"Ah, you English mean to drive us out. Well, let me tell you we are not to be driven out. We expect to go to war with your country soon, and this is a good place to begin. We know that you can raise two men to our one, but you have a dilatory, foolish Governor in Virginia, and he will let us overrun the country before he does anything to stop us."
As he kept on, giving information about his people that he should never have done, and which George partly understood, such keen contempt came into George's eyes that a gleam of soberness returned to Captain Joncaire, and for a few minutes he said no more. But "when the wine is in the wit is out," and the Frenchmen continued to talk in the foolish manner which awaits the wisest man when he makes a beast of himself with liquor.
At ten o'clock George and Captain Vanbraam had to tear themselves away from the Frenchmen, who, drunker than ever, tried to hold them back by embracing them.
As they made their way back to their camp Captain Vanbraam repeated every word the drunken officers had said. George spoke little. The spectacle was not only disgusting but painful to him.
Next morning, early, Captain Joncaire sought out their camp, and professed great surprise at seeing the Indians, whom he declared to be his friends. He invited them to the house, where George well knew there would be liquor and cajolery in plenty for them.
"My dear Major Washington," cried Joncaire, after a while, and coloring slightly as he spoke, "I am afraid you had us at a disadvantage last night. We talked rather wildly, I fancy, but don't put too much confidence in what we said when the wine was flowing."
"I am compelled to put confidence in what Captain Joncaire and his officers say, drunk or sober," was George's reply, delivered not without sarcasm, at which Captain Joncaire winced. The Frenchmen invited the Indians to their post, and George had the mortification of seeing them all carried off, except Tanacharison and his son Black Bear; and when, in the evening, he sent for the chiefs, they returned to him stupidly drunk and loaded with presents from the French.
"We must get them away as soon as possible," said George to his white followers and his two faithful Indians. Tanacharison, a venerable old chief and a man of great eloquence, watched the Indians in their drunken sleep, and when they wakened, although it was near sun-down, so worked upon them by a speech he made them, that they agreed to leave with the rest of the party. George and Captain Vanbraam went to the French post to bid the officers a polite farewell.
Captain Joncaire said many civil things to them, and sent them a handsome present of provisions, but was evidently chagrined at the Indians being carried off under his very nose.
Eleven days more of travelling through intense cold, with the snow deep on the ground, brought the party to Fort Le Bœuf, on French Creek, about fifteen miles from Lake Erie. This was commanded by M. Legardeur de St.-Pierre, an old French officer of great ability, and a chevalier of the military order of St. Louis.