1 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES THE WORKS OF FRANCIS PARKMAN ittnttnats iStritfon MONTCALM AND WOLFE Volume One 8050 7 THl£ WORKS OF FRANCIS PARKMAN Cnitrnart? EJjition Pioneers e raised; and these elective bodies were sometimes factious and selfish, and not always either far-sighted or reasonable. Moreover, they were in a state of ceaseless friction witli tlieir governors, who represented the King, or, what was worse, the feudal proprietary. These dis- putes, though var}'ing in intensity, were found every- where except in the two small colonies which chose their own governors ; and they were premonitions of the movement towards independence which ended in the war of Revolution. The occasion of difference mattered little. Active or latent, the quarrel was always present. In New York it turned on a ques- tion 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 [»n])lic crisis gave the representatives of the people an opportunity of extort- ing concessions from the representative of the Crown, a. (, of the j/ast against the future; of the old against the new; of moral and inUjllectual t/jrjKjr against moral and intf^llectual life; of Iranen aljsolut- ism against a liljeily, cnide, incoherent, and cljaotic, yet full of j>rolific vitality. Yoi^ Hie New u u t CHAPTER 11. CKLOKON PK lUKNVTLLE. RON. — Thk Oukav Wksv : ITS KrKOVKvN Olatmaxtt?: its Indian Tori iavion. — Kx<.u.isu Fik-Tkai^kks. — Cifei-OUv^x on THK Alleghany: his Rrcsptwn; mis DtrFrcttttlK*. — 1>»s- OKNT OK THK OuiO. — CovKRl" HoSTUITA — ASOKNV OF THR Miami. — La Pkmoiskli.k. — 1">\uk ruivsrKovs tVK Kranok, — Ohuistnophkr Gist. Okouvjb Croohan ; thkir Wkstkrv Mtssion. — Tick vwu iany. — Kngmsh Asokn^knoy. — En<;msu D»s»skn- SION ANn KlVAl-RY. — TllK KkV OF TUK GrKAT WkSV. When the j^eiioo of Aix-la-C'ha{H^llo w.u^ 5vernoi's. he w.vs a na\n»l offieer; and. a (ow yoiwa wiWv. \\c u\i\do hiniselt famous by a vieU>r\% near Minoiva, over \ho Ijis^lisli a«lnnr;vl Bvng, — an aehievetnenl iun\ rtMuon>lHMvd <'luo11v by the fatiM^f (he defeating eonnnand(M\ jiub cially MiunlonMl as (lie seapey;«vU o( an indH^Mle ministrv. la l»alis.s«t»nori> was a lunu|Uxu>k: but his deformed peiMiMi wiu** aniniadMl li\ a lH>ld sjurit and a stiMUiT and peiu»(ra(inj» inlolloii. lb* was (li«> rhicf repitwentutive of the vVnierioan juiliey of b'nuuu'. He .felt that, cost what it nnjTh(^ sho must hold fevst to "Gftnada. atid link Ium io Louisiana by ehains of f(>rt8 40 C^LORON DE BIENA'ILLE. [1749-1752. strong enough to hold back the British cohmies, and cramp their growth by confinement within narrow limit.s; wliile French settlere, sent from the mother- countiy, should spread and multiply in the broad valleys of the interior. It is true, he said, that Canada and her dependencies have always been a bmden; but they are necessary as a barrier against English ambition ; and tx) abandon them is to abandon ourselves; for if we suffer our enemies to become masf^rs in Amftrif»a, t.bp.ir t.rad^ and naval power will grow to vast proportions, and they will draw from their colonies a wealth that will make them pre- ponderant in Europe.^ The treaty had done nothing to settle the vexed question of boundaries between France and her rival. It had but staved off the inevitable conflict. Mean- while, the English traders were crossing the moun- tains from Pennsylvania and Virginia, poaching on the domain which France claimed as hers, ruining the French fur-trade, seducing the Indian allies of Canada, and stirring them up against her. Worae still, English land speculators were beginning to follow. Something must be done, and that promptly, to drive back the intruder, and vindicate French rights in the valley of the Ohio. To this end the governor sent C(5Ioron de Bienville thither in the summer of 17-49. He was a chevalier de St. Louis and a captain in ^ La Galissoniere, M^moire sur les Colonies de la France Jan*' "^ Amirique se.ptentrionale. 1749-1752.] ERRAND OF CELORON. 41 the colony troops. Under him went fourteen officers and cadets, twenty soldiers, a hundred and eighty Canadians, and a band of Indians, all in twenty-three birch-bark canoes. They left La Chine on the fif- teenth of June, and pushed up the rapids of the St. Lawrence, losing a man and damaging several canoes on the way. Ten days 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 enterpris- ing father, ostensibly a missionary, was in reality a zealous political agent, bent on winning over the red allies of the English, retrieving French prestige, and restorinsf 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 Celoron 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 42 CELOROX DE BIENVILLE. [1749-1752. the town of Portland now stands; and for the next seven days were busied in shouldering canoes and baggage up and down the steep hills, through the dense forest of beech, oak, ash, and elm, to the waters of Chautauqua Lake, eight or nine miles dis- tant. Here they embarked again, steering southward over the sunny watei's, in the stillness and solitude of the leafy hills, till they came to the outlet^ and glided dowTi the peaceful current in the shade of the tall forests that overarched it. This prosperity was short. The sti-eam 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 were 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 canebrakes of Louisiana ; one communicating with the world through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the other through the Gulf of Mexi-'O. These vital points were feebly 1749-1752.] INDIANS OF THE WEST. 4?l connected by a chain of military posts, — slender, and often interrupted, — circling through the wilder- ness nearly three thousand miles. Midway between Canada and Louisiana lay the valley of the Ohio. If the English should seize it, they would sever the chain of posts, and cut French America asunder. If the French held it, and intrenched themselves well along its eastern limits, they would shut their rivals between the Alleghanies and the sea, control all the tribes of the West, and turn them, in case of war, against the English borders, — a frightful and insup- portable scourge. The Indian population of the Ohio and its northern tributaries was relatively considerable. The upper or eastern half of the valley was occupied by mingled hordes of Delawares, Shawanoes, Wyandots, and Iroquois, or Indians of the Five Nations, who had misrrated 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 44 CfiLORON DE BIEX^^ILLE. [1749-1752. Maiimee, there was a small wooden fort, another on the St. Joseph, and two on the Wabash. On the meadows of the Mississippi, in the Illinois countr}% stood Fort Chartres, — a much stronger 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\-ening hamlets of St. Philippe and Prairie ^ la Roche, — a picturesque but thriftless population, mixed with Indians, totally ignorant, busied partly with the fur-trade, and partly with tlie raising of corn for the market of New Orleans. They communicated 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 wil- derness for seventy years, and had done scarcely more for it than the Indians, its natural owners. 1 Gordon, Journal, 1760, appended to Pownall, Topographical Description. In the Dc'pot dcs 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 centurj-. In 1753 the Marquis Duauesne denounced the colonists as debauched and lazy. 1749-1752.] ENGLISH FUR-TRADERS. 45 Of the western tribes, even of those living at the French posts, the Hurons or Wyandots alone were Christian. 1 The devoted zeal of the early mission- aries and the politic efforts of their successors 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. Dinwiddle, 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. "2 Indian traders, of whatever nation, are rarely models of virtue; and these, without doubt, were rough and lawless men, with abundant black- guardism and few scruples. Not all of them, how- ever, are to be thus qualified. Some were of a better stamp ; among whom were Christopher Gist, William Trent, and George Croghan. These and other chief traders hired men on the frontiers, crossed the Alle- ghanies with goods packed on the backs of horses, descended into the valley of the Oliio, and journeyed 1 " De toutes les nations domiciliees dans les postes des pays d'en haut, il n'y a que les hurons du de'troit qui aient embrasse la Religion chretienne." — Memoire du Roy pour servir d' instruction au S^, Marquis de Lajonquiere. 2 Dinwiddie to Hamilton, 21 May, 1753. Hamilton to Dinwiddie.-^ May, 1753. 46 CfiLOUON DE BIENVILLE. [1749. from stream to stream and village to village along the Indian trails, with which all this wilderness was seamed, and which the tradei-s widened to make them practicable. More rarely, they carried their goods on horses to the upper watei-s of the Ohio, and em- barked them in large wooden canoes, in which they descended the main river, and ascended such of 'ts numerous tributaries as were navigable. They were bold and entei-prising ; and French writers, with alarm and indignation, declare that some of them had crossed the Mississippi and traded M-ith the distant Osages. It is said that about three hundred of them came over the mountains every year. On reaching the Alleghany, Cdloron 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, stiimped 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 proceeding. The leaden plate was inscribed as follows: "Year 1749, in the reign of Louis Fifteenth, King of France. We, Cdloron, commanding the detachment sent by the Marquis de la Galissoniere, commander-general of New France, to restore tranquillity in certain villages of these cantons, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Ohio and the Kanaouagon [Conewcaicfo'], this 29th July, as a token of renewal of possession heretofore taken of the aforesaid River 1749.} POSSESSION OF THE OHIO. 47 Ohio, of all streams that fall into it, and all lands on both sides to the source of the aforesaid streams, as the preceding Kings of France have enjoyed or ought to have enjoyed it, and which they have upheld by force of arms and by treaties, notably by those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle." This done, the party proceeded on its way, mov- ing downward with the current, and passing from time to time rough openings in the forest, with clusters of Indian wigwams, the inmates of which showed a strong inclination to run off at their approach. To prevent this, Chabert de Joncaire was sent in advance, as a messenger of peace. He was himself half Indian, being the son of a French officer and a Seneca squaw, speaking fluently his maternal tongue, and, like his father, holding an important place in all dealings between the French and the tribes who spoke dialects of the Iroquois. On this occasion his success was not complete. It needed all his art to prevent the alarmed savages from tak- ing to the woods. Sometimes, however, Cdloron succeeded in gaining an audience; and at a village of Senecas called La Faille Couple he read them a message from La Galissoniere couched in terms suffi- O ciently imperative : " 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 Cdloron to 48 C^LORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749. tell you my intentions, which are that I will not endure the English on my land. Listen to me, chil- dren ; 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 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 rock scratched with Indian hieroglyphics, they buried another leaden plate. Three days after, they reached the Delaware village of Attiqud, at the site of Kittanning, whose twenty-two wagwams were all empty, the owners having fled. A little farther on, at an old abandoned village of Shawanoes, they found six English traders, whom they warned to begone, and return no more at their peril. Being helpless to resist, the traders pretended obedience; and C^loron charged them with a letter to the governor of Penn- sylvania, 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 pre- cise, to leave no foreign traders within the limits of his government."^ 1 Celoron, Journal. Compare the letter as translated in N. Y. Col. Docs., vi. 532 ; also Colonial Records of Pa., v. 425, 1749.] LOGSTOWN. 49 On the next day they reached a village of Iroquoia under a female chief, called Queen Alequippa by the English, to whom she was devoted. Both queen and subjects had fled ; but among the deserted wig- wams were six more Englishmen, whom Cdloron warned off like the others, and who, like them, pre- tended to obey. At a neighboring town they found only two withered ancients, male and female, whose united ages, in the judgment of the chaplain, were full two centuries. They passed the site of the future Pittsburg; and some seventeen miles below approached Chiningue, called Logstown by the Eng- lish, one of the chief places on the river. ^ Both English and French flags were flying over the town, and the inhabitants, lining the shore, greeted their visitors with a salute of musketry, — not wholly wel- come, as the guns were charged with ball. Cdloron 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, Shawanoes, and Mingoes. Here, too, were gathered many fugi- tives from the deserted towns above. C^loron feared a night attack. The camp was encircled by a ring of sentries ; the officers walked the rounds till morn- ing ; a part of the men were kept under arms, and 1 There was another Chiningue, the Shenango of the English, on the Alleghany. VOL. I. — 4 50 CELORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749. 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 instead of a battle, there was a council. Cdloron delivered to the assembled chiefs a message from the governor more conciliatory than the former: " Through the love I bear you, my children, I send you Monsieur de C^loron 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, wa.s not all that could be wished. They begged that the intrudei-s might stay a little longer, since the goods they brought were necessary 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 western tribes. Logs- town was one of the chief resorts of the English traders ; and at this moment there were ten of them 1749.] CELORON BURIES PLATES. 51 in the place. Cdloron 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 or 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 plat« protruding from the bank where the freshets had laid it bare, knocked it down with a long stick, melted half of it into bullets, and gave what remained to a neighbor from Marietta, who, hearing of this myste- rious relic, inscribed in an unknown tongue, came to rescue it from their hands. ^ It is now in the cabinet of the American Antiquarian Society.^ On the eighteenth of August, Cdloron buried yet an- other plate, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha. This, too, in the course of a centuiy, was unearthed by the floods, and was found in 1846 by a boy at play, by the edge of the water. '^ The inscriptions on all these plates were much alike, with variations of date and place. 1 O. H. Marshall, in Magazine of American History, March, 1878. 2 For papers relating to it, see Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc, 11. 8 For a facsimile of the Inscription on this plate, see Olde* rime, i. 288. Celoron calls the Kanawha, Chinodahichetha. The inscriptions as given in his Journal correspond with those on th^ plates discovered. 52 C^LORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749. The weather was by turns rainy and hot ; and tlie 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 woret. Joncaire was 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 inter- position of a friendly Iroquois saved him; and at length they let him go. C^'loron 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 Indians. 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 for 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 musketry. "They fired," says Cdloron, " full a thousand 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 1749.] ASCENT OF ThE MIAMI, 53 party distrusted and feared the other. At length, after much ado, many debates, and some threatening movements on the part of the alarmed and excited Indians, a council took place at the tent of the French commander; the chiefs apologized for the rough treatment of Joncaire, and Cdloron replied with a rebuke, which would doubtless have been less mild, had he felt himself stronger. He gave them also a message from the governor, modified, apparently, 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 unsat- isfactory. It was plain that they were bound to the enemy by interest, if not by sympathy. A party of English traders were living in the place; and C^loron summoned them to withdraw, on pain of what might ensue. "My instructions," he says, "enjoined me to do this, and even to pillage the English; but I was not strong enough; and as these traders were established in the village and well supported by the Indians, the attempt would have failed, and put the French to shame." The assembled chiefs having been regaled with a cup of brandy each, — the only part of the proceeding which seemed to please them, — Cdloron re-embarked, and continued his voyage. On the thirtieth they reached the Great Miami, called by the French, Riviere a la Roche ; and here C^loron buried the last of his leaden plates. They 54 CELOKON DE BIENVILLE. [1749. 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 multi- tude of Indian villages on its shores, and still more on its northern branches. " Each, great or small, has one or more English traders, and each of these has hired men to carry liis fui-s. Behold, then, the English well advanced upcm our lands, and, what is worse, under tlie protection of a crowd of savages whom they have drawn over to them, and whose number increases daily." The course of the party lay up the Miami; and they toiled thirteen days against the shallow current before they reached a village of the Miami Indians, lately built at the mouth of the rivulet now called Loramie Creek. Over it ruled a chief to whom the French had given the singular name of La Demoiselle, but whom the English, whose fast friend he was, called Old Britain. The English traders who lived here had prudently withdrawn, leaving only two hired men in the place. The object of C^loron 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 Mauraee, where they would be safe from English seduction. To this end, he called them to a council, gave them ample gifts, and made them an harangue in the name of the governor. The Demoiselle took the gifts, thanked his French father for his good advice, and promised to follow it at a 1749.] LA DEMOISELLE. 55 more convenient tirae.^ In vain C^loron insisted that he and his tribesmen should remove at once. Neither blandishments nor threats would prevail, and the French commander felt that his negotiatixDn had failed. He was not deceived. Far from leaving his village, the Demoiselle, who was Great Chief of the Miami Confederacy, gathered his followers to the spot, till, less than two years 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 Frontenac; and as he descended thence to Montreal, he stopped at the 1 Celoron, Journal. Compare A Message from the Twightweet Miamis) in Colonial Records of Pa., v. 437, where they say that they refused the gifts. 66 CfiLOROX DE BIENVILLE. [1749. Oswegatchie, in obedience to the governor, who had directed liini to report the progress made by the Sulpitian, Ablx^ 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 Cdloron 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 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 con- dition of French interests in the West. While C^loron 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 country; and a grant of five hundred thousand acres was procured from the King, on condition that a hundred families should be established upon it within seven years, a fort built, and a garrison maintained. The Ohio Company 1 Journal de la Campagne que moy C€loron, Chevalier de I'Ordre Royal et MiUtaire de St. Louis, Capitaine Commandant un d^tache- ment envoys dans la Belle Riviere par les ordres de M. le Marquis de La Galissoniere, etc. Relation d'un voi/nge dnns la Belle Riviere sous les ordret de M. d* Ciloron, par le Pert Bonnecamp, en 1749. 1750.] THE OHIO COMPANY. 67 numbered among its members some of the chief men of Virginia, including two brothers of Washington; and it had also a London partner, one Hanbury, a person of influence, who acted as its agent in Eng- land. In the year after the expedition of Cdloron, its governing committee sent the trader Christopher Gist to explore the country and select land. It must be "good level land," wrote the committee; "we had rather go quite down to the Mississippi than take mean, broken land."^ In November Gist reached Logstown, the Chiningu^ of C^loron, where he found what he calls a " parcel of reprobate Indian traders." Those whom he so stigmatizes were Pennsylvanians, chiefly Scotch-Irish, between whom and the traders from Virginia there was great jealousy. Gist was told that he " should never go home safe." He declared himself the bearer of a message from the King. This imposed respect, and he was allowed to proceed. At the Wyandot village of Muskingum he found the trader George Croghan, sent to the Indians by the governor of Peinisylvania, 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 Penn- sylvanian had with him a companion, Andrew Montour, the interpreter, who proved of great service * Instructions to Gist, in appendix to Pownall, Topographical Description of North America. * Mr. Croghan' s Transactions with the Indians, in N. Y. Col, Doct,^ nil. 267 ; Croghan to Hamilton, 16 December, 1750. 68 CfiLOROX DE BIENVILLE. [1750. to Gist. As IMontour 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 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 spangles, 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 Woman's Creek, — so called from one Mary Harris, 1 This is stated by Count Zinzendorf, who visited her among the Senecas. Compare " Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV.," 3S6. In a plan of the " Route of the Western Army," made in 1770, and of which a tracing is before me, the village where she lived is still called " French Catharine's Town." 2 Journal of Zinzendorf, quoted in Schweinitz, Lift of David Zeisberger, 112, note. 1750, 1751] PICK AWILL ANY. 69 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, fuiding such comfort as she might in an Indian husband and a family of young half-breeds. "She still remembers," says Gist, "that they used to be very religious in New England, and wonders how white men can be so wicked as she has seen them in these woods." He and his companions now journeyed southwestward to the Shawanoe town at the mouth of the Scioto, where they found a reception very different from that which had awaited C^loron. Thence they rode northwest- ward along the forest path that led to Pickawillany, the Indian town on the upper waters of the Great Miami. Gist was delighted with the country, and reported to his employers that " it is fine, rich, level land, well timbered with large walnut, ash, sugar trees and cherry trees; well watered with a great number of little streams and rivulets ; full of beauti- ful natural meadows, with wild rye, blue-grass, and clover, and abounding with turkeys, deer, elks, and most sorts of game, particularly buffaloes, thirty or forty of which are frequently seen in one meadow." A little farther west, on the plains of the Wabash and the Illinois, he would have found them by thousands. They crossed the Miami on a raft, their horses swimming after them ; and were met on landing by a crowd of warriors, who, after smoking with them, escorted them to the neighboring town, where they 60 CELORON 1)E BIEXYILLE. [1751. were greeted by a fusillade of welcome. "We en- tered with English coloi"s 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 tradere that were there came and welcomed us." This "king" was Old Britain, or La Demoiselle. Great were the changes here since Cdloron, a year and a half before, had vainly enticed him to change his abode, and dwell in the shadow of the fleur-de-lis. The to^vn had gro^vn to four hun- dred 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 advice, which the auditors received with the usual monosyl- labic 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 any- thing the French say, nor do anything they bid us." 1751.] MIAMIS AND ENGLISH. 61 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 Wyandots.i ^^Q 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 mes- sage from the Demoiselle, inviting his English 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 Indian drum. From time to time a warrior would leap up, and the drum and the dancers would cease 1 Compare Message of Miamis and Hurons to the Governor oj Pennsylvania in N. Y. Col. Docs., vi. 594 ; and Report of Croghan in Colonial Records of Pa., v. 522, 523, 62 C^LORON DE BIENVILLE. [1751. as he struck a post with liis tomahawk, and in a loud voice recounted his exploits. Then the music and the dance began anew, till another warrior cauglft the martial fire, and bounded into the circle to bran- dish his tomahawk and vaunt his prowess. On the firet of jNIarch Gist took leave of Picka^^'il- lany, and returned towards the Ohio. He would have gone to the Falls, where Louisville now stands, but for a band of Frencli 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 diiliculty the moun- tains about the sources of the Kanawha, 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.^ 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 Delawares had not forgotten the wrongs that drove them from their old abodes east of the Alleghanies, while the Mingoes, or emigrant Iroquois, like their brethren of New York, felt the influence of Joncaire and other French agents, who spared no efforts to seduce them.^ Still 1 Journal of Christopher Gist, in appendix to Pownall, Topographi- cal Description. Mr. Crvijhan's Transactions with the Indians in N. Y. Cot. Docs., vii. 267. 2 Joncaire made anti-English speeches to the Ohio Indians 1750-1752.] ENGLISH APATHY. 63 more baneful to British interests were the apathy and dissensions of the British colonies themselves. The Ohio Company had built a trading-house at Will's Creek, a branch of the Potomac, to which the Indians resorted in great numbers; whereupon the jealous traders of Pennsylvania told them that the Virginians meant to steal away their lands. This confirmed what they had been taught by the French emissaries, whose intrigues it powerfully aided. The governors of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia saw the importance of Indian alliances, and felt their own responsibility in regard to them ; but they could do nothing without their assemblies. Those of New York and Pennsylvania were largely composed of tradesmen and farmers, absorbed in local interests, and possessed by two motives, — the saving of the people's money, and opposition to the governor, who gtood for the royal prerogative. It was Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, who had sent Croghan to the Miamis to "renew the chain of friendship;" and when the envoy returned, the Assembly rejected his report. "I was condemned," he says, "for bringing expense on the Government, and the Indians were neglected." ^ In the same year Hamilton again sent him over the mountains, with a present for the Mingoes and Dela wares. Croghan succeeded in under the eyes of the English themselves, who did not molest him. Journal of George Croghan, 1751, in Olden Time, i. 136. ^ Mr. Crogkan's Transactions with the Indians, N. Y. Col. Doct^ Tii. 267. 64 CELORON DE BIEN"\7LLE. [1750-1752. persuading them that it would be for their good if the English should build a fortified trading-house at the fork of the Oliio, where Pittsburg now stands; and they made a formal request to the governor that it should be built accordingly. But, in the words of Croghan, the Assembly "rejected the proposal, and condemned me for making such a report." Yet this post on the Ohio was vital to English interests. Even the Penns, proj)rietaries 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 wot listen. 1 The Indians were so well convinced that a strong English trading-station in their country would add to their safety and comfort, that when Pennsylvania refused it, they repeated the proposal to Virginia; but here, too, it found for the present little favor. The question of disputed boundaries had much to do with this most impolitic inaction. A large part of the valley of the Ohio, including the site of the proposed establishment, was claimed by both Penn- sylvania and Virginia ; and each feared that whatever money it might spend there would turn to the profit 1 Colonial Records of Pa., v. 515, 529, 547. At a council at Logs- town (1751), the Indians said to Croghan: "The French want to cheat us out of our country ; but we will stop them, and. Brothers the English, you must help us. We expect that you will build a strong house on the River 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 Lofjstown, Ibid., y. 53& 1750-1752.] ENGLISH APATHY. 65 of the other. This was not the only evil that sprang from uncertain ownership. "Till the line is run between the two provinces," says Dinwiddle, gov- ernor of Virginia, "I cannot appoint magistrates to keep the traders in good order." ^ Hence they did what they pleased, and often gave umbrage to the Indians. Clinton, of New York, appealed to his Assembly for means to assist Pennsylvania in " secur- ing the fidelity of the 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, inviting them to send commissioners to meet the tribes at Albany, "in order to defeat the designs and intrigues of the French." All turned a deaf ear except Massachusetts, Connecticut, and South Carolina, who sent the commissioners, but supplied them very meagrely with the indispensable presents.^ Clinton says further: "The Assembly of this province have not given one farthing for Indian affairs, nor for a year past have they provided for the subsistence of the garrison at Oswego, which is the key for the commerce between the colonies and the inland nations of Indians."* In the heterogeneous structure of the British 1 Dinwiddle to the Lords of Trade, 6 October, 1752. 2 Journals of New York Assembly, ii. 283," 284. Colonial Records of Pa., V. 466. 8 Clinton to Hamilton, 18 December, 1750. Clinton to Lords oj Trade, 13 June, 1751 ; Ibid., 17 July, 1751. 4 Clinton to Bedford, 30 July, 1750. ▼OL. 1. — 5 66 CfiLOROX DE BIENVILLE. [1750-1752. colonies, their clashing interests, their internal dis- putes, and the misj)laced economy of penny-wise and short-sighted assembly-men, lay the hope of France. The rulers of Canada knew the vast numerical pre- ponderance of their rivals ; but witli 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 Celoron (Archives de la Marine) is very Jong and circumstantial, includinf; the proces verbaur, and reports of councils witii Indians. The Journal of the chaplain, Bonne- camp (Depot de la Marine), is shorter, but is the work of an intelli- gent and observing man. The author, a Jesuit, was skilled in mathematics, made daily observations, and constructed a map of the route, still preserved at the Depot de la Marine. Concurrently with these French narratives, one may consult the English letters and documents bearing on the same subjects, in the Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, the Archives of Pennsylvania, and the Colonial Documents of New York. Three of Cc'loron's leaden plates have been found, — the two mentioned in the text, and another which was never buried, and which the Indians, who regarded these mysterious tablets as " bad medicine," procured by a trick from Joncaire, or, according to Governor Clinton, stole from him. A Cayuga chief brought it to .Colonel Johnson on the Mohawk, who interpreted the " Devilish writing" in such a manner as best to inspire horrur of French designs. CHAPTER III. 1749-1753. CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. The Five Nations. — Caughnawaga. — Abbe Piquet : his Schemes ; his Journey. — Fort Frontenac. — Tokonto. — Niagara. — Oswego. — Success of Piquet. — Detroit. — La JoNQUii;RE : his Intrigues ; his Trials ; his Death. — English Intrigues. — Critical State of the West. — Pick- AWILLANY 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 inter- national politics. In a certain sense they may be said to have held the balance between their French and English neighbors; but their relative influence had of late declined. So many of them had emi- grated and joined the tribes of the Ohio, that the centre of Indian population had passed to that region. Nevertheless, the Five Nations were still strong enough in their ancient abodes to make their alliance an object of the utmost consequence to both the European rivals. At the western end of their " Lo ng , House," or belt of confederated villages, Joncaire intrigued to gain them for France ; while in the east he was counteracted by the young colonel of militia^ 68 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1749-1753. William Johnson, who lived on the Mohawk, and was already well skilled in managing Indians. Johnson sometimes lost his temper; and once wrote to Governor Clinton to complain of the "confounded wicked things the French had infused into the Indians' heads; among the rest that the English were deter- mined, the first opportunity, to destroy them all. I assure your Excellency I had hard work to beat these and several other cursed villanous tilings, told them by the French, out of their heads." ^ In former times the French had hoped to win over the Five Nations in a body, by wholesale conversion to the Faith; but the attempt had failed. They had, however, made within their own limits an asylum for such converts as they could gain, whom they collected together at Caughnawaga, near Montreal, to the number of about three hundred warriors. ^ These could not be trusted to fight their kinsmen, but willingly made forays against the English borders. Caughnawaga, like various other Canadian missions, was divided between the Church, the army, and the fur-trade. It had a chapel, fortifications, and store- houses; two Jesuits, an ofiicer, and three chief traders. Of these last, two were maiden ladies, the Demoiselles Desauniers ; and one of the Jesuits, their friend Father Tournois, was their partner in busi- ness. They carried on by means of the Mission 1 Johnson to Clinton, 28 April, 1749. 2 Tht estimate of a French official report, 1736, and of Sir William Johnson, 1763, 1749-1753.] PIQUET. 69 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 Onon- dagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. This was the estab- lishment of Father Piquet, which C^loron 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, energetic, vain, self-confident, and boastful. The enterprise seems to have been of his own devising ; but it found warm approval from the government.^ La Presentation, as he called the new mission, stood on the bank of the river Oswegatchie where it enters the St. Lawrence. Here the rapids ceased, and navigation was free to Lake Ontario. The place commanded the main river, and could bar the way to hostile war- parties or contraband traders. Rich meadows, forests, and abundance of fish and game, made it attractive 1 La Jonquiere au Ministre, 27 Fe'vrier, 1750. Ibid., 29 Octobre, 1751. Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, 1751. Notice blo' graphique de La Jonquiere. La Jonquiere, governor of Canada, at last broke up their contraband 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 money and provisions. N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 204. 70 COXFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1749-1753. to Indians, aiul ihe Oswegatchie gave access to the Iroquois towns. Piquet had chosen his site witli great skill. His activity was admirable. His hrst stockade was burned by Indian incendiaries; but it rose quickly from its ashes, and within a year or two the mission of La Prdsentation had a fort of palisades flanked with blockliouses, a chapel, a storehouse, a bam, a stable, ovens, a saw-mill, broad fields of corn and beans, and three villages of Iroquois, containing, in all, forty-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 soldiei-s to man the fort, and five small cannon to mount upon it. The place was as safe for the new proselytes as it was convenient and agreeable. The Pennsylvanian inter- preter, Conrad Weiser, was told at Onondaga, the Iroquois capital, that Piquet had made a hundred converts from that place alone; and that, "having clothed them all in very fine clothes, laced with silver and gold, he took them down and presented them to the French governor at Montreal, who re- ceived them very kindly, and made them large presents."^ Such were some of the temporal attractions of La Presentation. The nature of the spiritual instruc- tion bestowed by Piquet and his fellow-priests may be partly inferred from the words of a proselyte warrior, who declared with enthusiasm that he had ^ Journal of Conrad Weiser, 1750. 1749-1753.] BOASTS OF PIQUET. 71 learned from the Sulpitian missionary that the King of France was the eldest son of the wife of Jesus Christ. 1 This he of course took in a literal sense, the mystic idea of the Church as the spouse of Christ 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 repre- sented 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, contradiction, and opposition from nearly all the Indian villages, I have formed in less than three years one of the most flourishing missions in Canada. I find myself in a position to extend the empire of my good 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." 2 The letter from which this is taken was written to urge upon the government a scheme in which the zealous priest could see nothing impracticable. He proposed to raise a war-party of thirty-eight hundred 1 Lalande, Notice de l'Ahb€ Piquet, in Lettres ^dijiantes. See also Tasse in Revue Canadienne, 1870, p. 9. 2 Piquet a La Jonquiere et Bigot, 8 F^vrier, 1752. See Appendix A. In spite of Piquet's self-laudation, and in spite also of the detraction of the author of the Me'moires 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 pour le service de Sa Majeste." 72 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1751. Indians, eighteen hundred of whom were to be drawn from the Canadian missions, tlie Five Nations, and the tribes of the Ohio, while the remaining two thousand were to be furnished by the Flatheads, or Choctaws, who were at the same time to be supplied with missionaries. The united force was first to drive the English from the Ohio, and next attack the Dog Tribe, or Cherokees, who lived near the borders of Vii'ginia, with the people of which they were on friendly terms. "If," says Piquet, "the English of Virginia give any help to this last-named tribe, — which will not fail to happen, — they [the 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 settlera 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 Iroquois," as he was called, made a journey to muster recruits for his mission, and kept a copious diary on the way. By accompanying liim, 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. La^vrence, and five Indian converts followed in another canoe. Emerging from among the Thousand Islands, they stopped at Fort Frontenac, where Kingston now stands. Once the place was a great * Appendix A. Z751.] PIQUET AT TORONTO. 73 resort of Indians ; now none were here, for the Eng- lish post of Oswego, on the other side of the lake, had greater attractions. Piquet and his company found the pork and bacon very bad, and he com- plains that " there was not brandy enough in the fort to wash a wound." They crossed to a neighboring island, where they were soon visited by the chaplain of the fort, the storekeeper, his wife, and three young ladies, glad of an excursion to relieve the monotony of the garrison. "My hunters," says Piquet, "had supplied me with means of giving them a pretty good entertainment. We drank, with all our hearts, the health of the authorities, temporal and ecclesiastical, to the sound of our musketry, which was very well fired, and delighted the islanders." These islanders were a band of Indians who lived here. Piquet gave them a feast, then discoursed of religion, and at last persuaded them to remove to the new mission. During eight days he and his party coasted the northern shore of Lake Ontario, with various inci- dents, such as an encounter between his dog Cerberus and a wolf, to the disadvantage of the latter, and the meeting with " a very fine negro of twenty-two years, a fugitive from Virginia." On the twenty-sixth of June they reached the new fort of Toronto, which offered a striking contrast to their last stopping- place. "The wine here is of the best; there is noth- ing wanting in this fort; everything is abundant, fine, and good." There was reason for this. Tht 74 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1751. northern Indians were flocking with their beaver- skins to the English of Oswego; and in April, 1749, an officer named Portneuf had been sent with soldiers and workmen to build a stockaded trading-house at Toronto, in order to intercept them, — not by force, which would have been ruinous to French interests, but by a tempting supply of goods and brandy J Thus the fort was kept well stocked, and with excel- lent effect. Piquet found here a band of Mississagas, who would otherwise, no doubt, have carried their furs to the English. He was strongly impelled to persuade them to migrate to La Presentation; but the governor had told him to confine his efforts to other tribes ; and lest, he says, the ardor of his zeal should betray him to disobedience, he re-embarked, and encamped six leagues from temptation. Two days more brought him to Niagara, where he was warmly received by the commandant, the chap- lain, and the storekeeper, — the triumvirate who ruled these forest outposts, and stood respectively for their three vital principles, war, religion, and trade. Here Piquet said mass ; and after resting a day, set out for the trading-house at the portage of the cata- ract, recently built, like Toronto, to stop the Indians on their way to Oswego. ^ Here he found Joncaire, and here also was encamped a large band of Senecas ; ^ On Toronto, La Jonquiere et Bigot au Ministre, 1749. La Jon- quiere au Ministre, 30 Aoul, 1750. N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 201, 246. ^ La Jonquiere an Afinistre,2S F€vrier, 1750. Ibid. ,6 Octobre, 175L Compare Colonial Records of Pa., v. 508. 1751.] PIQUET AT NIAGARA. 75 though, being all drunk, men, women, and children, they were in no condition to receive the Faith, or appreciate the temporal 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 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 breviary while my Indians and the Senecas, without loss of time, assembled to hold a council with Monsieur de Joncaire." The result of the council was an entreaty to the missionary not to stop at Oswego, lest evil should befall him at the hands of the English. He promised to do as they wished, and presently set out on his return to Fort Niagara, attended by Joncaire and a troop of his new followers. The journey was a triumphal progress. " Whenever we passed a camp or a wigwam, the Indians saluted me by firing their guns, which happened so often that I thought all the trees along the way were charged with gunpowder ; and when we reached the fort. Monsieur de Becan- cour received us with great ceremony and the firing of cannon, by which my savages were infinitely flattered." His neophytes were gathered into the chapel foi the first time in their lives, and there rewarded with 76 CONFLICT FOR THE AVEST. [175L a few presents, lie now prepared to turn homeward, his flock at the mission being left in his absence without a shepherd; and on the sixth of July lie 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 noA\ stands. On the way, the Indians found a populous resort of rattlesnakes, and attacked the gregarious reptiles ^vith 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 avei"s, requited the efforts of the sportsmen, and not one of them was bitten. When he returned to camp in the afternoon he found there a canoe loaded with kegs of brandy. "The English," he says, " had sent it to meet us, well knowing that this was the best way to cause disorder among my new recruits and make them desert me. The Indian in charge of the canoe, who had the look of a great rascal, offered some to me fust, and then to my Canadians and Indians. I gave out that it was very probably poisoned, and immediately embarked again." He encamped on the fourteenth at Sodus Bay, and strongly advises the planting of a French fort there. "Nevertheless," he adds, " it would be still better to destroy Oswego, and on no account let the English build it again." On the sixteenth he came in sight of this dreaded post. Several times on the way he had met fleets of canoes going thither or returning, in spite of the rival attractions of Toronto and 1751.] PIQUET AT OSWEGO. 77 Niagara. No English establishment on the conti- nent was of such ill omen to the French. It not only robbed them of the fur-trade, by which they lived, but threatened them with military and political, no less than commercial, ruin. They were in constant dread lest ships of war should be built here, strong enough to command Lake Ontario, thus separating Canada from Louisiana, and cutting New France asunder. To meet this danger, they soon after built at Fort Frontenac a large three-masted vessel, mounted with heavy cannon; thus, as usual, fore- stalling their rivals by promptness of action. ^ The ground on which Oswego stood was claimed by the Province of New York, which alone had control of it ; but through the purblind apathy of the Assembly, and their incessant quarrels with the governor, it was commonly left to take care of itself. For some time they would vote no money to pay the feeble little garrison; and Clinton, who saw the necessity of maintaining it, was forced to do so on his own personal credit.^ "Why can't your governor and your great men [the Assembly] agree?" asked a Mohawk chief of the interpreter, Conrad Weiser.^ Piquet kept his promise not to land at the English fort; but he approached in his canoe, and closely observed it. The shores, now covered by the city of Oswego, were then a desolation of bare hills and 1 Lieutenant Lindesay to Johnson, July, 1751. » Clinton to Lords of Trade, 30 July, 1750. ' Journal of Conrad Weiser, 1750. 78 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1751. fields, studded with the stumps of felled trees, and hedged about witli a grim border of forests. Nea' the stmnd, by the mouth of the Ouondaga, were tlu houses of some of the traders; and on the hiofhtr ground behind them stood a huge blockhouse with a projecting upper story. This building was sur- rounded 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 commanded," he says, "on almost every side; two batteries, of three twelve- pounders each, would be more than enough to reduce it to ashes." And he enlarges on the evils that arise from it. " It not only spoils our 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- quins, who were going on a war-party with Monsieur Beletre, formed a line of their own accord, and saluted us with three volleys of musketry, and cries of joy without end. All our little bark vessels replied in the same way. Monsieur de Vercheres and Monsieur de Valtry ordered the cannon of the 1 Compare Doc. Hist. X. Y., i. 463. I751.J SUCCESS OF PIQUET. 79 fort to be fired; and my Indians, transported with joy at the honor done them, shot off their guns inces- santly, with cries and acclamations that delighted everybody." A goodly band of recruits joined him, and he pursued his voyage to La Presentation, while the canoes of his proselytes followed in a swarm to their new home ; " that establishment " — thus in a burst of enthusiasm he closes his Journal — " that establishment which I began two years ago, in the midst of opposition; that establishment which may be regarded as a key of the colony; that establish- ment which officers, interpreters, and traders thought a chimera, — that establishment, I say, forms already a mission of Iroquois savages whom I assembled at first to the number of only six, increased last year to eighty-seven, and this year to three hundred and ninety-six, without counting more than a hundred and fifty whom Monsieur Chabert de Joncaire is to bring me this autumn. And I certify that thus far I have received from His Majesty — for all favor, grace, and assistance — no more than a half pound of bacon and two pounds of bread for daily rations; and that he has not yet given a pin to the cliapel, which I have maintained out of my own pocket, for the greater glory of my masters, God and the King."i 1 Journal qui pent servir de M^moire et de Relation du Voyage que y ay fait sur le Lac Ontario pour attirer au nouvel ^tahlissement de La Presentation les Sauvages Iroquois des Cinq Nations, 1751. The last passage given above is condensed in the rendering, as the original \8 extremely involved and ungrammatical. so CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1751. In his late journey he had made the entire circuit of Lake Ontario. Beyond lay four other inland oceans, to which Fort Niagara was the key. As that all-essential post controlled the passage from Ontario to Erie, so did Fort Detroit control that from Erie to Huron, and Fort Michilimackinac that from Huron to Michigan ; while Fort Ste. Marie, at the outlet of Lake Superior, had lately received a garrison, and changed from a mission and trading-station to a post of war.^ This immense extent of inland na vibration was safe in the hands of France so long as she held Niagara. Niagara lost, not only the lakes, but also the Valley of the Ohio was lost with it. Next in importance was Detroit. This was not a military post alone, but also a settlement; and, except the hamlets about Fort Chartres, the only settlement that France owned in all the West. There were, it is true, but a few families ; yet the hope of growth seemed good ; for to such as liked a mlderness home, no spot in America had more attraction. Father Bonnecamp stopped here for a day on his way back from the expedition of Celoron. "The situation," he says, "is charming. A fine river flows at the foot of the fortifications; vast meadows, asking only to be tilled, extend beyond the sight. Nothing can be more agreeable than the climate. Winter lasts hardly two montlis. European grains and fruits grow here far better than in many parts of France. It is the Touraine and Beauce of Canada. '"^ The white flag 1 Zia Jonquiere au Ministre, 24 Aout, 1750. * Relation du Voiage de la Belle Riviere, 1749. J750, 1751.1 DETROIT. 81 of the Bourbons floated over the compact httle pali- saded town, with its popuhition of soldiers and fur- traders; and from the blockhouses which served as bastions, one saw on either hand the small solid dwellings of the habitants, ranged at intervals along the margin of the water; while at a little distance three Indian villages — Ottawa, Pottawattamie, and Wyandot — curled their wigwam smoke into the pure summer air.^ When C^loron de Bienville returned from the Ohio, he went, with a royal commission, sent him a year before, to command at Detroit. ^ His late chap- lain, the very intelligent Father Bonnecamp, speaks of him as fearless, energetic, and full of resource; but the governor calls him haughty and insubordinate. Great efforts were made, at the same time, to build up Detroit as a centre of French power in the West. The methods employed were of the debilitating, paternal character long familiar to Canada. All emigrants with families were to be carried thither at the King's expense ; and every settler was to receive in free gift a gun, a hoe, an axe, a ploughshare, a scythe, a sickle, two augers, large and small, a sow, six hens, a cock, six pounds of powder, and twelve pounds of lead; while to these favors were added many others. The result was that twelve families 1 A plan of Detroit is before me, made about this time by the engineer Lery. 2 Le Ministre a La Jonouiire et Bigot, 14 Mai, 1749. Le Miniitre a C€loron, 23 Mai, 1749. VOL. I. — 6 82 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1750, 1751. were persuaded to go, or about a twentieth part of the number wanted.^ Detroit was expected to fur- nish supplies to the other posts for five hundred miles around, control the neighboring Indians, thwart English machinations, and diive off English interlopers. La Galissoni^re no longer governed Canada. He had been honorably recalled, and the Marquis de la Jonquiure sent in his stead. ^ La Jonquifere, like his predecessor, was a naval officer of high repute; he was tall and imposing in pei'son, and of undoubted capacity and courage ; but old and, according to his enemies, very avaricious.^ The colonial minister gave him special instructions regarding that thorn in the side of Canada, Oswegb. To attack it openly would be indiscreet, as the two nations were at peace ; but there was a way of dealing with it less hazardous, if not more lawful. This was to attack it vicariously by means of the Iroquois. "If Abbd Piquet succeeds in his mission," wrote the minister to the new governor, " we can easily persuade these ^ Ordonnance du 2 Janvier, 1750. La Jonquiere et Bigot au Mi- nistre, 1750. Forty-sLx persons of all ages and both sexes had been induced by La Galissoniere to go the year before. Lettres communes de La Jonquiireet Bigot, l~i{i. Tlie total fixed population of Detroit and its neighborliood in 1750 is stated at four hundred and eighty- three souls. In the following two years, a considerable number of young men came of their own accord, and Celoron wrote to Mont- real to ask for girls to marry them. ^ Le Ministre a La Galissoniere, 14 Mai, 1749. • M€moires sur le Canada, 1749-1700. The charges made here and elsewhere are denied, somewhat faintly, by a descendant of La Jonquiere in his elaborate Aotice biograjj/ii^ue of his ancestor. 1750, 1751.] CLINTON AND LA JONQUIERE. 83 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 [Oswego] as opposed to their liberty, and, so to speak, a usur- pation by which the English mean to get possession of their lands, they could be induced to undertake its destruction, an operation of the sort is not to be neglected ; but M. le Marquis de la Jonquiere should feel with what circumspection such an affair should be conducted, and he should labor to accomplish it in a manner not to commit himself. "^ To this La Jonquiere replies that it will 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 correspond- ence which he had with Clinton, governor of New York, who had written to complain of the new post at the Niagara portage as an invasion of English territory, and also of the arrest of four English 1 Le Ministre a La Jonquiere, Mai, 1749. The instructions given to La Jonquiere before leaving France also urge the necessity of destroying Oswego. 2 Ordres du Roy et De'peches des Ministres ; a MM. de La Jonquidr et Bigot, 16 Avril, 1750. See Appendix A for original. • Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, 1760. 84 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1750, 1751. traders in the countiy of the IMiamis. Niagara, like Oswego, waii in the countiy of the Five Nations, whom the treaty of Utrecht declared "subject to the dominion of Great Britain." ^ This declaration, pre- posteroiLs in itself, was binding on France, whose plenipotentiaries had signed the treaty. The treaty also provided that the subjects of the two Crowns "shall enjoy full liberty of going and coming on account of trade," and Clinton therefore demanded that La Jonquiere should disavow the arrest of the four tradere and punish its authors. The French governor replied with great asperity, spumed the claim tliat the Five Nations were British subjects, and justified the arrest. ^ He presently went further. Rewards were offered by his officers for the scali)S of Croghan and of another trader named Lowry.^ When this reached the ears 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 in his own house; for I can at any time get an Indian to kill any man for a small matter. Their going on in that manner is woi-se than open war." The French on their side made counter-accusa- tions. The captive tradei-s Avere examined on oath before La Jonquiere, and one of them, John Patton, 1 Chalmers, Collection of Treaties, i. 382. • La Jonfi>iierc a Clinton, 10 Adit. 1751. • Deposition of Morris Turner and Ralph Kilpore, in Colonial Records of Pa., v. 482. The deponents had been prisoners at Detroit. 1750, 1751.] LA JONQUlfiRE'S TROUBLES. 85 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 Canada 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 cor- ruption; and the centre of it was Frangois Bigot, the intendant. The minister directed La Jonquidre'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 thrill for the service of my King. I will not > Precis des Fails, avec leurs Pieces j'ustijicatives, 100. ■ Ordres du Roy et De'peches des Ministres, 1750. « Ibid., 6 Juin, 1751. 86 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1750-1752. conceal from you that the slightest suspicion on your part against me would cut the thread of my days." * Perplexities increased; affairs in the West grew worse and worse. La Jonquiere ordered Ct^loron to attack the English at Pickamllany; and C^loron could not or would not obey. " I cannot express," ^v^ites 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 Cdloron, and then begged to be recalled. His health, already shattered, was ruined by fatigue and vexation; and he took to his bed. Before spring he was near his end.' It is said that, though very rich, his habits of thrift so possessed his last hours that, seeing wax candles burning in his chamber, he ordered others of tallow to be brought instead, as being good enough to die by. Thus frugally lighted on its way, his spirit fled; and the Baron de Longueuil took his place till a new governor should arrive. 1 La Jonquiere au Ministre, 19 Octobre, 1751. 2 Ordrts (lu Roy ef De'perhes des ^fin{strc, '^ Haymond, 24 Avril, 1751. 2 Lettre commune de Desherbiers et Bigot au MimstrA Jfi Aout, 1749. * Longueuil au Ministre, 26 Avril, 1752. 108 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-151^ the English frontier; and in the same vessel was s.T.it a supply of " merchandise, guns, and munitions for the savages and the Aeadians who may take up arms with them ; and tlie whole is sent under pretext of trading in furs with the savages." ^ On another occa- sion La Jonquil^re wrote : " In order that the savages may do their part courageously, a few Aeadians, 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 [bi/ the peace], and so can do nothing oui-selves. Besides, I do not think that any inconvenience will come of letting the Aeadians mingle among them, because if they [the Aeadians] are captured, we shall say that they acted of their own accord. "^ in other words, he will encoui-age them to break the peace; and then, by means of a falsehood, have them pun- ished as felons. Many disguised Aeadians 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 hostilities 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 1 Bigot au Ministre, 1749. « D^peches de La Jonquiere, 1 3fai, 1751. See Appendix B. 1749-1754.] LE LOUTRE. 109 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 Louisbourg, 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 took eighteen English scalps, and Monsieur Le Loutre was obliged to pay them eighteen hundred livres, Acadian money, which I have reimbursed him."^ 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 hii. Indians upon them unless they declare against the English. "I have already," adds Prdvost, "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 Govern- ment." ^ In consequence of "good service to religion and the state," Le Loutre received a pension of eight 1 Provost au Ministre, 12 Mars, 1753 ; Ibid., 17 Juillet, 1753. Pre- vost was ordonnateur, or intendant, at Louisbourg. The treaty wiU be found in fuU in Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 683. ' Prevost au Ministre, 16 Aout, 1753. » Ibid., 22 Juillet, 1750. 110 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754. hundred livres, as did also INIaillard, his brother mis- sionary on Cape Breton. "The fear is," writes tlie colonial minister to the governor of Louisbourg, " that their zeal may carrj- them too far. Excite them to keep tlie Indians in our interest, but do not let them compromise us. Act always so as to make the English appear as aggressora.''^ All the Acadian clerg}% in one degree or another, seem to have used their influence to prevent the inliabitants from taking the oath, and to persuade them that they were still French subjects. Some were noisy, turbulent, and defiant; others were too tranquil to please the officers of the Crown. A mis- sionary at Annapolis is mentioned as old, and there- fore inefficient; while the cur^ at Grand Pr^, also an elderly man, was too much inclined to confine himself to his spiritual functions. It is everywhere apparent that those who chose these priests, and sent them as missionaries into a British province, expected them to act as enemies of the British Crown. The maxim is often repeated that duty to religion is inseparable ^ Le Ministreau Comte de Raymond, 21 Juillet, 1762. It is curious to compart' these secret instructions, given by the minister to tlie colonial officials, with a letter which the same minister, Houille, wrote ostensibly to La Jonquiere, but which was really meant for the eye of the British minister at Versailles, Lord Albemarle, to whom it was shown in proof of French good faith. It was after- wards printed, along with other papers, in a small volume called Precis des Faits, avec leurs Pieces justijicatives, which was sent by the French government to all tlic courts of Europe to show that the English alone were answerable for the war. The letter, it is needless to say, breathes the highest seutiments of international honor. 1749-1754.] RESENTMENT OF CORNWALLIS. Ill from duty to the King of France. The Bishop of Quebec desired the Abbd de I'lsle-Dieu to represent to the Court the need of more missionaries to keep the Acadians Catholic and French; but, he adds, there is danger that they (the missionaries) will be required to take an oath to do nothing contrary to the interests of the King of Great Britain. ^ It is a wonder that such a pledge was not always demanded. It was exacted in a few cases, notably in that of Girard, priest at Cobequid, who, on charges of insti- gating his flock to disaffection, had been sent prisoner to Halifax, but released on taking an oath in the above terms. Thereupon he wrote to Longueuil at Quebec that his parishioners wanted to submit to the English, and that he, having sworn to be true to the British King, could not prevent them. " Though I don't pretend to be a casuist," writes Longueuil, "I Dould 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.^ Cornwallis soon discovered to what extent the clergy stirred their flocks to revolt; and he wrote angrily to the Bishop of Quebec : " Was it you who sent Le Loutre as a missionary to the Micmacs? and is it for their good that he excites these wretches to ^ L'Isle-Dieu, Memoir e sur I'^tat actuel des Missions, 1763 (1754?). * Longueuil au Ministre, 27 Avril, 1752. 1 il2 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754. practise their cruelties against those who have shown 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 English, bound by treaty to allow the Acadians the exercise of their religion, at length conceived the idea of replacing the French priests by others to be named by the Pope at the request of the British gov- ernment. This, becoming known to the French, greatly alarmed them, and the intendant at Louis- bourg wrote to the minister that the matter required serious attention. ^ It threatened, in fact, to rob them of their chief agents of intrigue; 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 simply to reconcile them to English rule. Nor was it without effect. " We must give up altogether the idea of an • Comrvallis to (he Bishop of Quebec, 1 December, 1749. • Daudin, pretre, a Privust, 23 Octobre, 1753, Pr^uott an A{inUtr% 84 Novembre, 1753. • Memoire a presenter a la Cour, 1753. 1749-1754.] UNWILLING EMIGRANTS. 113 msurrection in Acadia," writes an officer of Cape Breton. "The Acaclians cannot be trusted; they are controlled by fear of the Indians, which leads them to breathe French sentiments, even when their inclina- tions 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 territory, 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, "mged the people of Les Mines, Port Royal [^Annapolis], and other places, to come and join the French, and promised to all, in the name of the governor, to settle and support them for three years, and even indemnify them for any losses they might incur; threatening if they did not do as he advised, to abandon them, deprive them of their priests, have their wives and children carried off, and their property laid waste by the Indians." 2 Some passed over the isthmus to the shores of the gulf, and others made their way to the Strait of Canseau. Vessels were provided to convey them, in the one case to Isle St. Jean, now Prince Edward Island, and in the other to Isle Royale, called by the English, Cape Breton. Some were eager to go ; some went with reluctance ; some would 1 Roma au Ministre, 11 Mars, 1750. 2 Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. TOL. I. — 8 114 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-17H scarcely be persuaded to go at all. "They leave their homes with great regret, " reports the governor of Isle St. Jean, speaking of the people of Cobequid, "and they began to move their luggage only when the savages compelled them." ^ These savages were the flock of Abbd Le Loutre, who was on the spot to direct the emigration. Two thousand Acadians are reported to have left the peninsula before the end of 1751, and many more followed within the next two years. Nothing could exceed the misery of a great part of these emigrants, who had left perforce most J of their effects behind. They became disheartened and apathetic. The intendant at Louisbourg says that they will not take the trouble to clear the land, and that some of them live, like Indians, under huts of spruce-branches. 2 The governor of Isle St. Jean declares that they are dying of hunger. ^ Girard, the priest who had withdrawn to this island rather than break his oath to the English, writes : " Many of them cannot protect themselves day or night from the 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, stock- ings, or shirts. They are not all reduced to tliis extremity, but nearly all are in want."* Mortality ^ Bonaventnre a Desherbiers, 20 Juin, 1751. 2 PrA)oat au Ministre, 25 Novembre, 1760. ^ Bonaventure, ut supra. * Girard a {Bonaventure?). 27 Octobre, 1768. 1749-1754.] FORBEARANCE OF CORNWALLIS. 115 among them was great, and would have been greater but for rations supplied by the French government. During these proceedings, the English governor, 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 general per- mission to leave the province, " I am not ignorant of the fact that every means has been used to alienate the hearts of the French subjects of His Britannic Majesty. Great advantages have been promised you elsewhere, and you have been made to imagine that your religion was in danger. Threats even have been resorted to in order to induce you to remove to French territory. The savages are made use of to molest you ; they are to cut the throats of all who remain in their native country, attached to their own interests and faithful to the Government. You know that certain officers and missionaries, who came from Canada last autumn, have been the cause of all our trouble during the winter. Their conduct has been horrible, without honor, probity, or conscience. Their aim is to embroil you with the Government. I will not believe that they are authorized to do so by the Court of France, that being contrary to good faith and the friendship established between the two Crowns." What foundation there was for this amiable confi- dence in the Court of Versailles has been seen already. 116 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754. "Wlien you declared 3'oiir desire to submit your- selves to another Government," pursues Cornwallis, " our determination was to hinder nobody from fol- lowins: what he imagined to be his interest. We know tliat a forced ser\dce is worth nothing, and that a subject compelled to be so against his will is not far from being an enemy. We confess, however, that your detennination 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 fathere 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 ordere. You know that we have done everything to secure to you not only the occupation of your lands, but the ownership of them forever. We have given you also every possible assurance of the free and public exercise of the Roman Catholic religion. But I declare to you frankly that, according to our laws, nobody can pos- sess lands or houses in the province who shall refuse to take the oath of allegiance to his King when required to do so. You know very well that 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 following the counsels of those who have not your real interests at heart, make it an easy matter to seduce you. In your petitions you ask for a general 1749-1754.] HOPSON. 117 leave to quit the province. The only manner in which you can do so is to follow the regulations already established, and provide yourselves with our pass- port. And we declare that nothing shall prevent us from giving such passports to all who ask for them, the moment peace and tranquillity are re-estab- lished."^ He declares as his reason for not giving them at once, that on crossing the frontier " you will have to pass the French detachments and savages assembled there, and that they compel all the inhabit- ants who go there to take up arms" against the English. How well this reason was founded will soon appear. Hopson, the next governor, described by the French themselves as a "mild and peaceable officer," was no less considerate in his treatment of the Acadians ; and at the end of 1752 he issued the fol- lowing order to his military subordinates : " You are to look on the French inhabitants in the same light as the rest of His Majesty's subjects, as to the pro- tection of the laws and government ; for which reason nothing is to be taken from them by force, or any price set upon their goods but what they themselves agree to. And if at any time the inhabitants should obstinately refuse to comply with what His Majesty's service may require of them, you are not to redress 1 The above passages are from two addresses of Cornwallis, ■read to the Acadian deputies in April and May, 1750. The com- bined extracts here given convey the spirit of the whole. See Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 185-190. 118 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754. yourself by military force or in any unla^vfni manner, but to lay the case l)efore the Governor and wait his orders thereon."^ Unfortunately, the mild rule of Cornwallis and Ilopson was not always maintained under their successor, Lawrence. Louis Joseph Le Loutre, vicar-general of Acadia and missionary to the Micmacs, was the most con- spicuous person in the province, and more than any other man was answerable for the miseries that over- whelmed it. The sheep of which he was the shepherd dwelt, at a day's journey from Halifax, by the banks of the river Shubenacadie, in small cabins of logs, mixed with wigwams of birch-bark. They were not a docile flock ; and to manage them needed address, energy, and money, — with all of which the mis- sionary was pro\'ided. He fed their traditional dis- like of the English, and fanned their fanaticism, born 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 the other to terrify the Acadians; yet not without cost to the French government; for they had learned the value of money, and, except when their blood was up, were slow to take scalps without pay. Le Loutre was a man of boundless egotism, a violent spirit of domination, an intense hatred of the English, and a fanaticism that stopped at nothing. Towards the Acadians he was a despot; and this simple and superstitious people, extremely * Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 197. 1749-1754.] LE LOUTRE. 119 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 governors of New France thought him invaluable, yet feared the impetuosity of his zeal, and vainly tried to restrain it within safe bounds. The bishop, while approving his objects, thought his medicines too violent, and asked in a tone of reproof: " Is it right for you to refuse the Acadians the sacra- ments, to threaten that they shall be deprived of the services of a priest, and that the savages shall treat them as enemies? "^ "Nobody," says a French Catholic contemporary, "was more fit than he to carry discord and desolation into a country. "^ Corn- wallis called him "a good-for-nothing scoundrel," and offered a hundred pounds for his head.^ The authorities at Halifax, while exasperated by the perfidy practised on them, were themselves not always models of international virtue. They seized a French vessel in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on the charge — probably true — that she was carrying arms and ammunition to the Acadians and Indians. A less defensible act was the capture of the armed brig 1 L'JSveque de Quebec a Le Loutre ; translation in Public Docu' merits of Nova Scotia, 240. 2 Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. 8 On Le Loutre, compare Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 178- 180, note, with authorities there cited; N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 11; M€moires sur le Canada, 1749-1760 (Quebec, 1838). WSf 120 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754. "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 na\'y, opened fire on the "St. Franc^'ois," 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, being all of an overt nature, gave the officers of Louis XV. precisely what they wanted, — an occasion for uttering loud complaints, and denouncing the English as breakers of the peace. But the movement most alarming to the French was the English occupation of Beaubassin, — an act perfectly lawful in itself, since, without reasonable doubt, the place was within the limits of Acadia, and therefore on English ground. ^ Beaubassin was a considerable settlement on the isthmus that joins the Acadian peninsula to the mainland. Northwest of the settlement lay a wide marsh, through which ran a stream called the Missaguash, some two miles beyond which rose a hill called Beaus^jour. On and near this hill were stationed the troops and Cana- dians sent under Boish^bert and La Come to watch the English frontier. This French force excited disaffection among the Acadians through all the 1 La Jonquifere himself admits that he thought so. " Cette partie Ik dtant, Ji ce que je crois, de'pendante de I'Acadie." — La Jonquiirt •u Ministre, 3 Octobre, 1750. 1749-1754] BEAUBASSIN. 121 neighboring districts, and constantly helped them to emigrate. Cornwallis therefore resolved to send an English force to the spot; and accordingly, towards the end of April, 1750, Major Lawrence landed at Beaubassin with four hundred men. News of their approach had come before them, and Le Louvre was here with his Micmacs, mixed with some Acadians whom he had persuaded or bullied to join him. Resolved that the people of Beaubassin should not live under English influence, he now with his own hand set fire to the parish church, while his white and red adherents burned the houses of the inhabit- ants, and thus compelled them to cross to the French side of the river. ^ 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 re-embarked. In the following September he returned with seventeen small vessels and about seven hundred men, and again attempted to land on the strand of Beaubassin. La Jonquiere says that he could only be resisted indirectly, because he was on the English side of the river. This 1 It has been erroneously stated that Beaubassin was burned by its own inhabitants. " Laloutre, ayant vu que les Acadiens ne paroissoient pas fort presse's d'abandonner leurs biens, avoit lui- meme mis le feu h. I'l^glise, et I'avoit fait mettre aux maisons des habitants par quelques-uns de ceux qu'il avoit gagnes," etc, M^moires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. "Les sauvages y mirent le feu." Precis des Faits, 85. " Les sauvages mirent le feu aux maisons." Provost au Ministre, 22 Juillet, 1750. 122 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754. indirect resistance was undertaken by Le Loutre, who had tlirown up a breastwork along the shore and manned it with his Indians and his painted and befeathered 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. 1 Lawrence quickly routed them, took possession of the cemetery, 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 complied, 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. 3 ^ La Valli^re, Journal de ce qui s'est passe a Chenitou [Chipnecto] et autres parties des Frontieres de I'Acadie, 1750-1751. La Valliere was an oflBcer on the spot. 2 Prevost au Ministre, 27 Septemhre, 1750. ' "Les sauvages et Accadions mirent le feu dans toutes lea maisons et granjjes, pleincs de bled et de fourrages, ce qui a causfl une grande disette." — La Valliere, ul supra. 1749-1754.] MURDER OF HOWE. 123 The English fortified themselves on a low hill by the edge of the marsh, planted palisades, built bar- racks, and named the new work Fort Lawrence. Slight skirmishes between them and the French were frequent. Neither party respected the dividing 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 atrocious act of treachery. Among the English officers was Captain Edward Howe, an intelligent and agreeable person, who spoke French fluently, and had been long sta- tioned 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 Beaus^jour, carrying a flag, and followed by several men in uniform, wad- ing through the sea of grass that stretched beyond the Missaguash. 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 lazily 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 confuie it. Behind the dike on the farther bank stood the seeming officer, wa\'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, 124 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754. and accompanied by a few officers and men, went towards the river to hear what he had to say. As tliey drew near, liis looks and hinguage 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 mor- tally wounded him. They continued their fire on his companions, but could not prevent them from carry- ing the dying man to the fort. The French officers, indignant at this villany, did not hesitate to charge it upon Le Loutre; "for," says one of them, "what ia 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 oi the Micmacs, who, according to him, bore a deadly grudge against Howe because, fourteen years before, he had spoken words disrespectful to the Holj Virgin.^ Maillard adds that the Indians were mucb pleased with what they had done. Finding, how- ever, that they could effect little against the English troops, they changed tlieir field of action, repaired to the outskirts of Halifax, nmrdered about thirty settlers, and carried off eight or ten prisoners. Strong reinforcements came from Canada. The 1 Maillard, Les Missions Micmaques. On the murder of Howe, Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 104, 195, 210 ; Me'moires sur le Canada, 1749-1700, 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 aauvages de I'Abbe' le Loutre I'ont tu^ par trabison ; " aud Provost au Minittrt, 2,1 Octobre, 1760. 1749-1754.] HARSHNESS OF LE LOUTRE. 125 French began a fort on the hill of Beausdjour, and the Acadians were required, to work at it \vith no 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 Beaus^jour 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 JNIissaguash ; and on a knoll beyond it, not three miles distant, the red flag of England waved over the palisades of Fort La^\Tence, 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 neighborhood, where there were thriving settlements of their countrymen. Le Loutre, fearing that they would return to their lands and submit to the English, sent some of them to Isle St. Jean. "They refused to go," says a French writer; "but he compelled them at last, by threatening to make the Indians pillage them, carry oft' their wives and children, and even kill them before their eyes. Nevertheless he kept about him such as were most submissive to his 126 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1751 will."* In the spring after the English occupied Beaubassin, La Jonquiere issued a strange proclama- tion. It commanded all Acadians to take forthwith an oath of lidelity to the King of France, and to enroll themselves in the French militia, on pain of being treated as rebels.^ Three years after, Law- rence, who then governed the province, proclaimed in liis 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."^ Tlius were these unfortunates ground between the upper and nether mill-stones. Le Loutre replied to this proclamation of Lawrence by a letter in which he outdid himself. He declare(i that any of the inliabitants 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 gr6und 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 Halifax Council, "the contents appeared too insolent and absurd to be answered." ^ M^moires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. * Ordonnance du 12 Avril, 1751. * £crit donn€ anr Habitants r^fugi(fs a Beaus^jour, 10 Aout, 1754. * Copie de la Lettre de 31. I'Abb^ Le Loutre, Prvtre Missionnaire des Sauvages de I'Accadie, a M. Laurence a Halifax, 26 Aout, 1754 There is a translation in Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 1749-1754.] COMPLAINTS OF ACADIANS. 127 The number of Acadians who had crossed the line nnd were collected about Beausdjour vvas now large. Their countrymen of Chipody began to find them a burden, and they lived chiefly on government rations. Le Loutre had obtained fifty thousand livres from the court in order to dike in, for their use, the fertile marshes of Memeramcook ; but the relief was distant, and the misery pressing. They complained that they had been lured over the line by false assurances, and they applied secretly 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 enjoyment 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 inti- mation 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 exhaustion. ^ The military commandant at Beausdjour used gentler means of prevention; and the Acadians, unused for generations to think or act for themselves, remained restless, but indecisive, waiting till fate should settle for them the question, under which king ? Meanwhile, for the past three years, the commis- sioners appointed under the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 1 Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 205, 209. 2 Compare Memoires, 1749-1760, and Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 229, 2.30. 128 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754. to settle the question of boundaries between France and England in America had been in session at Paris, waging interminable war on paper; La Galissoniere and Silhouette for France, Shirley and IMildmay for England. By the treat}- of Utrecht, Acadia belonged to England; but what was Acadia? According to the English commissioners, it comprised not only the peninsula now called Nova Scotia, but all the im- mense tract of land between the river St. Lawrence on the north, the gulf of the same name on the east, the Atlantic on the south, and New England on the west.^ The French commissioners, on their part, maintained that the name Acadia belonged of right only to about a twentieth part of this territory, and that it did not even cover the whole of the Acadian peninsula, but only its southern coast, with an adjoining belt of barren wilderness. When the French owned Acadia, they gave it boundaries as comprehensive as those claimed for it by the English commissioners ; now 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 pos- sible only with the eastern portions in French hands. So new was this denial that even La Galissoniere 1 The commission of De Monts, in 1603, defines Acadia as ex- tending 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. i\ 1749-1754.] THE BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 129' himself, the foremost in making it, had declared without reservation two years before that Acadia was the entire peninsula.^ "If," says a writer on the question, " we had to do with a nation more tractable, less grasping, and more conciliatory, it would be well to insist also that Halifax should 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 while denying that the country was Acadia, the French invariably called the inhabitants Acadians. Innumerable public documents, commissions, grants, treaties, edicts, signed by French kings and minis- ters, had recognized Acadia as extending over New Brunswick and a part of Maine. Four censuses of i Acadia while it belonged to the French had recog- V nized the mainland as included in it; and so do also / the early French maps. Its prodigious shrinkage ^- was simply the consequence of its possession by an/ alien. Other questions of limits, more important and equally perilous, called loudly for solution. What line should separate Canada and her western depend- encies from the British colonies ? Various principles of demarcation were suggested, of which the most prominent on the French side was a geographical 1 "L'Acadie suivant ses anciennes limites est la presquisle bornee par son isthme." La Galissonnih-e au Mimstre, 25 Juillet, 1749. The English commissioners were, of course, ignorant of this admission. 2 Memoire de I'Abbede I'Isk-Dieu, 1753 (1754?). VOL. I. 9 ^130 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754 one. /All countries watered by streams falling into the S^. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi were to belong to her. Tliis would have planted her in the heart of New York and along the crests of the Alleghanies, giving her all the interior of the conti- nent, and leaving nothing to England but a strip of sea-coast. Yet in view of what France had acliieved ; of the patient gallantry of her explorers, the zeal of her missionaries^ the adventurous hardihood of her bushrangers, revealing to civilized mankind the existence of this wilderness world, wliile her rivals plodded at their workshojis, their farms, or their fisheries, — in view of all this, her pretensions were moderate and reasonable compared with those of England. The treaty of Utrecht had declared the 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 expeditions were mere raids, great or small. Some- times, as in the case of the Hurons, they made a soli- tude and called it peace ; again, as in the case of the Illinois, they drove off the occupants of the soil, who returned after the invaders were gone. But the range of their war-parties was prodigious; and the English laid claim to every mountain, forest, or prairie where an Iroquois had taken a scalp. This would give them not only the country between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, but also that 1749-1754.] FAILURE OF COMMISSION. 131 between Lake Huron and the Ottawa, thus reducing Canada to the patch on the American map now represented by the province of Quebec, — or rather, by a part of it, since the extension of Acadia to the St. Lawrence would cut off the present counties of Gaspd, 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. Lawrence. ^ Such being the attitude of the two contestants, it was plain thatj 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. 2 Out of the discussion rose also a swarm of fugitive publications in French, English, and Spanish; for the question of American bounda- 1 The extent of British claims is best shown on two maps of the time, Mitchell's Map of the British and French Dominions in North America and Huske's New and Accurate Map of North America ; both are in the British Museum. Dr. John Mitchell, in his Contest in America (London, 1757), pushes the English claim to its utmost extreme, and denies that the French were rightful owners of anything in North America except the town of Quebec and the trading-post of Tadoussac. Besides the claim founded on the subjection of the Iroquois to the British Crown, the Eng- lish somewhat inconsistently advanced others founded on titles obtained by treaty from these same tribes, and others still, founded on the original grants of some of the colonies, which ran indefi- nitely westward across the continent. 2 Me'moires des Commissaires de Sa Majeste Tres Chr€tienne et de ceux de Sa Majeste' Brittanique. Paris, 1755. Several editions appeared. 132 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1719-1754. ries had l^ecome European. There was one among them worth notice from its amusing absurdity. It is an elaborate disquisition, under the title of Roman politique^ by an author faithful to the traditions of European diplomacy, and inspired at the same time by the new pliilosophy of the school of Rousseau. He insists that the balance of power must be pre- served in America as well as in Europe, because "Nature," "the aggrandizement of the human soul," and the " felicit}' of man " are unanimous in demand- ing it. The English colonies are more populous and wealthy than the French; therefore the French should have more land, to keep the balance. Nature, the human soul, and the felicity of man require that France should own all the country beyond the Alle- ghanies and all Acadia but a strip of the south coast, according to the "sublime negotiations" of the French commissioners, of which the writer declares himself a "religious admirer." ^ We know already that France had used means sharper than negotiation to vindicate her claim to the interior of the continent ; had marched to the sources of the Ohio to intrench herself there, and hold the passes of the West against all comers. It remains to see how she fared in her bold enterprise. 1 Roman politique sur I'^tat present des Affaires de I'Am&ique (Amsterdam, 1756). For extracts from French Documents, set Appendix B. CHAPTER V. 1753, 1754. "WASHINGTON. The French occupy the Sources of the Ohio : their Suf- ferings. — Fort Le Bceuf. — Legardeur de Saint-Pierre. — Mission of Washington. — Robert Dinwiddie : he op- poses THE French ; his Dispute with the Burgesses ; HIS Energy ; his Appeals for Help. — Fort Duquesne. — Death of Jumonville. — Washington at the Great Meadows. — Coulon de Villiers. — Fort Necessity. Towards the end of spring the vanguard of the expedition sent by Duquesne to occupy the Ohio landed at Presqu'isle, where Erie now stands. This route to the Ohio, far better than that which Cdloron had followed, was a new discovery to the French; and Duquesne calls the harbor "the finest in nature." Here they built a fort of squared chestnut logs, and when it was finished they cut a road of several leagues through the woods to Riviere aux Bceufs, now French Creek. At the farther end of this road they began another wooden fort and called it Fort Le 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. 13-i WASHINGTON. [1753. It wiis heavy work to cany the cumbrous load of baggage across the portages. ^luch of it is said to have been superfluous, consisting of velvets, silks, and otlier useless and costly articles, sold to the King at enormous prices as necessaries of the expedition. ^ The weight of the task fell on the Canadians, who worked with cheerful hardihood, and did their part to admiration. Marin, commander of the expedition, a gruff, choleric old man of sixty-three, but full of force and capacity, spared himself so little that he was struck down with dysentery, and, refusing to be sent home to Montreal, was before long in a dying state. His place was taken by Pdan, 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 dis- liked the service, and made no secret of their discon- tent. 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."^ Pdan wrote at the end of September that Marin was in extremity; and the governor, disturbed * Pouchot, Memoires sur la derniere Guerre de l'Am€rique Septen- trionale, i. 8. 2 Duquesne au Ministre, 2 Novembre, 1763 ; compare Memoire pour Michel-Jean Ilugues Pean. * Duquesne a Marin, 27 Aout, 1753. 1753.] EFFECTS OF EXPEDITION. 135 and alarmed, for he knew the value of the sturdy old officer, looked anxiously for a successor. He chose another veteran, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, who had just returned from a journey of exploration towards the Rocky Mountains, ^ and whom Duquesne now ordered to the Ohio. Meanwhile the effects of the expedition had already justified it. At first the Indians of the Ohio had shown a bold front. One of them, a chief whom the English called the Half-King, came to Fort Le Boeuf and ordered the French to leave the country, but was received by Marin with such contemptuous haughtiness that he went home shedding tears oi 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 Iroquois, Delawares, and Shawanoes on the Alle- ghany had come to the French camp and offered their help in carrying the baggage. It needed but perse- verance and success in the enterprise to win over every tribe from the mountains to the Mississippi. To accomplish this and to curb the English, Duquesne had planned a third fort, at the junction of French 1 Memoire au Journal somniaire du Voyage de Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre. 2 Rapports de Conseils avec les Sauvages a Montreal, Juillet, 1753. Duquesne au Ministre, 31 Octobre, 1753. Letter of Dr. Shuckburgh in N. Y. Col. Docs., vi. 806. 136 WASHINGTON. [175a Creek with the Alleghany, or at some point lower down ; then, leaving the three posts well garrisoned, P^an was to descend the Ohio with the whole remain- ing force, impose terror on the wavering tribes, and complete their conversion. Both plans were thwarted ; the fort was not built, nor did Pdan descend the Ohio. Fevers, lung diseases, and scurvy made such deadly havoc among troops and Canadians that the dying Marin saw with bitterness that liis work must be left half done. Three hundred of the best men were kept to gamson Forts Presqu'isle and Le Bceuf; and then, as winter approached, the rest were sent back to Montreal. When they arrived, the gov- ernor was shocked at their altered looks. "I reviewed them, and could not help being touched by the pitiable state to which fatigues and expos- ures had reduced them. Past all doubt, if these emaciated figures had gone down the Ohio as in- tended, the river would have been strewn with corpses, and the evil-disposed savages would not have failed to attack the survivors, seeing that they were but spectres."^ Legardeur de Saint-Pierre arrived at the end of autumn, and made his quarters at Fort Le Bceuf. The surrounding forests had dropped their leaves,' and in gray and patient desolation bided the coming winter. Chill rains drizzled over the gloomy "clear 1 Duquesne au Ministre, 29 Novembre, 1753. On this expedition, compare the letter of Duquesne in N. Y. Col. Dons., x. 255, and the deposition of Steplien Coffen, Ibid., vi. 835. I 1753.] FORT LE BCEUF. 137 ■ ing," and drenched the palisades and log-built bar- racks, raw from the axe. Buried in the wilderness, the military exiles resigned themselves as they might to months of monotonous solitude; when, just after sunset on the eleventh of December, a tall youth came out of the forest on horseback, attended by a companion much older and rougher than himself, and followed by several Indians and four or five white men with pack-horses. Officers from the fort went out to meet the strangers; and, wading through mud and sodden 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 with the commandant, and gave him a letter from Governor Dinwiddle. Saint-Pierre and the officer next in rank, who knew a little English, took it to another room to study it at their ease; and in it, all unconsciously, they ^ read a name destined to stand one of the noblest \ in the annals of mankind; for it introduced Major / George Washington, Adjutant-General of the Vir- I ginia militia.^ Dinwiddle, jealously watchful of French aggres- sion, had learned through traders and Indians that a strong detachment from Canada had entered the territories of the King of England, and built 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 ^ Journal of Major Washington. Journal of Mr Christopher Gist 138 WASHINGTON. [1753. his message as a young man of twenty-one. It was this rough Scotchman who launched Wasliington on his illustrious career. Wasliington set out for the trading-station of the Ohio Company on Will's Creek; and thence, at the middle of November, struck into the wilderness with Christopher Gist as a guide, Vanbraam, a Dutchman, as French interpreter, Da\'ison, a trader, as Indian interpreter, and four woodsmen as servants. They went to the forks of the Ohio, and then down the river to Logsto%\Ti, the Cliiningu^ of Cdloron de Bienville. There Washington had various parleys witli the Indians ; and thence, after vexatious delays, he continued his journey towards Fort Le Boeuf, accompanied by the friendly chief called the Half. King and by three of his tribesmen. For several days they followed the traders' path, pelted with unceasing rain and snow, and came at last to the old Indian town of Venango, where French Creek enters the Alleghany. Here tliere was an English trading- house ; but the French had seized it, raised their flag over it, and turned it into a military outpost.^ Jon- caire was in command, "SA-ith two subalterns; and nothing could exceed their civilit)^ They invited the strangers to supper ; and, says Washington, " the wine, as they dosed themselves pretty plentifully 1 Marin had sent sixty men in August to seize the house, which belonsred to the trader Fraser. De'peches de Duquesne. They car- rie(l^ttF two men whom they found here. Letter of Fraser in CoJKlbMrtfs of Pa., r. 659. 1753.] DINWIDDIE'S LETTER. 139 with it, soon banished the restraint which at first appeared in their conversation, and gave a license to their tongues to reveal their sentiments more freely. They told me that it was their absolute design to take possession of the Ohio, and, by G — , they would do it; for that although they were sensible the English could raise two men for their one, yet they knew their motions were too slow and dilatory to prevent any undertaking of theirs."^ 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 inces- sant rain, they toiled on for four days more, till the wooden walls of Fort Le Boeuf appeared at last, sur- rounded by fields studded thick with stumps, and half-encircled by the chill current of French Creek, along the banks of which lay more than two hundred canoes, ready to carry troops in the spring. Wash- ington describes Legardeur de Saint-Pierre as "an elderly gentleman with much the air of a soldier." The letter sent him by Dinwiddle expressed astonish- ment that his troops should build forts upon lands "so notoriously known to be the property of the Crown of Great Britain." "I must desire you," continued the letter, "to acquaint me by whose authority and instructions you have lately marched 1 Journal of Washington, as printed at Williamsburg, just after his return. 1-iO WASIIIXGTON. [1753. from Canada with an armed force, and invaded the King of Great Britoin's territories. It becomes my duty to require your peaceable departure; and that you would forbear prosecuting a purpose so inter- ruptive of the harmony and good understanding which His Majesty is desirous to continue and culti- vate with the Most Christian King. I persuade mj-^elf you will receive and entertain Major Washing- ton with the candor and politeness natural to your nation ; and it will give me the greatest satisfaction if you return him with an answer suitable to my wishes for a very long and lasting peace between us." Saint-Pierre took three days to frame the answer. In it he said that he should send Din\\dddie's letter to the Marquis Duquesne and wait his orders; and that meanwhile he should remain at his post, accord- ing to the commands of his general. " I made it my particular care," so the letter closed, "to receive Mr. Washington with a distinction suitable to your dig- nity as well as his own quality and great merit. "^ No form of courtesy had, in fact, been wanting. "He appeared to be extremely complaisant," says Washington, " though he was exerting every artifice to set our Indians at variance with 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 * "La Distinction qui convicnt a votre Dignitt(f a sa Qualitc et & son grand Merite." Copy of oripinal letter sent by Dinwiddle tg Governor Hamilton 1754.] ON THE ALLEGHANY. 141 Washington could prevent his red allies from staying at the fort, cong[uered 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 Indian " match- coat," with a gun in his hand and a pack at his back. Passing an old Indian hamlet called Murdering Town, they had an adventure which threatened to make good the name. A French Indian, whom they met in the forest, fired at them, pretending that his gun had gone off by chance. They caught him, and Gist would have killed him ; but Washington inter- posed, and they let him go.^ Then, to escape pur- suit from his tribesmen, they walked all night and all the next day. This brought them to the banks of the Alleghany. They hoped to have found it dead frozen ; but it was all alive and turbulent, filled with ice sweeping down the current. They made a raft, shoved out into the stream, and were soon caught helplessly in the drifting ice. Washington, pushing hard with his setting-pole, was jerked into the freez- ing river, but caught a log of the raft, and dragged himself out. By no efforts could they reach the farther bank, or regain that which they had left ; but they were driven against an island, where they landed, and left the raft to its fate. The night was 1 Journal of Mr. Christopher Gist, in Mass. Hist. Coll. 3rd Series, v. < 142 WASHINGTON. [1753. excessively cold, and Gist's feet and hands were badly frost-bitten. In the morning, the ice had set, and the river was a solid floor. They crossed it, and succeeded in reaching the house of the trader Eraser, on the Monongahela. It was the middle of January when Washington arrived at Williamsburg and made his report to Dinwiddle. Robert Dinwiddle was lieutenant-governor of Virginia, in place "of the titular governor. Lord Albemarle, whose post was a sinecure. He had been clerk in a government oflSce in the West Indies; then surveyor of customs in the "Old Dominion,' — a position in which he made himself cordially dis- liked; and when he rose to the governorship be carried his unpopularity with him. Yet Virginia and all the British colonies owed Klin much ; for, though past sixty, he was the most watchful sentinel against French aggression and its most strenuous opponent. Scarcely had INIarin's vanguard appeared at Presqu'isle, when Dinwiddle warned the home government of the danger, and urged, what he had before urged in vain on the Virginian Assembly, the immediate building of forts on the Ohio. There came in reply a letter, signed by the King, authoriz- ing him to build the forts at the cost of the colony, and to repel force by force in case he was molested or obstructed. Moreover, the King wrote: "If you shall find that any number of persons shall presume to erect any fort or forts ^vithin the limits of our province of Virginia, you are first to require of them 1753.] DISPUTE WITH BURGESSES. 143 peaceably to depart; and if, notwithstanding your admonitions, they do still endeavor to carry ont any such unlawful and unjustifiable designs, we do hereby 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 Dinwiddle was dependent on his Assembly, or House of Burgesses. He convoked them for the first of November, sending Washington at the same time with the summons to Saint-Pierre. The burgesses met. Dinwiddle ex- posed the danger, and asked for means to meet it.^ They seemed more than willing to comply; but debates presently arose concerning the fee of a pistole, which the governor had demanded on each patent of land issued by him. The amount was trifling, but the principle was doubtful. The aristocratic republic of Virginia was intensely jealous of the slightest encroachment on its rights by the Crown or its repre- sentative. The governor defended the fee. The burgesses replied that "subjects cannot be deprived of the least part of their property without their con- sent," declared the fee unlawful, and called on Din- widdle to confess it to be so. He still defended it. They saw in his demand for supplies a means of bringing him to terms, and refused to grant money unless he would recede from his position. Dinwiddle 1 Instructions to Our Trusty and Well-beloved Robert Dinwiddie, Esq. 28 August, 1753. ^ Address of Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie to the Council and Bur gesses, 1 November, 1753. 144 WASIIIXGTON. [1753. rebuked tliem for "disregarding the designs of the French, and disputing the rights of the Crown;" and he "prorogued them in some anger. "^ Thus he was unable to obey the instructions of the King. As a temporary resource, he ventured to order a draft of two hundred men from the militia. Washington was to have command, with the trader, William Trent, as his lieutenant. His orders were to push with all speed to the forks of the Ohio, and there build a fort; "but in case any attempts are made to obstruct the works by any persons whatso- ever, to restrain all such offenders, and, in case of resistance, to make prisoners of, or kill and destroy them. "2 The governor next sent messengers to the Catawbas, Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Iroquois of the Ohio, inviting them to tiike up the hatchet against the French, "who, under pretence of embracing you, mean to squeeze you to death." Then he Avrote urgent letters to the governors of Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Maryland, and New Jersey, begging for contingents of men, to be at Will's Creek in March at the latest. But nothing could be done without money; and trusting for a change of heart on the part of the burgesses, he summoned them to meet again on the fourteenth of February. " If they come in good temper," he wrote to Lord Fairfax, a noble- man settled in the colony, " I hope they will lay a fund to qualify me to send four or five hundred men 1 Dinwiddle Papers. ' Ibid. Instructions to Major George Washington, January, 1764. 1753.] DINWIDDIE TO HANBURY. 145 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 postpone less pressing questions to the exigency of the hour.^ This time they listened, and voted ten thousand pounds in Virginia currency to defend the frontier. The grant was frugal, and they jealously placed its expenditure in the hands of a committee of their own. 2 Dinwiddle, writing to the Lords of Trade, pleads necessity as his excuse for submitting to their terms. "I am sorry," he says, "to find them too much in a republican way of thinking." What vexed him still more was their sending an agent to England to complain against him on the irrepressible question of the pistole fee; and he writes to his London friend, the merchant Hanbury: "I have had a great deal of trouble from the factious disputes and violent heats of a most impudgnt, troublesome party here in regard to that silly fee of a pistole. Surely every thinking man will make a distinction between a fee and a tax. Poor people! I pity their igno- rance and narrow, ill-natured spirits. But, my friend, consider that I could by no means give up this fee without affronting the Board of Trade and the Council here who established it." His thoughts 1 Speech of Lieutenant-Governor Dlnwiddie to the Council and Bur' gesses, 14 February, 1754. ^ See the bill in Hening, Statutes of Virginia, vi, 417 TOL. I. — 10 146 WASHINCxTON. [1754. 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 necessar}'. I do not much care for lace on the coat, but a neat embroidered button-hole; though you do not deal that way, I know you have a good taste, that I may show my friend's fancy in that suit of clothes ; a good laced hat and two pair stock- ings, one silk, the other fine thread." ^ If the governor and his English sometimes provoke a smile, he deserves admiration for the energy with which he opposed the public enemy, under circum- stances the most discouraging. He invited the Indians to meet him in council at Winchester, and, as bait to attract them, coupled the message with a promise of gifts. He sent circulars from the King to the neighboring governors, calling for supplies, and wrote letter upon letter to rouse them to effort. He wrote also to the more distant governors, Delancey of New York, and Shirley of Massachusetts, begging them to make what he called a " faint " against Canada, to prevent the French from sending so large a force to the Ohio. It was to the nearer colonies, from New Jersey to South Carolina, that he looked for direct aid ; and their several governors were all more or less active to procure it ; but as most of them 1 Dimciddie to Uanbury, 12 March, 1764 ; Ibid., 10 May, 1764. 1754.] PROVINCIAL APATHY. 147 had some standing dispute with their assemblies, they could get nothing except on terms with which they would not, and sometimes could not, comply. As the lands invaded by the French belonged to one of the two rival claimants, Virginia and Pennsyl- vania, the other colonies had no mind to vote money to defend them. Pennsylvania herself refused to move. Hamilton, her governor, could do nothing against the placid obstinacy of the Quaker non- combatants and the stolid obstinacy of the German farmers who chiefly made up his Assembly. North Carolina alone answered the appeal, and gave money enough to raise three or four hundred men. Two independent companies maintained by the King in New York, and one in South Carolina, had received orders from England to march to the scene of action; and in these, with the scanty levies of his own and the adjacent pro\4nce, lay Dinwiddle's only hope. With men abundant and willing, there were no means to put them into the field, and no commander whom they would all obey. From the brick house at Williamsburg pompously called the Governor's Palace, Dinwiddle despatched letters, orders, couriers, to hasten the tardy rein- forcements of North Carolina and New York, and push on the raw soldiers of the Old Dominion, who now numbered three hundred men. They were called the Virginia regiment; and Joshua Fry, an English gentleman, bred at Oxford, was made their colonel, with Washington as next in command. 148 WASHINGTON. [1754. Fry was at Alexandria wiUi half the so-called regi- ment, trying to get it into marching order; Washing- ton, with the other half, had pushed forward to the Ohio Ccuipany's storehouse at Will's Creek, which was to form a base of operations. His men were poor whites, hrave, but hard to discipline; without tents, ill armed, and ragged as Falstaff's recruits. Besides these, a band of backwoodsmen under Cap- tain Trent had crossed the mountains in February to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio, where Pittsburg now stands, — a spot which Washington had ex- amined when on liis way to Fort Le Boeuf, and which he had reported as the best for the purpose. The hope was that Trent would fortify himself before the arrival of the French, and that Washington and Fry would join him in time to secure the position. Trent had begun the fort, but for some unexplained reason had gone back to Will's Creek, leaving Ensign Ward with forty men at work upon it. Their labors were suddenly interrupted. On the seventeenth of April a swarm of bateaux and canoes came down the Alle- ghany, bringing, according to Ward, more than a thousand Frenchmen, though in reality not much above five hundred, who landed, planted cannon against the incipient stockade, and summoned the ensign to surrender, on pain of what might ensue.* He complied, and was allowed to depart with his men. Retracing his steps over the mountains, he reported his mishap to Washington ; while the French 1 See the summons in Precis des Fails, 101. 1754.] DINWIDDIE'S VEXATION. 149 demolished his unfinished fort, began a much larger and better one, and named it Fort Dnquesne. 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 hia bidding. Thus, while Dinwiddle was still toiling to muster his raw recruits, Duquesne's lieutenant, Contrecoeur, successor of Saint-Pierre, had landed at Presqu'isle with a much greater force, in part regu- lars, and in part Canadians. Dinwiddle was deeply vexed when a message from Washington told him how his plans were blighted; and he spoke his mind to his friend Hanbury: "If our Assembly had voted the money in November which they did in February, it 's more than probable the fort would have been built and garrisoned before the French had approached ; but these things cannot be done without money. As there was none in our treasury, I have advanced my own to forward the expedition; and if the independent companies from New York come soon, I am in hopes the eyes of the other colonies will be opened; and if they grant a proper supply of men, I hope we shall be able to dislodge the French or build a fort on that river. I congratulate you on the increase of your family. My wife and two girls join in our most sincere respects to good Mrs. Hanbury." ^ 1 Dinwiddie to Hanbury, 10 May, 1764.. 150 WASHINGTON. [1754. The seizure of a king's fort by planting cannon i against it and tlu-eatening it with destruction was in his eyes a beginning of hostilities on the part of the j French; and henceforth both he and Washington / acted much as if war had been declared. From their ^B&tlon at Will's Creek, the distance by the traders' path to Fort Duquesne was about a hundred and forty miles. Midway was a branch of the Monon- gahela called Retlstone Creek, at the mouth of which the Ohio Company had built another storehouse. Dinwiddie ordered all the forces to cross the moun- tains and assemble at this point, until they should be strong enough to advance against the French. The movement was critical in presence of an enemy as superior in discipline as he was in numbers, while the natural obstacles were great. A road for cannon and wagons must be cut through a dense forest and over two ranges of high mountains, besides countless hills and streams. Washington set all liis 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 encamped with a hundred and fifty men near the parallel ridge of Laurel Hill, at a place called the Great Meadows. Trent's back- woodsmen had gone off in disgust; Fry, with the rest of the regiment, was still far behind; and Washington was daily expecting an attack. Close upon this, a piece of good news, or what seemed such, came over the mountains and gladdened the 1754.] A BLOW STRUCK. 151 heart of the governor. 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, and meant to attack the first English they should meet. A report came soon after that they were already at the ford of the Youghiogany, eighteen miles distant. Washing- ton at once repaired to the Great Meadows, a level tract of grass and bushes, bordered by wooded hills, and traversed in one part by a gully, which with a little labor the men turned into an intrenchment, at the same time cutting away the bushes and clearing what the young commander called " a charming field for an encounter." Parties were sent out to scour the woods, but they found no enemy. Two days passed ; when, on the morning of the twenty-seventh, Christopher Gist, who had lately made a settlement on the farther side of Laurel Hill, twelve or thirteen miles distant, came to the camp with news that fifty Frenchmen had been at his house towards noon of the day before, and would have destroyed everything but for the intervention of two Indians whom he had left in charge during his absence. Washington sent seventy-five men to look for the party; but the 152 WASHINGTON. [1754 Bearcli was vain, the French ha^'ing hidden them- selves so well as to escape any eye but that of an Indian. In the evening a runner came from the Half-King, who was encamped with a few warriors some miles distant. He had sent to tell "Washington that he had found the tracks of two men, and traced them towards a dark glen in the forest, where in his behef all the French were lurking. Washington seems not to have hesitated a moment. Fearing a stratagem to surprise his camp, he left his main force to guard it, and at ten o'clock set out for the Half-King's wigwams at the head of forty men. The night was rainy, and the forest, to use his own words, "as black as pitch." "The path," he con- tinues, "was hardly wide enough for one man; we often lost it, and could not find it again for fifteen or twentj'- minutes, and we often tumbled over each other in the dark. " ^ Seven of his men were lost in the woods and left behind. The rest groped their way all night, and reached the Indian camp at sun- rise. A council was held with the Half-King, and he and his warriors agreed to join in striking the French. Two of them led the way. The tracks of the two French scouts seen the day before were. again found, and, marching in single file, the party pushed through the forest into the rocky hollow where the 1 Journal of Washington in Precis des Faits, 109. This Journal, which 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 disappeared. 1754.] JUMONVILLE. 153 French were supposed to be concealed. They were there in fact; and they snatched their guns the moment they saw the English. Washington gave the word to fire. A short fight ensued. Coulon de Jumonville, an ensign in command, was killed, with nine others; twenty-two were captured, and none escaped but a Canadian who had fled at the beginning of the fray. After it was over, the prisoners told Washington that the party had been sent to bring him a summons from Contrecceur, the commandant at Fort Duquesne. Five days before, Contrecceur had sent Jumonville to scour the country as far as the dividing ridge of the Alleghanies. Under him were another officer, three cadets, a volunteer, an interpreter, and twenty- eight men. He was provided with a written sum- mons, to be delivered to any English he might find. It required them to withdraw from the domain of the King of France, and threatened compulsion by force of arms in case of refusal. But before dehver- ing the summons Jumonville was ordered to send two couriers back with all speed to Fort Duquesne to inform the commandant that he had found the English, and to acquaint him when he intended to communicate with them.i It is difficult to imagine any object for such an order except that of enabling Contrecceur to send to the spot whatever force might be needed to attack the English on their refusal to 1 The summons and the instructions to Jumonville are in Pr^d des Fails. 154 WASHINGTON. [1754. withdraw. Jumonville had sent the two couriers, and had hidden himself, apparently to wait the result. He lurked nearly two days within five miles of Washington's camp, sent out scouts to reconnoitre it, but gave no notice of his presence; played to perfection the part of a skulking enemy, and brought destruction on himself by conduct which can only be ascribed to a sinister motive on tlie one hand, or to extreme folly on the other. French deserters told Wasliington that the party came as spies, and were to show the summons only if threatened by a superior force. This last assertion is confirmed by the French M, officer Pouchot, who says that Jumonville, seeing himself the weaker party, tried to show the letter he had brought.^ French writers say that, on first seeing the English, Jumonville 's interpreter called out that he had some- thing to say to them ; but Washington, who was at the head of his men, affirms this to be absolutely false. The French say further that Jumonville was killed in the act of reading the summons. This is also denied by Washington, and rests only on the assertion of the Canadian who ran off at the outset, and on tlie alleged assertion 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 Dinwiddle after his capture, to claim the privileges of the bearer of a summons; but while l)ringing forward * Pouchot. Memoire sur la derniire Guerre. 1754.] WASHINGTON'S CHARACTERISTICS. 155 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 erroneous. "This murder," says a chronicler of the time, "produced on the minds of the savages an effect very different from that which the cruel Washington 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." ^ Instead of doing this, they boasted of their part in the fight, scalped all the dead Frenchmen, sent one scalp to the Dela- wares as an invitation to take up the hatchet for the English, and distributed the rest among the various Ohio tribes to the same end. Coolness of judgment, a profound sense of public 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 experience had ripened him, he would have forborne to act as he did, for there was every reason for believing that the designs of the French were hostile ; and though by passively waiting the event he would have thrown upon them the responsibility of striking the first blow, he would have exposed his small party to * Poulin de Lumina, Histoire de la Guerre contre les Anglois, 16. ^ 156 WASHINGTON. [1754 capture or destruction by giving them' time to gain reinforcements from Fort Duquesne. It was inevi- t;il)le that the killing of Jumonville should be greeted in Fi-ance by an outcry of real or assumed horror; but the Chevalier de Ldvis, second in command to Montcalm, probably expresses the true opinion of Frenchmen best fitted to judge when he calls it " a pretended assassination." ^ Judge it as we may, this cure skirmish began the war that set the world n fire.* 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 Will's Creek. Then he set his men to work at an intrenchment, which he named Fort Necessity, and which must have been of the slightest, as tliey finished it within three days.^ The * L^vis, M^moire sur la Guerre du Canada. s On this affair Sparks, Writings of Washinrjton, ii. 25-48, 447. Dinwiddle Papers. Letter of Contrecaur in Precis des Fails. Journal of Washington, Ibid. Washington to Dinwiddie, 3 June, 1754. Dus- sieux, Le Canada sous la Domination Frangaise, 118. Gaspe, Anciens Oanadiens, Appendix, 390. The assertion of Abbe' de I'lsle-Dieu, that Jumonville showed a flag of truce, is unsupported. Adam Stephen, who was in the fight, says that the guns of the English were so wet that they had to trust mainly to the bayonet. The Half King boasted that he killed .Jumonville with his tomahawk. Dinwiddie highly approved Washington's conduct. In 1755 the widow of Jumonville received a pension of one hun- dred and fifty francs. In 1775, his daughter, Charlotte Aimable, wishing to become a nun, was given by the King six hundred franca for her " trousseau " on entering the convent. Dossier de Jumon- ville et de sa Veuve, 22 Mars, 1755. M€moire pour Mile, de Jumonville, 10 Juillet, 1775. R€ponse du Garde des Sceaux, 25 Juillet, 1775. ' Journal of Washington in Precis des Faits. 1754.] THE GREAT MEADOWS. 157 Half-King now joined him, along with the female potentate known as Queen Alequippa, and some thirty Indian families. A few days after, Gist came from Will's Creek with news that Fry was dead. Washington succeeded to the command of the regi- ment, the remaining three companies of which pres- ently appeared and joined their comrades, raising the whole number to three hundred. Next arrived the independent company from South Carolina; and the Great Meadows became an animated scene, with the wigwams of the Indians, the camp-sheds of the rough Virginians, the cattle grazing on the tall grass or drinking at the lazy brook that traversed it; the surrounding heights and forests; and over all, four miles away, the lofty green ridge of Laurel Hill. The presence of the company of regulars was a doubtful advantage. Captain Mackay, its com- mander, holding his commission from the King, thought himself above any officer commissioned by the governor. There was great courtesy between him and Washington; but Mackay would take no orders, nor even the countersign, from the colonel of volunteers. Nor would his men work, except for an additional shilling a day. To give this was impos- sible, both from want of money, and from the discon- tent it would have bred in the Virginians, who worked for nothing besides their daily pay of eight- pence. Washington, already a leader of men, pos- sessed himself in a patience extremely difficult to / 158 WASHINGTON. [1754 liis passionate temper ; but the position \ras untenable, and the presence of the military drones demoralized his soldiers. Therefore, leaving Mackay at the Meadows, he advanced towards Gist's settlement, cuttingr a wagron road as he went. On reaching the settlement the camp was formed and an intrenchment thrown up. Deserters had brought news tliat strong reinforcements were ex- pected at Fort Duquesne, and friendly Indians repeatedly warned Washington that he would soon be attacked by overwhelming numbers. Forty Indians from the Oliio 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 w\arriors as scouts. Reports of attack thickened. Mackay and his men were sent for, and they arrived on the twenty-eighth of June. A council of war was held at Gist's house; and as the camp was commanded by neighboring heights, it was resolved to fall back. The horses were so few that the Virginians had to carry much of the baggage on their backs, and drag nine swivels over the broken and rocky road. The regulars, though they also were raised in the provinces, refused to give the slightest help. Toiling on for two days, they reached the Great Meadows on the first of July. The posi- tion, though perhaps the best in the neighborhood, was very unfavorable, and Washington would have retreated farther, but for the condition of his men. 1754.] COULON DE VILLIERS. 159 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 Montreal, Coulon de Villiers, brother of the slain officer, was sent to the spot with a body of Indians from all the tribes in the colony. He made such speed that at eight o'clock on the morning of the twenty-sixth of June he reached the fort with his motley following. Here he found that five hundred Frenchmen and a few Ohio Indians were on the point of marching against the English, under Chevalier Le Mercier; but in view of his seniority in rank and his relationship to Jumonville, the command was now transferred to Villiers. Hereupon, the march was postponed; the newly-arrived warriors were called to council, and Contrecoeur thus harangued them: "The English have murdered my children; my heart is sick; to- morrow I shall send my French soldiers to take revenge. And now, men of the Saut St. Louis, men of the Lake of Two Mountains, Hurons, Abenakis, Iroquois of La Presentation, Nipissings, Algonquins, and Ottawas, — I invite you all by this belt of wam- pum to join your French father and help him to crush the assassins. Take this hatchet, and with it two barrels of wine for a feast." Both hatchet and wine were cheerfully accepted. Then Contrecoeur turned to the Delawares, who were also present: 160 WASIIINGTOX. [1754. " By tliese 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 tliey also took up the hatchet. The next daj^ was spent by the Indians in making moccasons for the march, and by the French in pre- paring for an expedition on a larger scale than had been at fii-st intended. Contrecoeur, Villiers, Le Mercier, and Longueuil, after deliberating together, drew up a paper to the effect that " it was fitting (coiivcnaUe') to march against the English ^\'ith the greatest possible number of French and savages, in order to avenge oui-selves and chastise them for having ^dolated the most sacred laws of civilized nations ; " that, though their conduct justified the French in disregarding the existing treaty of peace, yet, after thoroughly punishing them, and compelling them to withdraw from the domain of the King, they should be told that, in pursuance of his royal orders, the French looked on them as friends. But it was further agreed that should the English have with- drawn to their o^vn side of the mountains, "they should be followed to their settlements to destroy them and treat them as enemies, till that nation should give ample satisfaction and completely change its conduct." ^ 1 Journal de Campagne de M. de Villiers depuis son Arrivee au Fort Duqnesnc jusqu'a son Relour an dit Fort. These and otlier pas- sages are omitted in tlie Journal as printed in Precis des Faits. Before me is a copy from the original in the Archives de U Marine. 1754.] MARCH OF VILLIERS. 161 The party set out on the next morning, paddled their canoes up the Monongahela, encamped, heard mass ; and on the thirtieth reached the deserted store- house of the Ohio Company at the mouth of Redstone Creek. It was a buikling of sohd logs, well loop- holed for musketry. To please the Indians by asking their 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 chap- Iain declared he could go no farther, and turned back for the storehouse, though not till he had absolved the whole company in a body. Thus light- ened of their sins, they journeyed on, constantly sending out scouts. On the second of July they reached the abandoned camp of Washington at Gist's settlement; and here they bivouacked, tired, and drenched all night by rain. At daybreak they marched again, and passed through the gorge of Laurel Hill. It rained without ceasing ; but Villiers pushed his way through the dripping forest to see the place, half a mile from the road, where his brother had been killed, and where several bodies still lay unburied. They had learned from a deserter the position of the enemy, and Villiers filled the woods in front with a swarm of Indian scouts. The crisis was near. He formed his men in column, and ordered every officer to his place. Washington's men had had a full day at Fort VOL. I- H 162 WASHINGTON. [1754. 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, thinking, he says, that the enemy, being greatly superior in force, would attack at once ; and choosing for some reason to meet them on the open plain. But Villiers had other views. " We approached the English," he writes, "as near as possible, without uselessly exposing the lives of the King's subjects;" and he and his followers made their way through the forest till they came opposite the fort, where they stationed themselves on two densely wooded hills, adjacent, though sepa- rated by a small brook. One of these was about a hundred paces from the English, and the other about sixty. Their position was such that the French and Indians, well sheltered by trees and bushes, and with 1754.] FORT NECESSITY. 163 the advantage of higher ground, could cross their fire upon the fort and enfilade a part of it. Wash- ington had meanwhile drawn his followers within the intrenchment ; 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 protected that the pieces were almost silenced by the French musketry. The fight lasted nine hours. At times the fire on both sides was nearly 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, however, the fusillade 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 overtures. " As we had been wet all day by the rain, as the soldiers were very tired, as the savages said that they would leave us the next morning, and as there was a report that drums and the firing of cannon had been heard in the distance, I proposed to M. Le Mercier to offer the English a conference." He says further that ammunition was falling short, and that he thought the enemy might sally in a body and attack him.i The English, on their side, were in a 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 A^. Y. Col. Dors,, x. 164 WASHINGTON. [1754. worse plight. Tliey were half starved, their powder was nearly spent, their guns were foul, and among them all they had but two screw-rods to clean them. In spite of his desperate position, Washington declined the parley, thinking it a pretext to introduce a spy ; but when the French repeated their proposal and requested that he would send an officer to them, he could hesitate no longer. There were but two men with him who knew French, Ensign Peyroney, who was disabled by a wound, and the Dutchman, Captain Vanbraam. To him the unpalatable errand was assigned. After a long absence he returned with articles of capitulation offered by Villiers ; and while i the officers gathered about him in the rain, he read and interpreted the paper by the glimmer of a sput- tering candle kept alight vnth. difficulty. Objection was made to some of the terms, and they were changed. Vanbraam, however, apparently anxious to get the capitulation signed and the affair ended, mistranslated several passages, and rendered the words Vassassinat du Sicur de Jumonvillc as the deaths of the Sieur de Jumonvillc.^ As thus understood, the articles were signed about midnight. They provided that the Euglisli should march out with drums beat- ing and the honors of war, carrj'ing with them one of their swivels and all their other property; that ^ See Appendix C. On the fight at Great Meadows, compare Sparks, Writinfjs of Washington, ii. 45G-408; also a letter of Colonel Innes to Governor Hamilton, written a week after the event, in Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 50, and a letter of Adam Stephen, in Pennsylvania Gazette, 1754. 1754.] CAPITULATION. 165 they should be protected against insult from French or Indians ; that the prisoners taken in the affair of Jumonville should be set free ; and that two officers should remain as hostages for their safe return to Fort Duquesne. The hostages chosen were Van- braam and a brave but eccentric Scotchman, Robert Stobo, an acquaintance of the novelist Smollett, said to be the original of his Lismahago. Washington reports that twelve of the Virginians were killed on the spot, and forty-three wounded, while of the casualties in Mackay's company no returns appear. Villiers reports his own loss at only twenty in all.^ 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 detachment as originally formed consisted of five hundred white men. These were increased after his arrival at Fort Duquesne, and one of the party reports that seven hundred marched on the expedition. 2 The number 1 Dinwiddie writes to the Lords of Trade that thirty in all were killed, and seventy wounded, on the English side ; and the commis- sary Varin writes to Bigot that the French lost seventy-two killed and wounded. 2 A Journal had from Thomas Forbes, lately a Private Soldier in the King of France's Service. (Public Record Office.) Forbes was one of Viiliers's soldiers. The commissary Varin puts the number of French at six hundred, besides Indians. 1(36 WASHINGTON. [1751 of Indians joining them is not given; but as nine tiibes 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, keej^ing all day under cover, and never showing themselves on the open meadow. There were no Indians with Washington. Even the Half-King held aloof; though, being of a caustic turn, he did not spare his comments on the fight, telling Conrad Weiser, the provincial int«ipreter, 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 cuTry on their backs, that most of the baggage was perforce left behind. Even then they could march but a few miles, and then encamped to wait for wagons. The Indians increased the con- fusion by plundering, and threatening an attack. They knocked to pieces the medicine-chest, thus 1 Journal of Conrad Weiser, in Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 150. Tlie Half-Kiiij,' also reniarki-cl that Washington " was a good- natured man, liut had no experience, and wouUl by no means take advice from the Indians, but was always driving them on to fight by his directions ; tliat lie 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. 167 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 Alleghanies, fifty-two miles to the station at Will's Creek. Whatever may have been the feel- insrs of Washington, he has left no record of them. His immense fortitude was doomed to severer trials in the future; yet perhaps this miserable morning was the darkest of his life. He was deeply moved by sights of suffering; and all around him were 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 disastrous to tlie English, since it was a new step and a long one towards the ruin of their interest with the Indians ; and when, in the next year, the smoulder- ing war broke into flame, nearly all the western tribes drew their scalping-knives for France. Villiers went back exultant to Fort Duquesne, burning on his way the buildings of Gist's settlement and the storehouse at Redstone Creek. Not an English flag now waved beyond the Alleghanies.* 1 See Appendix C. CHAPTER VI. 1754, 1755. THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. TbODBLEB of DlNWlDDIE. — GATHERING OF THE BUROESSEB. — Virginian Society. — Refractory Legislators. — The Qua- ker Assembly : it refuses to resist the French. — Apathy OF New York. — Shirley and the General Court of Massachusetts. — Short-sighted Policy. — Attitude of EoYAL Governors. — Indian Allies waver. — Convention AT Albany. — Scheme of Union: it fails. — Dinwiddib 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." 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 com- panies from New York had reached Alexandria, and crawled towards the scene of action with thin ranks, bad discipline, tliirty women and cliildren, no tents, no blankets, no knapsacks, and for munitions one barrel of spoiled gunpowder. ^ The case was still worse with the regiment from North Carolina. It was commanded by Colonel Innes, a countryman and 1 Dinwiddie to the Lords of Trade, 24 July, 1754. Ibid, to Delanctjf 80 June, 1764. 1754.] THE VIRGINIAN CAPITAL. 169 friend of Dinwiddle, who wrote to him: "Deal James, I now wish that we had none from youi colony but yourself, for I foresee nothing but 000?. fusion among them." The men were, in fact, utterly unmanageable. They had been promised three shil- lings a day, while the Virginians had only eightpence ; and when they heard on the march that their pay was to be reduced, they mutinied, disbanded, and went home. "You may easily guess," says Dinwiddle 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 disaster would move them to give him money for defending the colony. These meetings of the burgesses were the great social as well as political event of the Old Dominion, and gave a gathering signal to the Virginian gentry scat- tered far and wide on their lonely plantations. The capital of the province was Williamsburg, a village of about a thousand inhabitants, traversed by a straight and very wide street, and adorned with various public buildings, conspicuous among which was William and Mary College, a respectable struc- ture, unjustly likened by Jefferson to a brick kiln with a roof. The capitol, at the other end of the town, had been burned some years before, and had just risen from its ashes. Not far distant was the so-called Governor's Palace, where Dinwiddle with 170 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754. his wife and two daughters exercised such official hospitality as his moderate salary and Scottish thrift would permit.^ In these seasons of festivity the dull and quiet village was transfigured. The broad, sandy street, scorcliing under a southern sun, was thronged with coaches and chariots brought over from London at heavy cost in tobacco, though soon to be bedimmed by Virginia roads and negro care ; racing and hard- diiiiking planters; clergymen of the Establishment, not much more ascetic than their boon companions of the laity; ladies, with manners a little rusted by long seclusion; black coachmen and footmen, proud of their masters and their liveries; young cavaliers, booted and spurred, sitting their thoroughbreds with the careless grace of men whose home was tlie saddle. It was a proud little provincial societ}^, which might seem absurd in its lofty self-ajDpreciation, had it not soon approved itself so prolific in ability and worth. ^ The burgesses met, and Dinwiddle made them an opening speech, inveighing against the aggressions of the French, their "contemjit of treaties," and "ambitious views for universal monarchy;" and he concluded: "I could expatiate very largely on these ^ For a contemporary account of Williamsburg, Burnaby, Travels in North America, 6. Smyth, Tour in America, i. 17, de- scribes it some years later. 2 The English traveller Smyth, in his Tour, gives a curious and vivid picture of Virginian life. For the social condition of this and other colonies before the Revolution, one cannot do better than to consult Lodge's Short History of the English Colonies. 1754.] TROUBLES OF DINWIDDIE. 171 affairs, but my heart burns with resentment at their insolence. I think there is no room for many argu- ments to induce you to raise a considerable supply to enable me to defeat the designs of these troublesome people and enemies of mankind." The burgesses in their turn expressed the " highest and most becoming resentment," and promptly voted twenty thousand pounds; but on the third reading of the bill they added to it a rider which touched the old question of the pistole fee, and which, in the view of the gov- ernor, was both unconstitutional and offensive. He remonstrated in vain ; the stubborn republicans would not yield, nor would he; and again he prorogued them. This unexpected defeat depressed him greatly. " A governor," he wrote, "is really to be pitied in the discharge of his duty to his king and country, in having to do with such obstinate, self-conceited people. ... I cannot satisfy the burgesses unless I prostitute the rules of government. I have gone through monstrous fatigues. Such wrong-headed people, I thank God, I never had to do with before." ^ 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, Tiad laid 1 Dinwiddie to Hamilton, 6 September, 1754. Ibid, to J. Abercrom bie, 1 September, 1754. 2 Hening, vi. 436. 172 THE SIGXAL OF BATTLE. [1754 before the Assembly a circular letter from the Earl of Iloldernesse, directing him, in common wdth other governors, to call on his province for means to repel any invasion which might be made "^^^thin the undoubted limits of His Majesty's dominion." ^ The Assembly of Pennsylvania was curiously unlike 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 tlie rest, the greater part were Germans who cared little whether they lived under Englisli rule or French, provided that they were left in peace upon their farms. The House replied to the governor's call : " It would be liighly presumptuous in us to pretend to judge of the undoubted limits of His Majesty's dominions ; " and they added: "the Assemblies of this province are generally composed of a majority who are constitu- tionally principled against war, and represent a well- meaning, peaceable people." 2 They then adjourned, telling the governor that, " As those our limits have not been clearly ascertained to our satisfaction, we fear the precipitate call upon us as the province invaded cannot answer any good purpose at this time." In the next month they met again, and again Hamilton asked for means to defend the country. The question was put, Should the Assembly give 1 The Earl of Iloldernesse to the Governors in America, 2% August, 1753. ' Colonial Records of Pa., v. 748. 1754.J CONDUCT OF THE QUAKERS. 173 money for the King's use ? and the vote was feehly affirmative. Should the sum be twenty thousand pounds? The vote was overwhelming in the nega- tive. Fifteen thousand, ten thousand, and five thousand were successively proposed, and the answer was always, No. The House would give nothing hut five hundred pounds for a present to the Indians; after which they adjourned "to the sixth of the month called May."^ At their next meeting they voted to give the governor ten thousand pounds ; but under conditions which made them for some time independent of his veto, and which, in other respects, were 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 similar vote, with the same result. At their October meeting they evaded his call for supplies. In December they voted twenty thousand pounds, hampered with conditions which were sure to be refused, since Morris, the new gov- ernor, who had lately succeeded Hamilton, was under the same restrictions as his predecessor. They told him, however, that in the present case they felt themselves 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 con- * Pennsylvania Archives, ii. 235. Colonial Records of Pa., ri. 22< 26. Works of Franklin, iii. 265. 174 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754. siatent witli his safety and honor to give his assent to this bill." Morris, who had taken the highest legal ad\'ice 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 con- cerning the validity of royal instructions wliich may be delayed to a more convenient time without the least injury to the rights of the people."^ They would not yield, and told him " that they had rather the French should conquer them than give up their privileges. " ^ " Truly, " remarks Dinwiddle, " I think they have given their senses a long holiday." New York was not much behind her sisters in con- tentious stubbornness. In answer to the governor's appeal, the Assembly replied: "It appears that the French have built a fort at a place called French Creek, at a considerable distance from the River Ohio, which may, but does not by any evidence or information appear to us to be an invasion of any of His Majesty's colonies."^ 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 1 Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 215. * Morris to Perm, 1 January, 1755. * Address of the Assembly to Lieutenant-Governor Delancey^ 23 April, 1754. Lords of Trade to Delanrey, 5 July, 1754. * Delancey to Lords of Trade, 8 October, 1764. 1754.] COLONIAL DISSENSIONS. 175 herself safe behind tlie other colonies, 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 boun- dary question at Paris. His leanings were strongly monarchical ; yet he believed in the New Englanders, and was more or less in sympathy with them. Both jhe and they were strenuous against the French, and they had mutually helped each other to reap laurels in the last war. Shirley was cautious of giving umbrage to his Assembly, and rarely quarrelled with it, except when the amount of his salary was in question. He was not averse to a war with France; for though bred a lawyer, and now past middle life, he flattered himself with hopes of a high military command. On the present occasion, making use of a rumor that the French were seizing the 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 Portland); and, though the rumor proved false, sent eight hundred men under Captain John Winslow to build two forts on the Kennebec as a measure of precaution. ^ * Massachusetts Archives, 1754. Hutchinson, iii. 26. ConJu t of Major- General Shirley briejiy stated. Journals of the Board 3/ Trade. 1754. ^y 17G THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754, 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 bordere was so novel and strange that they admitted it with difficult}'. Mind and heart were engrossed in strife with their governoi's : the universal struggle for virtual self-rule. But the war was often waged with a passionate stupidity. The colonist was not then an American; he was simply a provincial, and a narrow one. The time was yet distant when these dissevered and jealous communities should weld themselves into one broad nationality, capable, at need, of the mightiest efforts to purge itself of disaffection and vindicate its com- manding unity. In the interest of that practical i ndependence wh ich they nad so much ;{t heart, two conditions were essential to the colonists. The one was a field for expansion, ^lid the otlTer was mutual help . Their first necessity was to lid themselves of the French, who, by shutting them between the Alleghanies and the sea, would cramp them into perpetual littleness. With France on their backs, growing while they had no room to grow, they must remain in helpless ward- ship, dependent on England, whose aid they would always need; but 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 1754.] ATTITUDE OF ROYAL GOVERNORS. 177 century the vision of the ordinary colonist rarely reached so far. The immediate victory over a gov- ernor, 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 Dinwiddle 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 cir- cumstances, it is hardly to be imputed to him as a very deep offence against human liberty that he advised the compelling of the colonies to raise men and money for their own defence, and proposed, in view of their " intolerable obstinacy and disobedi- ence to his Majesty's commands," that Parliament should tax them half-a-crown a head. The approach- ing war offered to the party of authority tempta- tions from which the colonies might have saved it by opening their purse-strings without waiting to be told. The home government, on its part, was but half- hearted in the wish that they should unite in oppo- sition to the common enemy. It was very willing^ that the several provinces should give money and men, but not that they should acquire military habits and a dangerous capacity of acting together. There VOL : —12 178 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754 was one kind of union, however, so obviously neces- sary, and at the same time so little to be dreaded, that the British Cabinet, instructed by the governors, not only assented to it, but urged it. This was joint action in making treaties with the Indians. The practice of separate treaties, made by each province in its own interest, had bred endless disorders. The adhesion of all the tribes had been so shaken, and the efforts of the French to alienate them were so vig- orous and effective, that not a moment was to be lost. Joncaire had gained over most of the Senecas, Piquet was drawing the Onondagas more and more to his mission, and the Dutch of Albany were alienating their best friends, the Mohawks, by encroaching on their lands. Their chief, Hendrick, came to New York with a deputation of the tribe to complain of their wrongs; ind 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 Onondaga, where he found the assembled sachems full of anxieties and doubts. " We don't know what you Christians, English and French, intend," said one of their orators. " We are so hemmed in by you both that we have hardly a hunting-place 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 I N. Y. Col. Docs., vi.lSS. Colonial Records of Pa., V. 625. 1754.] CONVENTION AT ALBANY. / 179 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 province of New York had charged with their affairs, and who, being traders, grossly abused their office. „— - It was to remedy this perilous state of things that the Lords of Trade and Plantations directed the several governors to urge on their assemblies the sending of commissioners to make a joint treaty with the wavering tribes.'-^ Seven of the provinces. New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the four New England colonies, acceded to the plan, and sent to Albany, the appointed place of meeting, a body of men who for character and ability had never had an equal on the continent, but whose powers from their respective assemblies were so cautiously limited as to preclude decisive action. They met in the court- house of the little frontier city. A large "chain- belt " of wampum was provided, on which the ^»g' was symbolically represented, holding in his embrace the colonies, the Five Nations, and all their allied tribes. This was presented to the assembled war- J N. Y. Col. Docs., vi. 813. 2 Circular Letter of Lords of Trade to Governors in America, 18 September, 1753. Lords of Trade to Sir Danvers Osborne, in N. Y. Col. Docs., vi. 800. / 180 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754 riors, with a speech in which the misdeeds of the French were not forgotten. The chief, Hendi'ick, made a nmeli better speech in reply. "We do now solemnly renew and brighten the covenant chain. We shall take the chain-belt to Onondaga, where our council-fire always burns, and keep it so safe that neither thunder nor lightning shall break it." The commissioners had blamed them for allowing so many of their people to be drawn away to Piquet's mission. "It is true," said the orator, "that we live disunited. We have tried to bring back our brethren, but in vain; for the Governor of Canada is like a wicked, deluding spirit. You ask why we are so dispersed. The reason is that you have neglected us for these three yeare past." Here he took a stick and threw it behind him. " You have thus thrown us behind your back; whereas the French are a subtle and vigilant people, always using their utmost endeavors to seduce and bring us over to them." He then told them that it was not the French alone who invaded the countiy of the Indians. "The Governor of Virginia and the Governor of Canada are quarrelling about lands \v'hich 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 [i7i the last war], but you pre- vented us. Instead, you burned your own fort at Saratoga and ran away from it, — which was a shame and a scandal to you. Look about your country and Bee : you have no fortifications ; no, not even in thia 1754.] SCHEMES OF UNION. 181 city. It is but a step from Canada 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 fortifying 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 manasrement 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 tlie commissioners empowered to take any effective steps for fortifying the frontier. The congress now occupied itself with another matter. Its members were agreed that great danger was impending; that without wise and just treat- ment of the tribes, the French would gain them all, 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 1 Proceedings of the Congress at Albany, X. Y. Col. Docs., ri. 853. A few Terbal changes, for the sake of brevity, are made in th« above extracts. 182 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1764. in the " Pennsylvania Gazette," figuring the provinces under the not very flattering image of a snake cut to pieces, \nth 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 colonists might do as much. ^ Franklin, the leading spirit of the congress, now laid iTrfore^it his famous project of union, which has been too often \ described to need much notice here. Its fate is well known. The Crown rejected it because it gave too much power to the colonies ; the colonies, because it gave too much power to the Crown, and because it required each of them to transfer some of its func- tions of self-government to a central council. An- other plan was afterwards devised by the friends of prerogative, perfectly agreeable to the King, since it placed all power in the hands of a council of gov- ernors, and since it involved compulsory taxation of the colonists, who, for the same reasons, would have doggedly resisted it, had an attempt been made to carry it into effect. ^ Even if some plan of union had been agreed u long delay must have followed before its machinery could be set in motion; and meantime there was 1 Kennedy, Importance of gaining and preserving the Friendship of iie Indians. 3 On tlie Albany plan of union, Franklin's Works, i. 177. Shir- ley thought it " a great strain upon the prerogative of the Crown," and was for requiring the colonies to raise money and men " with- out farther consulting them upon any points whatever." Shirley t$ Robinson, 24 December, 1754. 1754.] DINWIDDIE AND GLEN. 183 need of immediate action. War-parties of Indians from Canada, set on, it was thought, by the governor, were already burning and murdering among the border settlements of New York and New Hampshire. In the south Dinwiddle grew more and more alarmed, " 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 hun- dred to fifteen hundred." He writes to Lord Gran ville that, in his opinion, they aim to conquer the continent, and that "the obstinacy of this stubborn generation" exposes the country "to the merciless rage of a rapacious enemy." What vexed him even more than the apathy of the assemblies was the con- duct of his brother-governor. Glen of South Carolina, who, apparently piqued at the conspicuous part Dinwiddle was acting, wrote to him in a " very dic- tatorial style," found fault with his measures, jested at his activity in writing letters, and even questioned the right of England to lands on the Ohio; till he was moved at last to retort: "I cannot help observ- ing that your letters and arguments would have been more proper from a French officer than from one of His Majesty's governors. My conduct has met with His Majesty's gracious approbation ; and I am sorry it has not received yours." Thus discouraged, even in quarters where he had least reason to expect it, he turned all his hopes to the home government; again recommended a tax by Act of Parliament, and begged, in repeated letters, for arms, munitions, and 184 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754 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 owTi servants. A more preposterous figure than the Duke of Newcastle never stood at the head of a great nation. He had a feverish craving for place and power, joined to a total unfitness for both. He was an adept in pei-sonal politics, and was so busied with the arts of winning and keeping office that he had no leisure, even if he had had ability, foi- the higher work of government. He was restless, quick in movement, rapid and confused in speech, lavish of worthless promises, always in a hurrj-, and at once headlong, timid, and rash. "A borrowed importance and real insignificance," says Walpole, who knew him well, " gave him the perpetual air of a solicitor. . . . He had no pride, though infinite self-love. He loved business immoderately; yet was only always doing it, never did it. When left to himseK, 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 suo-^ested to him that Annapolis ought to be defended. "To which he replied with his lisping, evasive hurry: 'Annapolis, Annapolis! Oh, yes, Annapolis must be defended; to be sure, Annapolis should be defended, — where 1 Dinwiddle Papers; letters to Granville, Albemarle, Halifax, Fox, Holdemesse, Horace Walpole, and Lords of Trade. 1754.] THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. 185 is Annapolis ? ' " i Another contemporar}-, Smollett, ridicules him in his novel of "Humphrey CHnker," and tells a similar story, which, founded in fact or not, shows in what estimation the minister was held : "Captain C. treated the Duke's character without any ceremony. ' This wiseacre, ' said he, ' is still abed; and I think the best thing he can do is to sleep on till Chiistmas ; for when he gets up he does nothing but expose his own folly. In the beginning of the war he told me in a great fright that thirty thousand French had marched from Acadia to Cape Breton. Where did they find transports ? said I. — Transports! cried he, I tell you they marched by land. — By land to the island of Cape Breton ! — What, is Cape Breton an island ? — Certainly. — Ha I 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, — ^Nly dear C, cried he, 3-ou always bring us good news. Egad! I '11 go directly and tell the King that Cape Breton is an island. ' " His wealth, county influence, flagitious use of patronage, and long-practised skill in keeping majori- ties in the House of Commons by means that would not bear the light, made his support necessary to Pitt himself, and placed a fantastic political jobber at the helm of England in a time when she needed a patriot and a statesman. Newcastle was the growth of the decrepitude and decay of a great party, which had fulfilled its mission and done its work. But ii 1 Walpole, George II., i. 34i. 186 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754. the Whig soil had become poor for a wholesome crop, it wiis 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 Conunons. " 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 ; hai-sh, violent, and headlong. Anson, the celebrated navi- gator, was First Lord of the Admiralty, — a position in which he disappointed everybody. In France the true ruler was oMadame Pompadour, once the King's mistress, now his procuress, and a sort of feminine prime minister. Machault d'Arnou- ville was at the head of the Marine and Colonial Department. The diplomatic representatives of the two Crowns were more conspicuous for social than for political talents. Of Mirepoix, French ambassa- dor at London, Marshal Saxe had once observed: "It is a good appointment; he can teach the English to dance." Walpole says concerning him: "He could not even learn to pronounce the names of our games of cards, — which, however, engaged most of the hours of his negotiation. We were to be bullied out of our colonies by an apprentice at whist! " Lord 1754.] ENGLAND AND FRANCE COMPARED. 187 Albemarle, English ambassador at Versailles, is held up by Chesterfield as an example to encourage his son in the pm-suit of the graces; "What do you think made our friend Lord Albemarle colonel of a regiment of Guards, Governor of Virginia, Groom of the Stole, and ambassador to Paris, — amounting in all to sixteen or seventeen thousand pounds a year ? Was it his birth? No; a Dutch gentleman only. Was it his estate? No; he had none. Was it his learning, his parts, his political abilities and appli- cation? You can answer these questions as easily and as soon as I can ask them. What was it then? Many people wondered; but I do not, for I know, and will tell you, — it was his air, his address, his manners, and his graces." The rival nations differed widely in military and naval strength. England had afloat more than two hundred ships -of -war, some of them of great forces while the navy of France counted little more than half the number. On the other hand, England had reduced her army to eighteen thousand men, and France had nearly ten times as many under arms. Both alike were weak in leaderahip. That rare son of the tempest, a great commander, was to be found in neither of them since the death of Saxe. In respect to the approaching crisis, the interests of the two Powers pointed to opposite courses of action. What France needed was time. It was her policy to put off a rupture, wreathe her face in diplomatic smiles, and pose in an attitude of peace 188 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754. and good faith, while increasing her nav}', reinfor' cing her garrisons in America, and strengthening lier pasitions there. It was the policy of England to attack at once, and tear up the young encroachments while they were yet in the sap, before they could strike root and harden into stiff resistance. When, on the fourteenth of November, the King made his opening speech to the Houses of Parliament, he congratulated them on the prevailing peace, and assured them that he should improve it to promote the trade of his subjects, "and protect those posses- sions which constitute one great source of their wealth." America was not mentioned; but his hearers underetood him, and made a liberal grant for the service of the year.^ Two regiments, each~'of — 1 five hundred men, had already been ordered to sail for Virginia, where their numbers were to be raised by enlistment to seven hundi-ed.^ Major;jQ£jieial Braddock, a man after the Duke of'Cuml)erland's own luTSf^ was appointed to the chief command. The two regiments — the forty-fourth and the iorty- eighth — embarked at Cork in the middle of January. The soldiers detested the service, and many had deserted. More would have done so had they fore- seen what awaited them. This movement was no soon er known at Versailles 1 Entick, Late War, i. 118. ' Robinton to Lords of the Admtraltij, 30 September, 1754. Ibid, to Board of Ordnance, 10 October, 1754. Ibid., Circular Letter to Ameri' can Governors, 26 October, 1754. luttructions to our Trusty and Welh beloved Edward Braddock, 25 November, 1754. 1755,] THE FRENCH EXPEDITION. 189 than a counter expedition was prepared on a larg er scale. TCigTite en slii ps^^-war were fitted for sea at Bre'st and Rochefort, and the six battalions of La Reine, Bourgogne, Languedoc, Guienne, Artois, and Bdarn, three thousand men in all, were ordered on board for Canada. Bar on Dieskau. a Gcn oj^n 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 certain distance from the coast. There was long and tedious delay. Doreil, com- missary of war, who had embarked with Vaudreuil and Dieskau in the same ship, wrote from the harbor of Brest on the twenty-ninth of April: "At last I think we are off. We should have been outside by four o'clock this morning, if M. de Macnamara had not been obliged to ask Count Dubois de la Motte to wait till noon to mend some important part of the rigging (I don't know the name of it) which was broken. It is precious time lost, and gives the Eng- lish the advantage over us of two tides. I talk of these things as a blind man does of colors. What is certain is that Count Dubois de la Motte is very impatient to get away, and that the King's fleet destined for Canada is in verj' able and zealous hands. 190 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1755. It is now half-past two. In lialf 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 diplo- matic 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. Robinson asked on his part the purpose of the French armament at Brest and Rochefort; and the answer, like his own, was a protestation that no hostility 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 aggres- sion. But while making tliis proposal the French Court secretly sent orders to Duquesne to attack and destroy Fort Halifax, one of the two forts lately built by Shirley on the Kennebec, — a river which, by the admission of the French themselves, belonged to the English. But, in making this attack, the French governor was expressly enjoined to pretend that he acted without orders. ^ He was also told * Lettres de Cremille, de Rostaing, et de Doreil au Ministre, Avril 18, 24, 28, 29, 1755. Liste des Vaisseaux de Guerre qui composent I'Esrnihe arm€e a Brent, 1755. Journal of M. de Vaudreuil's Voyage to Canada, in N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 297. Pouchot, i. 25. 2 Machault a Duquesne, 17 F(fvrier, 1755. The letter of Mirepoix proposing mutual abstinence from aggression is dated on the sixth 11755.] BOSCAWEN'S EXPEDITION. 191 that, if necessary, he might make use of the Indians to harass the English. ^ Thus there was good faith on neither part; but it is clear through all the corre- spondence that the English expected to gain by pre- cipitating an open rupture, and the French b}) 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 dis- cussion at Paris on Acadian boundaries.^ The British Court knew perfectly the naval and military preparations of the French. Lord Albemarle had died at Paris in December; but the secretary of the embassy, De Cosne, sent to London full informa- tion concerning the fleet at Brest and Rochefort.^ On this. 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 sent, nearly three weeks after, to join him if he could. Their orders were similar, — to capture or destroy any French vessels bound to North America.* Boscawen, of the same month. The Erench dreaded Fort Halifax, because they thought it prepared the way for an advance on Quebec by way of the Chaudiere. 1 Machault a Duqiiesne, 17 Fe'vrier, 1755. 2 This correspondence is printed among the Pieces justijicatives of the Precis des Fails. 3 Particulars in Entick, i. 121. * Secret Instructions for our Trusty and Well-beloved Edward Bo» 192 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1755. who got to sea before La Motte, stationed himself near the southern coast of Newfoundland to cut him off; but most of the French squadron eluded him, and safely made their way, some to Louisbourg, and the othei*s to Quebec. Thus the English expedition was, in tlie main, a failure. Three of the French ships, however, lost in fog and rain, had become separated from the rest, and lay rolling and tossinf*t on an angry sea not far from Cape Race. One BRADDOCK. [1755. forced to tuck herself up. ' " Under the name of Miss Sylvia S , Goldsmith, in his life of Nash, tells the story of this unliuppy woman. She was a i-ash but warm-hearted creature, reduced to penury and dependence, not so much by a passion for cards iis by her lavish generosity to a lover ruined by his own follies, and with whom her relations are said to have been entirely innocent. Walpole continues : " But a more ridiculous story of Braddock, and which is recorded in heroics by Fielding in his ' Covent Garden Tragedy,' was an amorous discussion he had formerly with a Mrs. Upton, who kept him. He had gone the greatest lengths with her pin-money, and was still craving. One day, that he was very pressing, she pulled out her purse and showed him that she had but twelve or fourteen shillings left. He twitched it from her : ' Let me see that. ' Tied up at the other end, he found five guineas. He took them, tossed the empty purse in her face, saying, ' Did you mean to cheat me ? ' and never went near her more. Now you are acquainted with General Braddock." " He once had a duel with Colonel Gumley, Lady Bath's brother, who had been his great friend. As they were going to engage, Gumley, who had good- humor and wit (Braddock had the latter), said, ' Braddock, you are a poor dog! Here, take my purse; if you kill me, you will be forced to run away, and then you will not have a shilling to sup- port you. ' Braddock refused the purse, insisted on 1755.] ANECDOTES OF BRADDOCIC 197 the duel, was disarmed, and would not even ask his life. However, with all his brutality, he has lately been governor of Gibraltar, where he made himself adored, and where scarce any governor 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 brutal- it^- 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 even- ingr before he left London for America. " Before we parted," she says, "the General told me that he should never see me more ; for he was going with a handful of men to conquer Avhole nations; and to do this they must cut their way through unknown woods. He produced a map of the countr}^ saying 1 Letters of Horace Walpole (1866), ii. 459, 461. It is doubtful if Braddock was ever governor of Gibraltar ; though, as ilr. Sargent shows, he once commanded a regiment there. 193 BRADDOCK. [1755. at the same time : ' Dear Pop, we are sent like sacri- fices to the altar, ' " ^ — a strange preseutiment for a man of his sturdy temper. Whatever were liis failings, he feared nothing, and liis fidelity and honor in the discharge of public trusts were never questioned. "Desperate in his fortune, brutal in his behavior, obstinate in liis senti- ments," again writes Walpole, "he was still intrepid and cajxible.'"-^ He was a veteran in years and in service, having entered the Coldstream Guards as ensign in 1710. The transports bringing the two regiments from Ireland all arrived safely at Hampton, and were ordered to proceed up the Potomac to Alexandria, where a camp was to be formed. Thither, towards the end of March, went Braddock himself, along with Keppel and Dinwiddle, in the governor's coach; while his aide-de-camp, Orme, his secretary, 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 1 Apology for the Life of George Anne Bellamy, written by herself, ii, 204 (London, 1786). > Walpole, George II., i. 390. i 1755.] THE COUNCIL. 199 Assembly quarrels; Sharpe of Maryland, who, hav- ing once been a soldier, had been made a sort of provisional commander-in-chief before the arrival of Braddock; and the ambitious Delancey of New- York, who had lately led the opposition against the governor of that province, and now filled the office himself, — a position that needed all his manifold adroitness. But, next to Braddock, the most note- worthy man present was Shirley, governor of Massa- chusetts. 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 many a young Catholic French girl, the daughter of his landlord; and now, 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 frons 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 Beaus^jour; and, jointly with others in New Eng- land, 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 Chaudi^re, he thought that the northern colonies would be saved from invasion, and placed in a position to become themselves invaders. Then, 200 BRADDOCK. [1755k by driving the enemy from Niagara, securing that important pass, and thus cutting off the communica- tion between Canada and her interior dependencies, all tlie French posts in the West would die of inani- tion.^ In order to commend these schemes to the home government, he had painted in gloomy colors the dangers that beset the British colonies. Our Indians, he said, will all desert us if we submit to French encroachment. Some of the provinces are full of negro slaves, ready to rise against their mastere, and of Roman Catholics, Jacobites, indented servants, and other dangerous persons, who would aid the French in raising a servile insurrection. Pennsylvania is in the hands of Quakers, who will not fight, and of Germans, who are likely enough to join the enemy. The Dutch of Albany would do anything to save their trade. A strong force of French regulars might occupy that place without resistance, then descend the Hudson, and, with the help of a naval force, capture New York and cut the British colonies asunder. ^ The plans against Crown Point and Beaus^jour had already found the approval of the home govern- ment and the energetic support of all the New England colonies. Preparation for them was in full activity ; and it was with great difficulty that Shirley had disengaged liimself from these cares to attend the Council at Alexandria. He and Dinwiddle stood 1 Correspondence of Shirlei/, 1754, 1755. * Shirlei/ to Robinson, 24 Januarjj, 1766i 1755.J PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN. 201 in the front of opposition to French designs. As they both defended the royal prerogative and were strong advocates of taxation by Parliament, they have found scant justice from American writers. Yet the British colonies owed them a debt of grati- tude, and the American States owe it still. Braddock laid his instructions before the Council, and Shirley found them entirely to his mind; while the general, on his part, fully approved the schemes of the governor. The plan of the campaign was settled. The French were to be attacked at four pcints a.t...Qiice. The two British regiments lately arrived were to advance on Fort Duquesne; two new regiments, known as Shirley's and Pepperrell's, just raised in the provinces, and taken into the King's pay, were to reduce Niagara; a body of provincials from New England, New York, and New Jersey was to seize Crown Point; and another body of New England men to capture Beaus^jour and bring Acadia to complete subjection. Braddock himself was to lead the expedition against Fort Duquesn^. He asked Shirley, who, though a soldier only in theory, had held the rank of colonel since the last war, to charge hifnself with that against Niagara; and ^ Shirley eagerly assented. The movemeiit on Qrown J) Boint)was intrusted to. Colonel William -Johnson, 'bjr reason of his influence over the Indians and his repu- tation for energy, capacity, and faithfulness. Lastly, the ^Acadian enterprise was assigned to Lieutenant' Colonel Monckton, a regular officer of merit. 202 BRADDOCK. [1755. To strike this fourfold blow in time of peace was ( a scheme worthy of Newcastle and of Cumberland. \ The pretext was that the positions to be attacked . ) were all on British soil ; that in occupying them the ) French had been guilty of invasion; and that to /expel the invaders would be an act of self-defence. Yet in regard to two of these positions, the French, if they had no other right, might at least claim one of prescription. Crown Point had been twenty-four years in their undisturbed possession, while it was three quarters of a century since they first occu- pied Niagara; and, though New York claimed the ground, no serious attempt had been made to dis- lodge them. Other matters now engaged the Council. Brad- dock, in accordance with his instructions, asked the governors to urge upon their several assemblies 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 compelled by Act of Parlia- ment to contribute in due proportion to the support of the war. Braddock next asked if, in the judg- ment 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 commissioners at Albany. The measure was cor- 1755.] PREPARATION. 203 dially approved, as was also another suggestion of the general, that vessels should be built at Oswego to command Lake Ontario. The Council then dissolved. Shirley hastened back to New England, burdened with the preparation for three expeditions and the command of one of them. Johnson, who had been in the camp, though not in the Council, went back to Albany, provided with a commission as sole superin- tendent of Indian affairs, and charged, besides, with the enterprise against Crown Point; while an express was despatched to Monckton at Halifax, with orders to set at once to his work of capturing Beaus^jour.^ In regard to Braddock's part of the campaign, there had been a serious error. If, instead of landing in Virginia and moving on Fort Duquesne by the long and circuitous route of Will's Creek, the two regiments had disembarked at Philadelphia and marched westward, the way would have been short- ened, and would 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 adjoining province of Mary- * Minutes of a Council held at the Camp at Alexandria, in Virginia, April 14, 1755. Instructions to Major-General Braddock, 25 November, 1754. Secret Instructions to Major-General Braddock, same date, Napier to Braddock, written bi/ Order of the Duke of Cumberland, 25 November, 1754, in Precis des Faits, Pieces justificatives, 168. Orme, Journal of Braddock's Expedition. Instructions to Governor Shirley, Correspondence of Shirley. Correspondence of Braddock (Public Record Office). Johnson Papers. Dinwiddie Papers. Pennsylvania Archives, ii. 204 BRADDOCK. [1755 land, wagons, horses, and forage were scarce. The enemies of the Administration ascribed this blunder to the influence of the Quaker merchant, John Hanbury, whom the Duke of Newcastle had con- sulted as a pei"Son familiar with American affairs. Ilanbur}-, who was a prominent stockholder in the Ohio Company, and who traded largely in Virginia, saw it for his interest that the troops should pass that way, and is said to have brought the duke to this opinion.^ A writer of the time thinks that if they had landed in Pennsylvania, forty thousand pounds would have been saved in money, and six weeks in time.^ Not only were supplies scarce, but the people showed such unwillingness to furnish them, and such apathy in aiding the expedition, that even Washington was provoked to declare that "they ought to be chastised. "3 Many of them thought that the alarm about French encroachment was a 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 representatives, who, instead of frankly promoting the expedition, » Shebbeare's Tracts, Letter I. Dr. Shebbeare was a political pamphleteer, pilloried by one ministry, and rewarded by the next. He certainly speaks of Hanbury, though he does not give his name. Compare Sargent, 107, 162. 2 Gentleman's Afarfazine, Anrjust, 1755. 3 UV;7/«7s 0/ IVashhi^to,,,' ii. 78. He speaks of the people ot I'ennsylvanic 1755.] HIS DIFFICULTIES. 205 displayed a perverse and exasperating narrowness which chafed Braddock to fury. He praises the New England colonies, and echoes Dinwiddle's declaration tbat they have shown a "fine martial spirit," and he commends Virginia as having done far better than her neighbors ; but for Pennsylvania he finds no words to express his wrath. ^ He knew nothing of the intestine war between proprietaries and people, and hence could see no palliation for a conduct which threatened to ruin both the expedition and the colony. Everything depended on speed, and speed was impossible ; for stores and provisions were not ready, though notice to furnish them had been given months before. The quartermaster- general, Sir John Sinclair, "stormed like a lion rampant," but witn small effect.^ Contracts broken or disavowed:, want of horses, want of wagons, want of forag'^, want of wholesome food, or sufficient food of gny kind, caused such delay that the report of it reached England, and drew from Walpole the com- ^' ment that Braddock was in no hurry to be scalped. ^ In reality he was maddened with impatience and 1 ' vexation. A powerful ally presently came to his aid in the shape of Benjamin Franklin, then postmaster-general of Pennsylvania. That sagacious personage, — the sublime of common-sense, about equal in his instincts 1 Braddock to Robinson, 18 March, 19 April, 5 June, 1755, etc. Oa the attitude of Pennsylvania, Colonial Records of Pa., vi., passiyn. 2 Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 368. 206 BRADDOCK. [1755 and motives of character to the respectable average of the New England that produced him, but gifted Avith a versatile power of brain rarely matched on earth, — was then divided between hi " strong desire to repel a danger of wliich he saw the imminence, and his equally strong antagonism to the selfish claims of the Penns, proprietaries of Pennsylvania. Tliis last motive had determined his attitude towards their representative, the governor, and led him into an opposition as injurious to the military good name of the province as it was favorablf. 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 the camp, and found the general waiting restlessly for the report of the agents whom he had sent to collect wagons. "I stayed wiih him," says Franklin, "several days, and dined with liira 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 thli the general and his ofiicers declared that the expedition was at an end, and denounced the ministry for send- ing them into a countiy void of the means of trans- portation. Franklin remarked that it was a pity they had not landed in Pennsylvania, where almost every farmer had his wagon. Braddock caught eagerly at his words, and begged that he would use his influence to enable the troops to move. Franklin 1755.] WILL'S CREEK. 207 went back to Pennsylvania, issued an address to the farmers appealing to their interest and their fears, and in a fortnight procured a hundred and fifty wagons, with a large number of horses. ^ Braddock, grateful to his benefactor, and enraged at everybody else, pronounced him "Almost the only instance of ability and honesty I have known in these provinces." ^ More wagons and more horses gradually arrived, ana at the eleventh hour the march began. On the tenth of May Braddock reached Will's Creek, where the whole force was now gathered, having marched thither by detachments along the banks of the Potomac. This old trading-station of the Ohio Company had been transformed into a military post and named Fort Cumberland. During the past winter the independent companies which had failed "Washington in his need had been at work here to prepare a base of operations for Braddock. Their axes had been of more avail than their muskets. A broad wound had been cut in the bosom of the forest, and the murdered oaks and chestnuts turned into ramparts, barracks, and magazines. Fort Cum- berland was an enclosure of logs set upright in the ground, pierced with loopholes, and armed with ten small cannon. It stood on a rising ground near the point where Will's Creek joined the Potomac, and * Franklin, Autobiography. Advertisement of B. Franklin for Wagons , Address to the Inhabitants of the Counties of York, Lancas- ter, and Cumberland, in Pennsylvania Archives, ii. 294. 2 Braddock to Robinson, 5 Ju7ie, 1755. The letters of Braddock Uere cited are the originals in the Public Kecord Office. 208 BRADDOCK. 1*1755. the forest girded it like a mighty hedge, or rather like a paling of gaunt brown stems upholding a janopy 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 Braddock's force was now assembled, amounting, regulars, provincials, and sailors, to about twenty-two hundred men. The two regiments, Halket's and Dunbar's, had been completed by enlistment in Virginia to seven hun- dred men each. Of Virginians there were nine companies of fifty men, who found no favor in the eyes of Braddock or his officers. To Ensign Allen of Halket's regiment was assigned the duty of " mak- ing them as much like soldiers as possible," ^ — that is, of drilling them like regulars. The general had little hope of them, and informed Sir Thomas Rob- inson that "their slothful and languid disposition renders them very unfit for military service, " — a point on which he lived to change his mind. Thirty sailors, whom Commodore Keppel had lent him, were more to his liking, and were in fact of value in many ways. He had now about six hundred baggage- horses, besides those of the artillery, all weakening daily on their diet of leaves ; for no grass was to be found. There was great show of discipline, and little real order. Braddock's executive capacity seems to have been moderate, and his dogged, imperioua • Orme, Journal. 1755.1 HIS ILL-HUMOR. 209 temper, rasped by disappointments, was in constant irritation. "He looks upon the country, I believe," writes Washington, "as void of honor or honesty. We have frequent disputes on this head, which are maintained with warmth on both sides, especially on his, as he is incapable of arguing without it, or giving up any point he asserts, be it ever so incom- patible with reason or common sense. "^ Braddock's secretary, the younger Shirley, writing to his friend Governor Morris, spoke thus irreverently of his chief: "As the King said of a neighboring governor of yours [Sharpe], when proposed for the command of the American forces about a twelvemonth ago, and recommended as a very honest man, though not remarkably able, ' a little more ability and a little less honesty upon the present occasion might serve our turn better. ' It is a joke to suppose that second- ary officers can make amends for the defects of the first; the mainspring must be the mover. As to the others, I don't think we have much to boast; some are insolent and ignorant, others capable, but rather aiming at showing their own abilities than making a proper use of them. I have a very great love for my friend Orme, and think it uncommonly fortunate for our leader that he is under the influence of so honest and capable a man ; but I wish for the sake of the public he had some more experience of business, par- ticularly in America. I am greatly disgusted at see- ing an expedition (as it is called), so ill-concerted 1 Writings of Washington, ii. 77. VOL. I.— 14 210 BRADDOCK. [1755. originally in England, so improperly conducted since in America."^ Captain Robert Orme, of whom Shirley speaks, was aide-de-camp to Braddock, and author of a copi- ous and excellent Journal of the expedition, now in the British Museum. ^ 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 scarlet coat, ample waistcoat, and small three-cornered hat all heavy with gold lace. The general had two other aides-de-camp, Captain Roger Morris and Colonel George Washington, wliom he had invited, in terms that do him honor, to become one of his military family. ' It has been said that Braddock despised not only \ provincials, but Indians. Nevertheless, he took some pains to secure their aid, and complained that Indian affairs had been so ill conducted by the prov- inces that it was hard to gain their 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 » Shirley the younger to Morris, 23 May, 1755, in Colonial Records •/Pa., vi. 404. » Printed by Sargent, in his excellent monograph of Braddock'* Expedition. 1755.1 INDIAN ALLIES. 211 Croghan brought, however, about fifty warriors, with as many women and children, to the camp at Fort Cumberland. They were objects of great curiosity to the soldiers, who gazed with astonish- ment on their faces, painted red, yellow, and black, their ears slit and hung with pendants, and their heads close shaved, except the feathered 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 ; whereupon, being much pleased, they danced a war-dance, de- scribed by one spectator as " droll and odd, showing how they scalp and fight;" after which, says an- other, " they set up the most horrid song or cry that ever I heard. "^ These warriors, with a few others, promised the general to join him on the march ; but he apparently grew tired of them, for a famous chief, called Scarroyaddy, afterwards complained : " He looked upon us as dogs, and would never hear any- thing that we said to him." Only eight of them remained with him to the end.''^ Another ally appeared at the camp. This was 1 Journal of a Naval Officer, in Sargent. The Expedition of Major, General Braddock, being Extracts of Letter's from an Officer (London, 1755). 2 Statement of George Croghan, in Sargent, Appendix III. 212 BRADDOCK. |_1755. 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 fai'thest 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 Braddock's sense of military fitness; and he received them so coldly that they left him.^ It was the tenth of June before the army was well on its march. Three hundred axemen led the way, to cut and clear the road ; and the long train of pack- horses, wagons, and cannon toiled on behind, over the stumps, roots, and stones of the narrow track, the regulars and provincials marching in the forest close on either side. Squads of men were thrown out on the flanks, and scouts ranged the woods to guard against surprise; for, with all his scorn of Indians and Canadians, Braddock did not neglect reasonable precautions. Thus, foot by foot, they advanced into the waste of lonely mountains that divided the streams flowing to the Atlantic from those flowing to the Gulf of Mexico, — a realm of * See several traditional accounts and contemporary letters in Hazard's Pennsylvania liegister, iv. 389, 390, 416 ; v. 191. 1755] THE MARCH. 213 forests ancient as the world. The road was but twelve feet wide, and the line of march often extended four miles. It was like a thin, long party-colored snake, red, blue, and brown, trailing slowly through the depth of leaves, creeping round inaccessible heights, crawling over ridges, moving always in dampness and shadow, by rivulets and waterfalls, crags and chasms, gorges and shaggy steeps. In glimpses only, through jagged boughs and flickering leaves, did this wild primeval world reveal itself, with its dark green mountains, 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 commandant of Fort Duquesne had sent out parties for that purpose. A few French and Indians hovered about them, now and then scalping a straggler or inscribing filthy insults on trees; while others fell upon the border settlements which the advance of the troops had left defenceless. Here they were more successful, butcher- ing about thirty persons, chiefly women and children. It was the eighteenth of June before the army reached a place called the 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 214 BRADDOCK. nysa (L-* they coiild move scarcely more than three miles a day. Braddock consulted with Washington, who ad^^sed him to leave the heavy baggage to follow as it could, and push forward with a body of chosen trooj)s. This counsel was given in view of a report that five hundred regulars were on the way to rein- force Fort Duquesne. It was adopted. Colonel Dunbar was left to command the rear division, whose powere of movement were now reduced to the lowest point. The advance corps, consisting of about twelve liundred soldiei-s, besides officers and drivers, began its march on the nineteenth -with such artillery as was thought indispensable, thirty wagons, and a large number of pack-horses. " The prospect," writes Washington to his brother, " conveyed infinite delight to my mind, though I was excessively ill at the time. But this prospect was soon clouded, and my hopes brought very low indeed when I found that, instead of pushing on with vigor without regarding a little rough road, they were halting to level every mole-hill, and to erect bridges over every brook, by which means we were four days in getting twelve miles." It was not till the seventh of July that they neared the mouth of Turtle Creek, a stream entering the Monongahela about eight miles from tlie 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. 1755.] THE FRENCH FORT. 215 Fort Duquesne stood on the point of land where the Alleghany and the Monongahela join to form the Ohio, and where now stands Pittsburg, with its swarming population, its restless industries, the clang of its forges, and its chimneys vomiting foul smoke into the face of heaven. At that early day a white, flag fluttering over a cluster of palisades and embankments betokened the first intrusion of civilized men upon a scene which, a few months before, breathed the repose of a virgin wilderness, voiceless but for the lapping of waves upon the pebbles, or the 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 in with earth, and ten feet or more thick. The two water sides were enclosed by a massive stockade of upright logs, twelve feet high, mortised together and loopholed. The armament consisted of a number of small cannon mounted on the bastions. A gate and drawbridge on the east side gave access to the area within, which was surrounded by bar- racks for the soldiers, officers' quarters, the lodgings of the commandant, a guard-house and a storehouse, all built partly of logs and partly of boards. There 216 BKADDOCK. [1755. were no casements, 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 musket-shot from the ramparts, and the stumps were hacked level with the ground. Here, just outside the ditch, bark cabins had been built for such of the troops and Canadians as could not find room within; and the rest of the open space was covered with Indian corn and other crops. ^ The garrison consisted of a few companies of the regular troops stationed permanently in the colony, and to these were added a considerable number of Canadians. Contrecoeur still held the command.* Under him were three other captains, Beaujeu, Dumas, and Ligneris. Besides the troops and Cana- dians, eight hundred Indian warriors, mustered from far and near, had built their wigwams and camp-sheds on the open ground, or under the edge of the neighboring woods, — very little to the advantage of the young corn. Some were baptized savages settled in Canada, — Caughnawagas from Saut St. Louis, Abenakis from St. Francis, and Hurons from Lorette, w^hose chief bore the name of Anastase, in honor of that Father of the Church. The rest were ^ M'Kinney's Description of Fort Duquesne, 1756, in Hazard's Pennsf/lvania 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 Captain Haslet, 1758, in Olden Time, i. 184. Plan of Fort Duquestu in Public Record Office. ' See Appendix D. 1755.] A YOUNG CAPTIVE. 217 unmitigated heathen, — Pottawattamies and Ojibwas from the northern lakes under Charles Langlade, the same bold partisan who had led them, three years before, to attack the Miamis at Pickawillany ; Shawanoes and Mingoes from the Ohio ; and Ottawas from Detroit, commanded, it is said, by that most redoubtable of savages, Pontiac. The law of the survival of the fittest had wrought on this hetero- geneous crew through countless generations; and with the primitive Indian, the fittest was the hardiest, fiercest, most adroit, and most wily. Baptized and heathen alike, they had just enjoyed a diversion greatly to their taste. A young 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 companion, raised the scalp-yell ; whereupon a din of responsive whoops and firing of guns rose from all the Indian camps, and their inmates swarmed out like bees, while the French in the fort shot off muskets and cannon to honor the occasion. The I unfortttnate boy, the object of this obstreperous rejoicing, presently saw a multitude of savages, naked, hideously bedaubed with red, blue, black, and browu, and armed with sticks or clubs, ranging themselves in two long parallel lines, between which he was told that he must run, the faster the better, as they would beat him all the way. He ran with 218 BRADDOCK. [1755. 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 coming to his senses he found himself in the fort, with the surgeon opening a vein in his arm and a crowd of French and Indians looking on. In a few days he was able to walk with the help of a stick ; and, coming out from his quarters one morning, he saw a memorable scene. ^ Tliree days before, an Indian bad brought the report that the English were approaching; and the Chevalier de la Perade was sent out to leconnoitre.^ 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 resolution, which seems to have been inspired by Beaujeu.^ It was determined to meet the enemy on the march, and ambuscade them if possible at the crossing of the MonongaheAu,' oi some other favorable spot. Beaujeu propo'sed the 1 Account of Remarkable Occurrences in the Life of Colonel James Smith, written by himself. Perhaps the best of all she numerous narratives of captives among the Indians. 2 Relation de Godefroy, in Shea, Bataille du Malangueui'^ (Mononga- hela). • Dumas, however, declares that Beaujeu adopted (he plan at his suggestion. Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet. 1766. 1755.] BEAUJEU. 219 plan to the Indians, and offered them the war- hatchet ; but they would not take it. " Do you want to die, my father, and sacrifice us besides?" That night they held a council, and in the morning again refused to go. Beaujeu did not despair. "I am determined," he exclaimed, "to meet the Eno-lish. What! wdll 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 Cana- dians, or about nine hundred in all.^ At eight o'clock the tumult was over. The broad clearing lay lonely and still, and Contrecceur, with what was 1 Relation depuis le Depart des Trouppes de Quebec jusqu'au 30 du Mois de Septembre, 1755. ^ Liste des Officiers, Cadets, Soldais, MiUciens, et Sauvages qui com' posaient le Detachement qui a et€ au devant d'un Corps de 2,000 Angloii a 3 Lieues du Fort Duquesne, le 9 Juillet, 1755; joint a la Lettre de M. Bigot du 6 Aout, 1755. 220 BRADDOCK. [1755. left of his garrison, waited in suspense for the issue. It was near one o'clock when Braddock crossed the Mononcrahela for the second time. If the French made a stand anywhere, it would be, he thought, at the fording-place ; but Lieutenant-Colonel Gage, whom he sent across with a strong advance-party, found no enemy, and quietly took possession of the farther shore. Then the main body followed. To impose on the imagination of the French scouts, who were doubtless on the watch, the movement was made with studied regularity and order. The sun was cloudless, and the men were inspirited by the prospect of near triumph. Washington afterwards spoke with admiration of the spectacle.^ The music, the banners, 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 coe- horns, the train of packhorses, and the droves of cattle, passed in long procession through the rippling shallows, and slowly entered the bordering forest. 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 tlie morning; but he had been met by obstacles, the nature of which is not wholly clear. His Indians, it seems, had proved refractory. 1 Compare the account of another eye-witness. 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'"W^ 1755.] THE CRISIS NEAR. 221 Three hundred of them left him, went off in anothei direction, and did not rejoin him till the English had crossed the river. 1 Hence perhaps it was that,, hav- ing left Fort Duquesne at eight o'clock, he spe^it half the day in marching seven miles, and was more than a mile from the fording-place when the British reached the eastern shore. The delay, from what- ever cause arising, cost him the opportunity of laying an ambush either at the ford or in the gullies and ravines that channelled the forest through which Braddock was now on the point of marching. Not far from the bank of the river, and close by the British line of march, there was a clearing and a deserted house that had once belonged to the trader Fraser. Washington remembered it well. It was here that he found rest and shelter on the winter journey homeward from his mission to Fort Le 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 Fraser's house to Fort Duquesne the distance was eight miles by a rough path, along which the troops were now beginning to move after their halt. It ran inland for a little, then curved to the left, and followed a course paral- lel to the river along the base of a line of steep hills that here bordered the valley. These and all the country were buried in dense and heavy forest, choked with bushes and the carcasses of fallen trees. Braddock has been charged with marching blindly I Relation de Godefroij, in Shea, Bataille du Malangueul€. 222 BRADDOCK. [1755. into an ambuscade; but it was not so. There was no anbuscade; and had there been one, he would have ^ound it. It is true that he did not reconnoitre til J woods very far in advance of the head of the column; yet, with this exception, he made elaborate dispositions to prevent surprise. Several guides, with six Virginian light horsemen, led the way. Then, a musket-shot behind, came the vanguard; then three hundred soldiers under Gage; then a large body of axemen, under Sir John Sinclair, to open the road ; then two cannon with tumbrils and tool- wagons; and lastly the rear-guard, closing the line, while flanking-parties ranged the woods on both sides. This was the advance-column. The main body followed with little or no interval. The artil- lery and wagons moved along the road, and the troops filed through the woods close on either hand. Numerous flanking-parties were thrown out a hun- dred yards and more to right and left; while, in the space between them and the marching column, the pack-horses and cattle, with their drivers, made their way painfully among the trees and thickets; since, had they been allowed to follow the road, the line of march would have been too long for mutual support. A body of regulars and provincials brought up the rear. Gage, with his advance column, had just passed a wide and bushy ravine that crossed their path, and the van of the main column was on the point of entering it, when the guides and light horsemen ia 1755.] THE BATTLE. i223 the front suddenly fell back; and the engineer Gordon, then engaged in marking out the road, b^w a man, dressed like an Indian, but wearing tho gorget of an officer, bounding forward along the path.i He stopped when he discovered the head of the column, turned, and waved his hat. The forest behind was swarming with French and savages. At the signal of the officer, who was probably Beaujeu, they yelled the war-whoop, spread themselves to right and left, and opened a sharp fire under cover of the trees. Gage's column wheeled deliberately into line, and fired several volleys with great steadi- ness against the now invisible assailants. Few of them were hurt; the trees caught the shot, but the noise was deafening under the dense arches of the forest. The greater part of the Canadians, to borrow the words of Dumas, "fled shamefully, crying, ' Sauve qui pent! ' " ^ Volley followed volley, and at the third Beaujeu dropped dead. Gage's two cannon were now brought to bear, on which the Indians, like the Canadians, gave way in confusion, but did not, like them, abandon the field. The close scarlet ranks of the English were plainly to be seen through the trees and the smoke ; they were moving forward, cheering lustily, and shouting, " God save the King! " Dumas, now chief in command, thought that all was lost. "I advanced," he says, "with the assurance 1 Journal of the Proceeding of the Detachment of Seamen, in Sargent. 2 Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756. Contrecaur a Vaudreuil, U Juillet, 1755, See Appendix D, where extracts are given. 224/ BRADDOCK. [1755. thatv comes from despair, exciting by voice and gesture tlie few soldiei-s that remained. The fire of my platoon was so sharp that the enemy seemed astonished." The Indians, encouraged, began to rally. The French officers who commanded them showed admirable courage and address; and while Dumas and Ligneris, with the 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 1755.] GALLANTRY OF VIRGINIANS. 225 advancing troops, they tried to find cover behind them. This threw the whole into confusion. The men of the two regiments became mixed together; and in a short time the entire force, except the Virginians and the troops left with Halket, were massed in several dense bodies within a small space of ground, facing some one way and some another, and all alike exposed without shelter to the bullets that pelted them like hail. Both men and officers were new to this blind and frightful warfare of the savage in his native woods. To charge the Indians in their hiding-places would have been useless. They would have eluded pursuit with the agility of wild- cats, and swarmed back, like angry hornets, the moment that it ceased. The Virginians alone were equal to the emergency. Fighting behind trees like the Indians themselves, they might have held the enemy in check till order could be restored, had not Braddock, furious at a proceeding that shocked all his ideas of courage and discipline, ordered them, with oaths, to form into line. A body of them under Captain Waggoner made a dash for a fallen tree lying in the woods, far oat towards the lurking- places of the Indians, and, crouching behind the huge trunk, opened fire ; but the regulars, seeing the smoke among the bushes, mistook their best friends for the enemy, shot at them from behind, killed many, and forced the rest to return. A few of the regulars also tried in their clumsy way to fight behind trees; but Braddock beat them with his VOL I. — 15 226 BKADDOCK. fl755. sword, and compelled them to stand with the rest, an open mark for the Indians. The panic increased ; the soldiei-s crowded together, and the bullets spent themselves in a mass of human bodies. Commands, entreaties, and threats were lost upon them. " We would fight, " some of them answered, "if we could see anybody to fight with." Nothing was visible but puffs of smoke. Officers and men who had stood all the afternoon under fire afterwards declared that they could not be sure they had seen a single Indian. Braddock ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Burton to attack the hill where the puffs of smoke were thickest, and the bullets most deadly. With infinite difficulty that brave officer induced a hundred men to follow him; but he was soon disabled by a wound, and they all faced about. The artillerymen stood for some time by their guns, which did great damage to the trees and little to the enemy. The mob of soldiers, stupefied with terror, stood panting, their foreheads beaded with sweat, loadnig 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 clattei and roar of musketry and cannon, mixed with the spiteful report of rifles and the yells that rose from the indefatigable throats of six hundred unseen savages, formed a chaos of anguish and terror scarcely paralleled even in Indian war. "I cannot describe the horrors of that scene," one of Braddock's 1755.] HAVOC AMONG OFFICERS. 227 officers wrote three weeks after; "no pen could do it. The yell of the Indians is fresh on my ear, and the terrific sound will haunt me till the hour of my dissolution. " 1 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. ISlothing could surpass their undaunted self-devotion ; and in their vain attempts to lead on the men, the havoc among them was frightful.'- Sir Peter Halket was shot dead. His son, a lieutenant in his regiment, stooping to raise the body of his father, was shot dead in turn. Young Shirley, Braddock's secretary, was pierced through the brain. Orme and Morris, his aides-de-camp, Sinclair, the quartermaster-general, Gates and Gage, both after- wards conspicuous on opposite sides in the War of the Revolution, and Gladwin, who, eight years later, defended Detroit against Pontiac, were all wounded. Of eighty-six officers, sixty-three were killed or dis- abled ;2 while out of thirteen hundred and seventy- 1 Leslie to a Merchant of Philadelphia, 30 July, 1756, in Hazard's Pennsylvania Register, v. 191. Leslie was a lieutenant of the Forty- fourth. ^ A List of the Officers who were present, and of those killed and 228 BRADDOCK. [1755. three non-commissioned officers and privntes, only four hundred and fifty-nine came ofif unharmed. ^ Braddock saw that all was lost. To save the wreck of his force from annihilation, he at last commanded a retreat ; and as he and such of his officers as were left strove to withdraw the half-frenzied crew in some semblance of order, a bullet struck him down. The gallant bulldog fell from his horse, shot through the arm into the lungs. It is said, though on evi- dence of no weight, that the bullet came from one of his own men. Be this as it may, there he lay among the bushes, bleeding, gasping, unable even to curse. He demanded to be left where he was. Captahi Stewart and another provincial bore him between them to the rear. It was about this time that the mob of soldiers, having been three hours under fire, and having spent their ammunition, broke away in a blind frenzy, rushed back towards the ford, "and when," says Washington, "we endeavored to rally them, it was with as much success as if we had attempted to stop the wild bears of the mountains." They dashed across, helter-skelter, plunging through the water to the farther bank, leaving wounded comrades, cannon, wounded, in the Action on the BanJcs of the Mononrjahela, 9 July, 1755 (Public Record OflBce, America and Wext Indies, Ixxxii). 1 Statement of the engineer, Mackcllar. By another account, out of a total, oflBcers and men, of 1,460, the number of all ranks who escaped was 583. Braddock's force, oripinally 1,200, was in- creased, a few days before the battle, by detachments frona Dunbar. 1755.] BATTLE-FIELD ABANDONED. 229 baggage, the military chest, and the general's papers, a prey to the Indians. About fifty of these followed to the edge of the river. Dumas and Ligneris, who had now only about twenty Frenchmen with them, made no attempt to pursue, and went back to the fort, because, says Contrecoeur, so many of the Canadians had "retired at the first fire." The field, abandoned to the savages, was a pandemonium of pillage and murder. ^ James Smith, the young prisoner at Fort Duquesne, 1 " Nous primes 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 November, 1755, accompanying the plans of the battle reproduced in this volume (Public Record OflBce, America and West Indies, Ixxxii.). The plans were drawn at Shirley's request by Patrick Mackellar, chief engineer of the expedition, who was with Gage in the advance column when the fight began. They were examined and fully approved by the chief surviving officers, and they closely correspond with another plan made by the aide-de- camp Orme, — which, however, shows only the beginning of the affair. Report of the Court of Inquiry into the Behavior of the Troops at the Monongahela. Letters of Dinwiddie. Letters of Gage. Burd to Mor- ris, 25 July, 1755. Sinclair to Robinson, 3 September. Rutherford to , 12 July. Writings of Washington, ii. 68-93. Review of Mili- tary Operations in North America. Entick, i. 145. Gentleman's Magazine (1755), 378, 426. Letter to a Friend on the Ohio Defeat (Boston, 1755). ContreccEur a Vaudreuil, 14 Juillet, 1755. Estat de rArtillerie, etc., qui se sont trouves sur la Champ de Bataille. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Aout, 1755. Bigot au Ministre, 27 Aout. Relation du Combat du 9 Juillet. Relation depuis le Depart des Trouppes de Que'bec jusqu'au 30 du Mois de Septembre. Lotbiniere a d'Argenson, 24 Octobre. Rela^ tion officielle imprimee au Louvre. Relation de Godefroy (Shea). Ex' traits du Registre du Fort Duquesne (Ibid.). Relation de diverset Mouvements (Ibid.). Pouchot, i. 37. 230 BRADDOCK. [1755. had passed a day of suspense, waiting the i-esult. *' In tlie afternoon I again observed a great noise and commotion in the fort, and, though at that time I coukl not understand French, I found it was the voice of joy and triumph, and feared that they had received what I called bad news. I had observed some of the old-countr}^ soldiers speak Dutch; as I spoke Dutch, I went to one of them and asked him what was 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 sur- rounded 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 tliis, I heard a number of scalp-halloos, and saw a company of Indians and French coming in. I ob- served they had a great number of bloody scalps, 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 company was carrying scalps. After this came another company with a number of wagon- horses, and also a great many scalps. Those that were coming in and those that had arrived kept a constant firing of small arms, and also the great 1755.] AFTER THE BATTLE. 231 guns in the fort, which were accompanied with the most hideous shouts and yells from all quarters, so that it appeared 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 Alleghany River, opposite the fort. I stood on the fort wall until I beheld them begin to burn one of these men; they had him tied to a 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 spirits. As this scene appeared too shocking for me to behold, I retired to my lodg- ing, both sore and sorry. When I came into my lodgings I saw Russel's Seven Sermons^ which they had brought from tke field of battle, which a French- man made a present of to me." The loss of the French was slight, but fell chiefly on the officers, three of whom were killed, and four wounded. Of the regular soldiers, all but four escaped untouched. The Canadians suffered still less, in proportion to their numbers, only five of them being hurt. The Indians, who won the victory, bore the principal loss. Of those from Canada, twenty-seven were killed and wounded; while the casualties among the western tribes are not reported.^ 1 Liste des Officiers, Soldats, Miliciens, et Sauvages de Canada qui ont ete tu€s et blesses le 9 Juillet, 1755. 232 BRADDOCK. [1755. All of these last went off the next morning with their plunder and scalps, leaving Contrecoeur in great anxiety lest tlie remnant of Braddock's troops, rein- forced by the division under Dunbar, should attack liim again. His doubts would have vanished had he known the condition of his defeated enemy. In the pain and languor of a mortal wound. Brad- dock showed unflinching resolution. His bearers stopped -with, him at a favorable spot beyond the Monongahela; and here he hoped to maintain his position till the arrival of Dunbar. By the efforts of the officers about a hundred men were collected around him ; but to keep them there was impossible. Within an hour they abandoned him, and fled like the rest. Gage, however, succeeded in rallying about eighty beyond the other f ording-place ; and Washington, on an order from Braddock, spurred his jaded horse towards the camp of Dunbar to demand wagons, provisions, and hospital stores. Fright overcame fatigue. The fugitives toiled on all night, pursued by spectres of horror and despair; hearing still the war-whoops and the shrieks; pos- sessed with the one thought of escape from this wilderness of death. In the morning some order was restored. Braddock was placed on a horse; then, the pain being insufferable, he was carried on a litter. Captain Orme having bribed the carriers by the promise of a guinea and a bottle of rum apiece. Early in the succeeding night, such as had not fainted on the way reached the deserted farm of Gist. Here 2755.] PANIC. 233 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 pack-horse drivers had come to Dunbar's camp with wild tidings of rout and ruin. More fugitives fol- lowed ; and soon after a wounded officer was brought in upon a sheet. The drums beat to arms. The camp was in commotion; and many soldiers and teamsters took to flight, in spite of the sentinels, who tried in vain to stop them.^ There was a still more disgraceful scene on the next day, after Brad- dock, with the 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 Dunbar or the dying general gave these orders is not clear; but it is certain that they were executed with shameful alacrity. More than a hundred wagons were burned ; cannon, coehorns, and shells were burst or buried; barrels of gunpowder were staved, and the contents thrown into a brook; provisions were scattered through the woods and swamps. Then the whole command began its retreat over the mountains to Fort Cumberland, sixty miles distant. This pro- ceeding, for which, in view of the condition of Braddock, Dunbar must be held answerable, excited 1 Depositions of Matthew Laird, Michael Hoover, and Jacob Hoover Wagoners, in Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 482. 234 BRADDOCK. L1755. the utmost indignation among the colonists. If he could not advance, they thought, he might at least have fortified liimself and held his ground till the provinces could send hmi 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 totidly silent all the first day, and at night said only, "Who would have thougl).t it?" that all the next day he was again silent, till at last he muttered, "We shall better know how to deal with them another time," and died a few minutes after. He had nevertheless found breath to give orders at Gist's for the succor of the men who had dropped on the road. It is said, too, that in 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 en- camped near the Great Meadows. On IMonday 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' • Boiling to fit's Son, 13 August, 1755. Boiling was a Virginian gentleman whose son was at scliool in England. 1755.] NEWS OF THE ROUT. 235 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. He 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 numbers of our officers ; our whole artillery taken. In short, the ac- count I have received is so very bad, that as, please God, I intend to make a stand here, 'tis highly necessary to raise the militia everywhere to defend the frontiers." A boy whom he sent out on horse- back met more fugitives, and came back on the four- teenth with reports as vague and disheartening as the first. Innes sent them to Dinwiddle.^ 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: — SiK, — I thought it proper to let you know that I was in the battle where we were defeated. And we had about eleven hundred and fifty private men, besides ofiicers 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 tliree hundred whole men, besides a vast * Innes to Dinwiddle, 14 Julij, 1755. 236 BRADDOCK. [1755. many wounded. Most of our officers were either wounded or killed; General Braddock is wounded, but I hojie not mortal ; and Sir John Sinclair and many others, but I hope not mortal. All the train is cut off in a manner. Sir Peter Halket and his son, Captain Poison, Captain Gethen, Captain Eose, 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 Bnchannon, and give it to the next post, and let him show this to Mr. George Gibson in Lancaster, and Mr. Bingham, at the sign of the Ship, and you '11 oblige, Yours to command, John Campbell, Messenger.^ The evil tidings quickly reached Philadelphia, where such confidence had prevailed that certain over-zealous persons had begun to collect money for fireworks to celebrate the victory. Two of these» brother physicians named Bond, came to Franklin and asked him to subscribe; but the sage looked doubtful. "Why, the devil!" said one of them, "you surely don't suppose the fort will not he taken?" He reminded them that war is always uncertain; and the subscription was deferred. ^ The governor laid the news of the disaster before his Council, telling them at the same time that his oppo- nents in the Assembly would not believe it, and had insulted him in the street for giving it currency.' 1 Colonial Recorda of Pa., vi. 481. ^ Atitobiofjraphif of Franklin. ' Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 480. 1755.] ORME AND WASHINGTON. 237 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 account was from a deserter who, in a great panic, represented what his fears suggested. I wait with impatience for another express from Fort Cumberland, which I expect will greatly contradict the former." The news got abroad, and the slaves showed signs of excitement. "The villany of the negroes on any emergency is what I always feared," continues the governor. " An example of one or two at first may prevent these creatures entering into combinations and wicked designs." ^ And he wrote to Lord Hali- fax: "The negro slaves have been very audacious on the news of defeat on the Ohio. These poor creatures imagine the French will give them their freedom. We have too many here ; but I hope we shall be able to keep them in proper subjection." Suspense grew intolerable. " It 's monstrous they should be so tardy and dilatory in sending down any farther account.'* He sent Major Colin Campbell for news ; when, a day or two later, a courier brought him two letters, one from Orme, and the other from Washington, both written at Fort Cumberland on the eighteenth. The letter of Orme began thus: "My dear Governor, I am so extremely ill in bed with tha wound I have received that I am under the necessity *■ Dinwiddie to Colonel Charles Carter, 18 Juljj, 1755. 238 BRADDOCK. [1755i of employing my friend Captain Dobson as my scribe." Then he told the wretched story of defeat and liumiliation. " The officers were absolutely sac- riticed by their unparalleled good behavior; advancing before their men sometimes in bodies, and sometimes separately, hoping by such an example to engage the soldiera 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 courage and resolution." Washington wrote more briefly, saying that, as Orme was giving a full account of the affair, it was needless for him to repeat it. Like many others in the fight, he greatly underrated the force of the enemy, which he placed at three hundred, or about a third of the actual number, — a natural error, as most of the assailants were invisible. " Our poor Virginians behaved like men, and died like soldiers; for I believe that out of three companies that were there tliat day, scarce thirty were left alive. Cajjtain Peronney and all his officers down to a corporal were killed. Captain Poison shared almost as hard a fate, for only one of his escaped. In short, the das- tardly behavior of the English soldiers exposed all those who were inclined to do their duty to almost certain death. It is imagined (I believe with great justice, too) that two thirds of both killed and wounded received their shots from our own cowardly 1755.] DINWIDDIE'S REPLIES. 239 dogs of soldiers, who gathered themselves into a body, contrary to orders, ten and twelve deep, would then level, fire, and shoot down the men before them."i To Orme, Dinwiddle replied : " I read your letter with tears in my eyes ; but it gave me much pleasure to see your name at the bottom, and more so when I observed by the postscript that your wound is not dangerous. But pray, dear sir, is it not possible by a second attempt to retrieve the great loss we have sustained? I presume the General's chariot is at the fort. In it you may come here, and my house is heartily at your command. Pray take care of your valuable health; keep your spirits up, and I doubt not of your recovery. My wife and girls join me in most sincere respects and joy at your being so well, and I always am, with great truth, dear friend, your affectionate humble servant." To Washington he is less effusive, though he had known him much longer. He begins, it is true, "Dear Washington," and congratulates him on his escape ; but soon grows formal, and asks : " Pray, sir, with the number of them remaining, is there no possibility of doing something on the other side of the mountains before the winter months? Surely you must mistake. Colonel Dunbar will not march to winter-quarters in the middle of summer, and leave the frontiers exposed to the invasions of the ^ These extracts are taken from the two letters preserved in the Public Record Office, America and West Indies, Ixxiv., IxxxiL 240 BRADDOCK. [175& enemy ! No ; he is a better officer, and I have a different opinion of him. I sincerely wish you health and happiness, and am, with great respect, sir, your obedient, humble servant.' Washington's letter had contained the astonishing announcement that Dunbar meant to abandon the frontier and march to Pliiladelphia. Dinwiddle, much disturbed, at once wrote to that officer, though without betraying any knowledge of his intention. "Sir, the melancholy account of the defeat of our forces gave me a sensible and real concern " — on which he enlarges for a while ; then suddenly changes style: "Dear Colonel, is there no method left to retrieve the dishonor done to the British arms? As you now command all the forces that remain, are you not able, after a proper refreshment of your men, to make a second attempt? You have four months now to come of the best weather of the year for such an expedition. What a fine field for honor will Colonel Dunbar have to confirm and establish his character as a brave officer." Then, after suggesting plans of operation, and entering into much detail, the fervid governor concludes : " It gives me great pleasure that under our great loss and misfortunes the command de- volves on an officer of so great military judgment and established character. With niy 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. Dinwiddle received from him in reply a short, dry 1755] CONDUCT OF DUNBAR. 241 note, dated on the first of August, and acquainting him that he should march for Philadelphia on the second. This, in fact, he did, leaving the fort to be defended by invalids and a few Virginians. " 1 acknowledge," says Dinwiddle, "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 mountains to the Ohio, by which the enemy can the more easily invade ns. . . . 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 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 1 Dinwiddle's view of Dunbar's conduct is fully justified by the letters of Sliirley, GoTernor Morris, and Dunbar himself. « Orders for Colonel Thomas Dnnhar, 12 August, 1755. These VOL. I. — 16 242 BRADDOCK. [1755 in Philadelphia. Here he lingered for a while ; then marched to join the northern army, moving at a pace which made it cei-tain that he could not arrive in time to be of the least use. Thus the frontier was left unguarded; and soon, as Dinwiddie had foreseen, there burst upon it a storm of blood and fire. supersede a previous order of August 6, by which Shirley had directed Dunbar to march northward at once. CHAPTER VIIL 1755. EEMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. State of Acadia. — Threatened Invasion. — Peril of the Enq. t,isH : their Plans. — French Forts to be attacked. — > Beausejour and its Occupants. — French Treatment of the Acadians. — John Winslow. — Siege and Capture of Beause- jour. — Attitude of Acadians. — Influence of their Priests : they refuse the Oath of Allegiance ; their Condition AND Character. — Pretended Neutrals. — Moderation op English Authorities. — Tee Acadians persist in their Refusal. — Enemies or Subjects? — Choice of the Acadi- ans. — The Consequence. — Their Removal Determined. — Winslow at Grand Pre. — Conference with Murray. — Summons to the Inhabitants: their Seizure; ^heir Embarkation ; their Fate ; their Treatment in Cavada. 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 boundaries, lop off the dependencies of Canada, and reduce her from a vast territory to a petty province. The first stroke had failed, and had shattered the hand of the striker; it remains to see what fortune awaited the others. It was long since a project of purging Acadia of French influence had germinated in the fertile mind of Shirley. We have seen in a former chapter the 1244 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIAXS. [1755. couditioii of that afflicted province. Several thou- santlij of its inhabitiints, wrought upon by intriguing agents of tlie French government; taught by their priests that fidelity to King Louis was inseparable from fklelity to God, and that to swear allegiance to the British Crown was eternal perdition ; threatened ith plunder and death at the hands of the savages whom the ferocious missionary, Le Loutre, held over ^\hem in terror, — had abandoned, sometimes willingly, but 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 Beausdjour.^ Here, or in the neighborhood, many of them had remained, ^vretched and half starved; while others had been transported to Cape Breton, Isle St. Jean, or the coasts of the Gulf, — not so far, how- ever, tliat 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 cliiefly the inhabitants of the district of Mines and of tlxe valley of the river Annapolis, who, with i See ante, Chapter TV. * Kameau (La France aux Colonies, i. 63) estimates the total emigration from 1748 to 1755 at 8,600 souls, — which number seems much too large. This writer, though vehemently anti-English, glrefi the following passage from a letter of a high French official: " que les Acadiens emigres et en grande miserecomptaient se retirer h QuAec et demander des terras, mais il conviendrait mieux qu'ils reetent ob ils sont, afin d'avoir le voisinage de I'Acadie bien peupl^ et d^frichd, pour approvisionner I'lsle Royale [Cape Breton] et tomber en caa de guerre sur I'Acadie." Rameau, i. 133. 1755.] POSITION OF THE ACADIANS. 245 other less important settlements, numbered a little more than nine thousand souls. We have shown already, by the evidence of the French themselves, that neither they nor their emigrant countrymen had been oppressed or molested in matters temporal or spiritual, but that the English authorities, recogniz- ing their value as an industrious population, had labored to reconcile them to a change of rulers which on the whole was to their advantage. It has been shown also how, with a heartless perfidy and a reck- less disregard of their 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 dis- affection, refused to supply English garrisons with provisions, except at most exorbitant rates, smuggled their produce to the French across the line, gave them aid and intelligence, and sometimes, disguised as Indians, robbed and murdered Englist 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, accord- ing to the political ethics adopted at the time hj 1 Supra, p. 128. 246 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. both nations, it would be lawful for France to reclaim it by force. England, on her part, it will be remem- bered, claimed vast tracts beyond tlie isthmus; and, on the same pretext, held that she might rightfully seize them and capture Beaus^jour, with the other French garrisons that guarded them. On the part of Fi-ance,_an invasion of the Acadian . peniiLsula seemed more than likely. Honor demanded ^of her that, having incited the Acadians to disaffec- \tion, and so brought on them the indignation of the /English authorities, she should intervene to save ythem from the consequences. Moreover, the loss of the Acadian peninsula had been gall and wormwood to her; and in losing it she had lost great material advantages. Its possession was necessary to connect Canada with the Island of Cape Breton and the fortress of Louisbourg. Its fertile fields and agri- cultural people would furnish subsistence to the troops and garrisons in the French maritime prov- inces, now dependent on supplies illicitly brought by New England traders, and liable to be cut off in time of war when they were needed most. The harbors of Acadia, too, would be invaluable as naval stations from which to curb and threaten the northern Eng- lish colonies. Hence the intrigues so assiduously practised to keep the Acadians French at heart, and ready to throw off British rule at any favorable moment. British officers believed that should a French squadron with a sufficient force of troops on board appear in the Bay of Fundy, the whole popu- J755.] PERIL OF THE ENGLISH. 247 lation 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, would come to their aid. This emigrant population, famishing in exile, looked back with regret to the farms they had abandoned; and, prevented as they were by Le Loutre and his colleagues from making their peace with the English, they would, if confident of success, have gladly joined an invading force to regain their homes by reconquering Acadia for Louis XV. In other parts of the continent it was the interest of franco to put off hostilities; if Acadia alone had been in question, it would have been her interest to precipitate them. Her chances of success were good. The French could at any time send troops from Louisbourg or Quebec to join those maintained upon the isthmus; and they had on their side of the lines a force of militia and Indians amounting to about two thou- sand, while the Acadians within the peninsula had about an equal number of fighting men who, while calling themselves neutrals, might be counted on to join the invaders. The English were in no condition to withstand such an attack. Their regular troops were scattered far and wide through the province, and were nowhere more than equal to the local requirement ; 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 248 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. strongest jDlace_Jn Acadia^ was the French fort of Beaus^jour, in which the English saw a continual menace. Their apprehensions were well grounded. Du- quesne, governor of Canada, wrote to Le Lontre, who virtually shared the control of Beaus^jour with Vergor, its commandant: "I invite both yourself and M. Vergor to devise a plausible pretext for attacking them [the English] vigorously." ^ Three weeks after this letter was written, Lawrence, gO-V- emor of N ova 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 pro\dnce, and that they propose, the moment they have repaired the fortifications of Louisbourg, to attack our fort at Cliignecto [Fort Lawrence], I think it high time to make some effort to drive them from the north side of the Bay of Fundy."^ This letter was brought to Boston by Lieutenant-Colonel Monckton, who was charged by Lawrence to propose to Shirley the raising of two thousand men in New England for the attack of Beaus^jour and its depend- ent forts. Almost at the moment when Lawrence was writing these proposals to Shirley, Shirley was writing with the same object to Lawrence, enclosing a letter from Sir Thomas Robinson, concerning wliich he said : " I construe the contents to be orders to us ^ Duquesne a Le Loutre, 15 Octobre, 1754; extract in Public Docu- ments of Nova Scotia, 239. 2 Lawrence to Shirley, 5 November, 1754, Instructions of Lawrenct to Monckton, 7 November, 1754. 1755.] ROBINSON'S LETTER. 249 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 me know whether you want any and what assistance 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 will have concerted the proper- est measures with him for taking all possible advan- tage 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 English settle- ments; 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 V less did Shirley and Lawrence find in the minister's letter their authorization for the attack of Beaus^jour. 1 Shirley to Lawrence, 7 November, 1754. 2 Robinson to Shirley, 5 July, 1754. 250 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. Shirley wrote to Robinson that the expulsion of the French from the forts on the isthmus was a necessary measui'e of self-defence ; that they meant to seize the whole country as far as Mines Basin, and probably as far as Annapolis, to supply their Acadian rebels with land; that of these they had, without reckoning Indians, fourteen hundi-ed lighting men on or near the istluuus, and two hundred and fifty more on the St. John, ^^ath whom, aided by the garrison of Beausdjour, they could easily take Fort Lawrence; that should they succeed in this, the whole Acadian population would rise in arms, and the King would lose Nova Scotia. We should anticipate them, con- cludes Shirley, and strike the first blow.^ He opened his plans to his Assembly in secret session, and found them of one mind with himself. Preparation was nearly complete, and the men raised for the expedition, before the Council at Alexandria recognized it as a part of a plan of the summer campaign. The French fort of Beausdjour, mounted on its ^ Shirley to Robinson, 8 December, 1754. Ibid., 24 January, 1756. The Record Office contains numerous other letters of Shirley on the subject. " I am obliged to your Honor for communicating to me the French Mc'moire, which, witli other reasons, puts it out of doubt that the French are determined to begin an offensive war on the peninsula as soon as ever tliey shall tliink themselves strength- ened enougli to venture upon it, and that tliey have thoughts of attempting it in the ensuing spring. I enclose your Honor extracts from two letters from Annapolis Royal, which show that the French inhabitants are in expectation of its being begun in the spring." — Shirley to Lawrence, G January, 1755. J755.] BEAUSEJOUR. 251 hill between the marshes of Missaguash and Tantemar, was a regular work, pentagonal in form, with solid earthen ramparts, bomb-proofs, and an armament of twenty-four cannon and one mortar. The command- ant, Duchambon de Vergor, a captain in the colony regulars, was a dull man of no education, of stuttering speech, unpleasing countenance, and doubtful char- acter. He owed his place to the notorious intendant Bigot, who, it is said, was in his debt for disreputable service in an affair of gallantry, and who had ample means of enabling his friends to enrich themselves by defrauding the King. Beaus^jour was one of those plague-spots of official corruption which dotted the whole surface of New France. Bigot, saiUng for Europe in the summer of 1754, wrote thus to his confederate: "Profit by your place, my dear Vergor; clip and cut — you are free to do what you please — so that you can come soon to join me in France and buy an estate near me."^ Vergor did not neglect his opportunities. Supplies in great quantities were sent from Quebec for the garrison and the emigrant Acadians. These last got but a small part of them. Vergor and his confederates sent the rest back to Quebec, or else to Louisbourg, and sold them for their own profit to the King's agents there, who were also in collusion with him. Vergor, however, did not reign alone. Le Loutre, 1 M€moires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. This letter is also men' tioned in another contemporary document, M€moire sur lee FraudH tommises dam la Colonic. 252 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755 by force of energy, capacity, and passionate vehe- mence, held him in some awe, and divided his author- ity. The priest could count on the support oi Duquesne, who had found, says a contemporary, that " he promised more than he could perform, and that he was a knave," but who nevertheless felt compelled to rely upon him for keeping the Acadians on the side of France. There was another person in the fort worthy of notice. This was Thomas Pichon, commissary of stores, a man of education and intelli- gence, born in France of an English mother. He was now acting the part of a traitor, carrying on a secret correspondence with the commandant of Fort Lawrence, and acquainting him with all that passed at Beaus^jour. It was partly from this source that the hostile designs of the French became known to the authorities of Halifax, and more especially the proceedings of "Moses," by which name Pichon always designated Le Loutre, because he pretended to have led the Acadians from the land of bondage.^ These exiles, who cannot be called self-exiled, in view of the outrageous means used to force most of them from their homes, were in a deplorable condi- tion. They lived in constant dread of Le Loutre, backed by Vergor and his soldiers. The savage mis- sionary, bad as he was, had in him an ingredient of 1 Pichon, called also Tyrrell from the name of his mother, was author of Genuine Letters and Memoirs relating to Cape Breton, — a book of f jme value. Ilis papers are preserved at Halifax, and some of them are printed in the Public Documents of Nova Scotia. 1755.] THREATS OF LE LOUTRE. 253 honest fanaticism, both national and religious ; though hatred of the English held a large share in it. He would gladly, if he could, have formed the Acadiana into a permanent settlement on the French side of the line, not out of love for them, but in the interest of the cause with which he had identified his own ambition. His efforts had failed. There was not land enough for their subsistence and that of the older settlers ; and the suffering emigrants pined more and more for their deserted farms. Thither he was resolved that they should not return. " If you go," he told them, "you will have neither priests nor sacraments, but will die like miserable wretches. "^ The assertion was false. Priests and sacraments had never been denied them. It is true that Daudin, priest of Pisiquid, had lately been sent to Halifax for using insolent language to the commandant, threatening him with an insurrection of the inhab- itants, and exciting them to sedition; but on his promise to change conduct, he was sent back to his parishioners. 2 Vergor sustained Le Loutre, and threatened to put in irons any of the exiles who talked of going back to the English. Some of them bethought themselves of an appeal to Duquesne, and drew up a petition asking leave to return home. Le Loutre told the signers that if they did not efface their marks from the paper they should have neithel I Pichon to Captain Scott, 14 October, 1754, in Public Documents of ^ova Scotia, 229. a Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 223, 224, 226, 227, 238. 254 REMOVAl. OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. sacraments in this life, nor heaven in the next. He nevertheless allowed two of them to go to Quebec as deputies, writing at the same time to the governor, that his mind might be duly prepared. Duquesne replied: "I think that the two rascals of deputies whom you sent me will not soon recover from the fright I gave them, notwithstanding the emollient I administered after my reprimand; and since I told them that they were indebted to you for not being allowed to rot in a dungeon, they have promised me to comply ^vith your wishes." ^ An entire heartlessness marked the dealings of the French authorities with the Acadians. They were treated as meie tools of policy, to be used, broken, and flung away. Yet, in using them, the sole condi- tion 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 vacilhition, aiding the French but feebly, though a ceaseless annoyance and menace to the English. This was the state of affairs at Beaus^jour while Shirley and Lawrence were planning its destruction. Lawrence had empowered his agent, Monckton, to draw without limit on two Boston merchants, Apthorp and Hancock. Shirley, as commander-in- chief of the province of Massachusetts, commissioned John Winslow to raise two thousand volunteers. 1 Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 239. 1755.J JOHN WINSLOW. 255 Winslo-w) was sprung from the early governors of Plymouth colony; but, though well-born, he waa ill-educated, which did not prevent him from being both popular and influential. He had strong military inclinations, had led a company of his own raising in the luckless attack on Carthagena, had commanded the force sent in the preceding summer to occupy the Kennebec, and on various other occasions had left his Marshfield farm to serve his country. The men enlisted readily at his call, and were formed into a regiment, of which Shirley made himself the nominal colonel. It had two battalions, of which Winslow, as lieutenant-colonel, commanded the first, and George Scott the second, both under the orders of Monckton. Country villages far and near, from the western borders of the Connecticut to uttermost Cape Cod, lent soldiers to the new regiment. The muster-rolls preserve their names, vocations, birth- places, and abode. Obadiah, Nehemiah, Jedediah, Jonathan, Ebenezer, Joshua, and the like Old Testa- ment names abound upon the list. Some are set down as "farmers," "yeomen," or "husbandmen;" others as "shopkeepers," others as "fishermen," and many as "laborers;" while a great number were handicraftsmen of various trades, from blacksmiths to wig-makers. They mustered at Boston early in April, where clothing, haversacks, and blankets were served out to them at the charge of the King; and the crooked streets of the New England capital were filled with staring young rustics. On the nexli 256 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIAXS. [1755. Saturday the followdng 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 iMonday a grand review took place, — to the gratification, no doubt, of a populace whose amusements were few. All was ready except the muskets, which were expected from England, but did not come. Hence the delay of a month, threatening to ruin the enter- prise. When Shirley returned from Alexandria he found, to his disgust, that the transports still lay at the wharf where he had left them on his departure.^ The muskets arrived at length, and the fleet sailed on the tw^enty-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 Beausdjour. At two o'clock on the next morning a party of Acadians from Chipody roused Vergor with the news. In great alarm, he sent a messenger to Louisbourg to beg for help, and ordered all the fighting men of the neighborhood to repair to the fort. They counted in 1 Shirley to Robinson, 20 June, 1755. 1755.] MONCKTON'S ARRIVAL. 257 all between twelve and fifteen hundred ;i but the^ had no appetite for war. The force of the invaders daunted them; and the hundred and sixty regulars who formed the garrison of Beausdjour were too few to revive their confidence. Those of them who had crossed from the English side dreaded what might ensue should they be caught in arms ; and, to prepare an excuse beforehand, they begged Vergor to threaten them with punishment if they disobeyed his order. He willingly complied, promised to have them 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 garri- son, and the rest, hiding their families in the woods, prepared to wage guerilla war against the invaders. Monckton, with all his force, landed unopposed, and encamped at night on the fields around Fort Lawrence, whence he could contemplate Fort Beau- s^jour at his ease. The regulars of the English gar- rison joined the New England men; and then, on the morning of the fourth, they marched to the attack. Their course lay along the south bank of the Missaguash to where it was crossed by a bridge called Pont-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 1 Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760, An English document, State of the English and French Forts in Nova Scotia, says 1,200 to 1,400. 2 Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. VOL. I. — 17 258 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. hundred regulars, Acadians, and Indians. They lay silent and unseen till the head of the column reached the opposite bank; then raised a yell and opened fire, causing some loss. Three field-pieces were brought up, the defenders were driven out, and a bridge was laid under a spattering fusillade from behind bushes, which continued till the English had crossed the stream. Without further opposition, they marched along the road to Beaus^jour, and, turning to the right, encamped among the woody liills half a league from the fort. That night there was a grand illumination, for Vergor set fire to the church and all the houses outside the ramparts. ^ The English spent some days in preparing their camp and reconnoitring the ground. Then Scott, with five hundred provincials, seized upon a ridge within easy range of the works. An officer named Vannes came out to oppose him with a hundred and eighty men, boasting that 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 Hazen brought up 1 Winslow, Journal and Letter Book. M€moires sur le Canada, 1749-1700. Letters from oflBcers on the spot in Boston Evening Pott and Boston News Letter. Journal of Surgeon John Thomas 1755.] SIEGE OF BEAUSEJOUR. 259 two more, of larger size, on ox-wagons; and, in spite of heavy rain, the fire was brisk on both sides. Captain Rous, on board his ship in the harbor, watched the bombardment with great interest. Hav- ing occasion to write to Winslow, he closed his letter in a facetious strain. " I often hear of your success in plunder, particularly a coach. ^ I hope you have some fine horses for it, at least four, to draw it, that it may be said a New England colonel [tvde in] his coach and four in Nova Scotia. If you have any good saddle-horses in your stable, I should be obliged to you for one to ride round the ship's deck on for exercise, for I am not likely to have any other." Within the fort there was little promise of a strong defence. Le Loutre, it is true, was to be seen in his shirt-sleeves, with a pipe in his mouth, directing the Acadians in their work of strengthening the fortifica- tions.^ 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 general discouragement was redoubled when, on the fourteenth, a letter came from the commandant * " 11 June. Capt. Adams went with a Company of Raingers, and Returned at 11 Clock with a Coach and Sum other Plunder.'' — Journal of John Thomas. 3 Journal qfPichon, cited by Beamish Murdoch. .o "■K 2G0 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. of Louisbourg to say that he could send no help, as British ships blocked the way. On the morning of the sixteentli, 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 number of their officers were Bitting, killed six of them dead, and one Ensign Hay, which the Indians had took jirisoner a few days agone and carried to the fort." The party was at breakfast when the unwelcome visitor burst in. Just opposite was a second bomb-proof, where was Vergor himself, with Le Loutre, another priest, and several officers, who felt that they might at any time share the same fate. The effect was immediate. The Eng-lish. who had not yet got a single cannon into position, saw to their surprise a white flag raised on the ram- part. Some officers of ^le garrison protested against surrender; and Le Loutre, who thought that he had every^thing to fear at the hands of the victors, exclaimed that it was better to be buried under the ruins of the fort than to give it up ; but all was in vain, and the valiant Vannes was sent out to propose terms of capitulation. They were rejected, and others offered, to the following effect: the garrison to march out with the honors of war and to be sent to Louisbourg at the charge of the King of England, but not to bear arms in America for the space of six months ; the Acadians to be pardoned the part they had just borne in the defence, " seeing that they had been compelled to take arms on pain of death." 1755.] FLIGHT OF LE LOUTRE. 261 Confusion reigned all day at Beausdjour. The Acadians went home loaded with plunder. The French officers were so busy in drinking and pillag- ing 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.^ Le Loutre was not to be found ; he had escaped irf 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 occa- sion 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 > On the capture of Beausejour, M^moires sur le Canada, 1749- 1760 ; Pichon, Cape Breton, 318 ; Journal of Pichon, cited by Mup doch ; and the English accounts already mentioned. 262 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. 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 sur- render, 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. Fort Gaspereau, at Baye Verte, twelve miles distant, was summoned by letter to surrender. Vil- leray, its commandant, at once complied; and Winslow went with a detachment to take possession. ^ Nothing remained but to occupy the French post at the mouth of the St. John. Captain Rous, relieved at last from inactivity, was charged with the task; and on the thirtieth he appeared off the harbor, manned his boats, and rowed for shore. The French burned their fort, and withdrew beyond his reach.^ /A hundred and fifty Indians, suddenly converted from enemies to pretended friends, stood on the < strand, firing their guns into the air as a salute, and /declaring themselves brothers of the English. All / Acadi a wa s_,]i^^w ]|i Urjfwl. ]>.nj.],<^ Fort Beaus^jour" * Knox, Campaigns in North America, i. 114, note. Knox, who was stationed in Nova Scotia, says that Le Loutre left behind him " a most remarkabie cliaracter for inhumanity." * Winslow, Journal. Villerai/ au Ministre, 20 Septemhre, 1766. * Drucour au Ministre, I D^cemLre, 1755. 1755.^ VERGOR ACQUITTED. 263 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 Villeray. The governor, Vaudreuil, and the intendant, Bigot, who had returned to Canada, were in the interest of the ;3hief defendant. The court-martial was packed; adverse evidence was shuffled out of sight; and Vergor, acquitted and restored to his rank, lived to inflict on New France another and a greater injury. ^ Now began the first act of a deplorable drama. Monckton, with his small body of regulars, had pitched their tents under the walls of Beausdjour. Winslow and Scott, with the New England troops, lay not far off. There was little intercourse between the two camps. The British officers bore themselves towards those of 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 Monckton was so free as to acquaint me that it was determined to remove all the French inhabitants out of the province, and that he should send for all the adult males from Tantemar, Chipody, Aulac, Beaus^jour, and Baye Verte to read the Governor's * M^motre sur Jes Fraudes commises dans la Colonie, 1779. Jii^ aotres sur le Canada, 1749-1760. 2G4 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755 orders ; and when that was done, was determined to retain them all prisonere in the fort. And this is the first conference of a puhlic nature I have had with the colonel since the reduction of Beaus<^jour; and I apprehend that no officer of either corps has been made more free with." Monckton sent accordingly to all the neighboring settlements, commanding the male inhabitants to meet him at Beaus^jour. Scarcely a third part of their number obeyed. These arrived on the tenth, and were told to stay all night under the guns of the fort. What then befell them wall appear from an entry in the diary of Winslow under date of August ^leventh: "This day was one extraordinary to the inhabitants of Tantemar, Oueskak, Aulac, Bays "^ Verte, Beaus^jour, and places adjacent; the male ^^ V^j)^ inhabitants, or the principal of them, being cijllected ^\v^.^ together in Fort Cumberland to hear the sentence, which determined their property, from the Governoi and Council of Halifax; which was that they were declared rebels, their lands, goods, and chattels for- feited 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 Beausdjour, and had been pardoned for doing so by the terms of the capitulation. It was held, however, tliat, though ^<^ i755.] ITS MOTIVES. 265 forgiven this special offence, they were not exempted from the doom that had gone forth against the great body of their countrymen. We must look closely at the motives and execution of this stern sentence. At any time up to the spring of 1755 the emigrant Acadians were free to return to their homes on tat ing 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 mili- tary power, but also to the bishop of Quebec, who enjoined the Acadians to demand of the English cer- tain concessions, the chief of which were that the priests should exercise their functions without being required to ask leave of the governor, and that the inhabitants should not be called upon for military service of any kind. The bishop added that the provisions of the treaty of Utrecht were insufficient, and that others ought to be exacted. ^ The oral declaration of the English authorities, that for the present the Acadians should not be required to bear arms, was not thought enough. 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 remained in the peninsula equally refused it, though most of them were born and had always lived undei 1 UlSi^eque de Quebec a Le Loutre, Novembre, 1754, in Public Doctt mtmts of Nova Scotia, 240. 26(5 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. the British flag. Far from pledging themselves to complete allegiance, they showed continual signs of hostility. In ^lay^ three pretended French deserters were detected among them inciting them to take arms against the English.^ On the capture of Beausdjour the British authori- ties found themselves in a position of great difficulty. The New England troops were enlisted for the year only, and could not be kept in Acadia. It was likely that the French would make a strong effort to recover the province, sure as they were of support from the great body of its people. The presence of this dis- affected population was for the French commanders a continual inducement to invasion; and Lawrence was not strong enough to cope at once with attack from without and insurrection from within. Shirley had held for some time that there was no safety for Acadia but in ridding it of the Acadians. He had lately proposed that the lands of the district of Chignecto, abandoned by their emigrant owners, should be given to English settlers, who would act as a check and a counterpoise to the neighboring French population. This advice had not been acted upon. Nevertheless Shirley and his brother governor of Nova Scotia were kindred spirits, and inclined to similar measures. Colonel 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 1 nJSv^que de Quebec a Le Louire, Novembre, 1754, in Public Doo iments of Nova Scotia, 242. 1755.] VIEWS OF ENGLISH AUTHORITIES. 267 softer sentiments, and the behavior of the Acadiana was fast exhausting his patience. More than a year before, the Lords of Trade had instructed him that they had no right to their lands if they persisted in refusing the oath.^ Lawrence replied, enlarging on their obstinacy, treachery, and "ingratitude for the ■favor, indulgence, and protection they have at all times so undeservedly received from His Majesty's Government;" declaring at the same time that, "while they remain without taking the oaths, and have incendiary French priests among them, there are no hopes of their amendment;" and that "it would be much better, if they refuse the oaths, that they were away."^ "We were in hopes," again wrote the Lords of Trade, "that the lenity which had been shown to those people by indulging them in the free exercise of their religion and the quiet / possession of their lands, would by degrees have gained their friendship and assistance, and weaned their affections from the French ; but we are sorry to find that this lenity has had so little effect, and that they still hold the same conduct, furnishing them with labor, provisions, and intelligence, and conceal- ing their designs from us." In fact, the Acadians, while calling themselves neutrals, were an enemy encamped in the heart of the province. These are the reasons which explain and palliate a measure too harsh and indiscriminate to be wholly justified. Abb^ Raynal, who never saw the Acadians, has 1 L(/rds of Trade to Lawrence, 4 March, 1754. * Lawrence to Lords of Trade, 1 August, 1754. ■i. 268 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755^ made an ideal picture of tbem,^ since copied and improved in prose and verse, till Acadia has become Arcadia. The plain realities of their condition and fate are touching enough to need no exaggeration. They were a simple and very ignorant peasantry, industrious and frugal till evil days came to discour- age them ; living aloof from the world, with little of " that spirit of adventure which an easy access to the vast fur-bearing interior had developed in their Canadian kindred; having few wants, and those of the rudest ; fishing a little and hunting in the winter, but chiefly employed in cultivating the meadows along the river Annapolis, or rich marshes reclaimed by dikes from the tides of the Bay of Fundy. The British government left them entirely free of taxa- tion. They made clothing of flax and wool of their own raising, hats of similar materials, and shoes or moccasons of moose and seal skin. They bred cattle, sheep, hogs, and horses in abundance ; and the valley of the Annapolis, then as now, was known for the profusion and excellence of its apples. For drink, they made cider or brewed spruce-beer. French officials describe their dwellings as wretched wooden boxes, without ornaments or conveniences, and scarcely supplied with the most necessary furniture.' Two or more families often occupied the same house ; and their way of life, though simple and virtuous, 1 Tlistoire pkilosophique et poJ-'irjue, vi. 242 (ed. 1772). * Beauharnois et Hocquart au Comte de Maurepas, 12 Septembn, 1745. 1755.] THEIR CHARACTER. 269 was by no means remarkable for cleanliness. Such as it was, contentment reigned among tliem, undis- turbed by what modern America calls progress. Marriages were early, and population grew apace. This humble society had its disturbing elements ; for the Acadians, like the Canadians, were a litigious race, and neighbors often quarrelled about their boundaries. Nor were they without a bountiful share of jealousy, gossip, and backbiting, to relieve the monotony of their lives ; and every village had its turbulent spirits, sometimes by fits, though rarely long, contumacious even toward the cur^, the guide, counsellor, and ruler of his flock. Enfeebled by hereditary mental subjection, and too long kept in leading-strings to walk alone, they needed him, not for the next world only, but for this ; and their sub- mission, compounded of love and fear, was commonly without bounds. He was their true government; to him they gave a frank and full allegiance, and dared not disobey him if they would. Of knowledge he gave them nothing ; but he taught them to be true to their wives and constant at confession and mass, to stand fast for the Church and King Louis, and to resist heresy and King George ; for, in one degree or another, the Acadian priest was always the agent of a double-headed foreign power, — the bishop of Quebec allied with the governor of Canada.^ When Monckton and the Massachusetts men laid 1 Franquet, Journal, 1751, says of the Acadians : " Us aiment I'argent, n'ont dans toute leur condmte que leur interet pour objel^ 270 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755i 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 indica- tions that this would be the result. A number of Acadian families, who at the promptings of Le Loutre had emigrated to Cape Breton, had lately returned to Halifax, promising to be true subjects of King George if they could be allowed to repossess their ' lands. They cheerfully took the oath; on which they were reinstated in their old homes, and supplied with food for the winter. ^ Their example unfortu- nately found few imitators. Early in June the principal inhabitants of Grand Pr^ and other settlements about the Basin of Mines brought a memorial, signed with their crosses, to Captain Murray, the military commandant in their district, and desired him to send it to Governor La\vrence, 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 sont, indifferemment des deux sexes, d'une inconsideration dani leurs discours qui denote de la me'chanceteV Another obseryer, Diereville, gives a more favorable picture. * Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 228. 1755.J THEIR MEMORIAL. 271 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 \Jiithert6] granted us." Their memorial then demanded, in terms highly offensive to the Council, that the guns, pistols, and other weapons, which they had lately been required to give up, should be returned to 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 Government with the greatest lenity and tenderness, had en- joyed more privileges than other English subjects, and had been indulged in the free exercise of their religion;" all which they acknowledged to be true. The governor then told them that their conduct had been undutif ul and ungrateful ; " that they had dis- covered a constant disposition to assist His Majesty's enemies and to distress his subjects; that they had not only furnished the enemy with provisions and ammunition, but had refused to supply the [EnglisJi] ^uhabitants or Government, and when they did supply J 272 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIAN S. [i755 them, had exacted three times the price for which they were sold at other markets." The hope was then expressed that they would no longer obstruct the settlement of the province by aiding the Indians to molest and kill English settlers; and they were rebuked for saying in their memorial that they would be faithful to the King only on certain conditions. The governor added that they had some secret reason for demanding their Aveapons, and flattered them- selves that French troops were at hand to support their insolence. In conclusion, they were told that now was a good opportunity to prove their sincerity by taking the oath of allegiance, in the usual form, before the Council. They replied that they had not made up their minds on that point, and could do nothing till they had consulted their constituents. Being reminded that the oath was personal to them- selves, and that six years had already been given them to think about it, they asked leave to retire and confer together. This was granted, and at the end of an hour they came back with the same answer as before ; whereupon they were allowed till ten o'clock on the next morning for a final decision.^ At the appointed time the Council again met, and the deputies were brought in. They persisted stub- bornly in the same refusal. "They were then in- formed," says the record, "that the Council could no longer look on them as subjects to His Britannic 1 Minutes of Council at Halifax, 3 July, 1755, in Public Documents Qf Nova Scotia. 2i7-255. 1755.] THEY REFUSE THE OATH. 273 Majesty, but as subjects to the King of France, and as such they must hereafter be treated; and they were ordered to withdraw." A discussion followed in the Council. It was determined that the Acadians should be ordered to send new deputies to Halifax, who should answer for them, once for all, whether they would accept the oath or not; that such as refused it should not thereafter be permitted to take it; and "that effectual measures ought to be taken fco remove all such recusants out of the province." The deputies, being then called in and told this decision, became alarmed, and offered to swear allegiance in the terms required. The answer was that it was too late; that as they had refused the oath under persuasion, they could not be trusted when they took it under compulsion. It remained to Bee whether the people at large would profit by their example. "I am determined," wrote Lawrence to the Lords of Trade, " to bring the inhabitants to a compliance, or rid the province of such perfidious subjects."* First, in answer to the summons of the Council, the deputies from Annapolis appeared, declaring that they had always been faithful to the British Crown, but flatly refusing the oath. They were told that, far from having been faithful subjects, they had always secretly aided the Indians, and that many of Ihem had been in arms against the English ; that the French were threatening the province; and that ita 1 Lawrence to Lords of Trade, 18 July, 1755. VOL. I. — 18 .^^^^ 274 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIAN S. [1755l 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 country. They all declared that they would lose their lands rather than tiike t lm iratlr TEe Council urged them to consider the matter seriously, warning them that, if they now persisted in refusal, no farther choice would be allowed them; and they were given till ten o'clock on the following Monday to make their final answer. When that day came, another body of deputies had arrived from Grand Ft6 and the other settlements of the Basin of Mines; and being called before the Council, both they and the former deputation abso- lutely refused to take the oath of allegiance. These two bodies represented nine-tenths of the Acadian population within the peninsula. "Nothing," pur- sues the record of the Council, "now remained to be considered but what measures should be taken to send the inhabitants away, and where they should be sent to." If they were sent to Canada, Cape Breton, or the neighboring islands, they would strengthen 'the enemy, and still threaten the province. It was therefore resolved to distribute them among the various English colonies, and to hire vessels for the I purpose with all despatch.^ 1 Minutes of Council, 4 Julij-28 July, in Puolic Documents of Nova Scotia, 255-267. Copies of these and otlier parts of tlie record were sent at the time to England, and are now in the Public Record Office along with the letters of Lawrence. 1755.] MOTIVES OF THEIR CONDUCT. 275 The oath, the refusal of which had brouglit such consequences, was a simple pledge of fidelity and allegiance to King George II. and his successors. Many of the Acadians had already taken an oath of fidelity, though with the omission of the word " alle- giance," and, as they insisted, with a saving clause exempting them from bearing arms. The effect of this was that they did not regard themselves as British subjects, and claimed, falsely as regards most of them, the character of neutrals. It was to put an end to this anomalous state of things that the oath without reserve had been demanded of them. Their rejection of it, reiterated in full view of the conse- quences, 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 perdi- tion. "If the Acadians are miserable, remember that the priests are the cause of it," writes the French officer Boish^bert to the missionary Manach.^ 1 On the oath and its history, compare a long note by Mr. Akin in Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 26.3-267. Winslow in his Jour- nal gives an abstract of a memorial sent him by the Acadians, in which they say that they had refused the oath, and so forfeited their lands, from motives of religion. I have shown in a former chapter that the priests had been the chief instruments in prevent- ing them from accepting the English government. Add the following : — " Lea malheurs des Accadiens sont beaucoup moins leur ouvragji 276 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755 The Council having come to a decision, Lawrence acquainted Monckton with the result, and ordered him to seize all the adult males in the neighborhood 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 escape of all means of shelter or support, by burning their houses and by destroying everything that may afford them the means of subsistence in the country." Similar orders were given to Major Ilandfield, the regular officer in command at Annapolis. qne le fruit des sollicitations et des demarches des missionnaires.* — Yaudreuil au Ministre, 6 Mai, 1760. " Si nous avons la guerre, et si les Accadiens soiat miserables, sonyenez-vous que ce sont les pretres qui en sont la cause." — Boish€bert a Manach, 21 F^vr'ier, 1760. Both these writers had en- couraged the priests in their intrigues so long as these were likely to profit the French government, and only blamed them after they failed to accomplish what was expected of them. " Nous avons six missionnaires dont I'occupation perpetuelle est de porter les esprits au fanatisme et h. la vengeance. . . . Je ne puis supporter dans nos pretres ces odieuses declamations qu'ils font tous les jours aux sauvages : ' Les Anglois sont les ennemis de Dieu, les compagnons du Diable.' " — Pichon, Lettres et Me moires pout aervir a I'Uistuire du Cap-Breton, 160, 161. (La Haye, 1760.) 1755.} MISSION OF WINSLOW. 277 On the fourteenth of August Winslow set out from his camp at Fort Beaus^jour, or Cumberland, on his unenviable errand. He had with him but two hun- dred and ninety-seven men. His mood of mind was not serene. He was chafed because 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 for- ward his detachment under Adams, the senior cap- tain, and they were marching by the fort with drums beating and colors flying, when Monckton sent out his aide-de-camp with a curt demand that the colors should be given up, on the ground that they ought to remain with the regiment. Whatever the sound- ness 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 Fundy. Here, while they waited the turn of the tide to enter the Basin of Mines, the shores of Cum- berland lay before them dim in the hot and hazy air, and the promontory of Cape Split, like some mis- 278 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. shapen monster of primeval chaos, stretched its por- tentous length along the glimmering sea, with head of yawning rock, and ridgy back bristled with forests. Borne on the rushing flood, they soon drifted tlirough 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 Habitiints, where fertile marshes, diked against the tide, sustained a numerous and thriving population. Before them spread the boundless meadows of Grand Prd, waving with harvests or alive with grazing cattle; the green slopes behind were dotted with the simple dwellings of the Acadian farmers, and the spire of tne 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 stock- ade called Fort Edward, where a garrison of regulars under Captain Alexander Murray kept watch over the surrounding settlements. The New England men pitched their tents on shore, while the sloops that had brought them slept on the soft bed of tawny mud left by the fallen tide. Winslow found a warm reception, for Murray and his oflScers had been reduced too long to their own society not to welcome the coming of strangers. The two commanders conferred together. Both had been 1755.] WINSLOW AT GRAND PRE. 279 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 concern- ing the duties imposed on both, and begun an acquaintance which soon grew cordial on both sides, Winslow embarked again and retraced his course to Grand Pr^, the station which the governor had assigned him. "Am pleased," he wrote to Lawrence, " with the place proposed by your Excellency for our reception [the village churcJi]. 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 windbw on a tranquil scene. Beyond the vast tract of grassland to which Grand Prd owed its name, spread the blue glistening breast of the Basin of Mines ; beyond this again, the distant mountains of Cobequid basked in the summer sun; and nearer, on the left. Cape Blomedon reared its bluff head of rock and forest above the sleeping waves. As the men of the settlement greatly outnumbered his own, Winslow set his followers to surrounding the camp with a stockade. Card-playing was for- bidden, because it encouraged idleness, and pitching quoits in camp, because it spoiled the grass. Pres- ently there came a letter from Lawrence expressing a 280 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. iear 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 detach- ment 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 Pr^ to meet him at the church and hear the King's orders, and that Murray should do the same for those around Fort Edward. Winslow then called in his three captains, — Adams, Hobbs, and Osgood, — made them swear secrecy, and laid before them his instructions and plans; which latter they approved. Murray then returned to his post, and on the next day sent Winslow a note containing the following: "I think the sooner we strike the stroke the better, therefore will be glad to see you here as soon as conveniently you can. I shall have the orders for assembling ready written for your approba- tion, only the day blank, and am hopeful everything will succeed according to our wishes. The gentle- men join me in our best compliments to you and the Doctor." 1755.] THE SUMMONS. 281 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 Beauchamp, a merchant, to "put it into French." It ran as follows : — By John Winslow, Esquire, Lieutenant-Colonel and Commander of His Majesty's troops at Grand Pre, Mines, River Canard, and places adjacent. To the inhabitants of the districts above named, as well ancients as young men and lads. Whereas His Excellency the Governor has instructed us of his last resolution respecting the matters proposed lately to the inhabitants, and has ordered us to communi- cate the same to the 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 Pre on Friday, the fifth instant, at three of the clock in the afternoon, that we may impart what we are ordered to communicate to them; declaring that no 282 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. excuse will be admitted on any pretence whatsoever, on pain of forfeiting goods and chattels in default. Given at Grand Pre, the second of September, in the twenty-ninth year of His Majesty's reign, a.d. 1755. A similar summons was drawn up in the name of Murniy for the inhabitants of the district of Fort Edward. Captain Adams made a reconnoissanee of the rivers Canard and Des Habitants, and reported "a fine country and full of inhabitants, a beautiful church, and abundance of the goods of the world." Another reconnoissanee by Captains Hobbs and Osgood among the settlements behind Grand Prd brought reports equally favorable. On the fourth, another letter came from Murray : " All the people quiet, and very- busy at their harvest; if this day keeps fair, all will be in here in their barns. I hope to-morrow will crown all our wishes." The Acadians, like the bees, were to gather a harvest for others to enjoy. The summons was sent out that afternoon. 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 hundred and eighteen men. Winslow ordered a table to be set in the middle of the church, and placed on it his instructions and the address he had prepared. Here he took his stand in his laced uniform, with one or two subalterns from the regulars at Fort Edward, and such of the Massachusetts officers as were net ca 1755.] SCENE IN THE CHURCH. ii«3 guard duty; strong, sinewy figures, bearing, no doubt, more or less distinctly, the peculiar stamp with which toil, trade, and Puritanism had imprinted the features of New England. Their commander was not of the prevailing type. He was fifty-three years of age, with double chin, smooth forehead, arched eyebrows, close powdered wig, and round, rubicund face, from which the weight of an odious duty had probably banished the smirk of self-satis- faction that dwelt there at other times. ^ Neverthe- less, he had manly and estimable qualities. The congregation of peasants, clad in rough homespun, turned their sunburned faces upon him, anxious and intent ; and Winslow " delivered them by interpret- ers the King's orders in the following words," which, retouched in orthography and syntax, ran thus : — Gkntlemen, — 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- » See hia portrait, at the rooms of the Massachusetts Historicai Society. 284 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [175a tion I shall deliver to you His Majesty's instructions and commands, which are that your lands and tenements and cattle and live-stock of all kinds are forfeited to the Crown, with all your other effects, except money and household goods, and that you yourselves are to be removed from / this his province. The peremptory orders of His Majesty are that all the French inhabitants of these districts be removed; and through His Majesty's goodness I am directed to allow you the liberty of carrying with you your money and as many of your household goods as you can take without overloading the vessels you go in. I shall do everything in 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 am sensible must give you a great deal of trouble, may be made as easy as His Majesty's service will admit; and I hope that in whatever part of the world your lot may fall, you may be faithful subjects, and a peaceable and happy people. I must also inform you that it is His Majesty's pleasure that you remain in security under the inspection and direc- tion of the troops that I have the honor to command. He then declared them prisoners of the King. "They were greatly struck," he says, "at this deter- mination, though I believe they did hot imagine that tliey were actually to be removed." After delivering the address, he returned to his quarters at the priest's house, whither he was followed by some of the elder prisoners, who begged leave to tell their families what had happened, "since they were fearful that the surprise of their detention would quite overcome J755.] AN ENGLISH REVERSE. 285 them." Winslow consulted with his officers, and it was arranged 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 Handfield at Annapolis, saying that he had tried to secure the men of that neighborhood, but that many of them had escaped to the woods. Murray's report from Fort Edward came soon after, and was more favorable: "I have succeeded finely, and have got a hundred and eighty-three men into my possession." To which Winslow replies: "I have the favor of yours of this day, and rejoice at your success, and also for the smiles that have attended the party here." But he adds mournfully: "Things are now very heavy on my heart and hands." The prisoners were lodged in the church, and notice was sent to their families to bring them food. "Thus," says the Diary of the commander, " ended the memo- rable fifth of September, a day of great fatigue and trouble." There was one quarter where fortune did not always smile. Major Jedediah Preble, of Winslow's battalion, wrote to him that Major Frye had just returned from Chipody, whither he had gone with a party of men to destroy the settlements and bring off the women and children. After burning two hun- dred and fifty-three buildings he had re-embarked, leaving fifty men on shore at a place called Feticodiac to give a finishing stroke to the work by burning the 286 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. "Mass House," or church. While thus engaged, they were set upon by three hundred Indians and Acadians, led by the partisan officer Boish^bert. More than half their number were killed, wounded, or taken. The rest ensconced themselves behind the neighboring dikes, and Frye, hastily landing with the rest of his men, engaged the assailants for three hours, but was forced at hist to re-embark. ^ 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 miglit by a sudden rush get possession of arms and make serious trouble. On the Wednesday after the sc3ne 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 wdthin the mouth of the neigh- boring river. It was resolved to place fifty of the prisoners on board each of these, and keep them 1 Also Boishehert a Drurour, 10 Octobre, 1755, an exaggerated account. Vaudrenil au ^finistre, 18 Octobre, 1755, sets Boishebert'i force at one hundred and twenty-five men. 1755.] A MEASURE OF PRECAUTION. 287 anchored in the Basin. The soldiers were all ordered under arms, and posted on an open space 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 number of a hundred and forty-one. Captain Adams, with eighty men, was then ordered to guard them to the vessels. Though the object of the movement had been explained to them, they were possessed with the idea that they were to be torn from their families and sent away at once ; and they all, in great excitement, refused to go. Winslow told them that there must be no parley or delay ; and as they still refused, a squad of soldiers advanced towards them with fixed bayonets ; while he himself, laying hold of the fore- most young man, commanded him to move forward. " He obeyed ; and the rest followed, though slowly, and went off praying, singing, and crying, being met by the women and children all the way (which is a mile and a half) with great lamentation, upon their knees, praying." When the escort returned, about a hundred of the married men were ordered to follow the fhst 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 'M^ REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. thus," says Winslow, "ended this troublesome job." He was not given to effusions of feeling, but he wrote to Major Handfield: "This affair is more grievous to me than any service I was ever employed in."i Murray sent him a note of congratulation : " I am extremely pleased that things are so clever at Grand Prd, and that the poor devils are so resigned. Here they are more patient than I could have expected for , people in their circumstances; and what surprises \ me still more is the indifference of the women, who really are, or seem, quite unconcerned. I long much to see the poor wretches embarked and our affair a little settled; and then I will do myself the pleasure of meeting you and di'inking their good voyage." This agreeable consummation was still distant. There was a long and painful delay. The provisions for the vessels which were to carry the prisoners did not come ; nor did the vessels themselves, excepting the five already at Grand Pr^. In vain Winslow wrote urgent letters to George Saul, the commissary, to bring the supplies at once. Murray, at Fort Edward, though with less feeling than his brother officer, was quite as impatient of the burden of suffering humanity on his hands. "I am amazed what can keep the transports and Saul. Surely our 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 ren>ained at Grand Pre several ireeks, and wer« thea sent off at intervals with their families. 1755.] EMBARKATION. 289 friend at Chignecto is willing to give us as much of our neighbors' company as he well can." ^ Saul came at last with a shipload of provisions ; but the lagging transports did not appear. Winslow grew heartsick at the daily sight of miseries which he himself had occasioned, and wrote to a friend at Halifax: "I know they deserve all and more than they feel; yet it hurts me to hear their weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. I am in hopes our affairs will soon put on another face, and we get transports, and I rid of the worst piece of service that ever I was in." After weeks of delay, seven transports came from Annapolis; and Winslow sent three of them to Murray, who joyfully responded : " Thank God, the transports are come at last. So soon as I have shipped off my rascals, I will come down and settle matters with you, and enjoy ourselves a little." Winslow prepared for the embarkation. The Acadian prisoners and their families were divided into groups answering to their several villages, in order that those of the same village might, as far as V possible, go in the same vessel. It was also provided . that the members of each family should remain \ together ; and notice was given them to hold them- "^ selves in readiness. "But even now," he writes, "I'. ^ could not persuade the people I was in earnest. "y/ Their doubts were soon ended. The first embarka- tion took place on the eighth of October, under which date the Diary contains this entry: "Began to embark 1 Murray to Winslow, 26 September, 1755. VOL. I. — 19 290 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. the inhabitants, who went off very solentarily [sic] and unwillingly, the women in great distress, carry- ing off their childi-en in their arms ; others carrying their decrepit parents in their carts, with all their goods; moving in great confusion, and appeared a scene of woe and distress."^ Though a large number were embarked on this occasion, still more remained; and as the transports slowly arrived, the dismal scene was repeated at intervals, with more order than at first, as the Aca- dians had learned to accept their fate as a certainty. So far as Winslow was concerned, their treatment seems to have been as humane as was possible under the circumstances ; but they complained of the men, who disliked and despised them. One soldier received thirty lashes for stealing fowls from them; and an order was issued forbidding soldiers or sailors, on pain of summary punishment, to leave their quarters without permission, " that an end may be put to distressing this distressed people." Two of the pris- oners, however, while trying to escape, were shot by a reconnoitring party. y^t the beginning of November Winslow reported ''M;hat he had sent off fifteen hundred and ten persons, in nine vessels, and that more than six hundred still remained in his district.^ The last of these were not embarked till late in December. Murray finished 1 In spite of Winslow's care, some cases of separation of fami lies occurred ; but they were not numerous. ' Winslow to Monckton, 3 November, 1755. 1755.1 CONJUGAL DEVOTION. 291 his part of the work at the end of October, having sent from the district of Fort Edward eleven hundred persons in four frightfully crowded transports.^ At the close of that month sixteen hundred and sixty- four had been sent from the district of Annapolis, where many others escaped to the woods. ^ A detachment which was ordered to seize the inhabit- ants of the district of Cobequid failed entirely, find- ing the settlements abandoned. In the country about Fort Cumberland, Monckton, who directed the operation in person, had very indifferent success, catching in all but little more than a thousand.^ Le Guerne, missionary priest in this neighborhood, gives a characteristic and affecting incident of the embarka- tion. "Many unhappy women, carried away by excessive attachment to their husbands, whom they had been allowed to see too often, and closing their ears to the voice of religion and their missionary, threw themselves blindly and despairingly into the English vessels. And now 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 expose their own souls to perdition among heretics, but not those of their children. When all, or nearly all, had been sent off from the 1 Winslow to Monckton, 3 November, 1755. * Captain Adams to Winslow, 29 November, 1755; see also KnoX; L 85, who exactly confirms Adams's figures. ' Monckton to Winslow, 7 October, 1755. * Le Guerne a Provost, 10 Mars, 1756. 292 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIAxVS. [1755 various points of departure, such of the houses and hams as remained stiinding were burned, in obedience to the orders of LaN\Tence, that those who had escaped niiglit be forced to come in and surrender themselves, e whole number removed from the province, men , women, and chihlr en, was a little above six t housand. Many remained Ijehind ; and while some of these withdrew to Canada, Isle St. Jean, and other dis- tant retreats, the rest lurked in the woods or re- turned to their old haunts, whence they waged, for several years, a guerilla warfare against the Eng- lish. Yet their strength was broken, and they were no longer a -danger -to the province. Of their exiled countrjmien, one party overpowered 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 trans- port 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 strangers. The provincials were vexed at the burden imposed upon them; and though the Acadians were not in general ill-treated, their lot was a hard one. Still more so was that of those among them who escaped to Canada. The chronicle of the Ursulines of Quebec, speaking of these last, Bays that their misery was indescribable, and at- 1 Lettre commune de Drncour pt P~svost au Ministre, 6 Avril, 175d Vaudreutl au Ministre, 1 Juin, 176i. 1755.] THEIR FATE. 293 tributes 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 befriended them that they wished to return. ^ Bougainville, the celebrated navigator, then aide-de-camp to Montcalm, says concerning them: "They are dying by wholesale. Their past and present misery, joined to the rapacity of the Canadians, who seek only to squeeze out of them all the money they can, and then refuse them the help so dearly bought, are the cause of this mortality." "A citizen of Quebec," he says farther on, " was in debt to one of the partners of the Great Company [Government officials leagued for plunder]. He had no means of paying. They gave him a great number of Acadians to board and lodge. He starved them with hunger and cold, got out of them what money they had, and paid the extortioner. Quel pays ! Quels moeurs ! " ^ Many of the exiles eventually reached Louisiana, where their descendants now form a numerous and distinct population. Some, after incredible hardship, made their way back to Acadia, where, after the peace, they remained unmolested, and, with those 1 Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., iii. 42, note. 2 Bougainville, Journal, 1756-1758. His statements are sustained by M^moires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. 294 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755. who bad 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 othere again, after the complete conquest of the country, found refuge in France. In one particular the authors of the deportation wepe- disappointed in its results. Th ey had hoped to \ >^bstit ute a loyal population for a disaffected one ; I but they failed for some time to find settlers for the "^ vacated lands. The Massachusetts soldiers, to whom they were offered, would not stay in the province; and it was not till five years later that families of British stock began to occupy the waste fields of the Acadians. Tliis goes far to show that a longing to become their heirs had not, as has been alleged, any considerable part in the motives for their removal. New England humanitarianism, melting into sen- timentality at a tale of woe, has been unjust to its own. Whatever judgment may be passed on the cruel measure of wholesale expatriation, it was not put in execution till every resource of patience and persuasion had been tried in vain. The agents of the French court, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, had made some act of force a necessity. We have seen by what vile practices they produced in Acadia a state of things intolerable, and impossible of con- tinuance. They conjured up the tempest ; and when it burst on the heads of the unhappy people, they 1755.] THEIR FATE. 295 gave no help. The government of Louis XV. beg an with TnaL-ino-^the AcacUans its t ook, and p.ndpd \Qfh 1 It may not be remembered that the predecessor of Louis XV., without 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 dis- persed among the other British colonies in such a way that tliey could not reunite. Want of power alone prevented the execution of the order. See " Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV..'' 198, 199. t^> CHAPTER IX 1755. DIESKAU. Expedition against Crown Point. — William Johnsow. — Vau- DBEUIL. DiESKAU. JOHNSON AND THE INDIANS. ThE PRO- VINCIAL Army. — Doubts and Delays. — March to Lak£ George. — Sunday in Camp. — Advance of Dieskah: hb CHANGES Plan. — Majjches against Johnson. — Ambush. — Rout of Provincials. — Battle op Lake George. — Rout of the French. — Rage of the Mohawks. — Peril of Dies- KAU. — Inaction of Johnson. — The Homeward March. — Laurels of Victory. The next stroke of the campaiprn ^as to be the t ure of Crown Point, that dangerous neighbor which, for a quarter of a century, had thr eatened the northern colonies. Shirley, in January, had proposed an attack on it to the ministry; and in February, without waiting their reply, he laid the plan before his Assembly. They accepted it, and voted money for the pay and maintenance of twelve hundred men, provided the adjacent colonies would contribute in due proportion. 1 Massachusetts showed a military * Governor Shirley's Message to his Assembly, 13 February, 1765. Resolutions of the Assembly of Massachusetts, 18 February, 17 55. Shir- ley's oritjinal idea was to build a fort on a rising ground near Crown Point, in order to command it. Tiiis was soon abandoned for the more honest and more practical plan of direct attack. THE REGION OF from surveys made in 1762 TortWillianiHemy ■tt^sik^t'*" •-i*». ?•». -,.' 1755.3 EXPEDITION AGAINST CROWN POINT. 297 activity worthy of the reputation she had won. Forty-fi ve hundred of her men, or one in eight of her adult m ales, volunteered 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 remained 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 officer, it would have roused the jealousy of the other New England colonies ; and he therefore appointed William Johnson of New York, thus gratifying that important province 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 hun- dred 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 Alexandria approved the plan and the commander, Shirley gave Johnson the commission of major-general of the levies of Massachusetts ; and the governors of the other provinces contributing to the expedition gave him similar commissions for their respective contingents. Never did general take the field with authority so heterogeneous. J Correspondence of Shirley, February, 1755, The number wa« much increased later in the season. 298 DIESKAU. [1755. He had never seen service, and knew nothing of war. By birth he was Irish, of good family, being nephew of Admiral Sir Peter Warren, who, owning extensive wild lands on the Mohawk, had placed the young man in charge of them nearly twenty years before. Johnson was born to prosper. He had ambition, energy, an active mind, a tall, strong person, a rough, jovial temper, and a quick adapta- tion to his surroundings. He could drink flip with Dutch boors, or Madeira with royal governors. He liked the society of the great, would intrigue and flatter when he had an end to gain, and foil a rival without looking too closely at the means ; but com- pared with the Indian traders who infested the border, he was a model of uprightness. He lived by the Mohawk 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 contrast with the ras- calities of the commission of Albany traders who had lately managed their affairs, and whom they so detested that one of their chiefs called them "not i755.] WILLIAM JOHNSON. 299 men, but devils." Hence, when Johnson was made Indian superintendent there was joy through all the Iroquois confederacy. When, in addition, he was made a general, he assembled the warriors in council to engage them to aid the expedition. This meeting took place at his own house, known as Fort Johnson; and as more than eleven hundred Indians appeared at his call, his larder was sorely taxed to entertain them. The speeches were intermi- nable. Johnson, a master of Indian rhetoric, knew his audience too well not to contest with them the palm of insufferable prolixity. The climax was reached on the fourth day, and he threw down the war-belt. An Oneida chief took it up; Stevens, the interpreter, began the war-dance, and the assembled warriors howled in chorus. Then a tub of punch was brought in, and they all drank the King's health.^ 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 L. preparing to defend it. Duquesne, recalled from higj 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 1 Report of Conference between Major- General Johnson and th« Indians, June, 1755. 300 DIESKAU. [175a them for the capture of Oswego; but the letters of Braddock, found on the battle-field, warned him of the design against Crown Point; while a reconnoitring party which had gone as far as the Hudson brought back news that Johnson's forces were already in the field. Therefore the plan was changed, and Dieskau was ordered to lead the main body of his troops, not to Lake Ontario, but to Lake Champlain. He passed up the Richelieu, and embarked in boats and canoes for Crown Point. The veteran knew that tlie foes ^vith whom he had to deal were but a mob of country- men. He doubted not of putting them to rout, and meant never to hold his hand till he had chased them back to Albany.! "Make all haste," Vaudreuil wrote to him ; " for when you return we shall send you to Oswego to execute our first design. "^ Johnson on his part was preparing to advance. In July about three thousand provincials were en- camped near Albany, some on the " Flats " above the town, and some on the meadows below. Hither, too, came a swarm of Johnson's Mohawks, — warriors, squaws, and children. They adorned the general's face with war-paint, and he danced the war-dance; then with his sword he cut the first slice from the ox that had been roasted whole for their entertainment. "I shall be glad," wrote the surgeon of a New Eng- land regiment, " if they fight as eagerly as they ate their ox and drank their wine." 1 Bigot au Ministre, 27 Aout, 1755. Ibid., 5 Septembre, 1755. ' M(fmoire pour servir d' Instruction a M. h Baron de Dieskau, Marechal des Camps et Arme'es du Hoy, 15 Aoit, 1755. 1755.] DELAYS. 301 Above all things the expedition needed prompt- ness; yet everything moved slowly. Five popular legislatures controlled the troops and the supplies. Connecticut had refused to send her men till Shirley promised that her commanding officer should rank next to Johnson. The whole movement was for some time at a deadlock because the five governments could not agree about their contributions of artillery and stores.^ The New Hampshire regiment had taken a short cut for Crown Point across the wilder- ness of Vermont, but had been recalled in time to save them from probable destruction. They were now with the rest in the camp at Albany, in such distress for provisions that a private subscription was proposed for their relief. ^ Johnson's army, crude as it was, had in it good material. Here was Phineas Lyman, of Connecticut, second in command, once a tutor at Yale College, and more recently a lawyer, — a raw soldier, but a vigorous and brave one; Colonel Moses Titcomb, ot Massachusetts, who had fought with credit at Louis- bourg; and Ephraim Williams, also colonel of a Massachusetts regiment, a tall and portly man, who had been a captain in the last war, member of the General Court, and deputy sheriff. He made his will in the camp at Albany, and left a legacy to 1 The Conduct of Major- General Shirley briefly stated (London, 1758). 2 Blanchard to Wentworth, 28 August, 1755, in Provincial Papers oj New Hampshire, vi. 429. 302 DIESKAU. [1755i found the school which has since become Williams College. His relative, Stephen Williams, was chap- lain of his regiment, and his brother Thomas was its surgeon. Seth Pomeroy, gunsmith at Northampton, who, like Titcomb, had seen service at Louisbourg, was its lieutenant-colonel. He had left a wife at home, an excellent matron, to whom he was con- tinually writing affectionate letters, mingling house- hold cares with news of the camp, and charging her to see that their eldest boy, Seth, then in college at New Haven, did not run off to the army. Pomeroy had with him his brother Daniel ; and this he thought was enough. Here, too, was a man whose name is still a household word in New England, — the sturdy Israel Putnam, private in a Connecticut regiment and another as bold as he, John Stark, lieutenant in the New Hampshire levies, and the future victor of Bennington. The soldiers were no soldiers, but farmers and. farmers' sons who had volunteered for the summer campaign. One of the corps had a blue uniform faced with red. The rest wore their daily clothing. Blankets had been served out to them by the several provinces, but the greater part brought their own guns ; some under the penalty of a fine if they came without them, and some under the inducement of a reward. 1 They had no bayonets, but carried hatchets in their belts as a sort of substitute. 2 At their sides * Proclamation of Governor Shirleif, 1755. « Second Letter to a Friend on the Battle of Lake George. 1755.] THE PROVINCIAL ARMY. 303 were slung powder-horns, on which, in the leisura of the camp, they carved quaint devices with the points of their jack-knives. They came chiefly from plain New England homesteads, — rustic abodes, unpainted and dingy, with long well-sweeps, capacious 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 Williams writes to Colonel Israel Williams, then commanding on the Massachusetts frontier : " We are a wicked, profane army, especially the New York and Rhode Island troops. Nothing to be heard among a great part of them but the language of Hell. If Crown Point is taken, it will not be for our sakes, but for those good people left behind." ^ There was edifying regularity in respect to form. Sermons twice a week, daily prayers, and frequent psalm-singing alternated with the much-needed military drill. ^ "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 * Papers of Colonel Israel Williams, * Massachusetts Archives. 304 DIESKAU. [1755. 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 arms it seemed that they were engaged in a kind of crusade against the myrmidons of Rome. " As you liave at heart the Protestant cause," he wrote to his friend Israel Williams, " so I ask an interest in your prayers that the Lord of Hosts would go forth with us ana give us victory over our unreasonable, encroaching, barbarous, murdering enemies." Both "Williams the surgeon and Williams the colonel chafed at the incessant delays. " The expe- dition goes on very much as a snail runs," writes the former to his wife; "it seems we may possibly see Crown Point this time twelve months." The colonel was vexed because everything was out of joint in the department of transportation : wagoners 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 melancholy 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 Canada. They returned on the twenty-first of August with the report that the French were all astir with prepa- ration, and that eight thousand men were coming to defend Crown Point. On this a council of war was * Jonathan Caswell to John Caswell, 6 July, 1756. 1755.] MARCH FOR LAKE GEORGE. 805 called', and it was resolved to send to the several colonies for reinforcements. ^ Meanwhile the main body had moved up the river to the spot called tlie Great Carrying Place, where Lyman had begun a fortified 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 submission 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 regiments followed at their leisure. The hardships of the way were not without their consolations. The jovial Irishman who held the chief command made himself very agreeable 1 Minutes of Council of War, 22 August, 1755. Ephraim WiUiami to Benjamin Dwight, 22 August, 1755, VOL. I. — 20 306 DIESKAU. [1755 to the New England ofiScei-s. " We went on about four or five miles," says Pomeroy in his Journal, " then stopped, ate pieces of broken bread and cheese, and drank some fresh lemon-punch and the best of wine with General Johnson and some of the field- officers." It was the same on the next day. " Stopped about noon and dined with General Johnson by a small brook under a tree ; ate a good dinner of cold boiled and roast venison; drank good fresh lemon- punch and wine." That afternoon they reached their destination, fourteen miles from Fort Lyman. The most beauti- ful lake in America lay before them; then more beautiful than now, in the wild charm of untrodden mountains and virgin forests. " I have given it the name of Lake George," wrote Johnson to the Lords of Trade, " not only in honor of His Majesty, but to ascertain his undoubted dominion here." His men made their camp on a piece of rough ground by the edge of the water, pitching their tents among the stumps of the newly felled trees. In their front was a forest of pitch-pine ; on their right, a marsh, choked with alders and swamp-maples; on their left, the low hill where Fort George was afterwards built; and at their rear, the lake. Little was done to clear the forest in front, though it \A'ould 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, 1755.] SUNDAY IN CAMP. 307 or flat boats, came on wagons from Fort Lyman ; and preparation moved on with the leisure that had marked it from the first. About three hundred Mohawks came to the camp, and were regarded by the New England men as nuisances. On Sunday the gray-haired Stephen Williams preached to these savage allies a long Calvinistic sermon, which must have sorely perplexed the interpreter whose business it was to turn it into Mohawk ; and in the afternoon young Chaplain Newell, of Rhode Island, expounded oT^- to the New England men the somewhat untimely te xt, ''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 hun- dred wagons came up from Fort Lyman, loaded with bateaux. After the sermon there was an alarm. An Indian scout came in about sunset, and reported that he had found the trail of a body of men moving from South Bay towards Fort Lyman. Johnson called for a volunteer to carry a letter of warning to Colonel Blanchard, the commander. A wagoner named Adams offered himself for the perilous service, mounted, and galloped along the road with the letter. Sentries were posted, and the camp fell asleep. While Johnson lay at Lake George, Dieskau pre- pared a surprise for him. The German baron had feached Crown Point at the head of three thousand five hundred and seventy-three men, regulars, Cana- M>^ 308 DTESKAU. [1755. dians, 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 provisions for twelve days ; Indians are not to amuse themselves by taking scalps till the enemy is entirely defeated, since they can kill ten men in the time required to scalp one.^ Then Dieskau moved on, with nearly all his force, to Carillon, or Ticonderoga, a promontory commanding both the routes by which alone Johnson could advance, that of Wood Creek and that of Lake George. The Indian allies were commanded by Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, the officer who had received Wash- ington on his embassy to Fort Le Boeuf. These unmanageable warriors were a constant annoyance to Dieskau, being a species of humanity quite new to him. " They drive us crazy, " he says, " from morn- ing till night. There is no end to their demands. They have already eaten five oxen and as many hogs, without counting the kegs of brandy they have drunk. In short, one needs the patience of an angel to get on with these devils; and yet one must always force himself to seem pleased with them."^ They would scarcely even go out as scouts. At 1 Vaudreuil au Ministre, 25 Septembre, 1755. « Ltvre d'Ordres, Aout, Septembre, 1755. ' Dieskau a Vaudreuil, 1 Septembre, 1755. 1755.J THE ADVANCE 309 last, however, on the fourth of September, a recon- noitring party came in with a scalp and an English prisoner caught near Fort Lyman. He was ques- tioned under the threat of being given to the Indians for torture if he did not tell the truth; but, noth- ing daunted, he invented a patriotic falsehood; and thinking to lure his captors into a trap, told them that the English army had fallen back to Albany, leaving five hundred men at Fort Lyman, which he represented as indefensible. Dieskiau "resblVed on a rapid movement to seize the place. At noon of the same day, leaving a part of his force at Ticonderoga, he embarked the rest in canoes and advanced along the narrow prolongation of Lake Champlain that stretched southward through the wilderness to where the town of Whitehall now stands. He soon came to a point where the lake dwindled to a mere canal, while two mighty rocks, capped with stunted forests, faced each other from the opposing banks. Here he left an officer named Roquemaure with a detachment of troops, and again advanced along a belt of quiet water traced through the midst of a deep marsh, green at that season with sedge and water-weeds, and known to the English as the Drowned Lands. Beyond, on either hand, crags feathered with birch and fir, or hills mantled with woods, looked down on the long procession of canoes. ^ As they neared the site of Whitehall, a passage opened on the right, the ^ I passed this way three weeks ago. There are some pointK where the scene is not much changed since Dieskau saw it. 310 DIESKAU. [1755. entrance to a sheet of lonely water slumbering in the shadow of woody mountains, and forming the lake then, as now, called South Bay. They advanced to its head, landed where a small stream enters it, left the canoes under a guard, and began their march through the forest. They counted in all two hundred and sixteen regulars of the battalions of Languedoc and La Reine, six hundred and eighty-four Canadians, and about six hundred Indians.^ Every officer and man carried provisions for eight days in his knapsack. They encam2)ed at night by a brook, and in the morning, after hearing mass, marched again. The evening of the next day brought them near the road that led to Lake George. Fort Lyman was but three miles distant. A man on horseback galloped by; it was Adams, Johnson's unfortunate messenger. The Indians shot him, and found the letter in his pocket. Soon after, ten or twelve wagons appeared in charge of mutinous drivers, who had left the English camp without orders. Several of them were shot, two were taken, and the rest ran off. The two captives declared that, contrary to the assertion of the prisoner at Ticonderoga, a large force lay encamped at the lake. The Indians now held a council, and presently gave out that they would not attack the fort, which they tliought well supplied with cannon, but that they were willing to attack the camp at Lake George. Remonstrance was lost upon them. Dieskau was not young, but he wag 1 M^moire sur V Affaire du 8 Septembre. i755.] MARCH AGAINST JOHNSON. 311 daring to rashness, and inflamed to emulation by tho victory over Braddock. The enemy were reported greatly to outnumber him ; but his Canadian advisers had assured him that the English colony militia were the worst troops on the face of the earth. "The more there are," he said to the Canadians and Indians, "the more we shall kill;" and in the morn- ing the order was given to march for the lake. They moved rapidly on through the waste of pines, and soon entered the rugged valley that led to Johnson's camp. On their right was a gorge where, shadowed in bushes, gurgled a gloomy brook; and beyond rose the cliffs that buttressed the rocky heights of French Mountain, seen by glimpses between 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 Mountain, and the rest lay close among the thickets on the other side. Thus, when the English advanced to attack the regulars in 312 DIESKAU. [1755 front, they wduld 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 reported that there was a war-party on the road near Fort Lyman. Johnson had at this time twenty-two hundred effec- tive men, besides his three hundred Indians. ^ He called a council of war in the morning, and a resolu- tion was taken which can only be explained by a complete misconception as to the force of the French. It was determined to send out two detachments of five hundred men each, one towards Fort Lyman, and the other towards South Bay, the object being, according to Johnson, " to catch the enemy in their retreat." 2 Hendrick, chief of the Mohawks, a brave and sagacious warrior, expressed his dissent after a fashion of his own. He picked up a stick and broke it; then he picked up several sticks, and showed that together they could not be broken. The hint was taken, and the two detachments were joined in one. Still the old savage shook his head. " If they are to be killed," he said, "they are too many; if 1 Wraxall to Lieutenant-Governor DeJancey, 10 September, 1755. Wraxall was Johnson's aide-de-camp and secretary. The Second Letter to a Friend says twenty-one hundred whites and two hundred or three hundred Indians. Blodget, who was also on the spot, sets the whites at two thousand. ' Letter to the Governors of the Several Colonies, 9 September, 175& 1755.] THE AMBUSH. 313 they are to fight, they are too few." Nevertheless, he resolved to share their fortunes ; and mounting on a gun-carriage, he harangued his warriors with a voice so animated and gestures so expressive that the New England officers listened in admiration, though they understood not a word. One difficulty remained. He was too old and fat to go afoot; but Johnson lent him a horse, which he bestrode, and trotted to the head of the column, followed by two hundred of his warriors as fast as they could grease, paint, and befeather themselves. Captain Elisha Hawley was in his tent, finishing a letter which he had just written to his 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 came up, the whole moved on to- gether, so little conscious of danger that no scouts were thrown out in front or flank; and, in full security, they entered the fatal snare. Before they were completely involved in it, the sharp eye of old Hendrick detected some sign of an enemy. At that 314 DIESKAU. [1755. instant, whether by accident or design, a gun waa fired from the bushes. It is said that Dieskau's Iroquois, seeing Mohawks, their relatives, in the van, wished to warn them of danger. If so, the warning came too late. The thickets on the left blazed out a deadly fire, and the men fell by scores. In the words of Dieskau, the head of the column "was doubled up like a pack of cards." Hendrick's horse was shot down, and the chief was killed with a bayo- net as he tried to rise. Williams, seeing a rising ground on his right, made for it, calling on his men to follow ; but as he climbed the slope, guns flashed from the bushes, and a shot through the brain laid him dead. The men in the rear pressed forward to support their comrades, when a hot fire was suddenly opened on them from the forest along their right flank. Then there was a panic ; some fled outright, and the whole column recoiled. The van now became the rear, and all the force of the enemy rushed upon it, shouting and screeching. There was a moment of total confusion; but a part of Williams's regiment rallied under command of Whiting, and covered the retreat, fighting behind trees like Indians, and firing and falling back by turns, bravely aided by some of the Mohawks and by a detachment which Johnson sent to their aid. " And a very handsome retreat they made," writes Pomeroy; "and so con- tinued till they came within about three quarters of a mile of our camp. This was the last fire our men gave our enemies, wliich killed great numbers of 1755.] PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENCE. 315 them; they were seen to drop as pigeons." So ended the fray long known in New England fireside story as the " bloody morning scout." Dieskau now ordered a halt, and sounded his trumpets to collect his scat- tered men. His Indians, however, were sullen and unmanageable, and the Canadians also showed signs of wavering. The veteran who commanded them all, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, had been killed. At length they were persuaded to move again, the regulars leading the way. About an hour after Williams and his men had begun their march, a distant rattle of musketry was heard at the camp ; and as it grew nearer and louder, the listeners knew that their comrades were on the retreat. Then, at the eleventh hour, preparations were begun for defence. A sort of barricade was made along the front of the camp, partly of wagons, and partly of inverted bateaux, but chiefly of the trunks of trees hastily hewn down in the neighboring forest and laid end to end in a single row. The line extended from the southern slopes of the hill on the left across a tract of rough ground to the marshes on the right. The forest, choked with bushes and clumps of rank ferns, was within a few yards of the barricade, and there was scarcely time to hack away the intervening thickets. Three cannon were planted to sweep the road that descended through the pines, and another was dragged up to the ridge of the hill. The defeated party began to come in; first, scared fugitives both white and red; then, gangs of men 316 DIESKAU. [1755 bringing the wounded; and at last, an hour and a half after the first fire was heard, the main detach- ment was seen marching 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 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 innumerable glittering between the boughs. At the same time a terrific burst of war-whoops rose along the front; and, in the words of Pomeroy, "the Canadians and Indians, 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 * Seth Pomeroy to his Wife, 10 September, 1755. « Dr. Perez Marsh to William Williams, 25 September, 1755. 1755.] BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. 317 through the woods and swamps, shouting, yelhng, and firing from behind trees. The regulars advanced with intrepidity towards the camp where the trees were thin, deployed, and fired by platoons, till Cap- tain Eyre, who commanded the artillery, opened on them with grape, broke their ranks, and compelled them to take to cover. The fusillade was now general on both sides, and soon grew furious. " Per- haps,'* Seth Pomeroy wrote to his wife, two days after, " the hailstones from heaven were never much thicker than their bullets came; but, blessed be God ! that did not in the least daunt or disturb us. " Johnson received a flesh-wound in the thigh, and spent the rest of 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 colleague Doctor Pynchon, one assistant, and a young student called "Billy," fell the charge of the wounded of his regiment. " The bullets flew about our ears all the time of dressing them; so we thought best to leave our tent and retire a few rods behind the shelter of a log-house." On the adjacent hill stood one Blodget, who seems to have been a sutler, watching, as well as bushes, trees, and smoke would let him, the progress of the fight, of which he soon after made and published a curious bird's-eye 318 DIESKAU. [1755. 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 barricade, tomahawked the nearest Canadian, snatched his gun, and darted back unhurt. The brave savage found no imitators among his tribes- men, most of whom did nothing but utter a few war- whoops, saying that they had come to see their English brothers fight. Some of the French Indians 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 barricade, firing from behind a tree like a common soldier. At length Dieslcau, exposing himself within short range of the English line, was hit in the leg. His adjutant, Montreuil, himself wounded, came to his aid, and was washing the injured limb with brandy, when the unfortunate commander was again hit in the knee and thigh. He seated himself behind a tree, while the adjutant called two Canadians to carry him to the rear. One of them was instantly shot down. Montreuil took his place ; but Dieskau refused to be moved, bitterly denounced the Canadians and Indians, 1755.] ROUT OF THE FRENCH. 319 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 general still sat helpless by the tree, when he saw a soldier aiming at him. He signed to the man not to fire ; but he pulled trigger, shot him across the hips, leaped upon him, and ordered him in French to surrender. "I said," writes Dieskau, '" You rascal, why did you fire? You see a man lying in his blood on the ground, and you shoot him! ' He answered: ' How did I know that you had not got a pistol ? I had rather kill the devil than have the devil kill me.' 'You are a Frenchman ? ' I asked. ' Yes, ' he replied ; ' it is more than ten years since I left Canada ; ' where- upon several others fell on me and stripped me. I told them to carry me to their general, which they did. On learning who I was, he sent for surgeons, and, though wounded himself, refused all assistance till my wounds were dressed. " ^ It was near five o'clock when the final rout took place. Some time before, several hundred of the 1 Dialogue entre le Mar€chal de Saxe et le Baron de Dieskau aux Champs Elys^es. This paper is in the Archives de la Guerre, and was evidently vtritten or inspired by Dieskau himself. In spite of its fanciful form it is a sober statement of the events of the cam* paign. There is a translation of it in N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 340. 820 DIESKAU. [1755. Canadians and Indians had left the field and returned to the scene of the morning fight, to plunder and scalp the dead. They were resting themselves near a pool in the forest, close beside the road, when their repose was interrupted by a volley of bullets. It was fired by a scouting party from Fort Lyman, chiefly backwoodsmen, under Captains Folsom and McGinnis. The assailants were greatly outnumbered; but after a hard fight the Canadians and Indians broke and fled. McGinnis was mortally wounded. He continued to give orders till the firing was over; then fainted, and was carried, dying, to the camp. The bodies of the slain, according to tradition, were thrown into the pool, which bears to this day the name 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, till, in the next evening, they reached their canoes. Their plight was deplorable; for they had left their knapsacks behind, and were spent with fatigue and famine. Meanwhile their captive general was not yet out of danger. The Mohawks were furious at their losses in the ambush of the morning, and above all at the death of Hendrick. Scarcely were Dieskau's wounds dressed, when several of them came into the tent. There was a long and angry dispute in their own language between them and Johnson, after which they went out very sullenly. Dieskau asked 1755.] MOHAWK FEROCITY. 321 what they wanted. " What do they want? " returned Johnson. "To burn you, by God, eat you, and smoke you in their pipes, in revenge for three or four of their chiefs that were killed. But never fear; you shall be safe with me, or else they shall kill us both." 1 The Mohawks soon came back, and another talk ensued, excited at first, and then more calm; till at length the visitors, seemingly appeased, smiled, gave Dieskau their hands in sign of friendship, and quietly went out again. Johnson warned him that he was not yet safe ; and when the prisoner, fearing that his presence might incommode his host, asked to be removed to another tent, a captain and fifty men were ordered to guard him. In the morning an Indian, alone and apparently unarmed, loitered about the entrance, and the stupid sentinel let him pass in. He immediately drew a sword from under a sort of cloak which he wore, and tried to stab Dieskau, but was prevented by the colonel to whom the tent belonged, who seized upon him, took away his sword, and pushed him out. As soon as his wounds would permit, Dieskau was carried on a litter, strongly escorted, to Fort Lyman, whence he was sent to Albany, and 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 1 See the story as told by Dieskau to the celebrated Diderot, at Paris, in 1760. M^moires de Diderot, i. 402 (1830). Compare N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 343. VOL. I. — 21 322 DIESKAU. [1755. remarked soon after the battle that in the morning they fought like good boys, about noon like men, and in the afternoon like devils.^ In the spring of 1757 he sailed for England, and was for a time at Fal- mouth; whence Colonel Matthew Sewell, fearing that he might see and learn too much, wrote to the Earl of Iloldernesse: "The Baron has great penetra- tion and quickness of apprehension. His long ser- vice under Marshal Saxe renders him a man of real consequence, to be cautiously observed. His cir- cumstances deserve compassion, for indeed they are very melancholy, and I much doubt of his being ever perfectly cured." He was afterwards a long time at Bath, for the benefit of the waters. In 1760 the famous Diderot met him at Paris, cheerful and full of anecdote, though wretchedly shattered by his wounds. He died a few years later. On the night after the battle the yeomen warriors felt the truth of the saying that, next to defeat, the saddest thing is victory. Comrades and friends by scores lay scattered through the forest. As soon as he could snatch a moment's leisure, the overworked surgeon sent the dismal tidings to his wife: "My dear brother Ephraim was killed by a ball through *his head; poor brother Josiah's wound I fear will prove mortal; poor Captain Hawley is yet alive, though I did not think he would live two hours after bringing him in." Daniel Pomeroy was shot deadj and his brother Seth wrote the news to his wife i Dr. Perez Marsh to William Williams, 25 September, 1755 1755.] AFTER THE BATTLE. 323 Rachel, who was just delivered of a child: "Dear Sister, this brings heavy tidings; but let not your heart sink at the news, though it be your loss of a dear husband. Monday the eighth instant was a memorable day ; and truly you may say, had not the Lord been on our side, we must all have been swal- lowed up. My brother, being one that went out in the first engagement, received a fatal shot through the middle of the head." Seth Pomeroy found a moment to write also to his own wife, whom he tells that another attack is expected ; 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 buriea] the French dead, but buried as many of them as' might be without the knowledge of our Indians, toi prevent their being scalped. This I call an excess of\ civility;" his reason being that Braddock's dead^ soldiers had been left to the wolves. The English loss in killed, wounded, and missing was two hundred and sixty -two ; ^ and that of the French by their own account, two hundred and twenty-eight, 2 — a somewhat modest result of five 1 Return of Killed, Wounded, and Missing at the Battle of Lake George. 2 Doreil au Ministre, 20 Octobre, 1755. Surgeon Williams gives 324 DIESKAU. [1755. aoiirs' 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 ditficult for the New England men to pick them off, while they on their part lay close behind their row of logs. On the French side, the regular officers and troops bore the brunt of the battle and suffered the chief loss, nearly all of the former and nearly half of the latter being 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 moun- tains to South Bay, where Dieskau had left his canoes and provisions. It needed but a few hours to reach and destroy them; but no such attempt was made. Nor, till a week after, did Johnson send out scouts to learn the strength of the enemy at Ticon- deroga. Lyman strongly urged him to make an effort to seize that important pass; but Johnson thought only of holding his own position. "I think," he wrote, "we may expect very shortly a more the English loss as two hundred and sixteen killed, and ninety-six wounded. Pomeroy thinks that the French lost four or five huit dred. Johnson places their loss at four hundred. 1755.] INACTION OF JOHNSON. 325 formidable attack." He made a solid breastwork to defend his camp; and as reinforcements arrived, set them at building a fort on a rising ground by the lake. It is true that just after the battle he was deficient in stores, and had not bateaux enough to move his whole force. It is true, also, that he was wounded, and that he was too jealous of Lyman to delegate the command to him ; and so the days passed till, within a fortnight, his nimble enemy were in* trenched at Ticonderoga in force enough to defy him. The Crown Point expedition was a failure dis- V^ guised under an incidental success. The northern provinces, especially Massachusetts and Connecticut, did what they could to forward it, and after the battle sent a herd of raw recruits to the scene of action. Shirley wrote to Johnson from Oswego; declared that his reasons for not advancing were insufficient, and urged him to push for Ticonderoga at once. Johnson replied that he had not wagons enough, and that his troops were ill-clothed, ill-fed, discontented, insubordinate, and sickly. He com- plained that discipline was out of the question, because the officers were chosen by popular election; that many of them were no better than the men, unfit for command, and like so many "heads of a mob."i The reinforcements began to come in, till, in October, there were thirty-six hundred men in the camp; and as most of them wore summer clothing 1 Shirley to Johnson, 19 September, 1755. Ibid., 24 September, 1756. Johnson to Shirley, 22 September, 1755. Johnson to Phipps, 10 October, 1755 (Massachusetts Archives). 326 DIESKAU. [1755. and had but one thin domestic blanket, they were half frozen in the chill autumn nights. Johnson called a council of war; and as he was suffering from inflamed eyes, and was still kept in his tent by his wound, he asked Lyman to preside, — not unwilling, perhaps, to shift the responsibility upon him. After several sessions and much debate, the assembled officers decided that it was inexpedient to proceed. 1 Yet the army lay more than a month longer at the lake, while the disgust of the men increased daily under the rains, frosts, and snows of a dreary November. On the twenty-second. Chandler, chaplain of one of the Massachusetts regiments, wrote in the interleaved almanac that served him as a diary: "The men just ready to mutiny. Some clubbed their firelocks and marched, but returned back. Very rainy night. Miry water standing in the tents. Very distressing time among the sick." The men grew more and more unruly, and went off in squads without asking leave. A difficult question arose: 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 un- grateful service, and that Massachusetts should have the first officer, Connecticut the second, and New York the third. Then the camp broke up. " Thurs- day the 27th," wrote the chaplain in his almanac, " we set out about ten of the clock, marched in a 1 Reports of Council of War, 11-21 October, 1755. 1755.1 THE LAURELS OF VICTORY. 327 body, about three thousand, the wagons and baggage in the centre, our colonel much insulted by the way." The soldiers dispersed to their villages and farms, where in blustering winter nights, by the blazing logs of New England hearthstones, they told their friends and neighbors the story of the campaign. The profit of it fell to Johnson. If he did not gather the fruits of victory, at least he reaped its laurels. He was a courtier in his rough way. He had changed the name of Lac St. Sacrement to Lake George, in compliment to the King. He now changed that of Fort Lyman to Fort Edward, in com- pliment to one of the King's grandsons; and, in com- pliment to anojbher, called his new fort at the lake, William Henry.A Of General Lyman he made no mention in his report of the battle, and his partisans wrote letters traduciny 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 * Review of Military Operations in North America, in a Letter to a Nobleman (ascribed to William Livingston). On the Battle of Lake George a mass of papers will be found in 328 DIESKAU. i;i755i thousand pounds, and the King made him a baronet. the N. Y. Col. Docs., vols. vi. and x. Those in Vol. VI., taken chiefly from the archives of New York, consist of official and pri- vate letters, reports, etc., on the English side. Tliose in Vol. X, are drawn chiefly from the arcloives of the French War Depart- mentj and include the correspondence 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 rep'orts tolhe Minister of War, and his strictures on Dieskau, whom he accuses of disobeying orders by dividing his force ; also the translation of an English journal of the campaign found in the pocket of a captured oflicer, and a long account of the battle sent by Bigot to the minister of marine, 4 October, 1755. I owe to the kindness of Theodore Pomeroy, Esq., a copy of the Journal of Lieutenant-Colonel Seth Pomeroy, whose letters also are full of interest ; as are those of Surgeon Williams, from the collec- tion of William L. Stone, Esq. The papers of Colonel Israel Wil- liams, in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, con- tain many other curious letters relating to the campaign, extracts from some of which are given in the text. One of the most curious records of the battle is A Prospective-Plan of the Battle near Lake George, with an Explanation thereof, containing a full, though short. His- tory of that important Affair, by Samuel Blodget, occasionally at the Camp when the Battle was fought. It is an engraving, printed at Boston soon after the fight, of which it gives a clear idea. Foul years after, Blodget opened a shop in Boston, where, as appears bj' his advertisements in the newspapers, he sold " English Goods, also English Hatts, etc." The Engraving is reproduced in the Docu- mentary History of New York, iv., and elsewhere. The Explanation thereof is only to be found complete in the original. This, as well as the anonymous Second Letter to a Friend, also printed at Boston in 1755, is excellent for the information it gives as to the condition of the ground where tlie conflict took place, and the position of the combatants. The unpublished Archives of Massachusetts ; the correspondence of Sir William Johnson ; the Review of Military Operations in North America ; Dwight, Travels in New England and New York, iii. ; and Hoyt, Antiquarian Researches on Indian Wars, 1755.1 A COLONIAL POET. 329 — should also be mentioned. Dwight and Hoyt drew their informa- tion from aged survivors of the battle. I have repeatedly examined the localities. In the odd effusion of the colonial muse called Tilden's Poems, chiefly to Animate and Rouse the Soldiers, printed 1756, is a piece styled The Christian Hero, or New England's Triumph, beginning with the invocation, — " O Heaven, indulge mj' feeble Muse, Teach her what numbers for to choose 1 " and containing the following stanza, — " Their Dicskau we from them detain, While Canada aloud complains And counts the numbers of their slain And makes a dire complaint ; '1 ae Indians to their demon gods; And with the 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 Os-wtego. — Difficulties. — The Expedition abandoned. — Shirley and Johnson. — Results of the Campaign. — The Scourge of THE Border. — Trials of Washington. — Misery op thb Settlers. — Horror of their Situation. — Philadelphia and the Quakers. — Disputes with the Penns. — Democ- racy AND Feudalism. — Pennsylvanian Population. — Ap- peals FROM THE Frontier. — Quarrel of Governor and Assembly. — Help refused. — Desperation of the Border- ers. — Fire and Slaughter. — The Assembly alarmed: thet pass a Mock Militia Law ; they are forced to yield. The capture of Niagara was to finish th e work of tbe su mmer. This alone would have gained for ^ / Englan d the control of the valley of th eOhio. 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 campaign i755.] ALBANY. 331 boldly and well. It remained to see how he would do his part towards executing it. In July he arrived at Albany, the starting-point of his own expedition as well as that of Johnson. This little Dutch city was an outpost of civilization. The Hudson, descend- ing from the northern 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 Mac Vicar, daughter of a Highland officer, was left at Albany by her father, and spent several 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 recol- lections 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 de- tached 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 gathered 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, watclv ing the process and waiting their evening meal. 332 SHIRLEY. ~ BORDER WAR. [175& Such was the quiet picture painted on the memory of Anne Mac Vicar, and reproduced by the pen of Mrs. Anne Grant. ^ The patriarchal, semi-rural town had other aspects, not so pleasing. The men were mainly engaged in the fur-trade, sometimes legally with the Five Nations, and sometimes illegally with the Indians of Canada, — an occuj)ation 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 regi- ments, called respectively Shirley's and Pepperrell'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 1 Memoirs of an American Lady (Mrs. Schuyler), chap. vi. A genuine picture of colonial life, and a charming book, though far from 1)('in}7 historically trustworthy. Compare the account of Albany in Kalra, ii. 102. /755.] EXPEDITION TO OSWEGO. 333 awkward, unaccustomed air. How they gloried in them may be gathered from a letter of Sergeant James Gray, of Pepperrell's, to his brother John: "I have two Holland shirts, found me by the King, and two pair of shoes and two pair of worsted stockings ; a good silver-laced hat (the lace I 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." 1 Most of these gorgeous warriors were already on their way to Oswego, their first destination. Shirley followed, embarking at the Dutch village of Schenectady, and ascending the Mohawk with about two hundred of the so-called regulars in bateaux. They passed Fort Johnson, the two vil- lages of the Mohawks, and the Palatine settlement of German Flats; left behind the last trace of civilized man, rowed sixty miles through a wilderness, and reached the Great Carrjdng Place, which divided the waters that fl^ow 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 Champlain. Thither the bateaux were dragged on sledges and launched on the dark and tortuous * James Gray to John Gray, 11 July, 1755. 334 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755 stream, which, fed by a decoction of forest leaves that oozed from the marshy sliores, crept in shadow through depths of foliage, with only a belt of illu- mined sky gleaming between the jagged tree-tops. Tall and lean with straining towards the light, their rough, gaunt stems trickling 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 mam- moths, thrusting lank, white limbs above the sullen water; and great trees, entire as yet, were flung by age or storms athwart the current, — a bristling bar- ricade 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 of transportation and the commissariat was in the be- wildered state inevitable among a peaceful people at the beginning of a war; while the news of Braddock's 1755.] SHIRLEY'S LETTER TO MORRIS. 335 defeat produced sucli an effect on the boatmen and the draymen at the carrying-places that the greater part deserted. Along with these disheartening tid- ings, Shirley learned the death of his eldest son, killed at the side of Braddock. He had with him a second son, Captain John Shirley, a vivacious young man, whom his father and his father's friends in their familiar correspondence always called "Jack." John Shirley'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, — " because there is an opportunity of sending you a few lines; and if you will promise to excuse blots, interlinea- tions, 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 sufficient 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 knocking 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 336 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. ri7o5. myself. We shall all of us relish a good house ovei our heads, being all encamped, except tlie General and some few field-officers, 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 Frontenac. 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 Frontenac there was a French force of fourteen hundred 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 Niagara; for Braddock's captured papers had revealed to them the English plan. If they should take it, Shirley would be cut 1 The young author of this letter was, like his brother, a victim of the war. " Permit me, good sir, to offer you mj'^ 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." — Governor Morris to Shirley, 27 November, 1755. " My heart bleeds for Mr. Shirley. He must be overwhelmed with Grief when he hears of Capt. John Sliirley'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 losa of Two Sons in one Campaign scarcely admits of Consolation. \ feel the Anguish of the unhappy 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 November, 1755. * Biaot au Ministre. 27 Aout, 1755. 1755.] DIFFICULTIES. 337 off from his supplies and placed in desperate jeopardy, with the enemy in his rear. Hence it is that John Shirley iAsists on taking Frontenac before attempting Niagara. But the task was not easy; for the French force 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 August, nearly twelve hundred Canadians and Indians from Fort Duquesne and the upper lakes. ^ Shirley was but imperfectly informed by his scouts of the unex- pected strength of the opposition that awaited him ; but he knew enough to see that his position was a difficult one. His movement on Niagara was stopped, first by want of provisions, and secondly because he was checkmated 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 yesterdaji ^ Bigot au Ministre, 5 Septembre, 1755. 8 Minutes of a Council of War at Oswego, 18 September,n55. vol.. I. — 22 338 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755 called all the Intlians together and made 'em a speech on the subject of General Johnson's engagement, which he calculated to inspire them with a spirit of revenge." After the 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 dis- sent. 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," saj's 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 council was called; and the general, reluctantly convinced of the danger, put the question whether to go or not. The situation admitted but one reply. The council was of opinion that for the present the enterprise Avas impracticable; that Oswego should be strengthened, more vessels built, and preparation made to renew the attempt as soon as spring opened.^ All thouglits of active opera- tions 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 Octo- ber, leaving seven hundred men at Oswego, Shirley returned to Albany, and narrowly escaped drowning on tlie way, while passing a rapid in a whale-boat, 1 Minutes of a Council of War at Oswego, 27 September, 1755. 1755.] SHIRLEY AND JOHNSON. 339 to try the fitness of that species of craft for river navigation.^ Unfortunately for him, he had fallen out with Johnson, whom he had made what he was, but who now turned against him, — a seeming ingratitude not wholly unprovoked. Shirley had diverted the New Jersey regiment, destined originally for Crown Point, to his own expedition against Niagara. Naturally inclined to keep all the reins in his own hands, he had encroached on Joluison's new office of Indian superintendent, held conferences with the Five Nations, and employed agents of his own to cleal 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 direction of Indian affairs; and in a violent letter to the Lords of Trade, he inveighs against their "licentious and abandoned proceedings," "villanous conduct," "scurrilous false- hoods," 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 Shirley told the Mohawks that he, Johnson, was att 1 On the Niagara expedition, Braddock's Instructions to Major- General Shirley. Correspondence of Shirley, 1755. Conduct of Major- General Shirley (London, 1758). Letters of John Shirley in Penn- syhania Archives, ii. Bradstreet to Shirley, 17 August, 1755. MSS. in Massachusetts Archives. Revieiv of Military Operations in North America. Gentleman's Magazine, 1757, p. 73. London Magazine 1759, p. 594. Trumbull, Hist. Connecticut, ii. 370. 2 Johnson to the Lords of Trade, 3 September, 175S. • Ibid., 17 January, 1756o 340 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755. upstart of his creating, whom he had set up and could pull down. Again, he charges Shirley's agents with trying to "debauch the Indians from joining him ; " while Shirley, on liis side, retorts the same complaint against his accuser.^ When, by the death of Braddock, Shirley became commander-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 became mingled with the teapot-tempest of New York provincial politics. The lieutenant-governor, 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 liitherto favored the Dutch faction in the Assembly, hostile to John- son ; 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 trumpeted victory, and the other had means of influ- ence over the ministry. Their coalition boded ill to Shirfey, and he soon felt its effects. ^ ^/The campaign was now closed, — a sufficiently active one, seeing that the two nations were nomi- 1 John Shirley to Governor Morris, 12 Aufjnst, 17.').5. 2 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 Operations in North America. Both Smith and Livingston, the author of the Review, were personally cognizant of the course oi the dispute. 1755.] DUMAS ATTACKS THE BORDERS. 341 nally at peace. A disastrous rout on the Mononga- hela, failure at Niagara, a barren victory at Lake George, and three forts captured in Acadia, were the disappointing results on the part of England. 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 militia; their general was a prisoner; and they had lost Acadia past hope. Th e campaign was over: but not its effects . It remains to see what befell from the rout of Braddock and the unpardonable retreat of Dunbar from the frontier which it was his duty to defend. Dumas had replaced Contrecoeur 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 Shawa- noes, 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 Duma§, "varied in every form to suit the occasion, that I have suc- ceeded in ruining the three adjacent provinces, Penn- sylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, driving off the .^■iZ 42 SinRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755. inbabitiints, and totally destroying the settlements over a tract of country thirty leagues wide, reckoning from the line of Fort Cumberland. M . de Contrecoeu r d not b een gone a week before I had six or seve n different war-partios jti <-lif^ fi>^1f1 at nnna^ -^Ji^i^yq acco mpanied by French men. Thus far, we have lost only two officers and a few soldiers; but the 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 horroi-s, and enjoined the officers who went with the Indians to spare no effort to prevent them from tor- turing prisoners. 2 The attempt should be set down to his honor; but it did not avail much. In the record of cruelties committed this year on the borders, we find repeated 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 Virginia 1 Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756. 2 Me'inoires de Famille de I'Ahhe' Casgrain, cited in Le Foyer Can- adien, iii. 26, where an extract is given from an order of Dumas to Baby, a Canadian officer. Orders of Contrecoeur and Ligneris to the same effect are also given. A similar order, signed by Dumas, •vas found in the pocket of Douville, an officer killed by the Eng' lish on the frontier. Writings of Washington, ii. 137, note. * Rev. Claude Godefroij Cocquard, S. J., a son Frere, Mars (?), J767. 1755.] MISERY OF THE FRONTIERS. 343 regiment, consisting of a thousand men, raised after* wards to fifteen hundred. With these he was to pro- tect 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 turbulent border, and resenting every kind of discipline as levelling them with negroes; while the sympathizing 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 unpopular. " 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 insur- rection, and therefore dared not go far from home.' Meanwhile a panic reigned along the border. Cap- tain Waggoner, passing a gap in the Blue Ridge, could hardly make his way for the crowd of fugitives. "Everyday," writes Washington, "we have accounts of such cruelties and barbarities 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 1 Extract in Writings of Washington, ii. 145, note. « Letters of Dinwiddie, 1755. 344 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755. forts of refuge liad 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 invad- ing bands grew mare 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 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. Dinwiddle gave him cold support. The temper of the old Scotchman, crabbed at the best, had been soured by disappoint- ment, vexation, weariness, and ill-health. He had, besides, 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 hesitated 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 1755, 1756.] WASHINGTON. 345 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 destruction in so clear a light that unless vigorous measures are taken by the Assembly, and speedy assistance sent from below, the poor inhabitants that are now in forts must unavoidably fall, while the remainder are flying before the barbarous foe. In fine, the melan- choly situation of the people; the little prospect of assistance ; the gross and scandalous abuse cast upon the officers in general, which is reflecting upon me in particular for suffering misconduct of such extraor- dinary kinds; and the distant prospect, if any, of gaining honor and reputation 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 command from which I never expect to reap either honor or benefit, but, on the contrary, have almost an absolute certainty of incurring dis- pleasure below, while the murder of helpless families may be laid to my account here. " The supplicating tears of the women and moving petitions of the men melt me into such deadly sor- row that I solemnly declare, if I know my own mind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the V 346 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755, 1756, butchering enemy, provided that would contribute to the people's ease."^ In the turmoil around him, patriotism and public duty seemed all to be centred in the breast of one heroic youth. He was respected and generally 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 othei-s which begins 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 frontiers A" 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, tha 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 of sticks and clay, and square holes closed by a shutter in place of windows; an unkempt matron, lean with hard work, and a brood of children with bare heads and tattered 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 1 Writin(/s of Washington, ii, 143. 1755, 1756.] SAVAGE RAIDS. 847 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 " clear- ing " in a chaos of prostrate trunks, tangled boughs, and withered leaves, waiting for the fire that was to be the next agent in the process of improvement; while around, voiceless 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 his family till the soil could be tamed into the bearing 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 smouldering logs of his dwelling, lay, scalped and mangled, the dead bodies of wife and children. A war-party had passed that way. Breathless, palpitating, 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 incipi- ent settlements of the utmost border. Farther east, they had a different aspect. Here, small farms with well-built log-houses, cattle, crops of wheat, and Indian corn, were sti-ung 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 348 SHIRLEY — BORDER WAR. [1755, 1756. for concert, perhaps none for flight. Sudden as the leaping panther, a pack of human wolves burst out of the forest, did their work, and vanished. If tlie country had l)een 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 in- terminable 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 nuree the mind with wild and dark imagininofs. 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 wilder- ness homes, haunted, waking and sleeping, with nightmares of horror that were but the forecast of an imminent _xeality. 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 Avhatever; 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 character and creed, but 1755, 1756.] PENNSYLVANIA^ DISPUTES. 349 in the outward symbols of a peculiar dress and a dail_y Bacrifice 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 perceptil)ly more rotund in feature and person than their neigh- bors. Yet, broad and humanizing as was their faith, they were capable of extreme bitterness towards oppo- nents, 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 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 consequence of the public distress, which above all things de- manded harmony. The dispute turned this time on a single issue, — that of the taxation of the pro- ^ prieta ry est ates^ llie estates m question consisted of vast tracts of wild land, yielding 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 1 See a crowd of party pamphlets, Quaker against Presbyterian, which appeared at Philadelphia in 1764, abusively acrimonious on both sides. 2 The productive estates of the proprietaries were taxed througli the tenants. 350 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755, 1756. offer of the proprietaries to join them in paying the cost of their defence.^ But though they would not defend the land, they insisted on taxing it; and farther insisted that the taxes upon it should be laid by the provincial assessore. By a law of the province, these assessors were chosen by popular vote ; and in consenting to this law, the proprietaries had expressly provided that their estates should be exempted from all taxes to be laid by officials in whose appointment they had no voice. ^ Thomas and Richard Penn, the present proprietaries, had debarred their deputy, the governor, both by the terms of his commission and by special instruction, from consenting to such taxa- tion, 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, repugnant to the genius of the people ; and the disposition and character of the present proprietaries did not tend to render it less vexatious. Yet there were considera- 1 The proprietaries offered to contribute to the cost of building and inaintaininj? a fort on the spot where the French soon after built Fort Duquesne. This plan, vigorously executed, would have saved the province from a delup;e of miseries. One of the reasons assigned by the Assembly for rejecting it was that it would irritate the enemy. See supra, 64. 2 A Brief View of the Conduct of Pennsylvania /or the year J755. 1755,1756.] CHARACTER OF THE POPULATION. 351 tions which might have tempered the impatient hatred with which the colonists regarded it. The first proprietary, William Penn, had used his feudal riglit.s in the interest of a broad liberalism; and througli them had established the popular institutions and universal tolerance which made Pennsylvania tlie 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 irritat- ing; and the sons of William Penn were moreover detested by the Quakers as renegades from the faith of their father. Thus the immediate political con- flict engrossed mind and heart; and in the rancor of their quarrel with the proprietaries, the Assembly forgot the French and Indians. In Philadelphia and the eastern districts the Quakers could ply their trades, tend their shops, till their farms, and discourse at their ease on the wicked- ness 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 politicallj^ indigestible. 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 England, and, thinking themselves 352 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755. out of danger, had no mind to be taxed for the defence of others. But while the great body of the Germans were sheltered from harm, those of them who lived farther westward were not so fortunate. Here, mixed with Scotch Irish Presbyterians 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, maddened with distress and terror, they cried aloud for help. Petition after peti tion oAm e from the borders for arm^-^wid ammunition, and for a militia law to enable ne people to organize and defend themselves. The Quakers__resisiad. "They have takeiT^iincommon pains," writes Governor Morris to Shirley, "to pre- vent the people from taking up arms.''^ Braddock's defeat, they declared, was a just judgment on him and his soldiers for molesting the French in their settlements on the Ohio.^ A bill was passed by the Assembly for raising fifty thousand pounds for the King's use by a tax which included the proprietary lands. The governor, constrained by his instructions and his bonds, rejected 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 * Morris to Shirle;/, 16 August, 1755. 2 Morris to Sir Thomas Robinson, 28 August, 1765. J755.] THE PENNSYLVANIA QUARREL. 353 the same in five years." Messages long and acri- monious 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 con- firmed. The debate grew every day more bitter and unmannerly. The governor could not yield; the Assembly would not. There was a complete dead- lock. 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 expendi- ture 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 support, and could withhold it if he offended them, — which they did in the present case, — it seemed no easy task for him to reduce them to vas- salage. " 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 difficulties he meets with are not owing to the causes he names, — which indeed have no exist- 1 Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 584. VOL. I. — 23 354 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [175&. 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 have 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 all concern for those they govern, often their enemies, and endeavoring not only to oppress, but to defame them."^ Jq 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 advantage 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 country's distress to reduce the province to "Egyptian bondage.'' Petitions poured in from- the -jniseraljle frontiers- men. "How long will those in power, by their * Message of the Assembly to the Governor, 29 September, 1755 (written by Franklin), in Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 631, 632. 2 Writings of Franklin, iii. 447. The Assembly at first sup- pressed this paper, but afterwards printed it. 1755.] DESPERATION OF BORDERERS. 358 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, "i Early in October news came that a hundred persons had been murdered near Fort Cumberland. Repeated tidings followed of murders on the Susquehanna; 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 childen, are enough to pierce the most hardest of 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 shock- ing for the husband to see the wife of his bosom her head cut off, and the children's blood_ drunk like watfix,-^-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,'* 1 Trent to James Burd, 4 October, 1755. 2 Adam Hoops to Governor Morris, 3 November, 1755. 356 SHIRLEY. —BORDER WAR. [175tx wrote John Harris from the east bank of the Susque- hanna. 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 Frencli, 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 confirmed; and accounts came that the aettlements in the valley called the Great Cove had been completely destroyed. All this was laid before the Assembly. They declared the accounts exaggerated, but confessed that outrages had been committed ; hinted that the fault was with the pro- prietaries; and asked the governor to explain why the Delawares and Shawanoes had become unfriendly. "If they have suffered wrongs," said 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 1755.] GOVERNOR AND ASSEMBLY. 357 that more than forty persons have been killed in that neighborhood, besides numbers carried off. Mean- while the governor and Assembly went on fencing with words and exchanging legal subtleties; while, 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 remitting bills of credit to the amount of sixty thousand 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 proprietaries ought to be taxed or not. It is sufficient 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 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 ■ 1 Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 682. 2 Message of the Governor to the Assembly, 8 November, 1755, iH Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 684. 358 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755. little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. "1 Then the borderers deserved 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 instructions; 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 professions of regard for the public, by offer- ing 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 should neither have a privilege to dispute about, nor a country to dispute in."^ They stood fast; and with an obstinacy for which the Qiialiers 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 "Repre- sentation," signed by some of the chief citizens, was sent - to the House, calling for measures of defence. "You will forgive us, gentlemen," such 1 Message of the Assembly to the Governor, 11 November, 1755, in Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 692. The words are Franklin's. 2 Message of the Governor to the Assembly, 22 November, Vibb, Tbid^ ri. 714. i755.] A RISING STORM. 359 was its language, " if we assume characters somewhat higher than that of humble suitors praying for the defence of our lives and properties as a matter of grace or favor on your side. You will permit us to make a positive and immediate demand 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 address to the House, in which they declared that any action on its part " inconsistent with the peace- able testimony we profess and have borne to the world appears to us in its consequences to be destruc- tive of our religious liberties. "^ And they protested that they would rather " suffer " 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 1 Pennsj/lvania Archives, ii. 485. '^ Ibid., ii. 487. » See " Conspiracy of Pontiac," chap. xxv. 300 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755 all our fellow-citizens," to provide for defending the lives and property of the people.^ A deputation from a band of Indians on the Susquehanna, 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 fast allies, were roused from their attitude of passivity, and four hun- dred of them came in procession to demand measures of war. A band of frontiersmen presently arrived, bringing in a wagon the bodies of friends and relatives lately murdei-ed, displaying them at the doors of the Assembly, cursing the Quakers, and threatening vengeance. 2 Finding some conces ^ sion n a cessary, the House at Ipng-thpaM'ifit] w nijlitin -Jti^v, — probably the most futile ever enacted. It specially exempted the Quakers, and constrained nobody; but declared it 1 A Remonstrance, etc., in Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 734. * Mante, 47 ; Entick, i. 377. 1755.] A MOCK MILITIA LAW. 361 lawful, for such as chose, to form themselves into companies and elect officers by ballot. The company officers thus elected might, if they saw fit, elect, also by ballot, colonels, lieutenant-colonels, and majors. These last might then, in conjunction with the gov- ernor, frame articles of war; to which, however, no officer or man was to be subjected 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 gave them a decent pretext for retreat. The governor informed them that he had just received a letter from the proprie- taries, giving to the province 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 Assembly. They had not learned the deplo- rable state of the country, and had sent the money in view of the defeat of Braddock and its probable consequences. The Assembly hereupon yielded, >J struck out from the bill before them the clause tax- 1 This remarkable bill, drawn by Franklin, was meant for political rather than military effect. It was thought that Morris would refuse to pass it, and could therefore be accused of prevent- ing the province from defending itself ; but he avoided the snare by signing it. 362 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755. ing the proprietary estates, and, thus amended, pre- sented it to tlie governor, who by his signature made it a law.^ The House had failed to carry its point. The result disappointed Franklin, and doubly disappointed the Quakei"s. His maxim was: Beat the governor firet, and then beat the enemy ; theirs : Beat the gov- ernor, 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 tor- mented frontier. As in Penns ylvania, so in most of the other colon ies there was c onflict between assemblies and g overnors, ^^^to the unspeakable detriment of the public service. In New York, though here no obnoxious proprietary stood between the people and the Crown, the strife was long and severe. The point at issue was an important one, — whether the Assembly should con- tinue their practice of granting yearly supplies to the governor, or should establish a permanent fund for the ordinary 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 wilder- ness men kept watch and ward in lonely block- 1 Minutes of Cou7icil, 27 November, 1755. 1755,1756.] THE EVIDENCE. 363 houses, or scoured the forest on the track of prowling war-parties. The provincials in garrison at Forts Edward, William Heniy, and Oswego dragged out the dreary winter; while bands of New England rangers, muffled against the piercing cold, caps of fur on their heads, hatchets 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 Ticonderoga, or seize some careless sentry to tell them tidings of the foe. Th us the petty wa r went on; b ut the big war was frozen into torp or. rot^rlyptrgp^ }iiV>Prn^|,nipr T^Par, to Wrlk'n flg^'H Ml^h the bir ds, the bees, an d the flowers.^ ^ On Pennsylvanian disputes, — A Brief State of the Province oj Pennsylvania (London, 1755). A Brief View of the Conduct of Penn- sylvania (London, 1756). These are pamphlets on the governor's side, by William Smith, D. D., Provost of the College of Pennsyl- vania. An Ansicer to an invidious Pamphlet, intituled a Brief State, 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 presentation of the case of the Assembly, omitting, however, essential facts. But the most elabo- rate 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 in the provincial newspapers, especially the New York Mercury, and in the Gentle- man's Magazine for 1755 and 1756. But it is impossible to get any clear and just view of it without wading through the interminable documents concerning it in the Colonial Records of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Archives, 1 CHAPTER XI. 1712-1756. MONTCALM. War declared. — State of Ecrope. — Pompadour and Maria Theresa. — Infatuation of the Frencu 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 Associates. — Levis, Bourlamaque, Bougainville. — Embarkation. — The Voyage. — Arrival. — Vaudreuil. — Forces of Canada. — Troops of the Line, Colony Troops, Militia, Indians. — The Military Situation. — Capture of Fort Bull. — Mont- calm at Ticonderoga. N the eighteenth of May, 1756, England, after a year of 'open hostility, at length de clared 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, supplpng by spasms of violence what it lacked in considerate resolution. France, no match for jier amphibious enemy in the ) game of mari ne depredation , cjied 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: 1756.] FREDERIC OF PRUSSIA, 365 and DOW began th e mo st terrible conflict of the Q jglt' fpPTitb__p,PTitnry^ — miR thn.t r.mivnisftrl F.nrr.pR.^ antl shooTc j\merica, India, the coasts of _^ Africa., an d the islan ds 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 entanglements of treaties and alliances, offensive or defensive, open or secret, — that a blow at one point shook the whole fabric. Hanover, like the heel of Achilles, was the vulner- able part for which England 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 guarantee against France, and Prussia against Russia. She had need. Her King, Frederic the Great, had drawn upon himself an avalanche. Three women — two empresses and a concubine — controlled 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 gibed at her amours, com- pared her to Messalina, and called her " infdme 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 hira a message of compliment, he answered, 'Ve ne la \^ 366 MONTCALM. [1756. connais pas,^^ forbade his ambassador to visit her, and in his 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 ISIaria Tlieresa \vith the force of a ruling passion. To these ends she had joined herself in secret league with Russia ; and now at the prom2:)ting 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 provid, stooped to make advances to the all- powerful mistress 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, disguising their subserviency by dressing it out in specious reasons of state. A conference at her summer-housCf 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 hereditary enemy of France a predominance over G'jrmany. France engaged to 1756.] INFATUATION OF FRANCE. 367 aid the cause with twenty-four thousand men, but in the zeal of her rulers began with a hundred thousand. Thus the three gre a t Powers stood l eagued against Prussia. Sweden^d Saxony ioinedlFem; and tl ie~" iy^ Empir e^ itself, of which Prussia was a part, to ok arms against its obnoxious mem ber. . Never in Europe had power been more centralized,^ and never in France had the reins been held by>4- persons_jx)Lpitifii.l, impelled by motives so contemp-l tibje. 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 hj^e/nnui^ 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 proj^itiate Heaven by a new crusade. Hen ceforth France was to turn her strength ag ainst her Euro pean foes ; and the American war, the occa- //^•'^ sion of t he universal outbreak, was to ho ld in her eyes asecond place. The reasons were several: the vanity of Pompaclour, infatuated by the advances of the Empress-Queen, and eager to secure her good graces; the superstition of tlie King; the anger of o both against Frederic; the desire of D'Argenson, 3G8 MONTCALM. [1756. minister of war, that the army, and not the navy, should play the foremost part; and the passion of courtiers and nobles, ignorant of the naval service, to win laurels in a continental war, — all conspired to one end. It was the interest of France to turn her sti'ength against her only dangerous rival; to con- tinue 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 herself, 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 effemina t e Drofligat e, a mistress turned procuress, and the favorites to whom they delegated power. something mu st be done for the Ame rican Tr; at l east the re^m ust be a new general to rep lace DieskaUj. None of the court favorites wanted a com- mand in the backwoods, and the minister of war was free to choose whom he would. His choice fell on Louis Joseph, Marquis deJVIojitcalm-Gozon de SaLit- 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. Yc'jng J756.] HIS BOYHOOD. 369 Montcalm had a taste for books, continued his read- ing in such intervals 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 revolted against the sway of the pedagogue who wrote letters of complaint to his father protesting against the " judgments of the vulgar, who, contrary to the experience of ages, say that if children are well reproved they will 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 ignorant of Latin and Greek " than know them as he does with- out 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 failed to the day of his death. So refractory was he at times that his master despaired. "M. de Montcalm," Dumas informs the father, " has great need of docil- ity, industry, and willingness to take advice. What will become of him?" The pupil, aware of tliese 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 Chris- tian. 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 Idles- lettres, as well as to have a taste for the arts and TeL. I. — 24 370 MONTCALM. [1727-1735. sciences. Thirdly, and above all, to be obedient, docile, and very submissive to your orders and those of my dear mother; and also to defer to the advice of M. Dumas. Fourthly, to fence and ride as well as my small abilities 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, geog- raphy, and heraldry. He was destined 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 fu-st under fire at the siege of Philipsbourg. His father died in 1735, and left him heir to a con- siderable landed estate, much embarrassed by debt. The Marquis de la Fare, a friend of the family, soon after sought for him an advantageous marriage to strengthen his position and increase his prospects of promotion; and he accordingly espoused Mademoi- selle Angdlique Louise Talon du Boulay, — a union which brought him influential alliances and some property. Madame de Montcalm bore him ten chil- dren, of whom only two sons and four daughters ^ This passage is given by Somervogel from the original letter. 1741-1746.] HIS EARLY CAMPAIGNS. 371 were living in 1752. " May God preserve them all," lie writes in his autobiography, "and make thera prosper for this world and the next! Perhaps it will 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 children in their need ? " ' Aux petits des oiseaux il donne la pature, Et sa bonte s'etend sur toute la nature.' " He \ ^s pious in his soldierly way, and ardently loyal to Church and KingT His family seat was Candiac ; where, in the inter- vals of campaigning, he found repose with his wife, iis children, and his mother, who was a woman of I, 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 j thoughts turned longingly towards it. " Quand J 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 Mardchal de Maillebois. In 1746, at the disastrous action under the walls of Piacenza, where he twice rallied 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 fol- tl. •^72 MONTCALM. [1755, 1756. lowing to the rank of brigadier; and being soon after exchanged, rejoined the army, and was again wounded by a musket-shot. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle now 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 letter dated at Versailles the twenty-fifth of January, at midnight. "Perhaps, Monsieur," it began, "you did not expect to hear from me again on the subject of the conver- sation I had with you the day j^ou 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 vnU. honor you on your departure with the rank of major-general." The Chevalier de Ldvis, afterwards Marshal of France, was named as his second in command with the rank of brigadier, and the Chevalier de Bour- lamaque as his third, with the rank of colonel; but 1 The account of Montcalm up to this time is chiefly from his unpublished autobiography, preserved by his descendants, and en- titled M€moires pour servir a I'Histoire de via Vie. Somervogel, Comrne on servait autrefois; Bonnechose, Montcalm et le Canada; Martin, Le Marquis de Montcalm ; :Eloge de Montcalm ; Autre iSloge de Montcalm; Mf Avistria,, a.Tifl r-mild spare but twelve hundred to reinforce New Fr ance. ~These troops marched into Brest at early morning, break- fasted in the town, and went at once on board the 376 MONTCALM. [175& transports, "with an incredible gayety," says Bou- gainville. " What a nation is ours ! Happy he who commands it, and commands it worthily I " ^ Mont- calm and he embarked in the "Licome," and sailed on the third of April, leaving Ldvis and Bourlamaque to follow a few days after. ^ The voyage was a rough one. " I have been fortu- nate," -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 secretary, and Joseph, who suffered cruelly, — seventeen days without being able to take anything but water. The season was very early for such a hard voyage, and it was fortu- nate 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 evening of the fourth of May we had fogs, great cold, and an amazing quantity of icebergs. On the thirtieth, 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 1 Journal de Bougainville. This is a fragment ; his Journal propef begins a few weeks later. 2 L^is a , 5 Avril, 1756. 1756.] THE VOYAGE. 377 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 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 proceed- ing farther. Montcalm made his way to the town by land, and soon after learned with great satisfac- tion 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 378 MONTCALM. [1756. is in motion. Don't expect details about our opera- tions; 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 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 Montreal, and Montcalm sent a cornier to inform him of his arrival. He soon went thither in person, and the two men 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 Bend out a general officer from France. ^ The court had not accepted his views ; ^ and hence it was with more curiosity than satisfaction 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 anima- tion, rapid, vehement utterance, and nervous gesticu- lation. Montcalm, we may suppose, regarded the governor with no less attention. Pierre Francois Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, was son of Pliilippe de Vaudreuil, who had governed Canada early in 1 These extracts are translated from copies of the original letter^ in possession of the present Marquis de Montcalm. 2 Vaudreuil au Ministre, .30 Ortobre, 1755. 8 Ordies du Roy et Dipcches des Ministres, Fevrier, 1756. 1756.] VAUDREUIL. 879 the century ; and he himself had been governor of \/ Louisiana. He had not the force of character which his position demanded, lacked decision in times of crisis; and though tenacious of authority, was more jealous in asserting than self-reliant in exercising it. One of his traits was a sensitive egotism, which made him forward to proclaim his own part in every suc- cess, and to throw on others the burden of every failure. He was facile by nature, and capable 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, Cana- dian 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 cor- respondence was with the minister of marine, while that of Montcalm was with the minister of war. Even had Nature made him less suspicious, his rela- tions with the general would have been critical. Montcalm commanded 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 1 Le Ministre a Vaudreuil, 15 Mars, 1756. Commission du Marquis de Montcalm. M€moire du Roy pour servir d'Insiruction au Marquis dt Montcalm. ^ 380 MOXTCALM. [175& the war the trust of the government was mainly in Montcalm; and the minister of war had even sug- gested that he should have the immediate 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 Vaudreuil, with instructions to communicate it to 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.^ "he governor and the general represented the tw o partie s which were soon to divide Canada, — those of N ew 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 regulai-s 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 Mont- calm, comprising in all a little less than three thou- sand men. 3 Besides these, the battalions of Artois 1 Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Mi'nistres, 1756. JLe Mlnistre a Vaudreuil, 15 Mars, 1756. 2 Vaudreuil au Ministre, 16 Juin, 1766. " Qu'il ne se mele que du commandement des troupes de terra." 3 Of about twelve Imndred who came with Montcalm, nearly three hundred were now in liospital. The four battalions that came with Dieskau are reported at the end of May to have sixteen hun- dred and fifty-three effective men. J^tat de la Situation actuelle des Bataillons, appended to Montcalm's despatch of 12 June. Another 1756.] TROOPS IN CANADA. 381 and Bourgogne, to the number of eleven hundred men, were in garrison at Louisbourg. AH these troops wore a white uniform, faced with blue, red yellow, or violet, i 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, frivolous, heedless, light- witted ; but brave always, and ready to die with their soldiers, though not to suffer with them." 2 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 gallantry, 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 department, 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. document. Detail de ce qui s'est passe en Canada, Jitin, 1755, jusqu'a Juin, 1756, sets the united effective strength of tlie battalions in Canada at twenty-six liundred and seventy-seven, which was in- creased by recruits whicli arrived from France about midsummer. ^ Except, perhaps, tlie battalion of Be'arn, which formerly wore, and possibly wore still, a uniform of light blue. ^ Susane, Ancienne Infanterie Francaise. In the atlas of thij (vork are colored plates of the uniforms of all the regiments of foot 38ii MONTCALM. [1756. Thus they had become ill-disciplined and inefficient, till the hard hand of Duquesne restored them to order. Thej originally consisted of twenty-eight independent companies, 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 companies were added. Their uniform was not unlike that of the troops attached to the War Depart- ment, being white, with black facings. They were enlisted for the most part in France ; but when their term of service expired, and even before, in 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 con- necting link between the troops of the line and the native militia. ^ Besides 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. All the effective male population of Canada, from fifteen years to sixty, was enrolled in the militia, ^ On the troupes de la marine, — M^moire pour servir d' Instruction a MM. Jonguiere et Bigot, 30 Avril, 1749. Ordres du Roi/ et D^peches des Miiiistres, 1750. Ibid., 1755. Ibid., 1757. Instruction pour Vau- dreuil, 22 Mars, 1755. Ordonnance pour ['Augmentation de Soldats dans les Compagnies de Canada, 14 Mars, 1755. Duquesne au Ministre, 26 Octobre, 1753. Ibid., 30 Octobre, 1753. Ibid., 29 Fevrier, 1754. Z)m- quesne a Marin, 27 Aout, 1753. Atlas de Susane, 1756.] CANADIAN MILTTTA. 383 and called into service at the will of the governor. They received arms, clothing, equipment, 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 bush-ranging were still in full activity. Their fighting qualities were much like those of the Indians, whom they rivalled in endur- ance and in the arts of forest war. As bush-fightei-s they had few equals; they fought well behind earth- works, and were good at a surprise or sudden 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 operations of war. At first they despised the regulars for their ignorance of wood- craft, and thought themselves able to defend the colony alone; while the regulars regarded them in turn with a contempt no less unjust. They were excessively given to gasc onad e^and every true Cana- dian boasted himselfTlnatch 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 thousand.^ Until the last two years of the war, those employed in actual warfare were but few. Even in the critical 1 Recapitulation des Milices du Gouvernement de Canada, 1750, Denombremenf des Milices, 1758, 1759. On the militia, see also Bou- gainville in Margry, Relations et Memoi-^:-Juin, 1756. 1756.] LEVIS. 391 between being filled with earth and gravel well packed. 1 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 tents of the regulars and huts of the Canadians had taken its place; innumerable bark canoes lay along the strand ; and gangs of men toiled ai. the unfinished works. JTiconderoga was now the most advanced position of the French, and Crown Point, which had before held that perilous honor, was in the second line. Ldvis, to whom had been assigned the 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 efficiency. He has turned his campaigns to good account." ^ L^vis writes of his chief with equal ^ warmth. " I do not know if the Marquis de Mont- calm is pleased with me, but I am sure that I am 1 Lotbiniere au Ministre, 31 Octohre, 1756. Montcalm au Ministrit, 20 Juillet, 1756. 2 Montcalm au Ministre, 20 Juillet, 1756. 392 MONTCALM. [1756. very much so with him, and shall always be charmed to serve under his orders. It is not for me, Mon- seigneur, to speak to you of his merit and his talents. You know him better than anybody else ; but I may have the honor of assuring 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 forests full of game; the ducks, geese, and partridges; the prodigious flocks of wild pigeons that darkened the air; 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 English colonies ^A have ten times more peo^^le than ours; but these wretches have not the least knowledge 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 hair- dressers^ whom they would be very glad to dispense with. It is incredible what a quantity of scalps they bring us. In Virginia 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, 1 L^vis au Ministre, 17 Juillet, 1756. 1756.] DUCHAT'S RELATION. 393 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 confessed 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 and 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 of Commandeks. — Eclipse of Shirley. — Earl of Loudon. — Muster of Pro- vincials. — New England Levies. — Winslow at Lake George. — Johnson and the Five Nations. — Bradstreet AND HIS Boatmen. — Fight on the Onondaga. — Pestilencb AT Oswego. — Loudon and the Provincials. — New England Camps. — Army Chaplains. — A Sudden Blow. — Montcalm ATTACKS Oswego: its Fall. When, at tlie end of the last year, Shirley returned 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 operations. 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 ^ Minutes of Council of War held at New York, 12 and 13 December, 1755. Shirley to Robinson, 19 December, 1755. The Conduct of Major' General Shirley briefly stated. Review of Military Oparations in North America. 1756.] THE NEW CAMPAIGN. 395 council approved the scheme; but to execute it the provinces must raise at least sixteen thousand men. This they refused to do. Pennsylvania and Virginia would take no active part, and were content with defending 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 campaign-, but when they learned that Parliament would grant a sum of money in partial compensation for their former sacrifices,^ they plung6d into new debts with- out 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 com- mand them, and gave him a commission to that effect; while he, to clinch his authority, asked and obtained supplementary commissions from every gov- ernment 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 1 Lords of Trade to Lords of the Treasury, 12 February, 1756. Fox to American 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 £1.5,000, the rest being given to New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. 2 Letter and Order Books of General Winslow, 1756. 396 OSWEGO. [1756. remains of his own and Pepperrell'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 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 insuffi- cient 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 suc- cessor should be sent at once, to form plans on the spot and make preparations accordingly. The min- istry were in no such haste. It was presently announced that Colonel Daniel Webb would be sent to America, followed by General James Abercrombie ; who was to be followed in turn by the Earl of Loudon, the destined commander-in chief. Shirley was to resign his command to Webb, Webb to ^Abercrombie, and Abercrombie to Loudon. ^ It chanced that the two former arrived in June at about 1 Fox to Shirley, 13 March, 1756. Ibid., 31 March, 1756. Order to Colonel Webb, 31 March, 1756. Order to Major-General Abercrombie,! April, 1756. Halifax to Shirley, 1 April, 1756. Shirley to Fox, 13 June, 1756. 1756.] ECLIPSE OF SHIRLEY. 397 the same time, while the eaii came in July; and mean- while it devolved on Shirley to make ready for them. Unable to divine what their plans would be, he pre- pared the campaign in accordance with his own. His star, so bright a twelvemonth before, was now miserably dimmed. In both his public and private life he was the butt of adversity. He had lost two promising sons ; he had made a mortifying 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 himself to his task with as much vigor as if he, and not others, were to gatlier the fruits. His chief care was for his favorite enter- prise in the direction of Lake Ontario. Making Albany his headquarters, 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 rapids. 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 Eng- land colonies were much alike in their way of raising 1 Letter and Order Books of Winslow, 1756. 398 OSWEGO. [1756. 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 pro- visions, munitions, stores, clothing, tools, and other necessaries, for which fair prices were to be paid within six months. The governor issued a proclama- tion 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, Massachusetts 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, for which, as for the other articles, he was to account at the end of the campaign. 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 his rations, he was promised a gill of rum each day, a privilege of which he was extremely jealous, deeply resenting every abridgment of it. He was enlisted for the campaign, and could not be required to serve above a year at farthest. 1756.] NEW ENGLAND LEVIES. 399 The complement of a regiment was five hundred divided into companies of fifty ; and as the men and officers of each were drawn from the same neighbor- hood, they generally knew each other. The officers, though nominally appointed by the Assembly, were for the most part the virtual choice of the soldiers themselves, from whom they were often indistinguisli- able in character and social standing. Hence disci- pline 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 shillings, — an advance on the pay of the last year; and that of a chaplain, six pounds eight shillings. ^ Penalties were enacted against "irreligion, immorality, drunkenness, de- bauchery, and prof aneness. " The ordinaiy punisli- ments were the wooden horse, irons, or, in bad cases, flogging. Much difficulty arose from the different rules adopted by the various colonies for the regulation 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 them- selves with the conveyance of all supplies belonging to their respective governments. They were to keep I Vote of General Court, 26 February, 175G. 400 OSWEGO. [1756, in correspondence with the committee of war at home, to whom they were responsible ; and the officer com- manding the contingent of their colony was required to furnish them with guards and escorts. Thus four independent committees were 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 property in its own hands. The incon- veniences were obvious. "I wish to God," wrote Lord Loudon to Winslow, "you could persuade your people to go all one way." The committees them- selves did not always find their task agreeable. One of their number, John Ashley, of Massachusetts, writes in dudgeon to Governor Phips: "Sir, I am apt to think that things have been misrepresented 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 myself 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 independence, and turn over their stores to the commissary-general, receipts being duly given. ^ 1 The above particulars are gathered from the voluminous papers in the State House at Boston, Archives, Military, vols. Ixxv., Ixxvi. 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, in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, have supplied much concurrent matter. See also Colonial Records of R. I., v., and Provincial Papers of N. H., vi. 1756.] INDIAN ATTACKS. 401 From Winslow's headquarters at Half-Moou i\ road led along the banks of the Hudson to Stillwater, whence there was water carriage to Saratoga. Here stores were again placed in wagons and carried several miles to Upper Falls ; thence by boat to Fort Edward ; and thence, fourteen miles across country, to Fort William 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 miscliief. 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 oppo- site to this city and captivate 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." ^ 1 Vaudreuil, in his despatch of 12 August, gives particulars of these raids, with an account of the scalps taken on each occasioa He thought the results disappointing. VOL. I. — 26 402 OSWEGO. [1756. Colonel Jonathan Bagley commanded at Fort William Henry, where gangs of men were busied under his eye in building three sloops and making several hundred whaleboats to carry the army to Ticonderoga. The season was advancing fast, 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 fortnight after he reports : " I must really confess I have almost wore the men out, poor dogs. Pray where are the com- mittee, or what are they about? " He sent scouts to watch the enemy, with results not quite satisfactorj^ "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 visitors, and reports that he has not thus far been able "to give those villains a dressing." ^ The English, however, were 1 Bagky to Winslow, 2 Juhj, 1756. 2 md.^ 15 July, 1756. '^ Wooster to Winslow, 2 June, 1750. 1756.] JOHNSON AND THE FIVE NATIONS. 403 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, and made a close survey of the fort and surrounding camps. ^ His report was not cheering. Winslow'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 Superintendent 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 diffi- cult one. The Five Nations would fain have re- mained neiitral, and let the European rivals fight it out; but^ on account of their local position, they could hot. The exactions and lies of the Albany 1 Report of Rogers, 19 June, 1756. Much abridged in his published Journals. s Fox to Johnson, 13 March, 1756. Papers of Sir WilUam Johnson. 404 OSWEGO. [1756. traders, the frauds of land-speculators, the contra- dictory 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 threatened them by turns. But for Johnson these inti'igues would have prevailed. He had held a series of councils with them at Fort Johnson during the winter, and not only drew from them a promise to stand by the English, but persuaded all the con- federated 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 confed- eracy was under a cloud. It had just lost one Red Head, its chief sachem; and first of all it behcjoved the baronet to condole their affliction. The ceremony was long, with compliments, lugubrious 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 fort- night; and when Johnson took his leave, the tribes stood pledged to lift the hatchet for the English. ^ ' Conferences between Sir William Johnson and the Indians, Decern ber, 1755, to February, 1750, in N. Y. Col. Docs., vii. 44-74. Account of Conferences held and Treaties made between Sir William Johnson, Bart., and the Indian Nations of North America (London, 1756). 2 Minutes of Councils at Onondaga , 19 June to 3 July, 1756, in N. Y. Col. Docs., vii. 134-150. 1756.] INDIAN DEPUTIES. 405 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 congregation of Indians. These were deputies of the Five Nations, with Mohegans from the Hudson, and Delawares and Shawanoes from the Susquehanna, whom he had per- suaded to visit him in hope that he might induce them to cease from murdering the border settlers. All their 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 gar- ment, and pronounced them henceforth men. A grand war-dance followed. A hundred and fifty Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Delawares, Shawa- noes, and Mohegans stamped, whooped, and yelled all night. ^ In spite of Piquet, 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 dis- play of military vigor on the English side, crowne4 1 Minutes of Councils at Fort Johnson, 9 July to 12 July, in N. Y. Col. Docs., vii. 152-160. 2 Conferences betiveen M. de Vaudreuil and the Fine Nations, 28 July to 20 August, in N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 445-453. 406 OSWEGO. [1756. 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 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 pursuing 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 Eng- land, divided them into companies of fifty, armed each with a gun and a hatchet, and placed them under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John » Johnson to Lords of Trade, 28 May, 1756. Ibid., 17 Jtdy, 1756. Johnson to Shirley, 2i Ajiril, 1756. Colonial Records of Pa., vii. 75, 88L 194. 1756.] BRADSTREET'S BOATMEN. 407 Bradstreet.1 Thus organized, they would, he hoped, require no escort. Bradstreet was a New England officer who had been a captain in the last war, some- what 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 cut its communications with Albany. 2 Nevertheless Bradstreet safely conducted a convoy of provisions and military stores to the gar- rison ; 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 hun dred men, with Bradstreet at their head, were about nine miles from Oswego, when, at three in the after- noon, they received a heavy volley from the forest on the east bank. It was fired by a part of Villiers' command, consisting, 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 move- » Shirley to Fox, 7 May, 1756. Shirley to Abercrombie, 27 June, 1756. Loudon to Fox, 19 August, 1756. * Detail de ce qui s'est j)ass€ en Canada, Octobre, 1755-Jutn, 1756 408 OSWEGO. [1756. ment, and landed on the island with six or eight fol- lowers, among whom was young Captain S chuyle r, 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, 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 forward; 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. Bradstreet 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 1756.] BRADSTREET'S FIGHT. 409 hundred men came from Oswego to reinforce the victors. In the morning Bradstreet prepared tA 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. ^ This affair was trumpeted through Canada as a victory of the French. Their notices of it are dis- cordant, 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 hun- dred English. A fifth contents himself with four hundred; but thinks that forty more would have been slain if the Indians had not fired too soon. He says further that there were three hundred boats; and presently forgetting himself, adds that five hun- dred were taken or destroyed. A sixth announces a great capture of stores and provisions, though all the 1 Letter of J. Choate, Albany, 12 July, 1756, in Massachusetts Archives, Iv. Three Letters from Albany, July, August, 1756, in Voc. History of N. Y., i. 482. Revieiv of Military Operations. Shirley to Fox, 26 July, 1756. Abercrombie to Sir Charles Hardy, 11 July, 1756. Niles, in Mass. Hist. Coll., Fourth Series, v. 417. Lossing, Life oj Schuyler, i. 131 (1860). Mante, 60. Bradstreet's conduct on thia occasion afterwards gained for him the warm praises of Wolfe. 410 OSWEGO. [1756. boats were empty. A seventh reports that the Cana- dians killed about three hundred, and would have killed more but for the bad quality of their toma- hawks. 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 ti'iumphs cheaply bought. 1 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, instead of waiting to be attacked from it. Nor was the news from that quarter reassuring. The engineer, Mac- kellar, 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 winter 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 1 Nouvelles du Camp e'tabli au Portage de Chotiaguen, premiere Relation. Ibid., Se'conde Relation, 10 Juillet, 1756. Bougainville, Journal, who gives the report as he heard it. Lettre du R. P. Cocquard, S. J., 175G. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Juillet, 1756. Ursu- lines de Quebec, ii. 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 these fabrications. * Mackellar to Shirle;/, June, 1756. Mercer to Shirley, 2 July, 1756. 1756.] STATE OF THE GARRISON. 411 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 garrison was then so weak that the strongest guard we pro- posed 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 till the relief came and lifted them up." His own company of fifty was reduced to ten. The other regiment of the garrison, Pepperrell's, or the fifty-first, was quartered at Fort Ontario, on the other side of the river; and being better sheltered, suffered less. The account given by Vicars of the state of the defences was scarcely more flattering. 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 N«Mr 412 OSWEGO. [1756. 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."i 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 ema- ciated 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 Ontario, the French could unite tlieir whole force on Lake Champlain, whether for defence or attack. Towards the end of June Abercrombie and Webb arrived at Albany, bringing a reinforcement of nine hundred regulars, consisting of Otway's regiment, or a part of it, and a body of Highlanders. Shirley resigned his command, and Abercrombie requested him to go to New York, wait there till Lord Loudon arrived, and lay before him the state of affairs. ^ Shirley waited till the twenty-third of July, when the earl at length appeared. He was a rough Scotch lord, hot and irascible; and the communications of his predecessor, made, no doubt, in a manner some- ^ Information of Captain John Vicars, of the Fiftieth {Shirley^s) Regi- ment, enclosed with a despatch of Lord Loudon. Vicars was a veteran British officer who left Oswego with Bradstreet on the third of July. Shirlei/ to Loudon, 5 September, 1756. ' Shirley to Fox, 4 July, 1756. 1756.] LOUDON. 413 what pompous and self-satisfied, did not please liiiu. "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 captains when serv- ing in conjunction with regular troops. ^ Hence the whole provincial army, as Winslow observes, might be put under the command of any British major. ^ The announcement of this regulation naturally caused great discontent. 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, hear- ing 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 1 Loudon {to Fox?), 19 August, 1756. 2 Order concerning the Rank of Provincial General and Field Officert m North America. Given at our Court at Kensington, 12 May, 1756. ^ Winslow to Shirley, 21 August, 1756. 414 OSWEGO. [1756. required Winslow to answer in writing, yes or no, whether the provincial officers would obey the com- mander-in-chief and act in conjunction with the regulars. Thus forced to choose between acquies- cence and flat mutiny, they declared their submission to his orders, at the same time asking as a favor that they might be allowed 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 tliis affair, and wrote strong letters to Winslow in the interest of harmony. ^ 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 move- ment, 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. Burton found Winslow's men encamped with their right on what are now the grounds of Fort William Henry Hotel, and their left extending southward between the mountain in thdr 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 1 Correspondence of Loudon, Abercrombie, and Shirley, July, August, 1756. Record of Meeting of Provincial Officers, July, 1756. Letter and Order Books of Winslow. 1766.] PROVINCIAL CAMPS. 415 daily, and officers in proportion ; extremely indolent, and dirty to a degree." Then, in vernacular Eng- lish, he describes the infectious condition of the fort which was full of the sick. "Their camp," he pro- ceeds, "is nastier than anything I could conceive; their , kitchens, graves, and places for slaughter- ing cattle all mixed through their encampment; a great waste of provisions, the men having just what they please; no great command kept up. Colonel Gridley 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 confu- sion." 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 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 succession 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 sanitary condition of the provincial camps was extremely 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 all raw recruits, they 1 Burton to Loudon, 27 August, 1756. 2 ]>. Thomas Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 28 August. 175& 416 OSWEGO. ri756. did not know how to take care of themselves; and their officers 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 all sick.^ Another penman, very different from the military critic, was also on the spot, noting down every day what he saw and felt. This was John Graham, min- ister of Suffield, in Connecticut, and now chaplain of Lyman's regiment. His spirit, by nature far from buoyant, was depressed by bodily ailments, and still more by the extremely secular character of his present surroundings. It appears by his Diary that he left home "under great exercise of mind," and was detained at Albany 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," says 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 chaplain to do." Again, Tuesday, August seven- teenth : " 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 officers, with some of the regular officers, in General Lyman's tent, within four rods of the place of public prayers. 1 Bougainvillej Journal, 1756.J TRIALS OF A CHAPLAIN. 417 None came to prayers ; but they fixed a table with- out the door of the tent, where a head colonel was posted to make punch in the sight of all, they witliin 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 provin- cial field-officers, but never heard a reproof nor so much as a check to them come from his mouth, though he never uses such language himself. Lord, what is man! Truly, the May-game of Fortune I 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 hkeness 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, aggravated by what he thought a want of due consideration for hia 1 I owe to my friend George S. Hale, Esq., the opportunity of examining the autograph Journal ; it has since been printed in the Magazine of American History for March, 1882. VOL. I. — 27 418 OSWEGO. [175ft person and office. His indignation 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 \cinother chaplain]^ 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 home would guess it to be, — nothing but a hurry and confusion of vice and wickedness, with a stygian atmosphere to breathe in."i The vice and wickedness of which he com- plains appear to have consisted in a frequent infrac- tion of the standing order against "Curseing and Swareing," as well as of that which required attend- ance on daily prayers, and enjoined "the people to appear in a decent manner, clean and shaved," at the two Sunday sermons. ^ At the beginning of August Winslow wrote to the * The autograph letter is in Massachusetts Archives, Ivi. no. 142. The same volume contains a letter from Colonel Frye, of Massa- chusetts, in 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 Older Books of Winslow. 1756.J ANXIETY. 419 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 Ticonderoga. On the twelfth Loudon sent Webb with the forty-fourth regiment and some of Bradstreet's boatmen to rein- force Oswego.i They had been ready for a month; but confusion and misunderstanding arising from the change of command had prevented their departure.'' Yet the utmost anxiety had prevailed for the safety of that important post, and on the twenty-eighth Surgeon Thomas Williams wrote : *' Whether Oswego is yet ours is uncertain. Would hope it is, as the 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 severely 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 shameful precipi- 1 Loudon {to Fox?), 19 August, 1756. 2 Conduct of Major- General Shirley briefly stated. Shirley to Loudon 4 September, 1756. Shirley to Fox, 16 September, 1756. 8 Thomas Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 28 August, 1756. 420 OSWEGO. [1756. tation, he burned the forts of the Carrying Place, and retreated down the Mohawk to German Flats. Loudon ordered Winslow to think no more of Ticon- deroga, 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 reformation." Thus wrote Dr. Thomas Williams to his wife from the camp at Fort Edward. " Such a shock- ing affair has never found a place in English annals," wrote the surgeon's young relative, Colonel William Williams. "The loss is beyond account ; but the dis- honor done His Majesty's arms is infinitely greater." ^ It remains to see how the catastrophe befell. Since Vaudreuil became chief of the colony he had nursed the plan of seizing Oswego, yet hesitated to attempt it. Montcalm declares that he confii-med the governor's wavering purpose ; but Montcalm himself had hesitated. In Jul}', however, there came exag- gerated reports that the English were moving upon Ticonderoga in greatly increased numbers ; and both Vaudreuil and the general conceived that a feint against Oswego would draw off the strength of the assailants, and, if promptly and secretly executed, might even be turned successfully into a real attack. Vaudreuil thereupon recalled Montcalm from Ticon- - Colonel William Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 30 August 1756. 1756.] PREPARATION AGAINST IT. 421 deroga.i Leaving that post in the keeping of Ldvia and three thousand men, he embarked on Luke Champlain, rowed day and niglit, and reached Mont- real on the nineteenth. Troops were arriving from Quebec, and Indians from the far West. A band of Menominies from beyond Lake Michigan, naked, painted, plumed, greased, stamping, uttering sliar^i yelps, shaking feathered lances, brandishing toma- hawks, danced the war-dance before the governor, to the thumping of the Indian drum. Bougainville 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. Rigaud, brother of the governor, had gone tliither some time before, and crossed with seven hundred Canadians to the south side of the lake, where Villiers was en- camped at Niaourd Bay, now Sackett's Harbor, with such of his detachment as war and disease had spared. Rigaud relieved him, 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.^ 1 Vaudreuil au iMinistre, 12 Aout, 1756. Montcalm a sa Femme, 24 Juillet, 1756. 2 Ibid., 4 Aout, 1756. Vaudreuil a Bourlamague, Tuin, 1766. • Bougainville, Journal. -V 422 OSWEGO. [1756. 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, Gnienne, and B^am, with the colony regulars, a body of Canadians, and about two hundred and fifty Indians, were destined 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. Bdarn 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 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, lauded at midnight of the tenth within half a league of the first Englisli 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 EngUsh knew nothing 1 Vaudreuil au Minlstre, 10 Juillet, 1756. Resume des Nouvellet dk Canada, Septembre, 1750. 1756.] MONTCALM ATTACKS IT. 423 of their danger, till in the morning, a reconnoitring canoe discovered the invaders. Two armed vessels soon came to cannonade them ; but their light gmis 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 employed, one of these savages, hungry for scalps, took him in the gloom for an Englishman, and shot him dead. Cap- tain Pouchot, of the battalion of Bdarn, replaced him; and the attack was pushed vigorously. The Canadians and Indians, swarming through the forest, fired all day on the fort under cover of the trees. The second division came up with twenty-two more cannon; and at night the first parallel was marked out at a hundred 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 was 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 Pepperrell's regi- ment, joined to raw recruits lately sent up to fill the 424 OSWEGO. [175? 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 til) towards night ; when, after growing more rapid for ^ 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 them 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 spiking their cannon and firing off their ammunition or throwing it into the well. The fate of Oswego was now sealed. The prin- cipal work, called Old Oswego, or Fort Pepperrell, stood at the mouth of the river on the west side, nearly opposite Fort Ontario, and less than five hun- dred 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 earthworks, mounted with cannon, and forming an intrenched camp; while the side towards Fort Ontario was left wholly exposed, in the rash confidence that this work, standing on the opposite 1756.3 ITS CONDITION. 42,'i heights, would guard against attack from that quarter. On a hill, a fourth of a mile beyond Old Oswego, stood the unfinislied stockade called New Oswego,' Fort George, or, by Teason of its worthlessness. Fort Rascal. It had served as a cattle-pen before the French appeared, but was now occupied 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 gaiTison of Fort Ontario and a number of sailors, boatmen, and laborers. Montcal m los t 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 force toiled all night, digging, setting gabions, and drag- ging 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 enemies to number six thou- sand at least. The battery soon opened fire. Grape and round shot swept the intrenchment and crashed through the rotten masonry. The English, says a French officer, " were exposed to their shoe-buckles. " Their artillery was pointed the wrong way, in expec- tation 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 426 OSWEGO [1756. to cross tlie 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 themselves at the edge of the woods, yelling and firing their guns, too far for much execu- tion, 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 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 capitu- lation. "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, "re- minds me of the fall of Jericho before the shouts of the Israelites." The English surrendered prisoners of war, to the number, according to the governor, of sixteen hundred,^ which included the sailors, laborers, 1 Bougainville, Journal. ^ Pouchot, i. 76. 8 Vaudreuil an Minisire, 20 Aout, 1756. He elsewhere makes the number somewhat greater. That the garrison, exclusive of civ- 1756.] ITS CAPTURE. 42? and women. The Canadians and Indians hroke through all restraint, and fell to plundering. There was an opening of rum-barrels and a scene of drunk- enness, in which some of the prisoners had their share ; while others tried to escape in the confusion, and were tomahawked by the excited savages. Many more would have been butchered, but for the efforts of Montcalm, who by unstinted promises succeeded in appeasing his ferocious 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 English 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 ilians, did not exceed at the utmost fourteen hundred, is shown by Shirley to Loudon, 5 September, 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 ten hundred and fifty. 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. 428 OSWEGO. [175a 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 captured 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 Braddock was an Indian victory ; this last exploit was the result of bold enterprise and skilful tactics. With its laurels came its fruits. Hated Oswego had been laid in ashes, and the would-be assailants forced to a vain and hopeless defence. France had conquered the undisputed command of Lake Ontario, and her com- munications with the West were safe. A small gar- rison at Niagara and another at Frontenac would now hold those posts against any effort that the Eng- lish could make this year; and the whole Frenclk force could concentrate at Ticonderoga, repel thf5 threatened attack, and perhaps retort it by seizing Albany. 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 received 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 at best but a few days more. They yidded too soon ; but unless Webb had come to their aid, which was not to be expected, they must have yielded at last. 1756.] RESULTS OF ITS FALL. 429 The French had scarcely gone, when two Englisli 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 remains of burnt bateaux and whaleboats were scattered along the shore. The great stone trading-house in the old fort was a smok- ing ruin ; Fort Rascal was still burning on the neigh- boring hill; Fort Ontario was a mass of ashes and charred logs, and by it stood two poles on which were written words which the visitors did not under- stand. 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 175G, contains all orders from headquarters. iMtfmoire pour servir d' Instruction a M. le Marquis de Montcalm, 21 Juillet, 1756, sign^ Vaudreuil. Bougainville, Journal. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Juin, 1756 (designs against Oswego). Ibid., 13 Aout, 1755. Ibid., 30 Aout. Pouchot, i. 67-81. Relation de la Prise des Foi-ts de Chouatjuen. Bigot au Ministre, 3 Septembre, 1756. Journal du Siege de Chouaguen. Precis des ^venements, 1756. Montcalm au Ministre, 20 Juillet, 1756. Ibid., 28 Aout, 1756. Desandrouins a , 7neme date. Montcalm a sa Femme, 30 Aout. 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., i. State of Facts relating to the Loss of Osiueqo, in London Magazine for 1757, p. 14. Correspondence of Shirley. Correspondence of Loudon. Littlehales to Loudon, 30 August, 1756. Hardy to Lords of Trade, 5 September, 1756. Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly slated Declaration of some Soldiers of Shirley's Regiment, in N. Y. Col. Docs., vii. 126. Letter frojn 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, 1757. PARTISAN WAR. yAiLTTRE OF Shirley's Plan. — Causes. — Loudon and Shirley — Close of the Campaign. — The Western Border. — Arm- strong DESTROYS KiTTANNING. ThE SoOUTS OF LaKB George. — War-parties from Ticonderoga. — Robert Rogers. — The Rangers: their Hardihood and Daring. — Disputes as to Quarters of Troops. — Expedition op Rogers. — A Desperate Bitsh-fight. — Enterprise of Vau- DREUIL. RiGAUD ATTACKS EORT WiLLIAM HeNRY. >8'hirley's gr and scheme for cutting New France in v^wai n had c'bme to wrg ck. 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 suc- ceeded 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 1756.] CAUSES OF SHIRLEY'S FAILURE. 431 till August. Of the nine discordant semi-repuhlics whom he asked to join in the work, three or four refused, some of the others were lukewarm, and all were slow. Even Massachusetts, usually the fore- most, failed to get all her men into the field till the season was nearly ended. Having no militaiy estab- lishment, the colonies were forced to improvise 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 to begin. Each popular assembly acted under the eye of a fru- gal constituency, who, having little money, were as chary of it as their descendants are lavish ; and most of them were shaken by internal conflicts, more ab- sorbing than the great question on which hung the fate of the continent. Only the four New England colonies were fully 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 circumference of a vast semi- circle, in a labyrinth of forests, without roads, and choked with every kind of obstruction. Opposed to them was a trained army, well organ- ized and commanded, focused at Montreal, and mov- ing for attack or defence on two radiating lines, — 432 PARTISAN WAR. [1756. one towards Lake Ontario, and the other towards Lake Champlain, — supported by a martial peasan- try, supplied from France with money and material, dependent on no popular vote, having no will but that of its chief, and ready on the instant to strike to right or left as the need required. It was a compact military absolutism confronting a hetero- geneous group of industrial democracies, where the force of numbers was neutralized by diffusion and incoherence. A long and dismal apprenticesliip 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 awak- ened consciousness of common interests and a com- mon 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 Livingston, 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 mutually misrep- resent 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 1756.] LOUDON AND SHIRLEY. 433 impossible. In conclusion he exclaims: "Canada must be demolished, — Delenda est Carthago, — or we are undone, "i But Loudon 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.2 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 campaign. Shirley well knew the weakness of Oswego; 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 Abercrombie took the con- trol out of his hands and caused ruinous delay. He cannot, however, be acquitted of mismanagement in failing to supply the place with wholesome provisions » Review of Military Operations, 187, 189 (Dublin, 1757). 2 Loudon to Shirley, 6 September, 1756. 8 The correspondence on both sides is before me, copied from the originals in the Public Record Office. * " 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 September, 1756. VOL. L — 28 434 PARTISAN WAR. [1756. in the preceding autumn, before the streams were stopped mth ice. Hence came the ravages of disease and famine which, before spring, reduced the garri- son to a hundred and forty effective men. Yet there can be no doubt that the change of command was' a bl undm -. This is the view of Franklin, who knew Shirley well, and thus speaks of him : " lie 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 nation beyond conception. For though Shirley was not bred a soldier, he was sensible and sagacious in him- self, and attentive to good advice from others, capable of forming judicious plans, and quick and active iu 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 him- self 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 1 Works of Franklin, i. 220. 1756.] THE WESTERN BORDERS. 435 number.! "The sons of Belial are too strono- for ine," jocosely wrote Winslow;^ and he set himself to intrenching his camp ; then had the forest cut down for the space of a mile from the lake to the moun- tains, so that the trees, lying in what he calls a "promiscuous manner," formed an almost impene- trable abatis. An escaped prisoner told him that the French were coming to visit him with fourteen thou- sand men ; ^ but Montcalm thought no more of stir- ring than Loudon himself; and each stood watching the other, with the lake between them, till the season closed. Meanwhile the western borders were still ravaged by tiie tomahawk. New York, New Jersey, Penn- sylvania, Maryland, and Virginia all writhed under the infliction. Each had made a chain of block- houses 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 quarrelling of governor and Assembly, joined to the doggedly pacific attitude of the Quakers, made vigorous defence impossible. Rewards were offered for prisoners and scalps, so bountiful that the hunting of men would 1 "Nous sommes tant a Carillon qu'aux postes avance's 5,;300 hommes." — Bougainville, Journal. 2 Winslow to Loudon, 29 September, 1756. ^ 3 Examination of Sergeant James Archibald. 4 In the Public Record Office, America and West Indies, Ixxxii., is a manuscript map showing 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. 436 PARTISAN WAR. [1756. have been a profitable vocation, but for the extreme wariness and agility of the game.^ Some of the forta were well-built stockades ; others were almost worth- less ; but the enemy rarely molested even the feeblest of them, preferring to ravage the lonely and unpro- tected farms. There were two or three exceptions. A Virginian fort was attacked by a war-party under an officer named Douville, who was killed, and his followers were put to flight.^ The assailants were more fortunate at a small stockade called Fort Gran- ville, on the Juniata. . A large body of French and Indians attacked it in August while most of the gar- rison 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 borderers would have made under political circumstances 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 ^n the 'Alleghany, between the two French posts of Duquesne and Venango. Here most of the 1 Colonial Records of Pa., vii. 76. 2 Washington to Morris, — April, 1756. 3 Colonial Records of Pa., vii. 232, 242 ; Pennsylvania Archives, il 744. 1756.] ATTACK ON KITTANNING. 437 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 oul from Fort Shirley, the farthest outpost, on the last of August, and, a week after, was within 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 single file, over hills 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 for- ward, till those in the front, scrambling down a rocky hill, found themselves on the banks of the Alleghany, about a hundred rods below Kittanning. The moon was near setting ; 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 vei-sed 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 Bank behind the woods, and fires soon glimmered 438 PARTISAN WAR. [1756. 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 apj)roach of day. Many of the party, spent with a rough march of thirty miles, had fallen asleep. They were now cautiously roused; and Armstrong ordered nearly half of them to make their way along the ridge of a bushy hill that overlooked the town, 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 do^,v^l 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 principal 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 Dela wares at this time were commonly armed with rifles, and used them well. Armstrong himself 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 1756.] KITTANNING DESTROYED. 439 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 com- rades ; but the assailants held to their work till the whole place was destroyed. " During 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 prisoners afterwards infonning us that the Indians had frequently said they had a sufiicient 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 moving perforce witli 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 ofiicer, not by tlie ^ Report of Armstrong to Governor Denny, 14 September, 1756, in Colonial Records of Pa., vii. 257,— a modest, yet very minute account. A List of the Names of the Persons killed, wounded, and missing in the late Expedition against the Kittanning. Hazard, Pennsyl' vania Register, i. 366. 440 PARTISAN WAR [1756. 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. He says that Attiqud, the French name of Kittanning, was attacked by "le Gdn^ral Wadiinton, " 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 till the fugi- tives rallied ; that Washington and his men then took to flight, and would have been pursued but for the loss of some barrels of gunpowder 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 provisions and merchandise to replace those which the Indians of Attiqud had lost by a fire.^ Like other officers of the day, he would admit nothing 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 owns that they com- mitted frightful cruelties,jmutilating and sometimes 1 Dumas a Vaudreuil, 9 Septembre, 1756, cited in Bigot au Ministre, 6 Octobre, 1756, and in Bougainville, Journal. 1756.] THE SCOUTS OF LAKE GEORGE. 441 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 centi-e of partisan war. Ticonderoga was a hornet's nest, pouring out swarms of savages to infest the highways 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 tem- porary insanity 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 * Depeches de Vaudreuil, 1756. 2 Minute of Lieutenant Kennedy's Scout. Winslow to Loudon, 20 September, 1756. 442 PARTISAN WAR. [1756. 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 village 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 westward along the ridge, made a minute survey of every outpost between the fort and Lake George. ^ These adventures were not always fortunate. On the nineteenth of Septem- ber Captain Hodges and fifty men were ambushed a few miles from Fort William Henry by thrice their number of Canadians and Indians, and only six escaped. Thus the record stands in the Letter Book of Winslow.3 By visiting the encampments of Ticonderoga, 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 Wpst,, ^(^re persuaded to go on a grand war-party with the Canadians. Of these last there were a hundred, — a \^ild crew, bedecked and be- daubed like their Indian companions. Periere, an 1 Winslow to Loudon, 16 October, 1756. 2 Report of a Scout to Ticonderoga, October, 1756, signed Israel Putnam. * Compare Massachusetts Archives- Ixxvi. 81. H56.] A WAR-PARTY. 443 officer of colony regulars, had nominal command of the whole ; and among the leaders of the Canadians was the famous bush-fighter, Marin. Bougainville was also of the party. In the evening of the six- teenth they all embarked in canoes at the French advance-post commanded by Contrecoeur, 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 recon- noitre. 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 place of meeting, wrapped in colored blankets, with lances in their hands. The accom- plished young aide-de-camp studied his strange companions with an interest not unmixed with dis- gust. "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, l)y the lofty heights of Black Mountain, and among the islets of the Narrows, till the eighteenth. That night the Indian scouts reported that they had seen the fires of an encampment on the west shore; on whicli the whole party advanced to the attack, an hour before dawn, filing silently under the dark arches of the forest, the Indians nearly naked, and streaked with 444 PARTISAN WAR. [1756. their war-paint of vermilion and soot. When they reached the spot, they found only the smouldering fires of a deserted bivouac. Then there was a con- sultation; 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 encamped to await the result. At night the adventurers returned, raising the death-cry and firing their guns; somewhat de- pressed by losses they had suffered, but boasting that they had surprised fifty-three English, and killed or taken all but one. It was a modest and perhaps an involuntary exaggeration. "The very recital of the cruelties they committed on the battlefield is hor- rible," writes Bougainville. "The ferocity and inso- lence of these black-souled barbarians makes one shudder. It is an abominable kind of war. The air one breathes is contagious of insensibility and hard- ness."^ 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 prisoners taken within the lines of Ticonderoga. Their captain was Robert Rogers, of New Hampshire, — 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 propor- 1 Bougainville, Journal. ^756.] ROBERT ROGERS. 445 tions of the nose.i He had passed his boyhood in tlie rough surroundings of a frontier village. Growing to manhood, he engaged in some occupation which, he says, led him to frequent journeyings in the wil- derness between the French and English settlements, and gave him a good knowledge of both. 2 It taught him also to speak a little French. He does not dis- close the nature of this mysterious employment; hut there can be little doubt that it was a smugglino- trade with Canada. His character leaves much to be desired. He had been charged with forgery, or com- plicity in it, seems to have had no scruple in matters of business, and after the war was accused of treason- able dealings with the French and Spaniards in the West.^ He was ambitious 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 exaggeration. Dunng the past summer he had raised a band of men, chiefly New Hampshire borderers, and made a series of daring excursions which gave him a promi- nent place in this hardy by-play of war. In the spring of the present year he raised another company, 1 A large engraved portrait of him, nearly at full length, is before me, printed at London in 1776. 2 Rogers, Journals, Introduction (1765). 3 Provincial Papers of New Hampshire, vi. 364. Correspondence of Gage, 1766. N. Y. Col. Docs., vii. 990. Caleb Stark, Memoir and Corregpondence of John Stark, 386. 446 PARTISAN WAR. [1756. and was commissioned as its captain, with his brother Richard as his first lieutenant, and the intrepid tl;ohn Stark as iiis 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, form- ing a battalion dispersed on various service, but all under the orders of Robert Rogers, with the rank of major.^ These rangers vmre a sort of woodland uni- form, which varied in the different companies, and were armed with smooth-bore guns, loaded with buckshot, bullets, or sometimes both. The best of them were commonly employed on Lake George; and nothing can surpass the adven- turous hardihood of their lives. Summer and winter, day and night, were alike to them. Embarked in whaleboats or birch canoes, they glided under the silent moon or in the languid glare of a breathless August day, when islands floated in di-eamy 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: • HogCTS, Journals. Report of the Adjutant- General of New Hamp' shire (1866), u. 158, 159. 1756.] THE RANGERS. 447 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 ranger strode on snow-shoes over the spotless drifts; and, like Diirer'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 movement since midwinter. In January they skated down _. Lake George, passed Ticonderoga, hid themselves by the forest road between that post and Crown Point, intercepted two sledges loaded with provisions, and carried the drivers to Fort William 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 throughout the spring and summer. The reconnois- sance 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 448 PARTISAN WAR. [1756. 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 hiding-place. Soon after came a party of twenty-two. They fired on them, killed six, captured one, and escaped with him to Fort William 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 his escape. He told them that the French had the fullest infor- mation of the numbers and movements of the Eng- lish ; that letters often reached them from within the English lines; and that Lydius, a Dutch trader at Albany, was their principal correspondent. ^ Arriv- ing at Ticonderoga, Rogers cautiously 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 moment, the soldier suffered him to 1 Letter and Order Books of Winslow. " One Lydiass . . . whom -we suspect for a French spy ; he lives better than anybody, without any visible means, and his daughters have had often presents from Mr. VaudreuiL" — Zoucfon {to Fox ?), 19 August, 1756. 1756.] EXPLOITS OF ROGERS. 449 approach; till, seeing his mistake, he called out in amazement, ''Qui etes vousV "Rogers," Avas tlio 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 liglit and strong, expressly for this service, rowed about ten miles down Lake George, landed on the east side, carried the boats six miles over a gorge of the moun- tains, launched them again in South Bay, and rowed down the narrow prolongation of Lake Champlain under cover of darkness. At dawn they were within six miles of Ticonderoga. They landed, hid their boats, and lay close all day. Embarking again in the evening, 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. Li 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 south- ward, 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 stai-s 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 VOL. I. — 29 450 PARTISAN WAR. [1756. \ratclied the soldiers at dinner, within a musket-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 tlie next night they rowed fifteen miles farther, and then sent men to recon- noitre, 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 distance 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 not march, therefore we put an end to him, to pre- vent 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, 1 Report of Rogers to Sir William Johnson, July, 1756. This inci- dent is suppressed in the printed Journals, which merely say that the man " soon died." 2 Rogers, Journals, 20. Sh{rle;i to Cox, 26 July, 1756, "This afternoon 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. 1756.] PERPLEXITY OF THE FRENCH. 451 reconnoitred the lake nearly to St. John, hid thcin again eight miles north of Crown Point, took threo prisoners near that post, and carried them to Fort William Henry. In the next month the French found several English boats in a small cove north of Crown Point. Bougainville propounds five different hjrpotheses 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 F^rench, on their side, still kept their war-_ parties in motion, and Vaudreuil faithfully chronicled in his despatches every English scalp they brought in. He believed in Indians, and sent them to Ticon- deroga in numbers that were sometimes embarrass- ing. Even Pottawattamies from Lake Michigan were prowling about Winslow's camp and silently killing his sentinels with arrows, while their "medicine men " remained at Ticonderoga practising sorcery and divination to aid the warriors 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 medi- cine ' 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 Avarriors would come back with scalps and prisoners. A sorcerer in the medicine lodge is exactly like tha 1 Bougainville, Journal. 452 PARTISAN WAR. [1756. Pythoness on the tripod or the witch Canidia invok- ing 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 watch 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 ser- vants." Winslow tried to console 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 intended ; 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 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. 2 Winslow's men followed their example. 1 This kind of divination was practised by Algonquin tribes from the earliest times. See "Pioneers of France in the Nevy World," 351. 2 Bougainville, Journal. Malartic, Journal. 1756, 1757.] QUARTERING TROOPS 453 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. i In Canada the regulars were quartered on the inhabitants, who took the infliction as a matter of course. In the Eno-lish provinces the question was not so simple. Most of the British troops were assigned to Philadelpliiu, New York, and Boston; and Loudon demanded free quarters for them, according to usage then prevailing 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 Phila- delphia lodgings were given them in the public- houses, which, however, could not hold them all. A long dispute followed between the governor, who seconded Loudon's demand, and the Assembly, dur- ing which about half the soldiers lay on straw in outhouses and sheds till near midwinter, many sick- ening, and some dying from exposure. Loudon grew furious, and threatened, if shelter were not provided, to send Webb with another regiment and billet the whole on the inhabitants; on which the Assembly yielded, and quarters were found. ^ In New York the privates were quartered in bar- 1 Letter and Order Books of Winslow. Winsloio to Halifax, 30 December, 1756. * Loudon to Denny, 28 October, 1756. Colonial Records of Pa., vil 358-380. Loudon to Pitt, 10 March, 1757. Notice of Colonel Bouquet, in Pennsylvania Magazine, iii. 124. llie Conduct of a Noble Com nander in America impartially reviewed (1758). 454 PARTISAN WAR. [1756, 1757. racks, 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 remonstrate. "God damn my blood!" replied the earl; "if you do not billet my officers upon free quarters this day, I 'h order here all the troops in North America, and billet them myself upon this city. " Being no respecter of persons, at least in the provinces, he began with Oliver Delancey, brother of the late acting governor, and sent six soldiers to lodge under his roof. Delancey swore at the unwelcome 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 bar- 2-acks 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 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. 1 Smith, Hist, of N. Y., Part II. 242. William Carry to Johnson, 15 January, 1757, in Stone, Life of Sir William Johnson, ii. 24, note. Condon to Hardy, 21 November, 1756. ■^ Massachusetts Archives, Lxxvi. 153 1757.] SCOUTING PARTY. 455 In the middle of January Rogers came with lii.s 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 otlier preparation, and set out on the seventeentli. Cap- tain Spikeman was second in command, with T^ieii- tenants Stark and Kennedy, several other subalterns, and two gentlemen yolunteers enamoured of adven- ture. They marched down the frozen lake and encamped at the Narrows. Some of them, unac- customed 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 do\\Ti 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 miles beyond it. The weather was changing, and rain was coming on. They scraped away the snow with their snow-shoes, piled it in a bank around them, made beds of spruce-boughs, built fires, and lay down to sleep, while the sentinels kept watch in the outer gloom. In the morning there was a drizzling rain, and the softened snow stuck to their snow-shoes. They marched eastward three miles through the dripping forest, till they reached the 456 PARTISAN WAR. [1757. 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 mes- senger to prevent Stark from showing himself too soon; but Stark was already on the ice. All the sledges turned 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 Ticon- deroga. The prisoners, being separately examined, told an ominous tale. There were three hundred and fifty regulars at Ticonderoga; two hundred Cana- dians 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 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 1757.] A DESPERATE BUSII-FIGIIT. 457 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 out- right, as also was Gardner, one of the volunteere. Rogers was grazed in the head by a bullet, and others were disabled or hurt. The rest returned the fire, while a swarm of French and Indians rushed upon them from the ridge and the slopes on either hand, killing several more, Spikeman 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 assailants in check by a brisk fire till 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 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 458 PARTISAN WAR. [1757. 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 expected 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 kind- ness. They called to Rogers by name, and expressed great esteem for him. Neither threats nor promises ^lad 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 destruction to stay where they were; and they with- drew 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 for dead; but by desperate efforts had followed on their tracks, and was now brought to camp in a state of exhaustion. i757.] DEFEAT OF RANGERS. 459 He recovered, and lived to an advanced age. Tlio sledge sent by Stark came in the morning, and the whole party soon reached the fort. Abercroml)ie, 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 tlu-ee 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, com- mandant at Ticonderoga, wrote immediately for reinforcements. ^ 1 Eogers, Journals, 38-44. Caleb Stark, Memoir and Correspond- ence of John Stark, 18, 412. Return of Killed, Wounded, and Missing in the Action near Ticonderoga, Janunrj/, 1757 ; all tlie names are here given. James Abercrorabie, aide-de-camp to his uncle, General Abercrombie, 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 Vaudrcud au Ministre, 19 Avril, 1757 (his second letter of this date). Bougain- ville, Montcalm, Malartic, and Montreuil all speak of the affair, placing the English loss much higlier 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 me.i went thither in 460 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 sti'ange cr}- of agony, heralding that dismal season when -^-inter 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 willows will not buret 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 themselves 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 Henr}- were paying homage to their patron saint in libations of heretic rum, the product of New England 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 com- mander, and that their enforced sobriety^ proved the saving of the fort. This may be doubted ; for with- advance of the rest. As regards the antecedents of the combat, the French and English accounts agree. 1757.] VAUDREUIL'S WAR-PARTY. 4G1 out counting the English soldiers of the garrison who had no special call to be drunk that day, the fort was in no danger till twenty-four hours after, when the revellers had had time to rally from their pioua 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 morning 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, wliich 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 A . f ort^__ Shirley had planned a similar stroke against Ticondexoga a year before ; but the provincial levies had come in so slowly, and the ice had broken up so soon, that the scheme was abandoned. Vaudreuil was more fortunate. The whole force, regulars, Canadians, and Indians, was ready to his hand. No pains were spared in equipping them. Overcoats, blankets, bearskins to sleep on, tarpaulins to sleep under, spare moccasons, spare mittens, kettles, axes, 462 PARTISAN WAR. [1757. needles, awls, flint and steel, and many miscellaneous articles 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 million francs, answering to more than as many dollars of the present time. To the disgust of the officers from France, the governor named his brother Rigaud for the chief command ; and before 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 numbers so superior must, it seems, have overpowered the defenders; but the Canadians and Indians who com- posed most of the attacking force were not suited for such work; and, disappointed in his hope of a sur- prise, Rigaud withdrew them at daybreak, after try- 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 inyalids. 1757.] RIGAUD'S ENTERPRISE. 4G3 ing in vain to bum the buildings outside. A few hours after, the whole body reappeared, filing off to surround the fort, on which they kept up a 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 while, till tongues of flame lighted up the gloom, and two sloops, ice-bound in the lake, and a lai-ge 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 till noon, when the French filed out of the woods and marched across the ice in procession, ostentatiously carrying their scaling-ladders, and showing 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 ofiicer with a few men went to meet them, and returned bringing Le Mercier, chief of the Canadian artillery, who, being led blindfold into the fort, announced liimself as bearer of a message from Rigaud. He was conducted to the room of Major Eyrc^ where all the British officers were assembled; and, after mutual compliments, he invited them to give up the place peaceably, promising the most favorable terms, and threatening a general assault and massacre in case of refusal. Eyre said that he should 464 PARTISAN WAR. [175r. defend liim.self to tlie 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 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 storehouses, a hospital, a saw-mill, and the huts of the rangers, besides a sloop on the stocks and piles of planks and cord-Avood. Covered by the night, the assailants crept up with fagots of resinous sticks, placed them against the farther side of the buildings, kindled them, and escaped before the flame rose; while 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 sub- sided, 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 volunteers from the regulars made a bold attempt to burn the sloop on the stocks, with several storehouses and other structures, and several hundred scows and 1757.] RIGAUD'S RETREAT. 465 whaleboats which had thus far escaped. They were only in part successful; but they fired the sloop and some buildings near it, and stood far out on the ice watching the flaming vessel, a superb bonfire amid the wilderness of snow. The spectacle cost tlie volunteers a fourth of their number killed 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 snow-shoes. Before they reached it many of them were blinded for a wliile by the insufferable glare, and their comrades led them home- wards by the hand.^ 1 Eyre to Loudon, 24 March, 1757. Ihid., 25 March, enclosed in Loudon's despatch of 25 April, 1757. Message of Rigaud to Major Eyre, 20 March, 1757. Letter from Fort William Henry, 26 March, 1757, in Boston Gazette, No. 106, and Boston Evening Post, No. 1,128. Abstract of Letters from Albany, in Boston Neios Letter, No. 2,860. Caleb Stark, Memoir and Correspondence of John Stark, 22, a curious mixture of trutli and error. Relation de la Campagne sur le Lac St Sacrement pendant PHiver, 1757. Bougainville, Journal. Malartic, Journal. Montcalm au Ministre, 24 Avril, 1757. Montreuil au Ministre, 23 Avril, 1757. Montcalm a sa Mere, 1 Avril, 1757. Me'moires 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. Stark was touched by a bullet, for the only time in his adventurous life. VOL. I.— 30 CHAPTER XIV. 1757- MONTCALM AND VAUDREUTL. The Seat of War. — Social Life at Montreal. — Familiar Correspondence OF Montcalm : his Employments ; his Im- pressions OF Canada; his Hospitalities. — Misunderstand- ings WITH THE Governor. — Character of Vacdredil: his Accusations. — Frenchmen and Canadians. — Foibles of Montcalm. — The Opening Campaign. — Doubts ant) Sus- pense. — Loudon's Plan: his Character. — Fatal Delays. — Abortive Attempt agalnst 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 wdld fowl, streaming in long files northward to their summer home. As the aerial 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. 1756, 1757.] MONTREAL. 46T Hence the lake stretched northward, like some broad river, trdnched 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 wilderness of the Adirondacks, like a stormy sea congealed; on the riglit, the long procession of the Green Mountains ; and, far beyond, on the dim vei-ge 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 amonof 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 spark- ling fragment of the reign of Louis XV. dropped into the American wilderness. Montcalm 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 oppor- tunity. To his wife he writes : " Think of me affec- tionately ; give love to my girls. I hope next year I 468 MONTCALM AND YAUDREUIL. [1756, 1757, may be with you all. I love you tenderly . dearest." He says that he has sent her a packet oi 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 letter of domestic news from Madame de Montcalm: "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 occupa- tions, 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 banishment; 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; 1756, 1757.] FESTIVITIES. 469 and I am flattered by their remembrance, especiall)' by that of one of them, in whom I find at certain moments too much wit and too many charms for my tranquillity." These ladies of the Rue du Parloir are several times mentioned in his familiar corre- spondence with Bourlamaque. His station obliged him to maintain a high standard of living, to his great financial detriment, for Cana- dian 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 Ldvis, 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 parties, often at the Intendant's house. I like my gallant Chevalier de Ldvis very much. Bourlamaque 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 hke 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 aa 470 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756, 1757. Alais even in time of peace, and better now, because the Government 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 insupportable ; 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 fifteenth of May. I worked at the plan of the last affair [Rigaud^s txpedition to Fort William, Renry~\^ 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 Monsieur 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- 1756,1757.] FESTIVITIES. 47 1 bags of two kinds, and perfumed pomatum for presents; closing in postscript with an injunction not to forget a dozen pint-bottles of English lavender. Some months after, he writes to Madame de Saint- V^ran: "I have got everything that was sent me from Montpellier 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 Libert^.' 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 detach- ment against Fort William Henry, Montcalm 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, excel- lent 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 472 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756, 1757. Beaiicour. The gallant Chevalier is to give us still another ball." Lent put a check on these festivities. "To- morrow," he tells Bourlamaque, "I shall throw myself 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 Mont- real than it would be at Quebec." And, some time after, "Bougainville spent Monday delightfully at Isle Ste. Hdlene, 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. P^an 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 Villejoin 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 iT56, 1757.] A BREACH REPAIRED. 473 another commander, the governor had ordered to march "under the banners of brother Rigaud." "After he got my letter on Sunday evenmg,"says the disappointed general, "Monsieur 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 themselves 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 hencefor- ward communicate his plans to me sooner ; for, though his knowledge of the country 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 morsel'} the day after to-morrow. I burn your letters. Mon- sieur, 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 ^fadamt de Saint-V&an, sa Mere, et a Madame de Montcalm, sa Femme, 175ti 474 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756, 1757. Montcalm was not at this time fully aware of the feeling of Vaudreuil towards him. The touchy egotism of the governor and his jealous attachment 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 general. 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 con- fident that I shall reduce it," he adds; "my expedi- tion 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 victory was due to his brother Rigaud and the Canadians, 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 repeating it to you, especially 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 oppo- sition. If I had been less vigilant and firm, Oswego 1757 (Papiers de Famille) ; and Lettres de Montcalm a Bourlamajue 1767. See Appendix E. * Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 13 Aout, 1756. 1756. 1757.] EGOTISM OF VAUDllEUTL. ^ 475 would still be in the hands of the English. I cannot sufficiently congratulate myself on the zeal which jrij brother and the Canadians and 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 with- out 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 Oswego , but it was only the colony troops, Canadians, and Indians who attacked the forts. Our artillery was directed by the Chevalier Le Mercierand M. Fremont [colony officers], and was served by our colony troojjs 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 Baved the money allowed them for refreshments, and 1 Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 1 Septembre, 175d. « Ibid., 6 Novembre, 1756 476 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756,1757. 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 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 intend- ant 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 goocj 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 1756, 1757.] THEIR RIVALRY. 477 their blind submission to his commands preventa many of them from showing resentment at the usage they had to endure. The Indians, he goes on to say, are not so gentle and yielding; and but for his brother Rigaud and himself, 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 tliem, 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 Vaudreuil used a different language; for Montcalm says, after men- tioning 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 general witli 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 jealous, excite his Canadian prejudices, and prevent 1 Vaudreuil au Ministre dela Marine, 23 Octobre, 1756. The above extracts are somewhat condensed in the translation. See the letter in Dussieux, 279. 478 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756, 1757. him . from dealing with me frankly, or adopting my views when he can help it."^ He elsewhere com- plains that Vaudreuil gave to both him and Ldvis orders couched in such equivocal terms that he could throw the blame on them in case of reverse.^ Mont- calm 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 subordina- tion, 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 if 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 every- tbing to do, and sometimes nothing; I am esteemed, respected, beloved, envied, hated ; I pass for proud, * Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 11 Juillet, 1757. 3 Ibid., 1 Novemhre, 1756. » Ibid., 18 Septcmbre, 1757. * Ibid., 4i Novemhre, 1757. * Ibid., 28 Aok, 1756. 1756,1757] VIEWS OF BOUGAINVILLE. 479 supple, stiff, yielding, polite, devout, galUmt, etc. ; and I long for peace." i The letters of the governor and those of the g ^nprnl, it will be seen, contradict each other flatly at seve ral poi nts. Mon t calm is sustained by his friend Routrii iii- vi lle, w ho 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 Vaudreuil complains that the Canadians are ill-used by Montcalm, 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 reticence of the governor. " The Marquis de Montcalm has not the honor of being consulted ; and it is generally through public rumor that he first Jiears 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 statue. I can forgive Pygmalion, for what he produced was a masterpiece."^ The exceeding touchiness of the governor was sorely tried by certain indiscretions on the part of the general, who in his rapid and vehement utterances 1 Montcalm h Madame de Saint-Ve'ran, 23 Septembre, 1767. 2 Bougainville a Saint-Laurens, 19 Aoiit, 1757. * Bougainville, Journal. 480 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1757. sometimes forgot the rules of prudence. His anger, though not deep, was extremely impetuous; and it is said that his irritation against Vaudreuil some- times found escape in the presence of servants and soldiers. 1 There was no lack of reporters, and the governor was told everything. The breach wideneaj apace, and Canada divided itself into two camps ; I that of Vaudreuil with the colony officers, civil and / military, and that of Montcalm with the officers! from France. The principal exception was the I Chevalier de Ldvis. This brave and able coo»— « mander had an easy and adaptable nature, which made him a sort of connecting link between the two parties. " One should be on good terms with every- body," was a maxim which he sometimes expressed, and on which he shaped his conduct with notable success. The intendant Bigot also, an adroit and accomplished 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, Levis, and 7], 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 waver- ing, and daunted the ill-disposed. The whole West 1 lLv€nements de la Guerre en Canada, 1759, 1760. 1757.] IROQUOIS DEPUTIES. 481 was astir, ready to pour itself again in blood and fire against the English border; and even the Cherokees and C];ioctaws, old friends of the British colonies, seemed on the point of turning against them.^ The Five Nations were half won for France. In November a large deputation of them came to renew the chain of friendship at Montreal. " I have laid Oswego in ashes," said Vaudreuil; "the English quail before me. Why do you nourish serpents in your bosom? They mean only to enslave you." The deputies trampled under foot the medals the English had given them, and promised the "Devourer of Villages," for so they styled the governor, that they would never more lift the hatchet against his children. The chief diificulty 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 satisfaction 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 western bands of the Confederacy. Neu- trality alone could be hoped for from the others, who 1 Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 19 Avril, 1757. 2 Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 24 Avril, 1757 ; Relation de I'Ambassade des Cinq Nations a Montreal, jointe a la lettre pr€c€dente. Proces-verbal de differentes Entrevues entre M. de Vaudreuil et lei Deputes des Nations sauvages du 18 au 30 De'cembre, 1756. Malartic, Journal. Montcalm a Madame de Saint-Ve'ran, 1 Avril, 1757. VOL. I. — 31 482 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1757. were too near the English safely to declare against them; while from one of the tribes, the Mohawks, even neutrality was doubtful. Vaudreuil, while disliking the French regulars, felt that he could not dispense with them, and had asked for a reinforcement. His request was granted and the colonial minister informed him that twenty- four hundred men had been ordered to Canada to strengthen the colony regulars and the battalions of Montcalm. 1 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 agreeable. It was to the effect that a formidable squadron was fitting out in British ports. Was Quebec to be attacked, or Louisbourg? Louisbourg was beyond reach of suc- cor 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. 1 Ordres du Roy et Dd'peches des Ministres, Mars, 1757. 2 Ministerial Minute on the Military Force in Canada, 1767, in N. Y, Col. Docs., X. 523. 1757.J ENGLISH DELAYS. 483 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 ail plans of his predecessor, Shirley, proposed to the ministry a scheme of his own, involving a possible attack on Quebec, but with the reduction of Louisbourg as its immediate object, — an important object, no doubt, but one that luid no direct bearing on the main question of controlling the interior of the continent. Pitt, theii for a brief space at the head of the government,\ accepted the suggestion, and set himself to executing it; but he was hampered by opposition, 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 fitting out for America, though he could not tell its precise destination. Without loss of time three j 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, consisting of fifteen ships-of-the-line and three frigates, with about live 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. 484 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1757. 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 troo^js, the provincial levies, the transports destined to carry them, and the ships of war which were to serve as escort, all lay idle. In the interval Loudon showed great activity in writing despatches and other avocations more or less proper to a commander, being always busy, without, accord- ing to Franklin, accomplishing anything. One Innis, who had come with a message from the gov- ernor of Pennsylvania, and had waited above a fort- night 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 Halifax. 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. 2 But the season was growing late ; he must act quickly if he was to act at all. He and Sir Charles Hardy agreed between 1 Works of Franklin, i. 219. Franklin intimates that while Lou- don was constantly 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. lie had not learned Pitt's resignation. 1757.] FAILURE OF LOUDON. 485 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 tliirtieth. 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 drilling them and planting vegetables for their refreshment. 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 Captain Gorham, of the rangers, who reconnoitred it from a fishing vessel, brought back an imperfect report, upon which, after some hesitation, it wiis resolved to proceed to the attack. The troops were embarked again, and all was ready, when, on the fourth of August, a sloop came from Newfoundland, bringing letters found on board a French vessel lately captured. From these it appeared 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 gar- rison had been increased to a total force of seven thousand men, ensconced in the strongest fortress of the continent. 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 thir- teen hundred and sixty caimon, anchored in a ehel- 486 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1757. tered harbor uucler the guns of the town. Success was now hopeless, and the costly enterprise was at once abandoned. Loudon with his troops sailed 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. 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 imme- diate action ; and had La Motte sailed out of Louis- bourg, 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 Motte 's fleet reached its desti- nation 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 1757.] FORCE OF THE FRENCH. 487 Vaudreuil the opportunity to execute a scheme which they had nursed since the fall of Oswego. ^ 1 Despatches of Loudon, February to August, 1757. Knox, Cam- paigns in North America, i. 6-28. Knox was in the expedition. Review of Mr. Pitt's Administration (LonJon, 1763). The Conduct nj a Noble Commander in America impartially reviewed (London, 17.58). Beatson, Naval and Military Memoirs, ii. 49-59. Answer to the Letter to two Great Men (London, 1760). Entick, ii. 168, 169. Uolbourne to Loudon, 4 August, 1157. Holbourne to Pitt, 29 September, 1757. Ibid., 30 September, 1757. Holbourne to Pownall, 2 November, 1757. Mante, 86, 97. Relation du De'sastre arrive a la Flotte Anglaise commande'e par I'Amiral Holbourne. Chevalier Johnstone, Campaign oj Louisbourg. London Magazine, 1757, 514. Gentleman's Magazine, 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 Jane 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 Army at Ticon- DEROGA. — Indian Allies. — The War-feast. — Trbatment OF Prisoners. — Cannibalism. — Surprise and Slaughter. — The War Council. — March of Levis. — Tnt Army em- barks. — Fort William Henry. — Nocturnal Scene. — Indian Funeral. — Advance upon the Fort. — General Webb : his Difficulties ; his Weakness. — The Siege BEGUN. — Conduct of the Indians. — The Intercepted Letter. — Desperate Position of thie Besieged. — Capitu- lation. — Ferocity of the Indians. — Mission of Bougain- ville. — Murder of Wounded Men. — A Scene of Terror. — The Massacre. — Efforts of Montcalm. — 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 from 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. 1757.] INDIAN COMPLIMENT. 489 The time was come, not only to strike the English on Lake George, but perhaps to seize Fort Edward and carry terror to Albany itself. Only one diffi- culty remained, the want of provisions. Agents were sent to collect corn and bacon among the inhabitants ; the cur^s 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 Michilimackinac addressed the general thus: "We wanted to see this famous man who tramples the English under his feet. We thought we should find liim 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." 2 It remained to muster the Mission Indians settled in or near the limits of the colony ; and it was to this end that Montcalm went to sing the war-song with ^ Vaudreuil, Lettres circu/aires aux Cures et aux Capitaines de Milice des Paroisses du Gouvernement de Montreal, 16 Juin, Ylbl. * Bougainville, Journal. 490 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. the converts of the Two Mountains. Rigaud, Bou- gainville, young Longueuil, and others were of the party; and when they landed, the Indians came down to the shore, their priests at their head, and greeted the general with a volley of musketr}^; 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 applauded. It was nothing but these words, ' Let us trample the English under our feet, ' chanted over and over again, in cadence with the movements 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 de- voured, and with one voice the warriors took up the hatchet. Meanwhile troops, Canadians and Indians, were 1 Bougainville describes a ceremony in 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 cere- mony on the same spot, and heard the descendants of the same warriors and squaws sing like their ancestors. Great changes have since taken place at this old mission. 1757.] CAMPS aT TICONDEROGA. 491 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, sun- shine or rain, till, towards the end of July, the whole force was gathered at Ticonderoga, the base of tlie intended movement. Bourlamaque had been there since May with the battalions of Bdarn 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 between 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 navi- gable 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 encamp- ment defended on all sides by an abattis, within which stood the tents of the battalions of La Reine, La Sarre, Languedoc, and Guienne, all commended by Ldvis. Above the cascade the stream circled through the forest in a series of beautiful rapids, and from the camp of Ldvis 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, 492 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. under Rigaiid. It was scarcely a mile farther to Lake George, where on the western side there was an outpost, chiefly of Canadians and Indians ; while advanced parties were stationed at Bald Mountain, now called Rogers Rock, and elsewhere on the lake, to watch the movements of the English. The various encampments just mentioned were ranged along a valley extending four miles from Lake Champlain to Lake George, and bordered by moun- tains wooded to the top. Here was gathered a martial population of eight thousand men, including the brightest civilization 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 tliat wilderness had they not done their work so Avell in it; from these to the foulest man-eating savage of the uttermost northwest. Of Indian allies there were nearly two thousand. One of their tribes, the lowas, spoke a language which no interpreter understood; and they all biv- ouacked where they saw fit: for 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 1757.] TROUBLESOME ALLIES. 493 ears. They wear beaver-skin blankets, and carry lances, bows and arrows, and quivers made of tho skins of beasts. For the rest they are straight, well made, and generally very tall. Their religion id brute paganism. I will say it once for all, one nmst 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 di-eam, 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 trifle, — 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 paradise 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 medi- cine," that is, consulting the Manitou, to whom they hung up offerings, sometimes a dead dog, and some- times the belt-cloth which formed their only garment. The Mission Indians were better allies than these 494 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. 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, was gen- erally 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 com- pany present. "Imagine," says the father, "a great assembly of savages adorned with every ornament most suited to disfigure them in European eyes, painted with ver- milion, 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 decoration: a shirt bedaubed with vermilion, wam- pum collars, silver bracelets, a large knife hanging on the breast, moose-skin moccasons, and a belt of various colors always absurdly combined. The 1757.] WAR-FEAST. 495 sachems and war-chiefs are distinguished from the rest: the latter by a gorget, and the former by a medal, with the King's portrait on one side, and on the others Mars and Bellona joining hands, with tlie device, Virtus et Honor.''' Thus attired, the company sat in two lines facing each other, with kettles in the middle filled with meat chopped for distribution. To a dignified silence succeeded songs, sung by several chiefs in succession, and compared by the narrator to the howlincr of wolves. Then followed a speech from the chief orator, highly commended by Roul)aud, 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 assembly. 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 glorifying himself beyond all measure. To hear his self -laudation in these moments 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 496 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. 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 confused cries of applause that greeted his ears. He kept up his martial promenade as long as he liked 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 appetite craved meat of another sort. " ^ Others followed with similar songs and pantomime, and the festival was closed at last by ladling out the meat from the kettles, and devour- ing it. Roubaud was one day near the fort, when he saw the shore lined with a thousand Indians, watching four or five English prisoners, who, with the war- party that had captured them, were approaching 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, yelliiig diabolically, each armed with a club. The wretched prisoners were to be forced to "run the gantlet," which would probably have killed them. They were saved by the cliief who commanded the war-party, and who, on the persua- sion of a French oificer, claimed them as his own and forbade the game; upon which, according to 1 Lettres du Pere . . . {'Rnnhand), ]\fissionna{reckez lesAbenakis,2J Octobre, 1757, in Lettres Edijiantes et Curieuses, vi. 189 (1810). 1757.] CANNIBALISM. 497 rule in such cases, the rest abandoned it. On this same day the missionary met troops of Indians con- ducting 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 starting from their brows in the extremity of their horror and dis- tress. 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, approach- ing, he saw that it was the flesh of an Englishman, other parts of which were boiling in a kettle, while 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 savage 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 seeming change of heart due to the fact that they were a valuable com- modity, for which the owners hoped to get a good price at Montreal. Montcalm wished to send them VOL. I.— 32 498 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. tliither at once, to which after long debate the Indians consented, demanding, however, a receipt in full, and bargaining that the captives should be sup- plied with shoes and blankets.^ 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 into the water to escape, while the Indians leaped after them and speared them with their lances like fish. " Terri- fied," 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 * Journal de VExp^dition contre le Fort George [William Henry] du 12 Juillet au 16 Aout, 1757. Bougainville, Journal. Lettre du P. Roubaud. 1757.] GRAND COUNCIL. 499 were killed or captured, and three of the bodies were eaten on the spot. The journalist adds tliat the victory so elated the Indians that they became insup- portable; "but here in the forests of America we can no more do without them than without cavalry on the plain. "1 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 representing 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 Ldvis 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 1 Bougainville, Journal. Malartic, Journal. Montcalm a Vau- dreuil, 27 Juillet, 1757. Webb to London, 1 August, 1757. Webb to Delancey, 30 July, 1757. Journal de I'Expedition centre le Fort George. London Magazine, 1757, 457. Niles, French and Indian Wars. Boston Gazette, 15 August, 1757. 2 This affair was much exaggerated at the time. I follow Bou- gainyille, who had the facts from Marin. According to him, the thirty-two scalps represent eleven killed ; which exactly answers to the English loss as stated by Colonel Frye in a letter from Fori Edward. 500 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. Varmony among liis 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; Ilurons of Lorette and Detroit; Nipissings of Lake Nipissing; Abenakis of St. Francis, Becancour, Missisqui, and the Penobscot; Algonquins of Three Rivers and Two Mountains; Micmacs and Malicites 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; Pottawattamies and Menominies 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 hun- dred 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 assemblage was edged with white uniforms of officers from France, who came in numbers to the spectacle. Other officers were also here, all belonging to the colony. They had been appointed to the command of the Indian allies, over whom, however, they had little or 1757.] INDIAN ORATORY. 501 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 othere, each assigned, to some tribe or group of tribes, — the intrepid Marin; Charles Langlade, who had left liis squaw wife at Michilimackinac to join the wai ; Niverville, Langis, La Plante, Hertel, Longueuil, Herbin, Lorimier, Sabrevois, and Fleurimont; men familiar from childhood with forests and savages. Each tribe had its interpreter, often as lawless as those with whom he had spent his life ; and for the converted tribes there were three missionaries, — • Piquet for the Iroquois, Mathevet for the Nipissings, who were half heathen, and Roubaud for the Abenakis.^ There was some complaint among the Indians be- cause they were crowded upon by the officers who came as spectators. This difficulty being removed, tiie council opened, Montcalm having already ex- plained 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 1 Tlie above is chiefly from Tableau des Sauvages qui se trouvent h VArme'e 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 tlie head of Christians, it is stated that a few of tlie Ottawas of Detroit and Michilimackinac still retained the faith. 502 FORT WILLIAM HEXRY. [1757. 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 heathen 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 Unglish], bears witness forever to 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 together 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 you 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 unconquerable, by establishing among you the union which ought to prevail among brothevs, children of one father, the great Onontio." Then he held out a prodigious wampum belt of six 1757.] HARMONY IN CAMP. 503 thousand beads: "Take this sacred pledge of liis 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 till the English are defeated and their fort destroyed." Peimahouel took up the belt and said: "Behokl, brothers, a circle drawn around us by the o-reat 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 same effect, and the council closed in perfect harmony, i Its various members bivouacked together at the camp by the lake, and by their carelessness soon set it on fire ; whence the place became known as the Burned 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 Manitou. 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 devil. Hereupon they took counsel of Montcalm. "Better say it so than not at all," replied the mili- tary 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 mean- time with killing rattlesnakes, there being a populous 1 Bougainville, Journal. 004 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. " den " of those reptiles among the neighboring rocks. Montcahn 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 mat- tress, " he adds. " Age and infirmities may make it necessary to some ; but I shall not have one myself, and make no doubt that all who can, will willingly imitate me." ^ The bateaux lay ready by the shore, but could not carry the whole force ; and L^vis received orders to march by the side of the lake with twenty-five hun- dred 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 destina- tion of the party was the mouth of Ganouskie Bay, 1 Circulaire du Marquis de Montcalm, 25 Juillet, 1757. 1757.] ADVANCE OF MONTCALM. 506 now called Northwest 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 Ticonderocra : and then, on the first of August, at two in the after, noon, he embarked at the Burned Camp with all hia remaining force. Including those with Levis, the expedition counted about seven thousand six hun- dred men, of whom more than sixteen hundred were Indians. 2 At five in the afternoon they reached the place where the Indians, having finished their rattle- snake hunt, were smoking their pipes and waiting for the army. The red warriors embarked, and joined the French flotilla ; and now, as evening drew near, was seen one of those wild pageantries of war which Lake George has often witnessed. A restless multi- tude 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 Cana- dian militia, and some the battalions of Old France in trim and gay attire : first, La Reine and Languedoc ; 1 Guerre du Canada, par le Chevalier de L^vis. This manuscript of Levis is largely in the nature of a journal. 8 ^tat de I'Arme'e Frangaise devant le Fort George, autrement Guillaume-Henri, le 3 Aout, 1757. Tableau des Sauvages qui se trouvent a I'Arme'e du Marquis de Montcalm, le 28 Juillet, 1757. Thii gives a total of 1,799 Indians, of whom some afterwards left the army. ]Stat de I'Arme'e du Roi en Canada, sur le Lac St. Sacrement et dans les Camps de Carillon, le 29 Jtdllet, 1757. This gives a total of 8,019 men, of whom about four hundred were left in garrison at Ticonderoga. 506 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757, then the colony regulars ; then La Sarre and Guienne ; then the Canadian brigade of Courtemanche ; then the cannon and mortars, each on a platform sustained by two bateaux lashed side by side, and rowed by tlie militia of Saint-Ours; then the battalions of B^arn and Royal Roussillon; then the Canadians of Gaspd, 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 stern enchant- ment to its fascinating scenery. They passed the Narrows in mist and darkness; and when, a little before dawn, they rounded the high promontory of Tongue Mountain, they saw, far on the right, three fiery sparks shining through the gloom. These were the signal-fires of Levis, to tell them that he had reached the appointed spot.^ Ldvis 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 followed 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. 1 The site of the present village of Bolton. 1757.] A NIGHT ALARM. 507 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 tliat 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. Tlie splash of some leaping trout, or the dipping Aving 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 tlie lake, when the men on board descried throutrh tlic gloom a strange object against the bank; and they rowed towards it to learn what it might be. It wag 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 tlie French provision-boats warned them of danger; and turning, they pulled for their lives towards the eastern shore. Instantly more than a thousand Indians threw themselves into their canoes and dashed in hot pur- suit, 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 savage crew was upon them. Several were killed, three were taken, and 508 FORT WILLIAM .lENRY. [1757 the rest escaped in the dark woods J ''he prisoners were brought before Montcalm, and gave him valu- able information of the strength and position of the English. 2 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 ver- milion, 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-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 L^vis, with Indians to lead the way, moved through the 1 Lettre du Pere Roubaud, 21 Octohre, 1757. Roubaud, who sai» the whole, says that twelve hundred Indians joined the chase, and that their yells were terrific. 2 The remains of Fort William Henry are now — 1882 — crowded between 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 struc tures. When I first knew the plat?e, the ground was in much the Same state as in the time of Montcalm 8 Lettre du Pere Roubaud. Montcalm Cnmp SIEGE OF 1757. ScrUon tkrobujh A.H. i Si-aif. to iJteProJilc 1757.] ADVANCE UPON THE FORT. 509 forest towards the fort, and Montcalm followed with the main body; then the artillery boats rounded tli« point that had hid them from the sight of the Eng- lish, saluting them as they did so with musketry and cannon; while a host of savages put out upoii tlie 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 intrenched camp; and, lastly, on the extreme left, another marsh. Far around the fort and up the slopes of the western mountain the forest had been cut down and burned, and the ground was cumbered with black- ened 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. Distant shouts and war-cries, the clatter of musketry, 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 roam- ing in the neighborhood, and burn some out-buildings that would have favored the besiegers. Others were 1 Pr€cu des ^venements de la Campagne de 1757 en la Nouvtlk France. 510 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. taking down the tents that stood on a plateau near the foot of the mountain on the right, and moving them to the intrenchment on the hill. The garrison sallied 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 veteran, Lieutenant-Colonel Monro, of the thirty-fifth regi- ment, was in command. General Webb lay fourteen miles distant at Fort Edward, with twenty-six 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 returned 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 fartlier approach of the enemy." 1 J^tat des Effets et Munitions de Guerre qui se sont trouv€s au Fort Guillaume-Henri. There were six more guns in the intrenched camp. 1757.] INDECISION OF WERB. ^11 Instead of doing so he waited three days, and then sent up a detachment of two hundred rcgukii>5 luuhr Lieutenant-Colonel Young, and eight hundred Massa- chusetts men under Colonel Frye. This raised the force at the lake to two thousand and two hundred, including sailors and mechanics, and i-educed that of Webl) to sixteen hundred, besides half as many more distributed at Albany and the intervening forts. ^ I f, 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. 'J'hus his power of aiding Monro was slight, so rashly had L oudon, intgnt on Louisbourg, left this frontier ()j ien to aTfack. The defect, however, was as much in Webb himself as in his resources. His conduct in the past year had raised doubts of his 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 1 Frye, Journal of the Attack of Fort William Henri/. Wehh to Loudon, 1 August, 1157. Ibid., 5 August, 1757, 512 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. 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 num- bers, well supplied with artillery, but that the gar- rison 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.^ When the skirmishing around the fort was over, La Corne, with a body of Indians, occupied the road that led to Fort Edward, and Ldvis encamped hard by to support him, while Montcalm proceeded to examine the ground and settle his plan of attack. He made his way to the rear of the intrenched camp and reconnoitred it, hoping to carry it by assault; but it had a breastwork of stones and logs, and he 1 Copy of four Letters from Lieutenant- Colonel Monro to Major- General Wehb, 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 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 of Marching to their Assistance." — Webh to Loudon, 5 August, VJbl- 1757.] MONTCALM'S PREPARATIONS, 513 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. Ke chose for the site of his operations the ground now covered by the village of Caldwell. A little to the north of it was a ravine, beyond which he formed his main camp, while L^vis occupied 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, Btill called Artillery Cove, Montcalm prepared to debark his cannon and mortars. Having made his preparations, he sent Fontbrune, one of his aides-de-camp, with a letter to Monro. "I owe it to humanity," he wrote, "to summon you to surrender. At present I can restrain the savages, and make them observe the terms of a capitulation, as I might not have power to do under other circum- stances ; 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 ■woL. I. — 33 614 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. were flying, the Indians swarmed over the tields before the fort; and when they learned the iresult, 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 quai-ter." Monro emphasized his refusal by a general dischevrge of his cannon. The trenches were opened on the night -of the fourth, — a task of extreme difificulty, 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 cannon from the fort flashed through the darkness, and grape and round-shot whistled and screamed over their heads. Some of the English balls reached the camp beyond the ravine, and dis- turbed the slumbers of the officers off duty, as they lay wrapped in their blank'jts and bear-skins. Before daybreak the first parallel was made; a battery was nearly finished on the left, 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 expected of them. Instead of scouting in the direction of Fort Edward to learn the movements of the enemy and prevent surprise, they loitered 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 little trenches for themselves, in 1757.] COMPLAINT OF THE INDIANS. 515 which they wormed their way towards the rampart, and now and then picked off an artillery-man, not without loss on their own side. On the afternoon of the fifth, Montcalm invited them to a council, gave them belts of wampum, and mildly remonstrated with them. "Why expose yourselves 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 Ldvis, 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, l)ut added that there was something on their hearts. Being encouraged to relieve themselves of the 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," said 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 hurrj^ and confu- sion of the time ; expressed high appreciation of theii talents for bush-fighting, promised them ample satis- faction, and ended by telling them that in the mom- 1 Bougainville, Journal. 516 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. ing 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 wil- derness 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 can- nonade fell on the ears of Webb in his camp at Fort Edward. "I have not yet received the least rein- forcement," he writes to Loudon; "this is the disa- greeable situation we are at present in. The fort, by the heavy firing we hear from the lake, is still in our possession ; but I fear it cannot long hold out against so warm a cannonading if I am not reinforced by a sufficient 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 after 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 1767.] INTERCEPTED LETTER. 517 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 ambuscades, — 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, 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 several days, till the English ram- part was half battered down; and then, after salut- ing his enemy with a volley from all his cannon, he •* Frye, In his Journal, gives the letter in full. A spurious trans- lation of it is appended to a piece called Jugement impartial sur le Operations militaires en Canada. 518 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. sent it with a graceful compliment 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 intrenched 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 hav- ing 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 English 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." ^ By 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 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 accliv- ity 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 Bougainville, Journal. Bougainville au Ministre, 19 Aout, Vtbl . 2 Now (1882) the site of Fort William Henry Hotel, with its grounds. The hollow is partly filled by the main road of Caldwell. 1757.] A DESPERATE SITUATION. 51 D lay there ensconced. On the night of the seventh, two men came out of the fort, apparently to recon- noitre, with a view to a sortie, wlien they were greeted by a general volley and a burst of yells which echoed among the mountains ; followed by responsive whoops pealing through the darkness from the various camps and lurking-places of the savage warriors far and near. The position of the besieged was now deplorable. 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 intrenched 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 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, fol- lowed by a few soldiers, to the tent of Montcalm. It was agreed that the English troops should march 1 Frye, Journal. 620 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [-1757. out with the honors of war, and be escorted 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 con- sent 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 intrenched camp, which was included in the surrender. No sooner were they gone than a crowd of Indians clambered through the embrasures in search of rum and plunder. All the sick men unable to leave their beds were instantly butchered. ^ "I was 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 intrenched camp, where all the English were now collected. 1 Attestation of William Arluthnot, Captain in Frye's Regimefd- 1757.] CONFUSION IN CAMP. 521 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 homicidal rage, and the glitter of their vicious eyes told of the devil within. They roamed among the tents, intrusive, insolent, their visages besmirched 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 burnings, and all their nameless atrocities, had been for yeai-s 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 Indians, " says Bougain- ville, " wanted to plunder the chests of the English ; the latter resisted; and there was fear that serious disorder would ensue. The Marquis de Montcalm ran thither immediately, and used every means to restore tranquillity: prayers, threats, caresses, inter- position of the officers and interpreters who have some influence over these savages."^ "We shall be but too happy if we can prevent a massacre. Detest- able position ! of which nobody who has not been in 1 Bougainville au Ministre, 19 Aout, 1757. 522 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. it can have any idea, and which makes victory itself a sorrow to the victors. The Marquis 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 induced the Indians to promise that, besides the escort agreed upon in the capitulation, two chiefs for each tribe should accom- pany 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. Bougainville was not to see what ensued; for Montcalm now sent him to Montreal, as a special messenger to carry news of the victory. He em- barked at ten o'clock. Returning daylight found him far down the lake ; and as he looked on its still bosom flecked with mists, and its quiet mountains sleeping under the flush of dawn, there was nothing in the wild tranquillity of the scene to suggest the tragedy which even then was beginning on the shore he had left behind. 1 Bougainville, Journal. 1757.] INDIAN OUTRAGES. 523 The English in their camp had passed a troubled night, agitated by strange rumors. In the morning something like a panic seized them; for they dis- trusted not the Indians only, but the Canadians. In their haste to be gone they got together at daybreak, before the escort of three hundred regulars hud arrived. They had their muskets, but no ammuni- tion; and few or none of the provincials had bayo- nets. 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 camj), showing, says Colonel Frye, " more than usual malice in their looks." Seventeen wounded men of his regiment lay in huts, unable to join the march. In the preceding afternoon Miles Whitworth, the regi- mental 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 attending to their wants. The French surgeon had caused special sentinels to be posted for their protection. 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, all, before the eyes of Whitworth, and in presence of La Corne 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 oiScer or soldier, protected the said wounded 524 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. men."i 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 canteens, 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 intrench- ment and the forest, the Indians crowded upon them, impeded their march, snatched caps, coats, and weapons from men and officers, tomahawked these that resisted, and, seizing upon shrieking women and children, dragged them off or murdered them on the spot. It is said that some of the interpreters secretly fomented the disorder. ^ Suddenly there rose the screech of the war-whoop. At this signal of butch- ery, 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 * Affidavit of Miles Whitworth. See Appendix F. 2 This is stated by Pouchot and Bougainville; the latter of whom confirms the testimony of the English witnesses, that Canadian olBcers present did nothing to check the Indians. • See note, end of chapter ^'^7'] THE MASSACRE. 505 them.i A frightful tumult ensued, when Montcalm, L^vis, Bourlamaque, and many other French oilicera,' who had hastened from their camp on the first ncNvs of disturbance, threw themselves among the Indians, and by promises and threats tried to allay theij frenzy. "Kill me, but spare the EngUsh who. arc under my protection," exclaimed Montcalm. IIo took from one of them a young officer whom tlie savage had seized; upon which several other IndianH immediately 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 ia doubtful. The English seemed paralyzed, and for- tunately did not attempt a resistance, which, without 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 French advance-guard, which consisted of Canadians; and here they de- manded protection from the officers, who refused to give it, telling them that they must take to tlie 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 clothing, leaving nothing but breeches, shoes, and shirt. Repelled by the officers of the guard, he 1 Belknap, History of New Hampshire, says that eiplity wito Ifilled. Governor Wentworth, writing immediately after the event aajs "killed or captivated." 526 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. made for the woods. A Connecticut 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 violent 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 provincial volunteer, declares that, when the tumult was at its height, he saw officers of the French army walking about at a little distance and talking 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 neighboring swamp, when an English officer, stripped of every- thing but his scarlet breeches, ran by. One of Carver's captors sprang upon him, but was thrown to the ground; whereupon the other went to the aid of his comrade and drove his tomahawk 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 protector, and, as Carver judged by his shrieks, was murdered. He himself escaped to the forest, 1767.] EFFORTS OF MONTCALM. 527 and after three days of famine reached Fort Edward. The bonds of discipline seem for the time to have been completely broken; for while Montcalm and Ids chief officers used every effort to restore order, even at the risk of their lives, many other officers, chiefly of the militia, failed atrociously 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. L^vis 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. Montcalm suc- ceeded 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 Roubaud presently found a crowd of half -frenzied women, crying in anguish for husbands and children. All the refugees and redeemed prisoners were after- wards conducted to the intrenched camp, where food and shelter were provided for them and a strong guard set for their protection until 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 528 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757. 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, carry- ing 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 funeral pyre blazed all night. Then, on the sixteenth, the army re-embarked. 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 corre- spondence of Webb, a letter of Colonel Frye, written just after the massacre, and a journal of tlie siege, sent by him to Governor Pow- nall as his official report. Extracts from these, as well as from the affidavit of Dr. Whitworth, which is also new evidence, are given iq Appendix F. The Diary of Malartic and the correspondence of Montcalm, Levis, Vaudreuil, and Bigot, also throw light on the campaign, aa well as numerous reports of the siege, official and semi-official The long letter of the Jesuit Roubaud, printed anonymously in thj Lettres ^difiantes et Curieuses, gives a remarkably vivid account o^ what he saw. He was an intelligent person, who may be trustej where he has no motive for lying. Curious particulars about hin will be found in a paper called. The deplorable Case of Mr. Roubaui 1757.] SOURCES OF NARRATIVE. 52'J printed in the Historical Magazine, Second Series, riii. 282. Con> pare Verreau, Report on Canadian Archives, 1874. Impressions of the massacre at Fort William Iknrv hav« hitherto been derived chiefly from the narrative of Captain J»jiia than Carver, in his Travels. He has discredited liiinself by hii exaggeration of the number killed; but his account of wliai he himself saw, tallies with that of the other witnesses. He is outdoiia in exaggeration by an anonymous French writer of the titiie, who seems rather pleased at the occurrence, and aflirins that all the English were killed except seven hundred, these last being cap. tured, so that none escaped (Nouvelles du Canada envoij(fes de Mont- real, Aout, 1757). Carver puts killed and captured together at fifteen hundred. Vaudreuil, who always makes light of Indian barbarities, goes to the other extreme, and avers that no more than five or six were killed. Levis and Roubaud, who saw everyliiing, and were certain not to exaggerate the number, give the most trust, worthy 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 Pana- ouski. Father Martin, in quoting the letter in which Montcalm makes this statement, inserts the word idoldtres, which is not in the original. Dussieux and O'Callaghan give the passage correctly. This Abenaki band, ancestors of the present Penobscots, were no idolaters, but had been converted more than half a century. In tiie official list of the Indian allies, they are set down among the Ciiris- tians. Roubaud, who had charge of them during the expedition, speaks of these and other converts with singular candor: " Voud avez d(i vous apercevoir . . . que nos sauvages, pour etre Chre'tiens, n'en sont pas plus irreprehensibles dans leur conduite." 80 5 7% VwJjXoM. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This hook is DUE on the last date stamped l>elo«^. OlSCilARGE JUL 1^1979 uflw r»ATi ^. !AN ^ 2 1980 • '"SO ••lit' ^^R I 7 1980 APR 14J982 "^A'ii'^i'e^^i LP TJUL 1 4 1983 • * • 24139 CEC V^' ^ R^-4^^'^ «.u i 15)984 REPD ID-URS MAY 2 2 1984 JAN 1 1 1985 9EF§tMm AUG 3 1985 APR OS 198^ I BWTfSRSITY of CALffORMlA LOS A .':S LIBliAKl 3 1 58 00423 9579 AA 000 586 457 4