burg, for, not having heard that Washington had resigned and that the regiment was disbanded, he intended to join it.

A day or two later he departed for the Chesapeake in the same fleet which conveyed Braddock and his regiments of regulars.

Notwithstanding all the assurances of Newcastle, both the English and French were making active preparations for war. Mirepoix was willing that both the French and English should retire from the country between the Ohio and the Alleghanies and leave the territory neutral. This would have secured to his sovereign all that country north and west of the Ohio. England, however, demanded that France should destroy all her forts as far as the Wabash, raze Niagara and Crown Point, surrender the peninsula of Nova Scotia, with a strip of land twenty leagues wide along the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic and leave the intermediate country to the St. Lawrence as neutral ground. Such unreasonable proposals could, of course, meet with no acceptance; yet both parties professed a desire, in which the French seem to have been sincere, to investigate and arrange all points of dispute. Louis XV. while he sent three thousand men to America, held himself ready to sacrifice everything for peace, save honor and the protection due to his subjects, consenting that

English possessions should reach on the east to the Penobscot, to be divided from Canada on the north by the crest of the intervening highlands.

In March, Braddock reached Williamsburg and visited Annapolis. On the fourteenth of April, he, with Commodore Keppel, held a congress at Alexandria. There were present, of the American governors, Shirley, next to Braddock in military rank, Delancey of New York, Morris of Pennsylvania, Sharpe of Maryland and Dinwiddie of Virginia. Braddock, from the very first, played the despot. He gave all to feel that he, as the chief of the military of the colonies, should rule. First, he directed their attention to the subject of colonial revenue, on which his instructions commanded him to insist, and his anger kindled “that no such fund was already established." The governors, recapitulating their grievances with the assemblies, made answer:

"Such a fund can never be established in the colonies without the aid of parliament." Having found it impracticable to obtain in their respective governments the proportion expected by his majesty toward defraying the expense of his service in North America, they were unanimously of the opinion that it should be proposed to his majesty's ministers to find out some method of compelling them to do it and of assessing the several govern

ments in proportion to their respective abilities. A petition was prepared, signed by the royal governors assembled, and sent by Braddock to the ministry, accompanied by a private letter, urging the necessity of some tax being laid throughout his majesty's dominions in North America. Dinwiddie reiterated his old advice. Sharpe recommended that the governor and council, without the aid of the legislature, should have power to levy money "after any manner that may be deemed most ready and convenient." Shirley assured his American colleagues on the authority of the British secretary of state that A common fund must be either voluntarily raised, or assessed in some way.

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While at Alexandria, Braddock offered Washington a position on his staff as a volunteer, without emolument or command, which he accepted. His arrival at headquarters was greeted by his young associates, Captains Orme and Morris, the general's aides-de-camp with pleasure and they at once received him into frank companionship, and a cordial intimacy commenced between them, which continued throughout the campaign. Braddock courteously received the young American despite his former churlishness toward him, and expressed in flattering terms the impression he had received of his merits.

About two thousand regulars and as many pro

vincials were prepared for the campaign. Noah Stevens was captain of one of the companies of militia which rendezvoused at Fredericktown, Maryland, where General Braddock joined them.

When Braddock set out from Alexandria, on April 20, 1755, his troubles began. The Virginia contractors, who were to prepare the road for his army, had failed to fulfil their engagements, and of all the immense transportation so confidently promised, but fifteen wagons and a hundred draught horses had arrived, with no prospect of more. They were equally disappointed in provisions.

General Braddock's temper, never the best, was sorely tried on this occasion. At Fredericktown he met Benjamin Franklin, who was then about forty-nine years of age, had served several years in the Pennsylvania Legislature, and was now postmaster-general for America. Knowing the bitter feeling of General Braddock against the provincial assemblies, Franklin was advised to wait on the general, not as if sent by them, but as if he came in his capacity of postmaster-general, to arrange for the sure and speedy transmission of dispatches between the commander-in-chief and the governors of the provinces. He was well received and became a daily guest at the general's table.

The philosopher, seeing how shallow was the

general's knowledge of the impediments before him, ventured to remark one day at the commander's dinner-table that the mountains were hard to pass with troops and their supplies, and that the Indians were dexterous in laying and executing ambushes. Braddock haughtily answered: 66 The savages may be formidable to your raw American militia; but upon the king's regulars and disciplined troops it is impossible that they should make any impression.

“No, egad!" put in Major Bridges, “the savages before the king's regulars will melt away like frost in May. Zounds! but I only hope they may be at Fort Du Quesne on our arrival."

Dr. Franklin was as much disgusted at the egotistical major as was Noah Stevens, and not much less disgusted with the general himself. As the delay of the army was caused by lack of conveyances, Franklin one day observed that it was unfortunate that his troops had not landed in Pennsylvania, where almost every farmer had his wagon. Braddock was not slow at taking a hint, and he instantly replied:

"Then sir, you, who are a man of interest there, can probably procure them for me, and I beg you will."

"I will do so."

"Will you? Then Mr. Franklin, you have re