Sieur de Bienville.[[51]]
106. The French in the Ohio Valley.—The French now turned their attention to the task of securing the region watered by the Ohio River. In 1749 Céloron de Bienville, under orders of the governor of Canada, by means of canoe voyages and portages, reached Chautauqua Lake and thence the Allegheny River, where formal possession of the country was taken in the name of Louis XV. of France. Leaden plates with inscriptions asserting the French claim were interred at various points along the Ohio and its tributaries. Three years later a chain of forts was begun along the route taken by Bienville, the first erected being that of Presque Isle, near the present city of Erie. These movements of the French alarmed the English colonists greatly, and, most of all, Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia. This executive was interested in an American scheme for settling the Ohio region, through the agency of the so-called Ohio Company, and his colony claimed the country now threatened by the French. As soon as he heard of the new fort, he dispatched George Washington to demand the withdrawal of the French. Washington was just twenty-one years old, but he had seen life as a surveyor in the frontier counties of Virginia, and had learned to command men and to understand Indian character.
107. Washington in the West.—Washington, who was already an adjutant general, took with him only a few companions on his winter journey of seven hundred and fifty miles through the perilous wilderness. He braved numerous dangers, which he set down modestly in a journal that is still preserved. His training as a surveyor enabled him to pick out as a proper site for a fort the spot at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers where Fort Duquesne was shortly afterward built by the French, and where Pittsburg now stands. He reached Fort Le Bœuf (near the present Waterford, Pennsylvania) and gave his letter to the French commandant. The latter promised to send it on to the governor of Canada, but continued to occupy the fort. On his return journey Washington nearly lost his life while attempting to cross the Monongahela on a raft; but he finally reached Williamsburg in safety, having been absent only eleven weeks.
108. Founding of Fort Duquesne.—Dinwiddie determined to take possession of the Forks of the Ohio at once. William Trent, a trader, and some militia were hurried forward and began the erection of a fort. While the Virginians were thus occupied, and in the absence of their leader, a party of Frenchmen and Indians descended upon them and they were forced to surrender, their conquerors finishing the fort and naming it after Duquesne, the governor of Canada.
109. Washington at Fort Necessity.—Meanwhile great preparations had been made in Virginia. Washington, now lieutenant colonel, set out with a few troops to aid Trent, but heard of the surrender shortly after starting. He would not go back, but pushed on into southwestern Pennsylvania, and there at a place called Great Meadows began a fort. Having been warned of the approach of a party of French, he attacked them suddenly and completely routed them. Then he pushed on to the Ohio, but on learning that the French were advancing in numbers, finally fell back on his stockade, which he had called Fort Necessity. Here the French and Indians attacked him vigorously, and after a brave struggle he surrendered honorably on July 4, 1754.
Central North America
at the Beginning of the French and Indian War, 1755
110. The French and Indian War (1754–1763).—This was practically the beginning of what is generally called the French and Indian War, which nearly coincides with the Seven Years’ War in Europe. Both sides made extensive preparations, for the fate of a continent was now plainly seen to be in the balance. A congress of delegates from the colonies met at Albany to make a treaty with the Iroquois, and here (1754) Benjamin Franklin secured the adoption of a plan for a union of the colonies. The scheme was not approved, however, when submitted to the individual colonies, which were more or less jealous of their privileges. But if the colonists would not join to repel the foe, the English under Pitt were determined to do their best to drive out the French, not foreseeing that as a result the colonists, freed from danger at home, would be likely in a short time to form a union to secure independence. They sent out one of their ablest officers, Major General Edward Braddock, and an elaborate plan of campaign was determined on at a conference of the colonial governors assembled by him at Alexandria, Virginia. Four expeditions were to be made: one to be directed against Fort Crown Point in New York, and thence against Quebec; another, from New England, by water, against the French possessions in the northeast; the third, from Albany against Niagara; the fourth, from Fort Cumberland in Maryland against Fort Duquesne.
