RISE AND CONDUCT OF THE OHIO COMPANY.
Governor Spotswood’s scheme for an Ohio company was revived immediately after the peace of Aix-la-Cha-pelle, when certain merchants of London, who traded to Maryland and Virginia, petitioned the government on this subject, and were indulged not only with a grant of a great tract of ground to the southward of Pennsylvania, which they promised to settle, but also with an exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians on the banks of the river Ohio. This design no sooner transpired, than the French governor of Canada took the alarm, and wrote letters to the governors of New York and Pennsylvania giving them to understand, that as the English inland traders had encroached on the French territories and privileges, by trading with the Indians under the protection of his sovereign, he would seize them wherever they could be found, if they did not immediately desist from that illicit practice. No regard being paid to this intimation, he next year caused three British traders to be arrested. Their effects were confiscated, and they themselves conveyed to Quebec, from whence they were sent prisoners to Rochelle in France, and there detained in confinement. In this situation they presented a remonstrance to the earl of Albemarle, at that time English ambassador in Paris, and he claiming them as British subjects, they were set at liberty. Although, in answer to his lordship’s memorial, the court of Versailles promised to transmit orders to the French governors in America, to use all their endeavours for preventing any disputes that might have a tendency to alter the good correspondence established between the two nations; in all probability the directions given were seemingly the very reverse of these professions, for the French commanders, partisans, and agents in America, took every step their busy genius could suggest, to strengthen their own power, and weaken the influence of the English, by embroiling them with the Indian nations. This task they found the more easy, as the natives had taken offence against the English, when they understood that their lands were given away without their knowledge, and that there was a design to build forts in their country without their consent and concurrence. Indeed, the person whom the new company employed to survey the banks of the Ohio, concealed his design so carefully, and behaved in other respects in such a dark mysterious manner, as could not fail to arouse the jealousy of a people naturally inquisitive, and very much addicted to suspicion. How the company proposed to settle this acquisition in despite of the native possessors, it is not easy to conceive, and it is still more unaccountable that they should have neglected the natives, whose consent and assistance they might have procured at a very small expense. Instead of acting such a fair, open, and honourable part, they sent a Mr. Gist to make a clandestine survey of the country, as far as the falls of the river Ohio; and, as we have observed above, his conduct alarmed both the French and Indians. The erection of this company was equally disagreeable to the separate traders of Virginia and Pennsylvania, who saw themselves on the eve of being deprived of a valuable branch of traffic, by the exclusive charter of a monopoly; and therefore they employed their emissaries to foment the jealousy of the Indians. The French having in a manner commenced hostilities against the English, and actually built forts on the territories of the British allies at Niagara, and on the lake Erie, Mr. Hamilton, governor of Pennsylvania, communicated this intelligence to the assembly of the province, and represented the necessity of erecting truck-houses, or places of strength and security, on the river Ohio, to which the traders might retire in case of insult or molestation. The proposal was approved, and money granted for the purpose; but the assembly could not agree about the manner in which they should be erected; and in the meantime the French fortified themselves at leisure, and continued to harass the traders belonging to the British settlements. Repeated complaints of these encroachments and depredations being represented to Mr. Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia, he, towards the latter end of this very year, sent major Washington with a letter to the commanding officer of a fort which the French had built on the Riviere-au-Beuf, which falls into the Ohio, not far from the lake Erie. In this letter Mr. Dinwiddie expressed his surprise that the French should build forts and make settlements on the river Ohio, in the western part of the colony of Virginia, belonging to the Crown of Great Britain. He complained of these encroachments, as well as of the injuries done to the subjects of Great Britain, in open violation of the law of nations, and of the treaties actually subsisting between the two crowns. He desired to know by whose authority and instructions his Britannic majesty’s territories had been invaded; and required him to depart in peace, without further prosecuting a plan which must interrupt the harmony and good understanding which his majesty was desirous to continue and cultivate with the most christian king. To this spirited intimation the officer replied, that it was not his province to specify the evidence, and demonstrate the right of the king his master to the lands situated on the river Ohio; but he would transmit the letter to the marquis du Quesne, and act according to the answer he should receive from that nobleman. In the meantime, he said he did not think himself obliged to obey the summons of the English governor; that he commanded the fort by virtue of an order from his general, to which he was determined to conform with all the precision and resolution of a good officer. Mr. Dinwiddie expected no other reply, and therefore had projected a fort to be erected near the forks of the river. The province undertook to defray the expense, and the stores for that purpose were already provided; but by some fatal over sight, the concurrence of the Indians was neither obtained nor solicited, and therefore they looked upon this measure with an evil eye, as a manifest invasion of their property.
PERFIDY OF THE FRENCH.
While the French thus industriously extended their encroachments to the southward, they were not idle in the gulf of St. Lawrence, but seized every opportunity of distressing the English settlement of Nova Scotia. We have already observed, that the town of Halifax was no sooner built, than they spirited up the Indians of that neighbourhood to commit hostilities against the inhabitants, some of whom they murdered, and others they carried prisoners to Louisbourg, where they sold them for arms and ammunition, the French pretending that they maintained this traffic from motives of pure compassion, in order to prevent the massacre of the English captives, whom, however, they did not set at liberty without exacting an exorbitant ransom. As these skulking parties of Indians were generally directed and headed by French commanders, repeated complaints were made to the governor of Louisbourg, who still answered, that his jurisdiction did not extend over the Indians, and that their French conductors were chosen from the inhabitants of Annapolis, who thought proper to remain in that country after it was ceded to the English, and were in fact the subjects of Great Britain. Even while the conferences were carried on for ascertaining the limits of Nova Scotia, the governor of Canada detached M. la Come, with some regular troops, and a body of militia, to fortify a post on the bay of Chignecto, on pretence that this and a great part of the peninsula belonged to his government. The possession of this post not only secured to the Indians of the continent a free entrance into the peninsula, and a safe retreat in case of pursuit; but also encouraged the French inhabitants of Annapolis to rise in open rebellion against the English government.
MAJOR LAURENCE DEFEATS THE FRENCH NEUTRALS.
In the spring of the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty, general Cornwallis, governor of Halifax, detached major Laurence with a few men to reduce them to obedience. At his approach they burned their town to ashes, forsook their possessions, and threw themselves under the protection of M. la Corne, who, thus reinforced, found himself at the head of fifteen hundred men, well provided with arms and ammunition. Major Laurence being unable to cope with him in the field, demanded an interview, at which he desired to know for what cause the French inhabitants of Nova Scotia had shaken off their allegiance to the crown of Great Britain, and violated the neutrality which they had hitherto affected to profess. The French officer, without pretending to account for their behaviour, gave him to understand in general terms, that he had orders to defend his post, and these orders he was determined to obey. The English major finding himself too weak to attack their united force, and having no orders to commit hostilities against any but the Indians and their open abettors, returned to Halifax, without having been able to fulfil the purpose of his expedition. Immediately after his retreat, the French neutrals (so they were called) returned to their habitations which they had abandoned, and, in conjunction with the Indians, renewed their depredations upon the inhabitants of Halifax and its dependent settlements. The English governor, justly incensed at these outrages, and seeing they would neither submit to the English government themselves, nor allow others to enjoy it with tranquillity, resolved to expel them effectually from the country they so ill deserved to possess. Major Laurence was again detached with a thousand men, transported by sea to Chignecto, where he found the French and Indians intrenched in order to dispute his landing. Notwithstanding this opposition, he made a descent with a few companies, received and returned a smart fire, and rushing into their intrenchments, obliged them to fly with the utmost precipitation, leaving a considerable number killed and wounded on the spot. The fugitives saved themselves by crossing a river, on the farther bank of which la Corne stood at the head of his troops, drawn up in order to receive them as friends and dependents. He had by this time erected a fort, which he denominated Beau Séjour; and now the English built another on the opposite side of the river, which was called after its founder St. Laurence. This being provided with a good garrison, served as a check upon the French, and in some measure restrained the incursions of these barbarians. Not that it effectually answered this purpose; for the Indians and Neutrals still seized every opportunity of attacking the English in the interior parts of the peninsula. In the course of the succeeding year they surprised the little town of Dartmouth, on the other side of Halifax-bay, where they killed and scalped a great number of people, and carried off some prisoners. For these expeditions the French always supplied them with boats, canoes, arms, and ammunition; and indeed they were conducted with such care and secrecy, that it was almost impossible to prevent their success. One sure remedy against the sudden and stolen incursions of those savages might have been found in the use of staunch hounds, which would have run upon the foot, detected the skulking parties of the Indians, and frustrated all their ambuscades; but this expedient, so easy and practicable, was never tried, though frequently recommended in public to the attention of the government, and the consideration of the colonists. The Indians continued to plunder and massacre the British subjects with impunity, and were countenanced by the French government in that country, who now strengthened their lodgement on the neck of the peninsula with an additional fort, distinguished by the name of Bayeverte; and built a third at the mouth of St. John’s river, on the north side of the bay of Fundy.