THE FRENCH SURPRISE LOG’S TOWN.
Having thus exhibited a succinct view of the British colonies in North America, for the information of the reader, we shall now resume the thread of our history, and particularize the transactions by which the present year was distinguished on this extensive continent. The government of England having received nothing but evasive answers from the court of France, touching the complaints that were made of the encroachments in America, despatched orders to all the governors of that country to repel force by force, and drive the French from their settlements on the river Ohio. Accordingly, the provinces of Virginia and Pennsylvania took this important affair into their consideration; but while they deliberated, the French vigorously prosecuted their designs on the other side of the mountains. They surprised Log’s Town, which the Virginians had built upon the Ohio; made themselves masters of the Block-house and Truck-house, where they found skins and other commodities to the amount of twenty thousand pounds, and destroyed all the British traders, except two who found means to escape. At the same time, M. de Contrecour, with a thousand men and eighteen pieces of cannon, arrived in three hundred canoes from Venango, a fort they had raised on the banks of the Ohio, and reduced by surprise a British fort which the Virginians had built on the forks of the Monangahela, that runs into the same river.
CONFERENCE WITH THE INDIANS.
These hostilities were followed by divers skirmishes between the people of the two nations, which were fought with various success. At length the governors of the English settlements received orders from England to form a political confederacy for their mutual defence; and the governor of New York was directed to confer with the chiefs of the Six Nations, with a view to detach them from the French interest by dint of promises and presents of value, sent over for that purpose. A congress was accordingly appointed at Albany, to which place the governor of New York repaired, accompanied by commissioners from all the other British settlements; but a very small number of Indians arrived, and even these seemed to be indifferent to the advances and exhortations that were made by the English orator. The truth is, the French had artfully weaned them from their attachment to the subjects of Great Britain. Nevertheless, they accepted the presents, renewed their treaties with the king of England, and even demanded his assistance in driving the French from the posts and possessions they had usurped within the Indian territories. It was in consequence of the measures here taken, that colonel Washington was detached from Virginia with four hundred men, and occupied a post on the banks of the river Ohio, where he threw up some works, and erected a kind of occasional fort, in hopes of being able to defend himself in that situation, until he should be joined by a reinforcement from New York, which, how ever, did not arrive.
COLONEL WASHINGTON DEFEATED AND TAKEN BY THE FRENCH.
While he remained in this situation, de Viller, a French commander, at the head of nine hundred men, being on his march to dislodge Washington, detached one Jamonville, an inferior officer, with a small party, and a formal summons to colonel Washington, requiring him to quit the fort, which he pretended was built on ground belonging to the French, or their allies. So little regard was paid to this intimation, that the English fell upon this party, and, as the French affirm, without the least provocation, either slew or took the whole detachment. De Viller, incensed at these unprovoked hostilities, marched up to the attack, which Washington for some time sustained under manifold disadvantages. At length, however, he surrendered the fort upon capitulation, for the performance of which he left two officers as hostages in the hands of the French; and in his retreat was terribly harassed by the Indians, who plundered his baggage, and massacred his people. This event was no sooner known in England, than the British ambassador at Paris received directions to complain of it to the French ministry, as an open violation of the peace; but this representation had no effect.