings were given them in the pub
lic-houses, which, however, could not hold them all.
A long dispute followed between the Governor,
who seconded Loudon's demand, and the Assembly,
during which about haU the soldiers lay on straw
in outhouses and sheds till near midwinter, many
sickening, and some dying from exposure. Loudon
grew furious, and threatened, if shelter were not
provided, to send Webb with another regiment and
1 Bougainville, Journal, Malartic, Journal,
2 Letter and Order Books of Winslow,. Winslow to Halifax, 30 Dec, 1756.

440 PARTISAN WAR. ;i756, 1757,
billet the whole on the inhabitants ; on which the
Assembly yielded, and quarters were found.'
In New York the privates were quartered in.
barracks, but the officers were left to find lodging
for themselves. Loudon demanded that provision
should be made for them also. The city council
hesitated, afraid of incensing the people if they
complied. Cruger, the mayor, came to remon
strate. " God damn my blood ! " replied the Earl ;
" if you do not billet my officers upon free quarters
this day, I 'U order here all the troops in North
America, and billet them myself upon this city."
Being no respecter of persons, at least in the prov
inces, he began with Oliver Delancey, brother of
the late acting Governor, and sent six soldiers to
lodge under his roof. Delancey swore at the un
welcome guests, on which Loudon sent him six
more. A subscription was then raised among the
citizens, and the required quarters were provided.^
In Boston there was for the present less trouble.
The troops were lodged in the barracks of Castle
William, and furnished with blankets, cooking
utensils, and other necessaries.^
Major Eyre and his soldiers, in their wilderness
exile by the borders of Lake George, whiled the
winter away with few other excitements than the
1 Loudon to Denny, 28 Oct, 1756. Colonial Records of Pa,, VII. 358-380.
Loudon to Pitt, 10 March, 1757. Notice of Colonel Bouquet, in Pennsylvania
Magazine, III. 124. The Conduct of a Noble Commander in America
impartially reviewed (1758).
2 Smith, Hist. ofN. Y., Part II. 242. William Carry to .lohnson, 15 Jan.,
1757, in Stone, Life of Sir William Johnson, II. 24, note. Loudon to Hardy,
21 Nov. 1756.
5 Massachusetts Archives, LXXVI. 153.

1757.1 SCOUTING PARTY. 441
evening howl of wolves from the frozen mountains,
or some nocturnal savage shooting at a sentinel
from behind a stump on the moonlit fields of snow.
A livelier incident at last broke the monotony of
their lives. In the middle of January Rogers
came with his rangers from Fort Edward, bound
on a scouting party towards Crown Point. They
spent two days at Fort William Henry in making
snow-shoes and other preparation, and set out on
the seventeenth. Captain Spikeman was second
in command, with Lieutenants Stark and Kennedy,
several other subalterns, and two gentlemen vol
unteers enamoured of adventure. They marched
down the frozen lake and encamped at the Nar
rows. Some of them, unaccustomed to snow-shoes,
had become unfit for travel, and were sent back,
thus reducing the number to seventy-four. In
the morning they marched again, by icicled rocks
and icebound waterfalls, mountains gray with
naked woods and fir-trees bowed down with
snow. On the nineteenth they reached the west
shore, about four miles south of Rogers Rock,
marched west of north eight miles, and bivouacked
among the mountains. On the next morning
they changed their course, marched east of north
all day, passed Ticonderoga undiscovered, and
stopped at night some five mUes beyond it. The
weather was changing, and rain was coming on.
They scraped away the snow with their snow-shoes,
pUed it in a bank around them, made beds of
sprace-boughs, buUt fires, and lay down to sleep,
whUe the sentinels kept-watch in the outer gloom

442 PARTISAN WAR. [1757.
In the morning there was a drizzling rain, and
the softened snow stuck to their snow-shoes. They
marched eastward three miles through the drip
ping forest, till they reached the banks of Lake
Champlain, near what is now called Five Mile
Point, and presently saw a sledge, drawn by horses,
moving on the ice from Ticonderoga towards
Crown Point. Rogers sent Stark along the shore
to the left to head it off, while he with another
party, covered by the woods, moved in the opposite
direction to stop its retreat. He soon saw eight
or ten more sledges following the first, and sent
a ^messenger to prevent Stark from showing him
self too soon ; but Stark was already on the ice.
All the sledges tumed back in hot haste. The
rangers ran in pursuit and captured three of them,
with seven men and six horses, while the rest
escaped to Ticonderoga. The prisoners, being
separately examined, told an ominous tale. There
were three hundred and fifty regulars at Ticonder
oga ; two hundred Canadians and forty-five Indians
had lately arrived there, and more Indians were
expected that evening, — all destined to waylay
the communications between the English forts, and
all prepared to march at a moment's notice. The
rangers were now in great peril. The fugitives
would give warning of their presence, and the
French and Indians, in overwhelming force, would
no doubt cut off their retreat.
Rogers at once ordered his men to return to
their last night's encampment, rekindle the fires,
and dry their guns, which were wet by the rain of

1757.] A DESPERATE BUSH-FIGHT. 443
the morning. Then they marched southward in
single file through the snow-encumbered forest,
Rogers and Kennedy in the front, Spikeman in the
centre, and Stark in the rear. In this order they
moved on over broken and difficult ground till two
in the afternoon, when they came upon a valley,
or hollow, scarcely a musket-shot wide, which ran
across their line of march, and, like all the rest
of the country, was buried in thick woods. The
front of the line had descended the first hill, and
was mounting that on the farther side, when the
foremost men heard a low clicking sound, like
the cocking of a great number of guns ; and in an
instant a furious volley blazed out of the bushes
on the ridge above them. Kennedy was killed
outright, as also was Gardner, one of the volun
teers. Rogers was grazed in the head by a bullet,
and others were disabled or hurt. The rest re
turned the fire, while a swarm of French and In
dians rushed upon them from the ridge and the
slopes on either hand, killing several more, Spike
man among the rest, and capturing others. The
rangers fell back across the hollow and regained
the hill they had just descended. Stark with the
rear, who were at the top when the fray began,
now kept the assaUants in check by a brisk fire
tiU their comrades joined them. Then the whole
party, spreading themselves among the trees that
covered the declivity, stubbornly held their ground
and beat back the French in repeated attempts to
dislodge them. As the assailants were more than
two to one, what Rogers had most to dread was a

444 PARTISAN WAR. [1757.
movement to outflank him and get into his rear.
This they tried twice, and were twice repulsed
by a party held in reserve for the purpose. The
fight lasted several hours, during which there was
much talk between the combatants. The French
called out that it was a pity so many brave men
should be lost, that large reinforcements were ex
pected every moment, and that the rangers would
then be cut to pieces without mercy ; whereas if
they surrendered at once they should be treated
with the utmost kindness. They called to Rogers
by name, and expressed great esteem for him.
Neither threats nor promises had any effect, and
the firing went on till darkness stopped it.
Towards evening Rogers was shot through the
wrist ; and one of the men, John Shute, used to tell
in his old age how he saw another ranger trying
to bind the captain's wound with the ribbon of
his own queue.
As Ticonderoga was but three miles off, it was
destrxiction to stay where they were ; and they
withdrew under cover of night, reduced to forty-
eight effective and six wounded men. Fourteen
had been killed, and six captured. Those that
were left reached Lake George in the morning, and
Stark, with two followers, pushed on in advance, to
bring a sledge for the wounded. The rest made
their way to the Narrows, where they encamped,
and presently descried a small dark object on the
ice far behind them. It proved to be one of their
own number. Sergeant Joshua Martin, who had
received a severe wound in the fight, and was left

1757.1 DEFEAT OF RANGERS. 445
for dead ; but by desperate efforts had followed on
their tracks, and was now brought to camp in a
state of exhaustion. He recovered, and lived to an
advanced age. The sledge sent by Stark came in
the morning, and the whole party soon reached the
fort. Abercromby, on hearing of the affair, sent
them a letter of thanks for gallant conduct.
Rogers reckons the number of his assailants at
about two hundred and fifty in all. Vaudreuil
says that they consisted of eighty-nine regulars
and ninety Canadians and Indians. With his
usual boastful exaggeration, he declares that forty
English were left dead on the field, and that only
three reached Fort William Henry alive. He says
that the fight was extremely hot and obstinate,
and admits that the French lost thirty-seven killed
and wounded. Rogers makes the number much
greater. That it was considerable is certain, as
Lusignan, commandant at Ticonderoga, wrote im
mediately for reinforcements.'

1 Rogers, Journals, 38-44. Caleb Stark, Memoir and Correspondence oj
John Stark, 18, 412. Return of Killed, Wounded, and Missing in the Action
near Ticonderoga, Jan. 1757; all the names are here given. James
Abercromby, aide-de-camp to his uncle. General Abercromby, wrote to
Rogers from Albany : " You cannot imagine how all ranks of people here
are pleased with your conduct and your men's behavior."
The accounts of the French writers differ from each other, but agree in
placing the English force at from seventy to eighty, and their own much
higher. 'The principal report is that of Vaudreuil au Ministre, 19 Avril,
1757 (his second letter of this date). Bougainville, Montcalm, Malartic,
and Montreuil all speak of the affair, placing the English loss much
higher than is shown by the returns. The story, repeated in most of the
French narratives, that only three of the rangers reached Fort William
Henry, seems to have arisen from the fact that Stark with two men went
thither in advance of the rest. As regards the antecedents of the com'
bat, the French and English accounts agree.

446 PARTISAN WAR. [1757
The effects of his wound and an attack of small
pox kept Rogers quiet for a time. Meanwhile the
winter dragged slowly away, and the ice of Lake
George, cracking with change of temperature,
uttered its strange cry of agony, heralding that
dismal season when winter begins to relax its gripe,
but spring still holds aloof ; when the sap stirs in
the sugar-maples, but the buds refuse to swell, and
even the catkins of the wiUows will not burst their
brown integuments ; when the forest is patched
with snow, though on its sunny slopes one hears
in the stillness the whisper of trickling waters that
ooze from the half -thawed soil and saturated beds
of fallen leaves ; when clouds hang low on the
darkened mountains, and cold mists entangle them
selves in the tops of the pines ; now a dull rain,
now a sharp morning frost, and now a storm of
snow powdering the waste, and wrapping it again
in the pall of winter.
In this cheerless season, on St. Patrick's Day,
the seventeenth of March, the Irish soldiers who
formed a part of the garrison of Fort William
Henry were paying homage to their patron saint in
libations of heretic rum, the product of New Eng
land stills ; and it is said that John Stark's rangers
forgot theological differences in their zeal to share
the festivity. The story adds that they were
restrained by their commander, and that their
enforced sobriety proved the saving of the fort.
This may be doubted ; for without counting the
English soldiers of the garrison who had no special
call to be drunk that day, the fort was in no

1757.] VAUDREUIL'S WAR PARTY. 447
danger till twenty-four hours after, when the
revellers had had time to rally from their pious
carouse. Whether rangers or British soldiers,
it is certain that watchmen were on the alert
during the night between the eighteenth and
nineteenth, and that towards one in the mornino-
they heard a sound of axes far down the lake,
followed by the faint glow of a distant fire.
The inference was plain, that an enemy was there,
and that the necessity of warming himself had
overcome his caution. Then all was still for
some two hours, when, listening in the pitchy
darkness, the watchers heard the footsteps of a
great body of men approaching on the ice, which
at the time was bare of snow. The garrison were
at their posts, and all the cannon on the side
towards the lake vomited grape and round-shot in
the direction of the sound, which thereafter was
heard no more.
Those who made it were a detachment, called
by Vaudreuil an army, sent by him to seize the
English fort. Shirley had planned a similar stroke
against Ticonderoga a year before ; but the pro
vincial levies had come in so slowly, and the ice
had broken up so soon, that the scheme was aban
doned. Vaudreuil was more fortunate. The
whole force, regulars, Canadians, atid Indians, was
ready to his hand. No pains were spared in
equipping them. Overcoats, blankets, bearskins
to sleep on, tarpaulins to sleep under, spare moc
casons, spare mittens, kettles, axes, needles, awls,
flint and steel, and many miscellaneous articles

448 PARTISAN WAR. [1757.
were provided, to be dragged by the men on light
Indian sledges, along with provisions for twelve
days. The cost of the expedition is set at a mil
lion francs, answering to more than as many dol
lars of the present time. To the disgust of the
officers from France, the Governor named his
brother Rigaud for the chief command ; and be
fore the end of February the whole party was on
its march along the ice of Lake Champlain. They
rested nearly a week at Ticonderoga, where no
less than three hundred short scaling-ladders, so
constructed that two or more could be joined
in one, had been made for them ; and here, too,
they received a reinforcement, which raised their
number to sixteen hundred. Then, marching three
days along Lake George, they neared the fort on
the evening of the eighteenth, and prepared for a
general assault before daybreak.
The garrison, including rangers, consisted of
three hundred and forty-six effective men.^ The
fort was not strong, and a resolute assault by num
bers so superior must, it seems, have overpowered
the defenders ; but the Canadians and Indians who
composed most of the attacking force were not
suited for such work ; and, disappointed in his hope
of a surprise, Rigaud withdrew them at daybreak,
after trying in vain to burn the buildings outside.
A few hours after, the whole body reappeared, filing
off to surround the fort, on which they kept up a
1 Strength of the Garrison of Fort William Henry when the Enemy came
before it, enclosed in the letter of Major Eyre to Loudon, 26 March, 1757.
There were also one hundred and twenty-eight invalids.

1757.] RIGAUD'S ENTERPRISE. 449
brisk but harmless fire of musketry. In the night
they were heard again on the ice, approaching as if
for an assault ; and the cannon, firing towards the
sound, again drove them back. There was silence
for a whUe, till tongues of fiame lighted up the
gloom, and two sloops, ice-bound in the lake, and
a large number of bateaux on the shore were seen
to be on fire. A party sallied to save them ; but
it was too late. In the morning they were all
consumed, and the enemy had vanished.
It was Sunday, the twentieth. Everything was
quiet tiU noon, when the French filed out of the
woods and marched across the ice in procession,
ostentatiously carrying their scaling-ladders, and
showhig themselves to the best effect. They
stopped at a safe distance, fronting towards the
fort, and several of them advanced, waving a red
flag. An officer with a few men went to meet
them, and retumed bringing Le Mercier, chief of
the Canadian artUlery, who, being led blindfold
into the fort, announced himself as bearer of a mes
sage from Rigaud. He was conducted to the room
of Major Eyre, where all the British officers were
assembled ; and, after mutual compliments, he in
vited them to give up the place peaceably, prom
ising the most favorable terms, and threatening
a general assault and massacre in case of refusal.
Eyre said that he should defend himself to the
last; and the envoy, again blindfolded, was led
back to whence he came.
The whole French force now advanced as if to
storm the works, and the garrison prepared to
VOL. I. — 29

450 PARTISAN WAR. [1757.
receive them. Nothing came of it but a fusillade,
to which the British made no reply. At night
the French were heard advancing again, and each
man nerved himself for the crisis. The real attack,
however, was not against the fort, but against the
buildings outside, which consisted of several store
houses, a hospital, a saw-mill, and the huts of the
rangers, besides a sloop on the stocks and piles of
planks and cord-wood. Covered by the night, the
assailants crept up with fagots of resinous sticks,
placed them against the farther side of the build
ings, kindled them, and escaped before the flame
rose ; whUe the garrison, straining their ears in the
thick darkness, fired wherever they heard a sound.
Before morning all around them was in a blaze,
and they had much ado to save the fort barracks
from the shower of burning cinders. At ten
o'clock the fires had subsided, and a thick fall of
snow began, filling the air with a restless chaos
of large moist flakes. This lasted all day and all
the next night, till the ground and the ice were
covered to a depth of three feet and more. The
French lay close in their camps till a little before
dawn on Tuesday morning, when twenty volun
teers from the regulars made a bold attempt to
burn the sloop on the stocks, with several store
houses and other structures, and several hundred
scows and whaleboats which had thus far escaped.
They were only in part successful ; but they fired
the sloop and some buUdings near it, and stood
far out on the ice watching the flaming vessel, a
superb bonfire amid the wilderness of snow. The

1767.] RIGAUD'S RETREAT. 451
spectacle cost the volunteers a fourth of their
number kUled and wounded.
On Wednesday morning the sun rose bright on
a scene of wintry splendor, and the frozen lake
was dotted with Rigaud' s retreating followers
toiling towards Canada on show-shoes. Before
they reached it many of them were blinded for
a while by the insufferable glare, and their com
rades led them homewards by the hand.'
1 Eyre to Loudon, 24 March, 1757. Ibid., 25 March, enclosed iu Lou
don's despatch of 25 April, 1757. Messotge of Rigaud to Major Eyre, 20
March, 1757. Letter from Fort WiUiam Henry, 26 March, 1757, in
Boston Gazette, No. 106, and Boston Evening Post, No. 1,128. Abstract of
Letters from Albany, iu Boston News Letter, No. 2,860. Caleb Starlc, Me
moir and Correspondence of John Stark, 22, a curious mixture of truth and
error. Relation de la Campagne sur le Lac St. Sacrement pendant I'Hiver,
1 757. Bougainville, Journal. Malartic, Journal. Montcalm au Ministre,
24 Avril, 1757. Montreuil au Ministre, 23 Avril, 1757. Montcalm a sa
Mere, I Avril, 1757. Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
The French loss in killed and wounded is set by Montcalm at eleven.
That of the English was seven, slightly wounded, chiefly in sorties.
They took three prisoners. Staik was touched by a bullet, for the only
time in his adventurous life.

CHAPTER XIV.
1757.
MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL.
The Seat of War. — Social Life at Montreal. — Familiab
Cokrespondence op Montcalm. — His Employments. — His
Impressions op Canada. — His Hospitalities. — Misdndeb-
stani>ings with the Governor. — Character op Vaudreuil. _^
His Accusations. — Frenchmen and Canadians. — Foibles op
Montcalm. — The opening Campaign. — Doubts and Suspense.
— Loudon's Plan. — His Character. — Fatal Delays. — Abor
tive Attempt against Louisbourg. — Disaster to the British
Fleet. Spring came at last, and the Dutch burghers
of Albany heard, faint from the far height, the
clamor of the wild-fowl, streaming in long files
northward to their summer home. As the airial
travellers winged their way, the seat of war lay
spread beneath them like a map. First the blue
Hudson, slumbering among its forests, with the ,
forts along its banks, Half-Moon, Stillwater,
Saratoga, and the geometric lines and earthen
mounds of Fort Edward. Then a broad belt of
dingy evergreen ; and beyond, released from wintry
fetters, the glistening breast of Lake George, with
Fort William Henry at its side, amid charred ruins
and a desolation of prostrate forests. Hence the
lake stretched northward, Uke some broad river,

^756, 1757.] MONTREAL. 453
trenched between mountain ranges still leafless
and gray. Then they looked down on Ticonderoga,
with the flag of the Bourbons, like a flickering
white' speck, waving on its ramparts ; and next
on Crown Point with its tower of stone. Lake
Champlain now spread before them, widening as
they flew: on the left, the mountain wUderness
of the Adirondacks, like a stormy sea congealed ;
on the right, the long procession of the Green
Mountains ; and, far beyond, on the dim verge of
the eastern sky, the White Mountains throned in
savage solitude. They passed over the bastioned
square of Fort St. John, Fort Chambly guarding
the rapids of the Richelieu, and the broad belt
of the St. Lawrence, with Montreal seated on its
bank. Here we leave them, to build their nests;
and hatch their brood among the fens of the lonely
North. Montreal, the military heart of Canada, was in
the past winter its social centre also, where were
gathered conspicuous representatives both of Old
France and of New; not men only, but women.
It was a sparkling fragment of the reign of Louis
XV. dropped into the American wilderness. Mont
calm was here with his staff and his chief officers,
now pondering schemes of war, and now turning
in thought to his beloved Chateau of Candiac, his
mother, children, and wife, to whom he sent letters
with every opportunity. To his wife he writes :
" Think of me affectionately ; give love to my girls.
I hope next year I may be with you all. I love
you tenderly, dearest." He says that he has sent

454 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756,1757.
her a packet of marten-skins for a muff , '' and
another time I shall send some to our daughter ;
but I should like better to bring them myself."
Of this eldest daughter he writes in reply to a let
ter of domestic news from Madame de Montcajrn :
" The new gown with blonde trimmings must be
becoming, for she is pretty." Again, " There is
not an hour in the day when I do not think of you,
my mother and my children." He had the tastes
of a country gentleman, and was eager to know all
that was passing on his estate. Before leaving
home he had set up a mill to grind olives for oil,
and was well pleased to hear of its prosperity.
" It seems to be a good thing, which pleases me
very much. Bougainville and,I talk a great deal
about the oil-mill." Some time after, when the
King sent him the coveted decoration of the
cordon rouge, he informed Madame de Montcalm
of the honor done him, and added : " But I think
I am better pleased with what you tell me of the
success of my oil-mill."
To his mother he writes of his absorbing occu
pations, and says : " You can tell my dearest that I
have no time to occupy myself with the ladies,
even if I wished to." Nevertheless he now and
then found leisure for some little solace in his ban
ishment ; for he writes to Bourlamaque, whom he
had left at Quebec, after a visit which he had
himself made there early in the winter : " I am
glad you sometimes speak of me to the three ladies-
in the Rue du Parloir ; and I am flattered by their
remembrance, especially by that of one of them, in

1756, 1757.] FESTIVITIES. 455
whom I find at certain moments too much wit and
too many charms for my tranquUlity." These
ladies of the Rue du Parloir are several times
mentioned in his familiar correspondence with
Bourlamaque. His station obliged him to maintain a high
standard of living, to his great financial detriment,
for Canadian prices were inordinate- " I must
live creditably, and so I do ; sixteen persons at
table every day. Once a fortnight I dine with the
Governor-General and with the Chevalier de Levis,
who lives well too. He has given three grand
balls. As for me, up to Lent I gave, besides
dinners, great suppers, with ladies, three, times
a week. They lasted till two in the morning ; and
then there was dancing, to which company came
uninvited, but sure of a welcome from those who
had been at supper. It is very expensive, not
very amusing, and often tedious. At Quebec,
where we spent a month, I gave receptions or par
ties, often at the Intendant' s house. I like my
gallant Chevalier de L^vis very much. Bourla
maque was a good choice ; he is steady and cool,
with good parts. Bougainville has talent, a warm
head, and warm heart ; he will ripen in time.
Write to Madame Cornier that I Uke her husband ;
he is perfectly well, and as impatient for peace as
I am. Love to my daughters, and all affection
and respect to my mother. I live only in the
hope of joining you all again. Nevertheless,
Montreal is as good a place as Alais even in time
of peace, and better now, because the Government

456 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756, 1757.
is here ; for the Marquis de Vaudreuil, like me,
spent only a month at Quebec. As for Quebec, it
is as good as the best cities of France, except ten
or so. Clear sky, bright sun ; neither spring nor
autumn, only summer and winter. July, August,
and September, hot as in Languedoc : winter in
supportable ; one must keep always indoors. The
ladies spirituelles, galantes, devotes. Gambling at
Quebec, dancing and conversation at Montreal.
My friends the Indians, who are often unbearable,
and whom I treat with perfect tranquillity and
patience, are fond of me. If I were not a sort of
general, though very subordinate to the Governor,
I could gossip about the plans of the campaign,
which it" is likely will begin on the tenth or fif
teenth of May. I worked at the plan of the last
affair [Rigaud' s expedition to Fort Willia7n Henry],
which might have turned out better, though good
as it was. I wanted only eight hundred men. If
I had had my way. Monsieur de L^vis or Mon
sieur de Bougainville would have had charge of
it. However, the thing was all right, and in good
hands. The Governor, who is extremely civil to
me, gave it to his brother ; he thought him more
used to winter marches. Adieu, my heart; I
adore and love you ! "
To meet his manifold social needs, he sends
to his wife orders for prunes, olives, anchovies,
muscat wine, capers, sausages, confectionery, cloth
for liveries, and many other such items ; also for
scent-bags of two kinds, and perfumed poma
tum for presents; closing in postscript with an

1756, 1757.] FESTIVITIES. 457
injunction not to forget a dozen pint-bottles of
English lavender. Some months after, he writes
to Madame de Saint-Veran : " I have got every
thing that was sent me from Mont]3ellier except
the sausages. I have lost a third of what was
sent from Bordeaux. The English captured it on
board the ship called 'La Superbe;' and I have
reason to fear that everything sent from Paris
is lost on board ' La Liberte.' I am running into
debt here. Pshaw ! I must live. I do not worry
myself. Best love to you, my mother."
When Rigaud was about to march with his de
tachment against Fort William Henry, Mont
calm went over to La Prairie to see them. " I
reviewed them," he writes to Bourlamaque, " and
gave the officers a dinner, which, if anybody else
had given it, I should have said was a grand affair.
There were two tables, for thirty-six persons in all.
On Wednesday there was an Assembly at Madame
Varin' s ; on Friday the Chevalier de L^vis gave
a ball. He invited sixty-five ladies, and got only
thirty, with a great crowd of men. Rooms well
lighted, excellent order, excellent service, plenty
of refreshments of every sort all through the
night ; and the company stayed till seven in the
morning. As for me, I went to bed early. I had
had that day eight ladies at a supper given to
Madame Varin. To-morrow I shall have half-a-
dozen at another supper, given to I don't know
whom, but incline to think it will be La Roche
Beaucour. The gallant Chevalier is to give us
still another ball."

458 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756, 1757.
Lent put a check on these festivities. "To
morrow," he tells Bourlamaque, " I shall throw my
self into devotion with might and main (a corps
perdu). It will be easier for me to detach myself
from the world and turn heavenward here at Mon
treal than it would be at Quebec." And, some
time after, "Bougainville spent Monday delight
fully at Isle Ste. Helene, and Tuesday devoutly
with the Sulpitian Fathers at the Mountain. I
was there myself at four o'clock, and did them
the civility to sup in their refectory at a quarter
before six."
In May there was a complete revival of social
pleasures, and Montcalm wrote to Bourlamaque :
" Madame de Beaubassin's supper was very gay.
There were toasts to the Rue du Parloir and to
the General. To-day I must give a dinner to
Madame de Saint-Ours, which will be a little more
serious. Pean is gone to establish himself at
La Chine, and will come back with La Barolon,
who goes thither with a husband of hers, bound
to the Ohio with Ville join and Louvigny. The
Chevalier de L^vis amuses himself very much
here. He and his friends spend all their time
with Madame de Lenisse."
Under these gayeties and gallantries there were
bitter heart-burnings. Montcalm hints at some of
them in a letter to Bourlamaque, written at the
time of the* expedition to Fort William Henry,
which, in the words of Montcalm, who would have
preferred another commander, the Governor had
ordered to march " under the banners of brother

1756-1757.] A BREACH REPAIRED. 459
Rigaud." "After he got my letter on Sunday
evening," says the disappointed General, "Mon
sieur de Vaudreuil sent me his secretary with
the instructions he had given his brother,'^ which
he had hitherto withheld. " This gave rise after
dinner to a long conversation with him ; and I
hope for the good of the service that his future
conduct will prove the truth of his words. I
spoke to him with frankness and firmness of the
necessity I was under of communicating to him
my reflections ; but I did not name any of the
persons who, to gain his good graces, busy them
selves with destroying his confidence in me. I told
him that he would always find me disposed to aid
in measures tending to our success, even should his
views, which always ought to prevail, be different
from mine ; but that I dared flatter myself that he
would henceforward communicate his plans to me
sooner ; for, though his knowledge of the coimtry
gave greater weight to his opinions, he might rest
satisfied that I should second him in methods and
details. This explanation passed off becomingly
enough, and ended with a proposal to dine on a
moose's nose [an estimed mofsd] the day after to
morrow. I burn your letters. Monsieur, and I beg
you to do the same with mine, after making a
note of anything you may want to keep." But
Bourlamaque kept all the letters, and bound them
in a volume, which still exists.'^
1 The preceding extracts are from Lettres de Montcalm a Madame de
Saint-Veran, sa Mere, et a Mailame de Montcalm, sa Femme, 1756, 1757
(Papiers de Famille) ; and Lettres de Montcalm a Bourlamaque, 1757. See
Appendix E.

460 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756, 1757.
Montcalm was not at this time fiUly aware of
the feeling of VaudreuU towards him. The touchy
egotism of the Governor and his jealous attach
ment to the colony led him to claim for himself
and the Canadians the merit of every achievement
and to deny it to the French troops and their gen
eral. Before the capture of Oswego was known,
he wrote to the naval minister that Montcalm
would never have dared attack that place if he
had not encouraged him and answered his timid
objections.^ " I am confident that I shall reduce
it," he adds ; " my expedition is sure to succeed
if Monsieur de Montcalm follows the directions I
have given him." When the good news came he
immediately wrote again, declaring that the vic
tory was due to his brother Rigaud and the Cana
dians, who, he says, had been ill-used by the
General, and not allowed either to enter the fort
or share the plunder, any more than the Indians,
who were so angry at the treatment they had met
that he had great difficulty in appeasing them.
He hints that the success was generally ascribed
to him. "There has been a great deal of talk
here ; but I will not do myself the honor of repeat
ing it to you, especiaUy as it relates to myself. I
know how to do violence to my self-love. The
measures I took assured our victory, in spite of
opposition. If I had been less vigilant and firm,
Oswego would still be in the hands of the English.
I cannot sufficiently congratulate myself on the
zeal which my brother and the Canadians and
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 13 Aoiit, 1 766.

1756, 1757.] EGOTISM OP VAUDREUIL. 461
Indians showed on this occasion ; for without
them my orders would have been given in vain.
The hopes of His Britannic Majesty have vanished,
and will hardly revive again ; for I shall take care
to crush them in the bud." ^
The pronouns " I " and " my " recur with monot
onous frequency in his correspondence. " I have
laid waste all the British provinces." " By
promptly uniting my -forces at Carillon, I have
kept General Loudon in check, though he had at
his disposal an army of about twenty thousand
men ; " ^ and so without end, in all varieties of
repetition. It is no less characteristic that he here
assigns to his enemies double their actual force.
He has the faintest of praise for the troops from
France. " They are generally good, but thus far
they have not absolutely distinguished themselves.
I do justice to the firmness they showed at Oswe
go ; but it was only the colony troops, Canadians,
and Indians who attacked the forts. Our artillery
was directed by the Chevalier Le Mercier and M.
Fremont [colony officers], and was served by our
colony troops and our militia. The officers from
France are more inclined to defence than attack.
Far from spending the least thing here, they lay
by their pay. They saved the money allowed
them for refreshments, and had it in pocket at the
end of the campaign. They get a profit, too, out
of their provisions, by having certificates made
under borrowed names, so that they can draw
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 1 Sept. 1756.
2 Ibid., 6 Nov. 1756.

462 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756, 17ST.
cash for them on their return. It is the same
with the soldiers, who also sell their provisions to
the King and get, paid for them. In conjunction
with M. Bigot, I labor to remedy all these abuses ;
and the rules we have established have saved the
King a considerable expense. M. de Montcalm
has complained very much of these rules." The
Intendant Bigot, who here appears as a reformer,
was the centre of a monstrous system of public
fraud and robbery ; while the charges against the
French officers are unsupported. Vaudreuil, who
never loses an opportunity of disparaging them,
proceeds thus : —
" The troops from France are not on very good
terms with our Canadians. What can the soldiers
think of them when they see their officers threaten
them with sticks or swords ? The Canadians are
obliged to carry these gentry on their shoulders,
through the cold water, over rocks that cut their
feet ; and if they make a false step they are abused.
Can anything be harder ? Finally, Monsieur de
Montcalm is so quick-tempered that he goes to
the length of striking the Canadians. How can
he restrain his officers when he cannot restrain
himself ? Could any example be more contagious ?
This is the way our Canadians are treated. They
deserve something better." He then enlarges on
their zeal, hardihood, and bravery, and adds that
nothing but their blind submission to his com
mands prevents many of them from showing re
sentment at the usage they had to endure. The
Indians, he goes on to say, are not so gentle and

1756, 1757.] THEIR RIVALRY. 463
yielding ; and but for his brother Rigaud and him
self, might have gone off in a rage. "After the
campaign of Oswego they did not hesitate to tell
me that they would go wherever I sent them,
provided I did not put them under the orders of
M. de Montcalm. They told me positively that
they could not bear his quick temper. I shall
always maintain the most perfect union and under
standing with M. le Marquis de Montcalm, but I
shall be forced to take measures which will assure
to our Canadians and Indians treatment such as
their zeal and services merit." ^
To the subject of his complaints Vaudreu.il used
a different language ; for Montcalm says, after
mentioning that he had had occasion to punish
some of the Canadians at Oswego : " I must do
Monsieur de Vaudreuil the justice to say that he
approved my proceedings." He treated the Gen
eral with the blandest politeness. " He is a
good-natured man," continues Montcalm, " mild,
with no character of his own, surrounded by
people who try to destroy all his confidence in
the general of the troops from France. I am
praised excessively, in order to make him jeal
ous, excite his Canadian prejudices, and 'prevent
him from dealing with me frankly, or adopting
my views when he can help it." ^ He else
where complains that Vaudreuil gave to both
him and L6vis orders couched in such equivocal
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 23 Oct. 1756. The above ex
tracts are somewhat condensed in the translation. See the letter in
Dussieux, 279.
^ Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 11 Juillet, 1757.

464 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756, 1757.
terms that he could throw the blame on them
in case of reverse.^ Montcalm liked the militia
no better than the Governor liked the regulars.
" I have used them with good effect, though not
in places exposed to the enemy's fire. They know
neither discipline nor subordination, and think
themselves in all respects the first nation on earth."
He is sure, however, that they like him : " I have
gained the utmost confidence of the Canadians
and Indians ; and in the eyes of the former, when
I travel or visit their camps, I have the air of a
tribune of the people." ^ " The affection of the
Indians for me is so strong that there are moments
when it astonishes the Governor." ^ " The Indians
are delighted with me," he says in another letter ;
" the Canadians are pleased with me ; their officers
esteem and fear me, and would be glad U the
French troops and their general could be dispensed
with ; and so should I." * And he writes to his
mother : " The part I have to play is unique : I
am a general-in-chief subordinated ; sometimes
with everything to do, and sometimes nothing ; I
am esteemed, respected, beloved, envied, hated ;
I pass for proud, supple, stiff, yielding, polite,
devout, gallant, etc. ; and I long for peace." ^
The letters of the Governor and those of the
General, it will be seen, contradict each other flatly
at several points. Montcalm is sustained by his
1 Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 1 Nov. 1756.
2 Ibid., 18 Sept. 1757.
8 Ibid., 4 Nov. 1757.
* Ibid., 28 Ao&t, 1756.
5 Montcalm a Madame de Saint-Veran, 23 Sept. 1757.

1756,1757.] VIEWS OF BOUGAINVILLE. 465
friend Bougainville, who says that the Indians
had a great liking for him, and that he " knew
how to manage them as well as if he had been
born in their wigwams." ^ And while VaudreuU
complains that the Canadians are ill-used by Mont
calm, Bougainville declares that the regulars are
ill-used by Vaudreuil. " One must be blind not
to see that we are treated as the Spartans treated
the Helots." Then he comments on the jealous re
ticence of the Governor. " The Marquis de Mont
calm has not the honor of being consulted ; and
it is generally through public rumor that he first
hears of Monsieur de Vaudreuil's military plans."
He calls the Governor " a timid ^ man, who can
neither make a resolution nor keep one ; " and
he gives another trait of him, illustrating it, after
his usual way, by a parallel from the classics :
" When V. produces an idea he falls in love with
it, as Pygmalion did with his statu.e.. I can
forgive Pygmalion, for what he produced was a
masterpiece." ^
The exceeding touchiness of the Govemor was
sorely tried by certain indiscretions on the part
of the General, who in his rapid and vehement ut
terances sometimes forgot the rules of prudence.
His anger, though not deep, was extremely im
petuous ; and it is said that his irritation against
VaudreuU sometimes found escape in the presence
of servants and soldiers.^ There was no lack of
1 Bougainville h, Saint-Laurens, 19 Aout, 1757.
2 Bougainville, Journal,
8 ivenemenls de la Guerre en Canada, 1759, 1760.
TOL. I. — 30

466 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1757.
reporters, and the Governor was told everything.
The breach widened apace, and Canada divided
itself into two camps : that of Vaudreuil with the
colony officers, civU and mUitary, and that of
Montcalm with the officers from France. The
principal exception was the Chevalier de L^vis.
This brave and able commander had an easy and
adaptable nature, which made him a sort of con
necting link between the two parties. " One
should be on good terms with everybody," was
a maxim which he sometimes expressed, and on
which he shaped his conduct with notable success.
The Intendant Bigot also, an adroit and accom
plished person, had -the skill to avoid breaking
with either side.
But now the season of action was near, and
domestic strife must give place to efforts against
the common foe. " God or devil ! " Montcalm
wrote to Bourlamaque, "we must do something
and risk a fight. If we succeed, we can, all three
of us [you, LSvis, and I], ask for promotion.
Burn this letter." The prospects, on the whole,
were hopeful. The victory at Oswego had
wrought marvels among the Indians, inspired
the faithful, confirmed the wavering, and daunted
the ill-disposed. The whole West was astir, ready
to pour itself again in blood and fire against the
English border ; and even the Cherokees and
Choctaws, old friends of the British colonies,
seemed on the point of turning against them.^
The Five Nations were half won for France. In
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 19 Avril, 1757.

-757.] IROQUOIS DEPUTIES. 467
November a large deputation of them came to
renew the chain of friendship at Montreal. "I
have laid Oswego in ashes," said VaudreuU; "the
English quaU before me. Why do you nourish
serpents in your bosom ? They mean only to en
slave you." The deputies trampled under foot the
medals the English had given them, and prom-J
ised the " Devourer of Villages," for so they styled
the Governor, that they would never more lift the
hatchet against his chUdren. The chief difficulty
was to get rid of them ; for, being clothed and fed
at the expense of the King, they were in no haste
to take leave; and learning that New Year's Day
was a time of visits, gifts, and health-drinking,
they declared that they would stay to share its
pleasures ; which they did, to their own satisfac
tion and the annoyance of those who were forced
to entertain them and their squaws.^ - An active
siding with France was to be expected only from
the westem bands of the Confederacy. Neutrality
alone could be hoped for from the others, who
were too near the English safely to declare against
them ; whUe from one of the tribes, the Mohawks,
even neutrality was doubtful.
Vaudreuil, while disliking the French regu
lars, felt that he could not dispense with them, and
had asked for a reinforcement. His request was
granted ; and the Colonial Minister informed him
1 Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 24 Avril, 1757; Relation de
I'Ambassade des Cinq Nations a Montreal, jointe a la lettre precedente,
Proces-verbal de diflerente^ Entrevues entre M. de Vaudreuil et les Deputes
des Nations sauvages du 13 au 30 D€c. 1756. Malartic, .lournal. Mont
calm a Madame de Saint-Veran, 1 Avril, 1757.

468 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1757.
that twenty-four hundred men had been ordered to
Canada to strengthen the colony regulars and the
battalions of Montcalm.-' This, according to the
estimate of the Minister, would raise the regular
force in Canada to sixty-six hundred rank and file.^
The announcement was followed by another, less
lagreeable. It was to the effect that a formidable
squadron was fitting out in British ports. Was
Quebec to be attacked, or Louisbourg ? LouisboLirg
was beyond reach of succor from Canada ; it
must rely on its own strength and on help from
France. But so long as Quebec was threatened,
all the troops in the colony must be held ready to
defend it, and the hope of attacking England in
her own domains must be abandoned. Till these
doubts were solved, nothing could be done ; and
hence great activity in catching prisoners for the
sake of news. A few were brought in, but they
knew no more of the matter than the French
themselves ; and Vaudreuil and Montcalm rested
for a while in suspense.
The truth, had they known it, would have glad
dened their hearts. The English preparations
were aimed at Louisbourg. In the autumn before,
Loudon, prejudiced against all plans of his prede
cessor, Shirley, proposed to the Ministry a scheme
of his own, involving a possible attack on Quebec,
but with the reduction of Louisbourg as its imme
diate object, — an important object, no doubt, but
1 Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, Mars, 1757.
' Ministerial Minute on the Military Force in Canada, 1757, in N, Y
Col, Docs,, X. 523.

1757.] ENGLISH DELAYS. 469
one that had no direct bearing on the main ques
tion of controUing the interior of the continent.
Pitt, then for a brief space at the head of the
Government, accepted the suggestion, and set him
self to executing it ; but he was hampered by op
position, and early in April was forced to resign.
Then followed a contest of rival claimants to office ;
and the war against France was made subordinate
to disputes of personal politics. Meanwhile one
Florence Hensey, a spy at London, had informed
the French Court that a great armament was fit
ting out for America, though he could not tell its
precise destination. Without loss of time three
French squadrons were sent across the Atlantic,
with orders to rendezvous at Louisbourg, the
conjectured point of attack.
The English were as tardy as their enemies
were prompt. Everything depended on speed ;
yet their fleet, under Admiral Holbourne, consist
ing of fifteen ships of the line and three frigates,
with about five thousand troops on board, did not
get to sea till the fifth of May, when it made sail
for Halifax, where Loudon was to meet it with
additional forces.
Loudon had drawn off the best part of the troops
from the northern frontier, and they were now
at New York waiting for embarkation. That the
design might be kept secret, he laid an embargo on
colonial shipping, — a measure which exasperated
the colonists without answering its purpose. Now
ensued a long delay, during which the troops, the
provincial levies, the transports destined to carry

470 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1757.
them, and the ships of war which were to serve as
escort, all lay idle. In the interyal Loudon showed
great activity in writing despatches and other
avocations more or less proper to a commander,
being always busy, without, according to Franklin,
accomplishing anything. One Innis, who had
come with a inessage from the Governor of Penn
sylvania, and had waited above a fortnight for the
General's reply, remarked of him that he was like
St. George on a tavern sign, always on horseback,
and never riding on.^ Yet nobody longed more
than he to reach the rendezvous at Halffax. He
was waiting for news of Holbourne, and he waited
in vain. He knew only that a French fleet had
been seen off the coast strong enough to overpower
his escort and sink all his transports.^ But the
season was growing late ; he must act quickly if
he was to act at all. He and Sir Charles Hardy
agreed between them that the risk must be run ;
and on the twentieth of June the whole force put
to sea. They met no enemy, and entered Halifax
harbor on the thirtieth. Holbourne and his fleet
had not yet appeared; but his ships soon came
straggling in, and before the tenth of July all
were at anchor before the town. Then there was
more delay. The troops, nearly twelve thousand
in all, were landed, and weeks were spent in drill
ing them and planting vegetables for their refresh-
1 Works of Franklin, I. 219. Franklin intimates that while Loudon
was cohstantly writing, he rarely sent off despatches. This is a mistake ;
there is abundance of them, often tediously long, in the Public Record
Office. 2 Loudon to Pitt, 30 May, 1757. He had not learned Pitt's resignation.

1757.] FAILURE OF LOUDON. 471
ment. Sir Charles Hay was put under arrest for
saying that the nation's money was spent in sham
battles and raising cabbages. Some attempts were
made to learn the state of Louisbourg ; and Cap
tain Gorham, of the rangers, who reconnoitred it
from a fishing vessel, brought back an imperfect
report, upon which, after some hesitation, it was
resolved to proceed to the attack. The ¦t;roops
were embarked again, and all was ready, when, on
the fourth of August, a sloop came from New
foundland, bringing letters found on board a
French vessel lately captured. From these it ap
peared that all three of the French squadrons
were united in the harbor of Louisbourg, to the
number of twenty-two ships of the line, besides
several frigates, and that the garrison had been
increased to a total force of seven thousand men,
ensconced in the strongest fortress of the conti
nent. So far as concerned the naval force, the
account was true. La Motte, the French admiral,
had with him a fleet carrying an aggregate of
thirteen hundred and six«ty cannon, anchored in
a sheltered harbor under the guns of the town.
Success was now hopeless, and the costly^ enter
prise was at once abandoned. Loudon with his
troops saUed back for New York, and Admiral
Holbourne, who had been joined by four additional
ships, steered for Louisbourg, in .hopes that the
French fleet would come out and fight him. He
cruised off the port ; but La Motte did not accept
the challenge.

472 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1757,
The elements declared for France. A September
gale, of fury rare even on that tempestuous coast,
burst upon the British fleet. " It blew a perfect
hurricane," says the unfortunate Admiral, "and
drove us right on shore." One ship was dashed
on the rocks, two leagues from Louisbourg. A
shifting of the wind in the nick of time saved the
rest from total wreck. Nine were dismasted ;
others threw their cannon into the sea. Not
one was left fit for immediate action ; and had
La Motte sailed out of Louisbourg, he would have
had them all at his mercy.
Delay, the source of most of the disasters that
befell England and her colonies at this dismal
epoch, was the ruin of the Louisbourg expedition.
The greater part of La Motto's fleet reached its
destination a full month before that of Holbourne.
Had the reverse taken place, the fortress must
have fallen. As it was, the ill-starred attempt,
drawing off the British forces from the frontier,
where they were needed most, did for France more
than she could have done for herself, and gave
Montcalm and Vaudreuil the opportunity to exe
cute a scheme which they had nursed since the
fall of Oswego.^
1 Despatches of Loudon, Feb. to Aug, 1757. Knox, Campaigns in North
America, I. 6-28. Knox was in the expedition. Review of Mr. Pitt's
Administration (London, 1763). The Conduct qf a Noble Commander in
America impartially reviewed (London, 1758). Beatson, Naval and Mili
tary Memoirs, II. 49-59. Answer to the Letter to two Great Men (London,
1760). Entick, II. 168, 169. Holbourne to Loudon, 4 Aug, 1757. Hol
bourne to Pitt, 29 Sept 1757. Ibid,, 30 Sept, 1757. Holhonrne to PownaU.
2 Nov, 1757. Mante, 86, 97. Relation du Desastre arrive a la Flotte

1757.] FORCE OF THE FRENCH. 473
Anglaise commandee par I'Amiral Holbourne. Chevalier Johnstone, Cam
paign of Louisbourg. London Magazine, 1757, 514. Gentleman's Maga
zine, 1757, 463, 476. Ibid., 1758, 168-173.
It has been said that Loudon was scared from his task by false reports
of the strength of the French at Louisbourg. This was not the case.
The Gazette de France, 621, says that La Motte had twenty-four ships of
war. Bougainville says that as early as the ninth of Juue there were
twenty-one ships of war, including five frigates, at Louisbourg. To this
the list given by Knox closely answers.

CHAPTER XV,
1757.
FORT WILLIAM HENRY.
Another Blow. — The War-song. — The Armt at Ticonderoga.
— Indian Allies. — The War-feast. — Treatment op Pris
oners. — Cannibalism. — Surprise and Slaughter. — The War
Council. — March op Levis. — The Army embarks. — Fort
William Henry. — Nocturnal Scene. — Indian Funeral. —
Advance upon the Fokt. — General Webb. — His Difficulties.
— His Weakness. — The Siege begun. — Conduct op the In
dians. — The Intercepted Letter. — Desperate Position op
THE Besieged. — Capitulation. — Ferocity op the Indians.
— Mission of Bougainville. — Murder of Wounded Men.
— A Scene op Terror. — The Massacre. — Efforts of Mont
calm. — The Fort burned.
" I AM going on the ninth to sing the war-song
at the Lake of Two Mountains, and on the next
day at Saut St. Louis, — a long, tiresome ceremony.
On the twelfth I am off ; and I count on having
news to tell you by the end of -this month or the
beginning of next." Thus Montcalm wrote to his
wife frond Montreal early in July. All doubts
had been solved. Prisoners taken on the Hudson
and despatches from Versailles had made it certain
that Loudon^ was bound to Louisbourg, carrying
with him the best of the troops that had guarded
the New York frontier. The time was come, not
only to strike the English on Lake George, but
perhaps to seize Fort Edward and carry terror to

1757.] INDLAU COMPLIMENT. 475
Albany itself. Only one difficulty remained,
the want of provisions. Agents were sent to col
lect corn and bacon among the inhabitants ; the
cur6s and militia captains were ordered to aid in
the work ; and enough was presently found to feed
twelve thousand men for a month.-'
The emissaries of the Governor had been busy
all winter among the tribes of the West and North ;
and more than a thousand savages, lured by the
prospect of gifts, scalps, and plunder, were now
encamped at Montreal. Many of them had never
visited a French settlement before. All were
eager to see Montcalm, whose exploit in taking
Oswego had inflamed their imagination; and one
day, on a visit of ceremony, an orator from Mich
illimackinac addressed the General thus : " We
wanted to see this famous man who tramples the
English under his feet. We thought we should
find him so tall that his head would be lost in the
clouds. But you are a little man, my Father. It
is when we look into your eyes that we see the
greatness of the pine-tree and the fire of the
eagle." ^
It remained to muster the Mission Indians set
tled in or near the limits of the colony ; and it
was to this end that Montcalm went to sing the
war-song with the converts of the Two Mountains.
Rigaud, Bougainville, young Longueuil, and others
were of the party; and when they landed, the
1 Vaudreuil, Lettres circulaires aux Curgs et aux Capitaines de Milia
des Paroisses du Gouvernement de Montreal, 16 Juin, 1757.
^ Bougainville, Journal.

476 FORT WILLIAM. HENRY. [1757.
Indians came down to the shore, their priests at
their head, and greeted the General with a volley
of musketry ; then received him after dark in
their grand council-lodge, where the circle of wild
and savage visages, half seen in the dim light of a
few candles, suggested to Bougainville a midnight
conclave of wizards. He acted vicariously the chief
part in the ceremony. " I sang the war-song in
the name of M. de Montcalm, and was much ap
plauded. It was nothing but these words : ' Let
us trample the English under our feet,' chanted
over and over again, in cadence with the move
ments of the savages." Then came the war-feast,
against which occasion Montcalm had caused three
oxen to be roasted.-' On the next day the party
went to Caughnawaga, or Saut St. Louis, where
the ceremony was repeated ; and Bougainville, who
again sang the war-song in the name of his com
mander, was requited by adoption into the clan
of the Turtle. Three more oxen were solemnly
devoured, and with one voice the warriors took
up the hatchet.
Meanwhile troops, Canadians and Indians, were
moving by detachments up Lake Champlain.
Fleets of bateaux and canoes followed each other
day by day along the capricious lake, in calm or
storm, sunshine or rain, till, towards the end of
1 Bougainville describes a ceremony iu the Mission Church of the
Two Mountains in which warriors and squaws sang in the choir. Ninety-
nine years after, in 1856, I was present at a similar ceremony on the
same spot, and heard the descendants of the same warriors and squaws
sing like their ancestors. Great phanges have since taken place at this
old mission.

!757.] CAMPS AT TICONDEROGA. 477
July, the whole force was gathered at Ticonderoga,,
the base of the intended movement. Bourlamaque
bad been there since May with the battalions of
Beam and Royal Roussillon, finishing the fort,
sending out war-parties, and trying to discover the
force and designs of the English at Fort William
Henry. Ticonderoga is a high rocky promontory be
tween Lake Champlain on the north and the
mouth of the outlet of Lake George on the south.
Near its extremity and close to the fort were still
encamped the two battalions under Bourlamaque,
while bateaux and canoes were passing incessantly
up the river of the outlet. There were scarcely
two miles of navigable water, at the end of which
the stream fell foaming over a high ledge of rock
that barred the way. Here the French were
building a saw-mill ; and a wide space had been
cleared to form an encampment defended on all
sides by an abattis, within which stood the tents of
the battalions of La Reine, La Sarre, Languedoc,
and Guienne, all commanded by L6vis. Above the
cascade the stream circled through the forest in a
series of beautiful rapids, and from the camp of
L^vis a road a mile and a half long had been cut
to the navigable water above. At the end of this
road there was another fortified camp, formed of
colony regulars, Canadians, and Indians, under
Rigaud. It was scarcely a mile farther to Lake
George, where on the westem side there was an
outpost, chiefly of Canadians and Indians ; while
advanced parties were stationed at Bald Mountain,

478 I'ORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
now caUed Rogers Rock, and elsewhere on the
lake, to watch the movements of the English.
The various encampments just mentioned were
ranged along a vaUey extending four mUes from
take Champlain to Lake George, and bordered by
mountains wooded to the top.
Here was gathered a martial population of eight
thousand men, including the brightest civUization
and the darkest barbarism: from the scholar-
soldier Montcalm and his no less accomplished
aide-de-camp ; from L^vis, conspicuous for graces
of person ; from a throng of courtly young officers,
who would have seemed out of place in that
wilderness had they not done their work so well
in it ; from these to the foulest man-eating
savage of the uttermost northwest.
Of Indian allies there were nearly two thou
sand. One of their tribes, the lowas, spoke a
language which no interpreter understood ; and
they all bivouacked where they saw fit : f or~ no
man could control them. " I see no difference,"
says Bougainville, " in the dress, ornaments,
dances, and songs of the various western nations.
They go naked, excepting a strip of cloth passed
through a belt, and paint themselves black, red,
blue, and other colors. Their heads are shaved
and adorned with bunches of feathers, and they
wear rings of brass wire in their ears. They
wear beaver-skin blankets, and carry lances, bows
and arrows, and quivers made of the skins of
beasts. For the rest they are straight, well made,
and generally very tall. Their religion is brute

1757.] TROUBLESOME ALLIES. 479
paganism. I will say it once for all, one must be
the slave of these savages, listen to them day and
night, in council and in private, whenever the
fancy takes them, or whenever a dream, a fit of
the vapors, or their perpetual craving for brandy,
gets possession of them ; besides which they are
always wanting something for their equipment,
arms, or toilet, and the general of the army must
give written orders for the smallest trifie, — an
eternal, wearisome detail, of which one has no
idea in Europe."
It was not easy to keep them fed. Rations
would be served to them for a week ; they would
consume .them in three days, and come for more.
On one occasion they took the matter into their
own hands, and butchered and devoured eighteen
head of cattle intended for the troops ; nor did
any officer dare oppose this " St. Bartholomew of
the oxen," as Bougainville calls it. " Their para
dise is to be drunk," says the young officer. Their
paradise was rather a hell; for sometimes, when
mad with brandy, they grappled and tore each
other with their teeth like wolves. They were
continually " making medicine," that is, consult
ing the Manitou, to whom they hung up offerings,
sometimes a dead dog, and sometimes the belt-
cloth which formed their only garment..
The Mission Indians were better allies than
these heathen of the west ; and their priests, who
followed them to the war, had great influence over
them. They were armed with guns, which they
well knew how to use. Their dress, though savage,

480 PORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
was generally decent, and they were not cannibals ;
though in other respects they retained all their
traditional ferocity and most of their traditional
habits. They held frequent war-feasts, one of
which is described by Roubaud, Jesuit missionary
of the Abenakis of St. Francis, whose flock formed
a part of the company present.
" Imagine," says the father, " a great assembly
of savages adorned with every ornament most
suited to disfigure them in European eyes, painted
with vermilion, white, green, yellow, and black
made of soot and the scrapings of pots. A single
savage face combines all these different colors,
methodically laid on with the help of a little
tallow, which serves for pomatum. The head is
shaved except at the top, where there is a small
tuft, to which are fastened feathers, a few beads
of wampum, or some such trinket. Every part
of the head has its ornament. Pendants hang
from the nose and also from the ears, which are
split in infancy and drawn down by weights till
they flap at last against the shoulders. The rest
of the equipment answers to this fantastic decora
tion : a shirt bedaubed with vermilion, wampum
collars, silver bracelets, a large knife hanging on
the breast, moose-skin moccasons, and a belt of
various colors always absurdly combined. The
sachems and war-chiefs are distinguished f ronv the
rest : the latter by a gorget, and the former by a
medal, with the King's portrait on one side, and
on the other Mars and Bellona joining hands, with
the device. Virtus et Honor "

1767.1 WAR FEAST. 481
Thus attired, the company sat in two lines
facing each other, with kettles in the middle filled
with meat chopped for distribution. To a digni
fied sUence succeeded songs, sung by several chiefs
in succession, and compared by the narrator to the
howling of wolves. Then followed a speech from
the chief orator, highly commended by Roubaud,
¦ who could not help admiring this effort of savage
eloquence. " After the harangue," he continues,
" they proceeded to nominate the chiefs who were
to take command. As soon as one was named
he rose and took the head of some animal that
had been butchered for the feast. He raised it
aloft so that all the company could see it, and
cried : ' Behold the head of the enemy ! ' Applause
and cries of joy rose from all parts of the assem
bly. The chief, with the head in his hand, passed
down between the lines, singing his war-song,
bragging of his exploits, taunting and defying
the enemy, and glorifyihg himself beyond all
measure. To hear his self -laudation in these mo
ments of martial transport one would think him
a conquering hero ready to sweep everything
before him. As he passed in front of the other
savages, they would respond by dull broken cries
jerked up from the depths of their stomachs, and
accompanied by movements of their bodies so
odd that one must be well used to them to keep
countenance. In the course of his song the chief
would utter from time to time some grotesque
witticism ; then he would stop, as if pleased with
himself, or rather to listen to the thousand con-
vol. i. — 31

482 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
fused cries of applause that greeted his ears. H e
kept up his martial promenade as long as he like d
the sport ; and when he had had enough, ended by
flinging down the head of the animal with an air
of contempt, to show that his warlike appeti'f,e
craved meat of another sort." ^ Others followed
with similar songs and pantomime, and the fes
tival was closed at last by ladling out the meat
from the kettles, and devouring it.
Roubaud was one day near the fort, when he
saw the shore lined jvith a thousand Indians,
watching four or five English prisoners, who, wioh
the war-party that had captured them, were ap
proaching in a boat from the farther side of the
water. Suddenly the whole savage crew broke
away together and ran into the neighboring
woods, whence they soon emerged, yelling dia
bolically, each armed with a club. The wretchtd
prisoners were to be forced to " run the gauntlet,"
which would probably have killed them. The.y
were saved by the chief who commanded the war-
party, and who, on the persuasion of a French
officer, claimed them as his own and forbade the
game; upon which, according to rule in such
cases, the rest abandoned it. On this same day
the missionary met troops of Indians conducting
several bands of English prisoners along the road
that led through the forest from the camp of
L^vis. Each of the captives was held by a cord
made fast about the neck; and the sweat was
'- Lettre du Pere . . . (Roubaud), Missionnaire chez les Abnakis, 21 Oct
1757, in Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, VI. 189 (1810).

1757.] CANNIBALISM. 483
starting from their brows in the extremity of their
horror and distress. Roubaud's tent was at this
time in the camp of the Ottawas. He presently
saw a large number of them squatted about a
fire, before which meat was roasting on sticks
stuck in the ground ; and, approaching, he saw
that it was the flesh of an Englishman, other
parts of which were boiling in a kettle, whUe
near by sat eight or ten of the prisoners, forced to
see their comrade devoured. The horror-stricken
priest began to remonstrate ; on which a young sav
age fiercely replied in broken French : " You have
French taste ; I have Indian. This is good meat
for me ; " and the feasters pressed him to share it.
Bougainville says that this abomination could
not be prevented ; which only means that if force
had been used to stop it, the Ottawas would have
gone home in a rage. They were therefore left to
finish their meal undisturbed. Having eaten one
of their prisoners, they began to treat the rest
with the utmost kindness, bringing them white
bread, and attending to all their wants, — a seem
ing change of heart due to the fact that they were
a valuable commodity, for which the owners hoped
to get a good price at Montreal. Montcalm
wished to send them thither at once, to which
after long debate the Indians consented, demand
ing, however, a receipt in full, and bargaining that
the captives should be supplied with shoes and
blankets.-'
1 Journal de l'Exp€dition contre le Fort George [William Henry] du 12
Juillet au 16 AoUt, 1757. Bougainville, Journal, Lettre du P. Roubaud.

484 PORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
These unfortunates belonged to a detachment of
three hundred provincials, chiefly New Jersey men,
sent from Fort William Henry under command of
Colonel Parker to reconnoitre the French outposts.
Montcalm's scouts discovered them; on which a
band of Indians, considerably more numerous,
went to meet them under a French partisan
named Corbiere, and ambushed themselves not
far from Sabbath Day Point. Parker had rashly
divided his force ; and at daybreak of the twenty-
sixth of July three of his boats fell into the snare,
and were captured without a shot. Three others
followed, in ignorance of what had happened, and
shared the fate of the first. When the rest drew
near, they were greeted by a deadly volley from
the thickets, and a swarm of canoes darted out
upon them. The men were seized with such a
panic that some of them jumped int;D the water to
escape, while the Indians leaped after them and
speared them with their lances like fish. " Ter
rified," says Bougainville, " by the sight of these
monsters, their agility, their firing, and their yells,
they surrendered almost without resistance."
About a hundred, however, made their escape.
The rest were killed or captured, and three of the
bodies were eaten on the spot. The journalist
adds that the victory so elated the Indians that
they became insupportable ; " but here in the for
ests of America we can no more do without them
than without cavalry on the plain." ^
1 Bougainville, Journal. Malartic, Journal. Montcalm h Vaudreuil,
87 Juillet, 1757. Webb to Loudon, 1 Aug. 1757. Webb to Delancey, 30

1757.] GRAND COUNCIL. 485
Another success at about the same time did
not tend to improve their manners. A hundred
and fifty of them, along with a few Canadians
under Marin, made a dash at Fort Edward,
killed or drove in the pickets, and returned with
thirty-two scalps and a prisoner. It was found,
however, that the scalps were far from repre
senting an equal number of heads, the Indians
having learned the art of making two or three
out of one by judicious division.-'
Preparations were urged on with the utmost
energy. Provisions, camp equipage, ammunition,
cannon, and bateaux were dragged by gangs of
men up the road from the camp of L^vis to the
head of the rapids. The work went on through
heat and rain, by day and night, till, at the end of
July, all was done. Now, on the eve of departure,
Montcalm, anxious for harmony among his red
allies, called them to a grand council near the
camp of Rigaud. Forty-one tribes and sub-tribes.
Christian and heathen, from the east and from
the west, were represented in it. Here were the
mission savages, — Iroquois of Caughnawaga, Two
Mountains, and La Presentation; Hurons of
Lorette and Detroit ; Nipissings of Lake Nipis-
sing; Abenakis of St. Francis, Becancour, Mis-
sisqui, and- the Penobscot; Algonkins of Three
July, 1 757. Journal de I'Expedition contre le Fort George, London Mag
azine, 1757, 457. Niles, French and Indian Wars. Boston Gazette, 15
Aug. 1757.
1 This affair was much exaggerated at the time. I follow Bougain
ville, who had the facts from Marin. According to him, the thirty-two
scalps represented eleven killed ; which exactly answers to the English loss
as stated by Colonel Frye in a letter from Fort Edward.

486 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1767
Rivers and Two Mountains; Micmacs and Mal-
ecites from Acadia : in all eight hundred chiefs
and warriors. With these came the heathen of
the west, — Ottawas of seven distinct bands ;
Ojibwas from Lake Superior, and Mississagas from
the region of Lakes Erie and Huron; Pottawat
tamies and Menomonies from Lake Michigan ;
Sacs, Foxes, and Winnebagoes from Wisconsin ;
Miamis from the prairies of Illinois, and lowas
from the banks of the Des Moines: nine hundred
and seventy-nine chiefs and warriors, men of the
forests and men of the plains, hunters of the
moose and hunters of the buffalo, bearers of steel
hatchets and stone war-clubs, of French guns and
of flint-headed arrows. All sat in silence, decked
with ceremonial paint, scalp-locks, eagle plumes, or
horns of buffalo ; and the dark and wild assem-
^blage was edged with white uniforms of officers
from France, who came in numbers to the spec
tacle. Other officers were also here, all belonging
to the colony. They had been appointed to the
command of the Indian allies, over whom, how
ever, they had little or no real authority. First
among them was the bold and hardy Saint-Luc de
la Corne, who was called general of the Indians ;
and under him were others, each assigned to some
tribe or group of tribes, — the intrepid Marin;
Charles Langlade, who had left his squaw wife
at Michillimackinac to join the war ; Niverville,
Langis, La Plante, Hertel, Longueuil, Herbin,
Lorimier, Sabrevois, and Fleurimont ; men famil
iar from chUdhood with forests and savages.

1(67.] INDIAN ORATORY. 487
Each tribe had its interpreter, often as lawless as
those with whom he had spent his lUe-; and for
the converted tribes there were three missionaries,
— Piquet for the Iroquois, Mathevet for the Nip
issings, who were half heathen, and Roubaud for
the Abenakis.^
There was some complaint among the Indians
because they were crowded upon by the officers
who came as spectators. This difficulty being
removed, the council opened, Montcalm having
already explained his plans to the chiefs and told
them the part he expected them to play.
Pennahouel, chief of the Ottawas, and senior of
all the Assembly; rose and said : " My father, I,
who have counted more moons than any here,
thank you for the good words you have spoken.
I approve them. Nobody ever spoke better. It
is the Manitou of War who inspires you."
Kikensick, chief of the Nipissings, rose in behalf
of the Christian Indians, and addressed the hea
then of the west. " Brothers, we thank you for
coming to help us defend our lands against the
English. Our cause is good. The Master of Life
is on our side. Can you doubt it, brothers, after
the great blow you have just struck ? It covers
you with glory. The lake, red with the blood of
Corlaer [the English] bears witness forever to
1 The above is chiefly from Tableau des Sauvages qui se trouvent a
V Armee du Marquis de Montcalm, le 28 Juillet, 1757. Forty-one tribes and
sub-tribes are here named, some, however, represented by only three or
four warriors. Besides those set down under the head of Christians, it is
stated that a few of the Ottawas of Detroit and Michillimackinac stiD
retained the faith.

488 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1767
your achievement. We too share your glory, and
are proud of what you have done." Then, turning
to Montcalm : " We are even more glad than you,
my father, who have crossed the great water,
not for your own sake, but to obey the great King
and defend his children. He has bound us all to
gether by the most solemn of ties. Let us take
care that nothing shall separate us."
The various interpreters, each in turn, having
explained this speech to the Assembly, it was
received with ejaculations of applause ; and when
they had ceased, Montcalm spoke as follows :
" Children, I am delighted to see you all joined in
this good work. So long as yoti remain one, the
English cannot resist you. The great King has
sent me to protect and defend you ; but above all
he has charged me to make you happy and un
conquerable, by establishing among you the union
which ought to prevail among brothers, children
of one father, the great Onontio." Then he held
out a prodigious wampum belt of six thousand
beads : " Take this sacred pledge of his word.
The union of the beads of which it is made is the
sign of your united strength. By it I bind you
all together, so that none of you can separate from
the rest tUl the English are defeated and their fort
destroyed." Pennahouel took up the belt and said : " Behold,
brothers, a circle drawn around us by the great
Onontio. Let none of us go out from it ; for so
long as we keep in it, the Master of Life will help
all our undertakings." Other chiefs spoke to the

1767.] ORDERS OF MONTCALM. 489
same effect, and the councU closed in perfect
harmony .1 Its various members bivouacked to
gether at the camp by the lake, and by their
carelessness soon set it on fire ; whence the place
became known as the Bumed Camp. Those from
the missions confessed their sins all day ; while
their heathen brothers hung an old coat and a
pair of leggings on a pole as tribute to the Mani
tou. This greatly embarrassed the three priests,
who were about to say Mass, but doubted whether
they ought to say it in presence of a sacrifice to
the devU. Hereupon they took counsel of Mont
calm. " Better say it so than not at all," replied
the military casuist. Brandy being prudently
denied them, the allies grew restless ; and the
greater part paddled up the lake to a spot near
the place where Parker had been defeated. Here
they encamped to wait the arrival of the army,
and amused themselves meantime with killing
rattlesnakes, there being a populous " den " of
those reptiles among the neighboring rocks.
Montcalm sent a circular letter to the regular
officers, urging them to dispense for a while with
luxuries, and even comforts. " We have but few
bateaux, and these are so filled with stores that a
large division of the army must go by land ; "
and he directed that everything not absolutely
necessary should be left behind, and that a canvas
shelter to every two officers should serve them for
a tent, and a bearskin for a bed. " Yet I do not
forbid a mattress," he adds. "Age and infirmi-
1 Bougainville, Journal.

490 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1767.
ties may make it necessary to some ; but I shall
not have one myself, and make no doubt that all
who can will wUlingly imitate me." ^
The bateaux lay ready by the shore, but could
not carry the whole force ; and Levis received
orders to march by the side of the lake with
twenty-five hundred men, Canadians, regulars,
and Iroquois. He set out at daybreak of the
thirtieth of July, his men carrying nothing but
their knapsacks, blankets, and weapons. Guided
by the unerring Indians, they climbed the steep
gorge at the side of Rogers Rock, gained the valley
beyond, and marched southward along a Mohawk
trail which threaded the forest in a course parallel
to the lake. The way was of the roughest ; many
straggled from the line, and two officers completely
broke down. The first destination of the party was
the mouth of Ganouskie ' Bay, now called North
west Bay, where they were to wait for Montcalm,
and kindle three fires as a signal that they had
reached the rendezvous.^
Montcalm left a detachment to hold Ticon
deroga ; and then, on the first of August, at two
in the afternoon, he embarked at the Burned Camp
with all his remaining force. Including those
with Levis, the expedition counted about seven
thousand six hundred men, of whom more than
sixteen hundred were Indians.^ At five in the
1 Circulaire du Marquis de Montcalm, 25 Juillet, 1757.
^ Guerre du Canada, par le Chevalier de Levis. This manuscript of
Ldvis is largely in the nature of a journal.
^ ^tat de I' Armee Franr^atse devant le Fort George, autrement GuiUaume-
Henri, le 3 Aoiit, 1757. Tableau des Sauvages qui se trouvent a I' Armee du

1757.] ADVANCE OP MONTCALM. 49]
afternoon they reached the place where the Indians,
having finished their rattlesnake hunt, were smok
ing their pipes and waiting for the army. The
red warriors embarked, and joined the French flo
tilla ; and now, as evening drew near, was seen one
' of those wild pageantries of war which Lake George
has often witnessed, A restless multitude of birch
canoes, filled with painted savages, glided by
shores and islands, like troops of swimming water
fowl. Two hundred and fifty bateaux came next,
moved by sail and oar, some bearing the Canadian
militia, and some the battalions of Old France in
trim and gay attire : first. La Reine and Langue
doc ; then the colony regulars ; then La Sarre and
Guienne ; then the Canadian brigade of Courte-
manche ; then the cannon and mortars, each on a
platform sustained by two bateaux lashed side by
side, and rowed by the militia of Saint-Ours ; then.
the battalions of Beam and Royal Roussillon;
then the Canadians of Gasp^, with the provision-
bateaux and the field-hospital ; and, lastly, a rear
guard of regulars closed the line. So, under the
flush of sunset, they held their course along the
romantic lake, to play their part in the historic
drama that lends a stem enchantment to its fasci
nating scenery. They passed the Narrows in mist
and darkness ; and when, a Uttle before dawn, they
rounded the high promontory of Tongue Mountain,
Marquis de Montcalm, le 28 Juillet, 1757. This gives a total of 1,799
Indians, of whom some afterwards left the army, ^tat de I' Armee du Roi
en Canada, sur le Lac St Sacrement et dans les Camps de Carillon, le 29
Juillet, 1757. This gives a total of 8,019 men, of whom about foui
hundred were left in garrison at Ticonderoga.

492 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757
they saw, far on the right, three fiery sparks shin
ing through the gloom. These were the signal-
fires of L^vis, to tell them that he had reached the
appointed spot.^
Levis had arrived the evening before, after his
hard march through the sultry midsummer forest.
His men had now rested for a night, and at ten
in the morning he marched again. Montcalm fol
lowed at noon, and coasted the western shore, till,
towards evening, he found L^vis waiting for him
by the margin of a small bay not far from the
English fort, though^hidden from it by a projecting
point of land. Canoes and bateaux were drawn
up on the beach, and the united forces made their
bivouac together.
The earthen mounds of Fort William Henry still
stand by the brink of Lake George ; and seated
at the sunset of an August day under the pines
that cover them, one gazes on a scene of soft and
soothing beauty, where dreamy waters reflect the
glories of the mountains and the sky. As it is
to-day, so it was then ; all breathed repose and
peace. The splash of some leaping trout, or the
dipping wing of a passing swallow, alone disturbed
the summer calm of that unruffled mirror.
About ten o'clock at night two boats set out
from the fort to reconnoitre. They were passing
a point of land on their left, two miles or more
down the lake, when the men on board descried
through the gloom a strange object against the
bank ; and they rowed towards it to learn what it
1 The site of the present village of Bolton.

1757.] A NIGHT ALARM. 493
might be. It was an awning over the bateaux
that carried Roubaud and his brother missionaries.
As the rash oarsmen drew near, the bleating of
a sheep in one of the French provision-boats
warned them of danger; and turning, they pulled
for their lives towards the eastern shore. In
stantly more than a thousand Indians threw
themselves into their canoes and dashed in hot
pursuit, making the lake and the mountains ring
with the din of their war-whoops. The fugitives
had nearly reached land when their pursuers
opened fire. They replied ; shot one Indian dead,
and wounded another; then snatched their oars
again, and gained the beach. But the whole sav
age crew was upon them. Several were killed,
three were taken, and the rest escaped in the dark
woods. ^ The prisoners were brought before Mont
calm, and gave him valuable information of the
s'trength and position of the English.^
The Indian who was killed was a noted chief
of the Nipissings ; and his tribesmen howled in
grief for their bereavement. They painted his
face with vermilion, tied feathers in his hair,
hung pendants in his ears and nose, clad him in
a resplendent war-dress, put silver bracelets on his
arms, hung a gorget on his breast with a flame
' Lettre du Pere Roubaud,2\ Oct. 1757. Roubaud, who saw the whole,
says that twelve hundred Indians joined the chase, and that their yells
were terrific.
^ The remains of Fort William Henry are now — 1882 — crowded be
tween a hotel and the wharf and station of a railway. While I write, a
scheme is on foot to level the whole for other railway structures. When
I first knew the place the ground was in much the same state as in the
time of Montcalm.

494 FORT WILLLAM HENRY. [1757.
colored ribbon, and seated him in state on the top
of a hillock, with his lance in his hand, his gun
in the hollow of his arm, his tomahawk in his
belt, and his kettle by his side. Then they all
crouched about him in lugubrious silence. A
funeral harangue followed; and next a song and
solemn dance to the booming of the Indian drum.
In the gray of the morning they buried him as he
sat, and placed food in the grave for his journey
to the land of souls.-'
As the sun rose above the eastern mountains
the French camp was all astir. The column of
Levis, with Indians to lead the way, moved
through the forest towards the fort, and Montcalm
followed with the main body ; then the artillery
boats rounded the point that had hid them from
the sight of the English, saluting them as they
did so with musketry and cannon ; while a host
of savages put out upon the lake, ranged their
canoes abreast in a line from shore to shore, and
advanced slowly, with measured paddle-strokes and
yells of defiance.
The position of the enemy was full in sight
before them. At the head of the lake, towards
the right, stood the fort, close to the edge of the
water. On its left was a marsh ; then the rough
piece of ground where Johnson had encamped two
years before ; then a low, flat, rocky hill, crowned
with an entrenched camp ; and, lastly, on the ex
treme left, another marsh. Far around the fort
and up the slopes of the western mountain the
' Lettre du Pire Roubaud.

"^'^•1 ITS CONDITION. 495
forest had been cut down and burned, and the
ground was cumbered with blackened stumps and
charred carcasses and limbs of fallen trees, strewn
in savage disorder one upon another.^ This was
the work of Winslow in the> autumn before.
Dist-ant shouts and war-cries, the clatter of mus
ketry, white puffs of smoke in the dismal clearing
and along the scorched edge of the bordering
forest, told that Levis' Indians were skirmishing
with parties of the English, who had gone out
to save the cattle roaming in the neighborhood,
and burn some out-buildings that would have
favored the besiegers. Others were taking down
the tents that stood on a plateau near the foot
of the mountain on the right, and moving them
to the entrenchment on the hill. The garrison sal
lied from the fort to support their comrades, and
for a time the firing was hot.
Fort William Henry was an irregular bastioned
square, formed by embankments of gravel sur
mounted by a rampart of heavy logs, laid in tiers
crossed one upon another, the interstices filled with
earth. The lake protected it on the north, the
marsh on the east, and ditches with chevaux-de-frise
on the south and west. Seventeen cannon, great
and small, besides several mortars and swivels,
were mounted upon it ; ^ and a brave Scotch vet
eran, Lieutenant-Colonel Monro, of the thirty-fifth
regiment, was in command.
1 Precis des ^Tenements de la Campagne de 1757 en la Nouvelle France,
2 l^tat des Effets et Munitions de Guerre qui se sont trouves au Fort
Guillaume-Henri. There were six more guns in the entrenched camp.

496 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
General Webb lay fourteen mUes distant at
Fort Edward, with twenty-sis hundred men,
chiefly provincials. On the twenty-fifth of July
he had made a visit to Fort William Henry,
examined the place, given some orders, and re
turned on the twenty-ninth. He then wrote to
the Governor of New York, telling him that the
French were certainly coming, begging him to
send up the militia, and saying : " I am determined
to march to Fort William Henry with the whole
army under my command as soon as I shall hear
of the farther approach of the enemy." Instead
of doing so he waited three days, and then sent
up a detachment of two hundred regulars under
Lieutenant-Colonel Young, and eight hundred
Massachusetts men under Colonel Frye. This
raised the force at the lake to two thousand and
two hundred, including sailors and mechanics,
and reduced that of Webb to sixteen hundred,
besides half as many more distributed at Albany
and the intervening forts.^ If, according to his
spirited intention, he should go to the rescue of
Monro, he must leave some of his troops behind
him to protect the lower posts from a possible
French inroad by way of South Bay. Thus his
power of aiding Monro was slight, so rashly had
Loudon, intent on Louisburg, left this frontier
open to attack. The defect, however, was as
much in Webb himself as in his resources. His
conduct in the past year l^ad raised doubts of his
1 Frye, Journal of the Attack of Fort William Henry. Webb to Loudon
I Aug. 1757. Ibid,, 5 Aug. 1757. "

1757.1 INDECISION OF WEBB. 497
personal courage ; and this was the moment for
answering them. Great as was the disparity of
numbers, the emergency would have justified an
attempt to save Monro at any risk. That officer
sent him a hasty note, written at nine o'clock on
the morning of the third, . telling him that the
•French were in sight on the lake ; and, in the
next night, three rangers came to Fort Edward,
bringing another short note, dated at six in the
evening, announcing that the firing had begun,
and closing with the words : " I believe you will
think it proper to send a reinforcement as soon
as possible." Now, if ever, was the time to
move, before the fort was invested and access cut
off. But Webb lay quiet, sending expresses to
New England for help which could not possibly
arrive in time. On the next night another note
came from Monro to say that the French were
upon him in great numbers, well supplied with
artillery, but that the garrison were all in good
spirits. " I make no doubt," wrote the hard-
pressed officer, " that you will soon send us a
reinforcement ; " and again on the same day : " We
are very certain that a part of the enemy have
got between you and us upon the high road, and
would therefore be glad (if it meets with your
approbation) the whole army was marched."^
But Webb gave no sign.^
1 Copy of four Letters from Lieutenant-Colonel Monro to Major-General
Webb, enclosed in the General's Letter of the fifth of August to the' Earl of
Loudon. 2 " The number of troops remaining under my Command at this place
[Fort Edward], excluding the Posts on Hudson's River, amounts to but
VOL. I. — 32.

498 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757,
When the skirmishing around the fort was over,
La Corne, with a body of Indians, occupied the
road that led to Fort Edward, and L^vis en
camped hard by to support him, whUe Montcalm
proceeded to examine the ground and settle his
plan of attack. He rnade his way to the rear of
the entrenched camp and reconnoitred it, hoping
to carry, it by assault ; but it had a breastwork of
stones and logs, and he thought the attempt too
hazardous. The ground where he stood was that
where Dieskau had been defeated ; and as the fate
of his predecessor was not of flattering augury, he
resolved to besiege the fOrt in form.
He chose for the site of his operations the
ground now covered by the village of CaldweU.
A little to the north of it was a ravine, beyond
whibh he formed his , main camp, while Levis oc
cupied a tract of dry ground beside the marsh,
whence he could easily move to intercept succors
from Fort Edward on the one hand, or repel a
sortie from Fort William Henry on the other. A
brook ran down the ravine and entered the lake
at a small cove protected from the fire of the
fort by a point of land ; and at this place, stiU
called Artillery Cove, Montcalm prepared to debark
his cannon and mortars.
Having made his preparations, he sent Font-
brune, one of his aides-de-camp, with a letter to
Monro. " I owe it to humanity," he wrote, " to
sixteen hundred men fit for duty, with which Army, so much inferior to
that of the enemy, I did not think it prudent to pursue my first intentions
ef Marching to their Assistocp," Webb to Loudon, 5 Aug. 1757.

1767.] THE SIEGE BEGUN. 499
summon you to surrender. At present I can re
strain the savages, and make them observe the
terms of a capitulation, as I might not have
power to do under other circumstances ; and an
obstinate defence on your part could only retard
the capture of the place a few days, and endanger
an unfortunate garrison which cannot be relieved,
in consequence of the dispositions I have made.
I demand a decisive answer within an hour."
Monro replied that, he and his soldiers would
defend themselves to the last. While the flags
of truce were flying, the Indians swarmed over
the fields before the fort; and when they
learned the result, an Abenaki chief shouted
in broken French : " You won't surrender, eh !
Fire away then, and fight your best; for if I
catch you, you shall get no quarter." Monro
emphasized his refusal by a general discharge of
his cannon.
The trenches were opened on the night of the
fourth, — a task of extreme difficulty, as the
ground was covered by a profusion of half-burned
stumps, roots, branches, and fallen trunks. Eight
hundred men toiled till daylight with pick, spade,
and axe, while the caimon from the fort flashed
through the darkness, and grape and round-shot
whistled and screamed over their heads. Some of
the English baUs reached the camp beyond the ra
vine, and disturbed the slumbers of the officers off
duty, as they lay wrapped in their blankets and
bear-skins. Before daybreak the first paraUel was
made ; a battery was nearly finished on the left,

500 FORT WILLIAM HENRY, [1757.
and another was begun on the right. The men
now worked under cover, safe in their burrows;
one gang relieved another, and the work went
on all day.
The Indians were far from doing what was ex
pected of them. Instead of scouting in the direc
tion of Fort Edward to learn the movements of
the enemy and prevent surprise, they loitereci
about the camp and in the trenches, or amused
themselves by firing at the fort from behind
stumps and logs. Some, in imitation of the
French, dug Uttle trenches for themselves, in
which they wormed their way towards the ram
part, and now and then picked off an artillery-man,
not without loss on their own side. On the after
noon of the fifth, Montcalm invited them to a
council, gave them belts of wampum, and mildly
remonstrated with them. " Why expose your
selves without necessity ? I grieve bitterly over
the losses that you have met, for the least among
you is precious to me. No doubt it is a good thing
to annoy the English ; but that is not the main
point. You ought to inform me of everything the
enemy is doing, and always keep parties on the
road between the two forts." And he gently
hinted that their place was not in his camp, but in
that of Levis, where missionaries were provided
for such of them as were Christians, and food and
ammunition for them all. They promised, with
excellent docility, to do everything he wished, but
added that there was something on their hearts.
Being encouraged to relieve themselves of the

1757.] COMPLAINT OF THE INDIANS. 501
burden, they complained that they had not been
consulted as to the management of the siege, but
were expected to obey orders like -slaves. " We
know more about fighting in the woods than you,"
feaid their orator ; " ask our advice, and you will
be the better for it." ^
Montcalm assured them that if they had been
neglected, it was only through the hurry and con
fusion of the time ; expressed high appreciation
of their talents for bush-fighting, promised them
ample satisfaction, and ended by telling them
that in the morning they should hear the big
guns. This greatly pleased them, for they were
extremely impatient for the artillery to begin.
About sunrise the battery of the left opened
with eight heavy cannon and a mortar, joined,
on the next morning, by the battery of the
right, with eleven pieces more. The fort replied
with spirit. The cannon thundered all day, and
from a hundred peaks and crags the astonished
wilderness roared back the sound. The Indians
were delighted. They wanted to point the
guns; and to humor them, they were now and
then allowed to do so. Others lay behind logs
and fallen trees, and yelled their satisfaction
when they saw the splinters fly from the wooden
rampart. Day after day the weary roar of the distant
cannonade f eU on the ears of Webb in his camp at
Fort Edward. " I have not yet received the least
reinforcement," he writes to Loudon ; " this is the
1 Bougainville, Journal.

502 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
disagreeable situation we are at present in. The
fort, by the heavy firing we hear from the lake, is
StiU in our possession ; but I fear it cannot long
hold out against so warm a cannonading if I am
not reinforced by a suffieient number of militia to
march to their relief." The militia were coming ;
but it was impossible that many could reach him
in less than a week. Those from New York alone
were within call, and two thousand of them arrived
soon aftet he sent Loudon the above letter. Then,
by stripping all the forts below,, he could bring
together forty-five hundred men ; while several
French deserters- assured him that Montcalm had
nearly twelve thousand. To advance to the relief
of Monro with a force so inferior, through a defile
of rocks, forests, and mountains, made by nature
for arribuscades, — and this too with troops who
had neither the steadiness of regulars nor the
bush^fighting skill of Indians, — was an enterprise
for firmer nerve than his.
He had already warned Monro to expect no help
from him. At midnight of the fourth. Captain
Bartman, his aide-de-camp, wrote : " The General
has ordered me to acquaint you he does not think
it prudent to attempt a junction or to assist you
till reinforced by the militia of the colonies, for
the immediate march of which repeated expresses
have been sent." The letter then declared that
the French were in complete possession of the road
between the two forts, that a prisoner just brought
in reported their force in men and cannon to be
very great, and that, unless the militia came soon

I'757.] INTERCEPTED LETTER. 503
Monro had better make what terms he could with
the enemy.-'
The chance was small that this letter would
reach its destination ; and in fact the bearer was
killed by La Corne' s Indians, who, in stripping the
body, found the hidden paper, and carried it to
the General. Montcalm kept it sevei'al days, till
the English rampart was half battered down ; and
then, after saluting his enemy with a volley from
all his cannon, he sent it with a graceful compli
ment to Monro. It was Bougainville who carried
it, preceded by a drummer and a flag. He was
met at the foot of the glacis, blindfolded, and led
through the fort and along the edge of the lake
to the entrenched camp, where Monro was at the
time. "He returned many 'thanks," writes the
emissary in his Diary, " for the courtesy of our
nation, and protested his joy at having to do with
so generous an enemy. -This was his answer to the
Marquis de Montcalm. Then they led me back,
always with eyes blinded ; and our batteries began
to fire again as soon as we thought that the Eng
lish grenadiers who escorted me had had time to
re-enter the fort. I hope General Webb's letter
may induce the English to surrender the sooner." ^
Bj this time the sappers had worked their way
to the angle of the lake, where they were stopped
by a marshy hollow, beyond which was a tract of
high ground, reaching to the fort and serving as
1 Frye, in his Journal, gives the letter in fuU. A spurious translation
of I it is appended to a piece called Jugemerit impartial sur les Operations
militaires en Canada.
2 Bougainville, Journal. Bougainville' an Ministre, 19 Aout, 1757.

504 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
the garden of the garrison.^ Logs and fascines in
large quantities were thrown into the hollow, and
hurdles were laid over them to form a causeway
for the cannon. Then the sap was continued up
the acclivity beyond, a trench was opened in the
garden, and a battery begun, not two hundred and
fifty yards from the fort. The Indians, in great
number, crawled forward among the beans, maize,
and cabbages, and lay there ensconced. On the
'night of the seventh, two men came out of the
fort, apparently to reconnoitre, with a view to a
sortie, when they were greeted by a general volley
and a burst of yells which echoed among the
mountains ; followed by responsive whoops peal
ing through the darkness from the various camps
and lurking-places of the savage warriors far and
near. The position of the besieged was now deplora
ble. More than three hundred of them had been
killed and wounded ; small-pox was raging in the
fort ; the place was a focus of infection, and the
casemates were crowded with the sick. A sortie
from the entrenched camp and another from the
fort had been repulsed with loss. All their large
cannon and mortars had been burst, or disabled
by shot ; only seven small pieces were left fit for
service ; ^ and the whole of Montcalm's' thirty-one
cannon and fifteen mortars and howitzers would
soon open fire, while the walls were already
1 Now (1882) the site of Fort William Henry Hotel, with its grounds
The hollow is partly filled by the main road of Caldwell.
'^ Frye, Journal.

l'^57.] CAPITULATION. 505
breached, and an assault was imminent. Through
the night of the eighth they fired briskly from
all their remaining pieces. In the morning the
officers held a council, and all agreed to surrender
if honorable terms could be had. A white flag was
raised, a drum was beat, and Lieutenant-Colonel
Young, mounted on horseback, for a shot in the
foot had disabled him from walking, went, foUowed
by a few soldiers, to the tent of Montcalm.
It was agreed that the English troops should
march out with the honors of war, and be escor
ted to Fort Edward by a detachment of French
troops ; that they should not serve for eighteen
months ; and that all French prisoners captured
in America since the war began should be given
up within three months. The stores, munitions,
and artillery were to be the prize of the victors,
except one field-piece, which the garrison were to
retain in recognition of their brave defence.
Before signing the capitulation Montcalm called
the Indian chiefs to council, and asked them to
consent to the conditions, and promise to restrain
their young warriors from any disorder. They
approved everything and promised everything.
The garrison then evacuated the fort, and marched
to join their comrades in the entrenched camp,
which was included in the surrender. No sooner
were they gone than a crowd of Indians clam
bered through the embrasures in search of rum
and plunder. All the sick men unable to leave
their beds were instantly butchered.^ "I was
1 Attestation of William Arbuthnot, Captain iri Frye's Regiment.

506 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
witness of this spectacle," says the missionary
Roubaud ; " I saw one of these barbarians come
out of the casemates with a human head in his
hand, from which the blood ran in streams, and
which he paraded as if he had got the finest prize
in the world." There was little left to plunder ;
and the Indians, joined by the more lawless of
the Canadians, turned their attention to the en
trenched camp, where all the English were now
collected. The French guard stationed there could not or
would not keep out the rabble. By the advice
of Montcalm the English stove their rum-barrels ;
but the Indians were drunk already with homi
cidal rage, and the glitter of their vicious eyes
told of the devil within. They roamed among
the tents, intrusive, insolent, their visages be
smirched with war-paint; grinning like fiends
as they handled, in anticipation of the knife, the
long hair of cowering women, of whom, as well
as of children, there were many in the camp, all
crazed with fright. Since the last war the New
England border population had regarded Indians
with a mixture of detestation and horror. Their
mysterious warfare of ambush and surprise, their
midnight onslaughts, their butcheries, their burn
ings, and all their nameless atrocities, had been
for years the theme of fireside story; and the
dread they excited was deepened by the distrust
and dejection of the time. The confusion in the
camp lasted through the afternoon. "The In
dians," says BougainviUe, " wanted to plunder the

-¦^57.] INDIAN OUTRAGES. 507
chests of the English ; the latter resisted ; and
there was fear that serious disorder would ensue.
The Marquis de Montcalm ran thither imme
diately, and used every means to restore tran
quUlity: prayers, threats, caresses, interposition
of the officers and interpreters who have some
influence over these savages." ^ " We shall be
but too happy if we can prevent a massacre.
Detestable position ! of which nobody who' has
not been in it can have any idea, and which makes
victory itself a sorrow to the victors. The Mar
quis spared no efforts to prevent the rapacity of
the savages and, I must say it, of certain persons
associated with them, from resulting in something
worse than plunder. At last, at nine o'clock in
the evening, order seemed restored. The Marquis
even indiiced the Indians to promise that, besides
the escort agreed upon in the capitulation, two
chiefs for each tribe should accompany the English
on their way to Fort Edward." ^ He also ordered
La Corne and the other Canadian Officers attached
to the Indians to see that no violence took place.
He might well have done more. In view of the
disorders of the afternoon, it would not have
been too much if he had ordered the whole
body of regular troops, whom alone he could
trust for the purpose, to hold themselves ready
to move to the spot in case of outbreak, and
shelter their defeated foes behind a hedge of
bayonets.
1 Bougainville au Ministre, 19 Ao&t, 1757.
^ Bougainville, Journal.

508 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
Bougainville was not to see what ensued ; for
Montcalm now sent him to Montreal, as a spe
cial messenger to carry news of the victory. He
embarked at ten o'clock. Returning daylight
found him far down the lake ; and as he looked
on its stUl bosom flecked with mists, and, its
quiet mountains sleeping under the flush of dawn,
there was nothiug in the wUd tranquillity of
the scene to suggest the tragedy which even
then was beginning on the shore he had left
behind. The English in their camp had passed a troubled
night, agitated by strange rumors. In the morn
ing something like a panic seized them ; for they
distrusted not the Indians only, but the Canadians.
In their haste to be gone they got together at
daybreak, before the escort of three hundred reg
ulars had arrived. They had their muskets, but
no ammunition ; and few or none of the provincials
had bayonets. Early as it was, the Indians were
on the alert ; and, indeed, since midnight great
numbers of them had been prowling about the
skirts of the camp, showing, says Colonel Frye,
" more than usual malice in their looks." Seven
teen wounded men of his regiment lay in huts,
unable to join the march. In the preceding after
noon MUes Whitworth, the regimental surgeon,
had passed them over to the care of a French
surgeon, according to an agreement made at
the time of the surrender ; but, the Frenchman
being absent, the other remained with them at
tending to their wants. The French surgeon had

1''57.] THE MASSACRE. 509
caused special sentinels to be posted for their pro
tection. These were now removed, at the moment
when they were needed most ; upon which, about
five o'clock in the morning, the Indians entered
the huts, dragged out the inmates, and tomahawked
and scalped them aU, before the eyes of. Whit
worth, and in presence of La Come and other
Canadian officers, as well as of a French guard
stationed within forty feet of the spot; and,
declares the surgeon under oath, "none, either
officer or soldier, protected the said wounded
men." ^ The opportune butchery relieved them
of a troublesome burden.
A scene of plundering now began. The escort
had by this time arrived, and Monro complained
to the officers that the capitulation was broken ;
but got no other answer than advice to give up
the baggage to the Indians in order to appease
them. To this the English at length agreed ; but
it only increased the excitement of the mob.
They demanded rum ; and some of the soldiers,
afraid to refuse, gave it to them from their can
teens, thus adding fuel to the flame. When, after
much difficulty, the column at last got out of the
camp and began to move along the road that
crossed the rough plain between the entrenchment
and the forest, the Indians crowded upon them,
impeded their march, snatched caps, coats, and
weapons from men and officers, tomahawked those
that resisted, and, seizing upon shrieking women
and children, dragged them off or murdered them
1 Affidavit of Miles Whitworth, See Appendix F.

510 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
on the spot. It is said that some of the inter
preters secretly fomented the disorder.' Suddenly
there rose the screech of the war-whoop. At this
signal of butchery, which was given by Abenaki
Christians from the mission of the Penobscot,^ a
mob of savages rushed upon the New Hampshire
men at the rear of the column, and killed or
dragged away eighty of them.^ A frightful tu
mult ensued, when Montcalm, L^vis, Bourlamaque,
and many other French officers, who had hastened
from their camp on the first news of disturbance,
threw themselves among the Indians, and by
promises and threats tried to allay their frenzy.
" Kill me, but spare the English who. are under
my protection," exclaimed Montcalm. He took
from one of them a young officer whom the savage
had seized ; upon which several other Indians im
mediately tomahawked their prisoners, lest they too
should be taken from them. One writer says that
a French grenadier was killed and two wounded in
attempting to restore order ; but the statement is
doubtful. The English seemed paralyzed, and for
tunately did not attempt a resistance, which, with
out ammunition as they were, would have ended
in a general massacre. Their broken column
straggled forward in wild disorder, amid the din
of whoops and shrieks, till they reached the
1 This is stated by Pouchot and Bougainville; the latter of whom
confirms the testimony of the English witnesses, that Canadian officers
present did nothing to check the Indians.
'' See note, end of chapter.
° Belknap, History of New Hampshire, says that eighty were killed.
Governor Wentworth, writing immediately after the event, says " killed
or captivated."

1757.] THE MASSACRE. 511
French advance-guard, which consisted of Cana
dians ; and here they demanded protection from
the officers, who refused to give it, telling them
that they must take to the woods and shift for
themselves. Frye was seized by a number of
Indians, who, brandishing spears and tomahawks,
threatened him with death and tore off his cloth
ing, leaving nothing but breeches, shoes, and
shirt. Repelled by the officers of the guard, he
made for the woods. A Connecticnt soldier who
was present says of him that he leaped upon an
Indian who stood in his way, disarmed and killed
him, and then escaped ; but Frye himself does not
¦ mention the incident. Captain Burke, also of the
Massachusetts regiment, was stripped, after a vio
lent struggle, of all his clothes ; then broke loose,
gained the woods, spent the night shivering in the,
thick grass of a marsh, and on the next day
reached Fort Edward. Jonathan Carver, a ¦ pro
vincial volunteer, declares that, when the tumult
was at its height, he saw officers of the French
army walking about at a little distance and talk
ing with seeming unconcern. Three or four
Indians seized him, brandished their tomahawks
over his head, and tore off most of his clothes,
while he vainly claimed protection from a sentinel,
who called him an English dog, and violently
pushed him back among his tormentors. Two
of them were dragging him towards the neighbor
ing swamp, when an English officer, stripped of
everything but his scarlet breeches, ran by. One
of Carver's captors sprang upon him, but was

512 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
thrown to the ground ; whereupon the other went
to the aid of his comrade and drove his toma
hawk into the back of the Englishman. As
Carver turned to run, an English boy, about
twelve years old, clung to him and begged
for help. They ran on together for a moment,
when the boy was seized, dragged from his pro
tector, and, as Carver judged by his shrieks, was
murdered. He himself escaped to the forest,
and after three days of famine reached Fort
Edward. The bonds of discipline seem for the time to
have been completely broken ; for while Mont
calm and his chief officers used every effort to
restore order, even at the risk of their lives, many
other officers, chiefly of the militia, failed atro
ciously to do their duty. How many English
were killed it is impossible to tell with exactness.
Roubaud says that he saw forty or fifty corpses
scattered about the field. Levis says fifty ; which
does not include the sick and wounded before
murdered in the camp and fort. It is certain
that six or seven hundred persons were carried
off, stripped, and otherwise maltreated. Mont
calm succeeded in recovering more than four
hundred of them in the course of the day ; and
many of the French officers did what they could
to relieve their wants by buying back from their
captors the clothing that had been torn from
them. Many of the fugitives had taken refuge
in the fort, whither Monro himself had gone to
demand protection for his followers ; and here

1757.] ITS DESTRUCTION. 513
Roubaud presently found a crowd of half-frenzied
women, crying in anguish for husbands and chil
dren. All the refugees and redeemed prisoners
were afterwards conducted to the entrenched
camp, where food and shelter were provided for
them and a strong guard set for their protection
untU the fifteenth, when they were sent under
an escort to Fort Edward. Here cannon had been
fired at intervals to guide those who had fled to
the woods, whence they came dropping in from
day to day, half dead with famine.
On the morning after the massacre the Indians
decamped in a body and set out for Montreal,
carrying with them their plunder and some two
hundred prisoners, who, it is said, could not be
got out of their hands. The soldiers were set
to the work of demolishing the English fort ; and
the task occupied several days. ,The barracks
were torn down, and the huge pine-logs of the
rampart thrown into a heap. The dead bodies
that filled, the casemates were added to the mass,
and fire was set to the whole. The mighty fu
neral pyre blazed all night. Then, on the six
teenth, the army reimbarked. The din of ten
thousand combatants, the rage, the terror, the
agony, were gone; and no living thing was left
but the wolves that gathered from the mountains
to feast upon the dead--'
1 The foregoing chapter rests largely on evidence never before brought
to light, including the minute Journal of Bougainville, — a document which
can hardly be commended too much, — the correspondence of Webb, a let-
'^er of Colonel Frye, written just after the massacre, and a journal of the
siege, sent by him to Governor Po-wnaU as his official report. Extracts
VOL. I. — 33

514 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757,
from these, as well as from the affidavit of Dr. Whitworth, which is also
new evidence, are given in Appendix F.
The Diary of Malartic and the correspondence of Montcalm, L€vis,
Vaudreuil, and Bigot, also throw light on the campaign, as well as
numerous reports of the siege, official and semi-official. The long letter
of the Jesuit Roubaud, printed anonymously in the Lettres Edifiantes et
Curieuses, gives a remarkably vivid account of what he saw. He was an
intelligent person, who may be trusted where he has no motive for lying.
Curious particulars about him will be found in a paper called. The deplor
able Case of Mr. Roubaud, printed in the Historical Magazine, Second
Series, VIII. 282. Compare Verreau, Report on Canadian. Archives, 1874.
Impressions of the massacre at Fort William Henry have hitherto been
derived chiefly from the narrative of Captain Jonathan Carver, in hiS
Travels, He has discredited himself by his exaggeration of the number
killed; but his account of what he himself saw tallies with that of the
other witnesses. He is outdone iu exaggeration by an anonymous French
writer of the time, who seems rather pleased at the occurrence, and
affirms that all the English were killed except seven hundred, these last
being captured, so that none escaped {Nouvelles du Canada envoyees de
Montreal, Aoiit, 1757). Carver puts killed and captured together at.
fifteen hundred. Vaudreuil, who always makes light of Indian barbari
ties, goes to the other extreme, and avers that no more than five or si^
were killed. L€vis and Roubaud, who saw everything, and were certain
not to exaggerate the number, give the most trustworthy evidence on this
point. The capitulation, having been broken by the allies of France, was
declared void by the British Government.
The Signal of Butchery, Montcalm, Bougainville, and several others
say that the massacre was begun by the Abenakis of Panaouski. Father
Martin, in quoting the letter in which Montcalm makes this statement,
inserts the word idolatres, which is not in the original. Dussieux and
O'Callaghan give the passage correctly. This Abenaki band, ancestors
of the present Penobsoots, were no idolaters, but had been converted more
than half a century. In the official list of the Indian allies they are set
down among the Christians. Roubaud, who had charge of them during
the expedition, speaks of these and other converts with singular candor :
" Vous avez dfl vous apercevoir . . . que nos sauvages, pour Stre Chrftiens,
n'en sont pas plus irreprfliensibles dans leur conduite."

END OF VOL. I.