Page images
PDF
EPUB

first be convinced of the necessity of raising supplies."

So they politely refused, and Cornwallis was compelled to rely upon the slender means at his command. With four hundred soldiers he appeared in transports before the town. The alarmed · inhabitants laid the town in ashes and fled across the river, where the French were too strong for the English, and the latter withdrew. A few months later a second expedition was more successful, and fort Beau Sejour, which the French had built opposite the desolate town, was captured, in August, 1750, after a sharp fight, in which three or four Englishmen were killed and as many French. This was the first blood they had shed in war since the treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle.

War had commenced in earnest, though not declared, and an English man-of-war off Cape Sable captured some French vessels. Negotiations for peaceful settlement of the boundary for American possessions were broken off, and near the head of the valley of the Ohio was the theatre of the first passage at arms.

Lawrence and Augustine Washington, the half brothers of George Washington, with Thomas Lee, were Virginia members of the Ohio Land Company. They ordered goods to be sent from London suitable for the Indian trade; and as no attempt

at settlement could be safely made without some previous arrangements with the Indians, the company petitioned the Virginia government to invite the savages to a treaty council. The company at the same time took measures for obtaining information concerning the best lands beyond the mountains. English Indian traders had traversed the passages through them, and spoke in glowing terms of the beauty and fertility of the country beyond; but the company wished more definite knowledge. Consequently, in the Autumn of 1750, Christopher Gist, a bold and skillful woodsman, acquainted with Indian life, was employed to cross the great hills and spy out the land. He was instructed to observe the best mountain passes; to explore the country as far down as the falls of the Ohio, now Louisville; to examine the most useful streams and pay particular attention to their falls; to search out the most fertile lands; to ascertain the strength of the various Indian tribes and make out a chart of all the region.

It was on the 31st of October, 1750, that Gist left Alexandria on horseback; crossed the Blue Ridge and the Shenandoah Valley; waded through snow-drifts in the Alleghany Mountains; swam his horse across the Ohio River, and made his way through a rich, narrow valley to Logstown, where it was proposed to hold the Indian council. Here

he presented himself as an ambassador from the British sovereign and was received with respect but coolness. One of the chiefs said:

"You are come to settle Indians' land. You never shall go home safe."

Undaunted by this bold threat, Gist pushed on to the Muskingum, stopping at a village of Ottawas, who were friendly toward the French. He was cordially received by the Wyandots on the Muskingum, and found here George Croghan an emissary of the Pennsylvanians, who were jealous of the Ohio Company, regarding them as rivals seeking a monopoly of the trade with the Indians of the northwest.

Gist, Croghan and other traders crossed the Muskingum and pushed on through the stately forests and the beautiful prairies, which, at this season of the year, were white with snow, and finally reached the Scioto River, a few miles from its mouth. At this point were some Delawares, and a short distance below the Scioto a tribe of Shawnoese lived on both sides of the Ohio. Both professed friendship for the English and expressed a willingness to send delegates to attend a general council at Logstown. Northward were the lands of the Miamis, a confederacy more powerful than the Iroquois with whom they were friendly, and thither the agents of Virginia and Pennsylvania

went. They were kindly received and strings of wampum were exchanged in token of friendship.

They had just signed a treaty, when four Ottawas came with presents from the French. The presiding chief at the council immediately set up the flags of France and England side by side and, addressing the Ottawas, said:

66

The path of the French is bloody and was so made by them. We have made a road plain for our brothers, the English, and your fathers have made it foul and crooked and have made some of our brethren prisoners. This we look upon as an injury done to us.

With this speech he indignantly turned his back on the Ottawas and left the council. The French flag was removed, and the emissaries who bore it were ordered to return to their Gallic friends at Sandusky.

Gist was delighted with the magnificent country, and, bidding his English companions and the dusky barbarians farewell, he went down the valley of the Little Miami to the Ohio and along that stream almost to the falls. Here he turned southward and penetrated the famous blue-grass region of Kentucky, with its wonderful forests, climbed over the mountains where were the headwaters of the Yadkin and the Roanoke, and after a journey of seven months returned to Lawrence Washington

at Mount Vernon, who was chief director of the Ohio company, bringing with him a vast amount of valuable information.

The council with the western tribes was not held until June, 1752. Gist went as agent of the Ohio company. Colonel Fry, Lieutenant Stevens and another Virginian represented that colony as commissioners. Although friendly relations with the western tribes were established, the Indian chiefs refused to recognize any English title to lands west of the Alleghany mountains. They were equally firm with the French and informed both the contending powers that they were troubling themselves over a matter that did not concern them. A shrewd Delaware chief said to Gist:

"The French claim all the land on one side of the river, and the English claim all the land on the other side of the river; where are the Indians' lands?"

The question was difficult to answer. not attempt it, but said evasively:

Gist did

"Indians and white men are subjects of the British king, and all have equal privileges of taking up and possessing the land in conformity with the conditions prescribed by the sovereign."

The Ohio company sent out surveyors to explore the country, make definite boundaries and prepare settlements. George Washington, through

« PreviousContinue »