Though we had long been in possession of fort Oswego, and though it lay greatly exposed to the French, particularly to those of Canada, upon any rupture between the two nations, we had never taken care to render it tolerably defensible, or even to build a single vessel fit for navigating the lake: nor was this strange neglect ever taken effectual notice of, till the beginning of this year, when, at a meeting which general Braddock had in April with the governors and chief gentlemen of several of our colonies at Alexandria, in Virginia, it was resolved to strengthen both the fort and garrison at Oswego, and to build some large vessels at that place. Accordingly a number of shipwrights and workmen were sent thither in May and June. At the same time captain Bradstreet marched thither with two companies of an hundred men each, to reinforce the hundred that were there before under captain King, to which number the garrison had been increased since our contests with France began to grow serious. For a long time before, not above twenty-five men were left to defend this post, which from its great importance, and the situation of affairs at this juncture, most certainly required a much stronger garrison than was put into it even at this juncture; but economy was the chief thing consulted in the beginning of this war, and to that in a great measure was owing its long duration.
EXPEDITION AGAINST NIAGARA.
From the above description of the passage from Albany to Oswego, it is plain how necessary it was that the troops intended for this expedition should have set out early in the spring. But instead of that, the very first of them, colonel Schuyler’s New Jersey regiment, did not begin their march till after the beginning of July, and just as Shirley’s and Pepperell’s regiments were preparing to follow, the melancholy account of Braddock’s disaster arrived at Albany, where it so damped the spirits of the people, and spread such a terror, that many of the troops deserted, and most of the batteau-men dispersed and ran home, by which means even all the necessary stores could not be carried along with the troops. Notwithstanding this disappointment, Mr. Shirley set out from Albany before the end of July, with as many of the troops and stores as he could procure a conveyance for, hoping to be joined in his route by great numbers of the Indians of the Six Nations, to whom he sent invitations to that effect as he passed by their settlements; but they, instead of complying with his desire, absolutely declared against all hostilities on that side of the country; and insisted that Oswego, being a place of traffic and peace, ought not to be disturbed either by the English or the French, as if they could have persuaded both parties to agree to such a local truce. Upon this refusal, Mr. Shirley proceeded forward, being joined by a very few Indians, and arrived at Oswego on the seventeenth or eighteenth of August; but the rest of the troops and artillery did not arrive till the last day of that month; and even then, their store of provisions was not sufficient to enable them to go against Niagara, though some tolerably good vessels had by this time been built and got ready for that purpose. The general now resolved to take but six hundred men with him for the attack of Niagara, and to leave the rest of his army, consisting of about fourteen hundred more, at Oswego, to defend that place, in case the French should attack it in his absence, which there was reason to apprehend they might, as they then had a considerable force at fort Frontenac, from whence they could easily cross over the lake Ontario to Oswego. However, he was still obliged to wait at Oswego for provisions, of which at length a small supply arrived on the twenty-sixth of September, barely sufficient to support his men during their intended expedition, and to allow twelve days’ short subsistence for those he left behind. But by this time the rainy boisterous season had begun, on which account most of his Indians had already left him and were returned home; and the few that remained with him declared that there was no crossing the lake Ontario in batteaux at that season, or any time before the next summer. In this perplexity he called a council of war, which, after weighing all circumstances, unanimously resolved to defer the attempt upon Niagara till the next year, and to employ the troops, whilst they remained at Oswego, in building barracks, and erecting, or at least beginning to erect, two new forts, one on the east side of the river Onondaga, four hundred and fifty yards distant from the old fort, which it was to command, as well as the entrance of the harbour, and to be called Ontario-fort; and the other four hundred and fifty yards west of the old fort, to be called Oswego new fort.
GENERAL SHIRLEY RETURNS TO ALBANY.
These things being agreed on, general Shirley, with the greatest part of the troops under his command, set out on his return to Albany on the twenty-fourth of October, leaving colonel Mercer, with a garrison of about seven hundred men, at Oswego; though repeated advice had been received, that the French had then at least a thousand men at their fort at Frontenac, upon the same lake; and, what was still worse, the new forts were not yet near completed; but left to be finished by the hard labour of colonel Mercer and his little garrison, with the addition of this melancholy circumstance, that, if besieged by the enemy in the winter, it would not be possible for his friends to come to his assistance. Thus ended this year’s unfortunate campaign, during which the French, with the assistance of their Indian allies, continued their murders, scalping, captivating, and laying waste the western frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania, during the whole winter.
The ministers of the two warring powers were very busily employed this year at most of the courts of Europe; but their transactions were kept extremely secret. The French endeavoured to inspire the Spaniards with a jealousy of the strength of the English by sea, especially in America; and the Spanish court seemed inclined to accept of the office of mediator; but Mr. Wall, who was perfectly well acquainted with the state of affairs between England and France, seconded the representations of the British ministry, which demonstrated, that, however willing Great Britain might be to accept of the mediation of Spain, she could not agree to any suspension of arms in America, which France insisted on as a preliminary condition, without hazarding the whole of her interest there; and that the captures which had been made by the English were the necessary consequences of the encroachments and injustice of the French, particularly in that country. Upon this remonstrance, all further talk of the mediation of Spain was dropped, and the ministry of Versailles had recourse to the princes of Germany; amongst whom the elector of Cologn was soon brought over to their party, so as to consent to their forming magazines in his territories in Westphalia. This was a plain indication of their design against Hanover, which they soon after made his Britannic majesty, who was then at Hanover, an offer of sparing, if he would agree to certain conditions of neutrality for that electorate, which he rejected with disdain. Then the count d’Aubeterre, envoy-extraordinary from France at the court of Vienna, proposed a secret negotiation with the ministers of the empress-queen. The secret articles of the treaty of Petersburgh, between the two empresses, had stipulated a kind of partition of the Prussian territories, in case that prince should infringe the treaty of Dresden; but his Britannic majesty, though often invited, had always refused to agree to any such stipulation; and the king of Poland, howsoever he might be inclined to favour the scheme, did not dare to avow it formally, till matters should be more ripe for carrying it into execution. The court of Vienna, whose favourite measure this was, began to listen to d’Aubeterre’s insinuations, and by degrees entered into negotiations with him, which, in the end, were productive of that unnatural confederacy between the empress-queen and the king of France, of which further notice will be taken in the occurrences of the next year, when the treaty between them, into which they afterwards found means secretly to bring the empress of Russia, was concluded at Versailles.