Indian seemed very glad and ready to go with us. Upon which we set out, and the Indian took the Major's pack. We traveled very brisk for eight or ten miles when the Major's feet grew very sore, and he very weary, and the Indian steered too much northeastward. The Major desired to encamp, to which the Indian asked to carry his gun. But he refused that; then the Indian grew churlish and pressed us to keep on, telling us that there were Ottawa Indians in these woods, and they would scalp us if we lay out, but to go to his cabin and we would be safe. I thought very ill of the fellow, but did not care to let the Major know I mistrusted him. But he soon mistrusted him as much as I. He said he could hear a gun to his cabin, and steered us more northwardly. We grew uneasy, and then he said two whoops might be heard to his cabin. We went two miles further; and then the major said he would stay at the next water, and we desired the Indian to stop at the next water. But before we came to water, we came to a clear meadow; it was very light, and snow on the ground. The Indian made a stop, turn about; the Major saw him turn his gun toward us and fire. Said the Major, "Are you shot?" No," said I. Upon which the Indian ran forward to a big standing white oak, and to loading his gun; but we were soon with him. I would have killed him, but the Major would not suffer me to kill him. The Major or I always stood by the guns; we made him make a fire for us by a little run, as if we intended to sleep there. I said to the Major, “As you will not have him killed, we must get him away, and then we must travel all night." Upon which I said to the Indian, "I suppose you were lost; and fired your gun." He said he knew the way to his cabin, and 'twas but a little way. "Well," said I, “do you go home, and as we are much tired, we will follow your track in the morning; and here is a cake of bread for you, and you must give us meat in the morning." He was glad to get away. I followed him, and listened until he was fairly out of the way, and then we set out about half a mile, when we made a fire, set our compass, and fixed our course, and traveled all night, and in the morning we were on the head of Piney Creek.

Friday 28 We traveled all the next day down the said creek, and just at night found some tracks where Indians had been hunting. We parted, and appointed a place a distance off, where to meet, it being then dark. We encamped, and thought ourselves safe enough to sleep.

Saturday 29-We set out early, got to Allegeheny, made a raft, and with much difficulty got over to an island, a little above Shannopin's town. The Major having fallen off the raft, and my fingers frost-bitten, and the sun down, and very cold, we contented ourselves to encamp upon that island. It was deep water between us and the shore; but the cold did us some service, for in the morning it was frozen hard enough for us to pass over the ice.

Sunday 30-We set out about ten miles to John Frazier's at Turtle creek, and rested that evening.

Monday 31-Next day we waited for Queen Aliquippa, who lives now at the mouth of Youghiogany. She said she would never go down the Allegheny river to live, except the English built a fort, then she would go and live there.

Tuesday January 1, 1754-We set out from John Frazier's and at night encamped at Jacob's cabins.

Wednesday 2-Set out and crossed Youghiogany on the ice. Got to my house in the new settlement.

Thursday 3-Rain.

Friday 4-Set out for Will's creek, where we arrived on Sunday, January 6.10

The original edition of Washington's Journal, printed in 1754 by William Hunter at Williamsburg, is extremely rare, "so rare (according to Mr. Field) that but two copies are known to exist." Mr. Brinley, at Hartford, possessed a copy that originally belonged to Mr. Rich Peters, and it was sold in 1880 at the dispersion of his library for $560.

10 This and other Journals of Gist are to be found in Darlington's work, "Christopher Gist's Journals."

An English edition was published by T. Jefferys in London in 1754, and it is from this edition that the following reprint has been made. (The Writings of Washington, 1748-57, Vol. I, p. 11, W. C. Ford).

The original contains the following advertisement:

ADVERTISEMENT.

As it was thought adviseable by his Honor the Governor to have the following account of my proceedings to and from the French on the Ohio, committed to print; I think I can do no less than apologize, in some measure for the numberless imperfections of it.

There intervened but one day between my arrival in Williamsburg, and the time for the Council's Meeting, for me to prepare and transcribe, from the rough Minutes I had taken in my Travels, this Journal; the writing of which only was sufficient to employ me closely the whole Time, consequently admitted to no leisure to consult of a new and proper Form to offer it in, or to correct or amend the Diction of the old: Neither was I apprised, nor did it least conceive, when I wrote this for his Honor's Perusal, that it ever would be published or even have more than a cursory Reading; till I was informed, at the Meeting of the present General Assembly that it was already in the Press.

There is nothing can recommend it to the Public, but this. Those Things which came under notice of my own Observation, I have been explicit and just in a Recital of: Those which I have gathered from Report, I have been particularly cautious not to augment, but collected the Opinions of the several intelligences and selected from the whole the most probable and consistent Account. G. WASHINGTON.

Washington's original title page reads:

"The brave and accomplished Chevalier de St. Pierre," as Brady terms him, was the ranking French officer in the region of the River Le Bœuf. It was only in keeping with the character of this veteran that he should receive the embassador with courtesy and extend a gracious hospitality. After several days St. Pierre had ready his reply. It was that of a soldier. Brady finds that it was in effect the famous remark of McMahon at Sevastopol: "J'y suis, j'y reste." (Here I am and here I stay). The French are prone to laconics. "Ce'st ne pas" is too recent to dwell on. It goes with the story of Verdun.

St. Pierre's reply to Dinwiddie was as follows:

Sir: As I have the honour of commanding here in chief, Mr. Washington delivered to me the letter, which you wrote to the commander of the French troops. I should have been glad that you had given him orders, or that he had been inclined, to proceed to Canada to see our General; to whom it better belongs, than to me, to set forth the evidence and the reality of the rights of the King, my master, to the lands situated along the river Ohio, and to contest the pretensions of the King of Great Britain thereto. I shall transmit your letter to Marquis Duguisine, or du Quesine. His answer will be a law to me. And if he shall order me to communicate it to you, Sir, you may be assured, I shall not fail to dispatch it forthwith to you. As to the summons you send me to retire, I do not think myself obliged to obey it. Whatever may be your instructions, I am here by virtue of the orders of my general; and, I intreat you, Sir, not to doubt one moment, but that I am determined to conform myself to them with all the exactness and resolution, which can be expected of the best officer. I do not know that in the progress of this campaign anything has passed, which can be reputed an act of hostility, or, that is contrary to the treaties, which subsist between the two crowns; the continuations whereof as much as interesteth, and is pleasing to us, as the English. Had you been pleased, Sir, to have descended to particularize the facts, which occa

sioned your complaint, I should have had the honour of answering you in the fullest, and, I am persuaded, the most satisfactory manner, etc. LEGARDEUR DE ST. PIERRE.11

In the personal description of St. Pierre, it is recorded that he had lost an eye. All historians examined bear testimony to his worth and fidelity-in truth a typical soldier. Thus:

Legardeur de St. Pierre had just returned from an expedition towards the Rocky Mountains when he was sent to succeed the dying Marin. He afterwards served under Dieskau, and was killed in the "bloody morning scout" just before the battle of Lake George, September 8, 1755. His full name was Legardeur de St. Pierre de Repentigny, the last probably being, as Mr. Shea suggests, the Riparti just mentioned.12

St. Pierre, in fact, had been at LeBoeuf but seven days when Washington arrived. When Duquesne learned that Marin, a sturdy old Officer in command there was in extremity, he chose St. Pierre, who had just returned from a journey of exploration towards the Rocky mountains.18

Shea's suggestion that Reparti and St. Pierre were identical is scarcely credible. Shea has found mention of a French officer, M. St. Pierre, who was at Lake Pepin in 1736, when Father Goignas, S. J., reappeared among the Fox Indians, after his captivity. Shea thinks this was the St. Pierre to whom Washington delivered Dinwiddie's letters.14

The street that once commemorated this soldier of Old France in New France in America, was joined with the two boulevards when they were constructed in 1895-1896. It was the part from Fifth avenue to Forbes street, at Schenley Park.

11"Late War, etc;" Entick, pp. 101-102.

12"Writings of G. Washington," 1748-57; Vol. I, p. 29.

13"Montcalm & Wolfe;" Parkman, Vol. I, p. 135, and note Ibid.

14"Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi, with Introduction, Notes and

Index;" John Gilmary Shea, p. 175.

CHAPTER XIV.

The Struggle for a Continent.

The struggle for the continent of North America which resulted in British acquisition of all the French domain on that continent by the the peace of Paris in 1763, began between armed forces of the respective nations not far from Pittsburgh, in what is now Fayette county, and not long after Washington's return from his fruitless mission to the French forts. From the signing of the treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle in April, 1748, the clashes of English and French partisans in the debatable land had not ceased. How Weiser succeeded in his mission to the Ohio Indians at Logstown in the summer of 1748 has been related; also how Celoron came, taking formal possession in the name of the French King, and how Dinwiddie's demands that the French withdraw from the region received a dignified though evasive reply from the soldierly Legardeur St. Pierre. In brief, he had no jurisdiction; the question must go to his superiors. The boasting of Joncaire at Venango, while in his cups, left no doubt that the French meant fight. They had fought the English before, and scarcely five years had elapsed since the signing of the treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle by which France got back nearly all that had been lost in King George's War, which that treaty concluded. The return of Louisburg to the French was especially galling to the New Englanders. Slight wonder that Joncaire should play the braggart. Half Indian, he was both cunning and proud, and it was a warrior's privilege to boast if his deeds justified. It will appear that Governor Dinwiddie knew the clash of arms was near, and hastened to erect a fort at the Forks of the Ohio. It was a vantage point, indeed.

The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle has always been characterized as the most inglorious and impolitic compact to which Britain acceded since the Revolution of 1688. James Grahame ("History of the United States," 1836, Vol. III, p. 394), says:

It produced most painful surprise and mortification in New England; it was disadvantageous to America and the accessory provisions no less dishonorable to Britain. In short after a war which proved calamitous and distressing to every quarter of the British Empire and advanced the national debt of Great Britain to 80,000,000 pounds sterling, the nation concluded a peace by which she parted with a single dearly bought prize her arms had won without procuring in return a single natural advantage, the redress of any part of the injury which she had justly complained, or the recognition or additional security of any of her rights which had been previously invaded.

Smollet says:

The English gave up their conquest in North America of more consequence to her traffic than all the other dominions for which the powers at war contended; they gave up the important isle of Cape Breton in exchange for a paltry factory in the East Indies whose existence they deemed prejudicial to the commonwealth.

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was unstable and inglorious. It was only a truce that settled nothing regarding the boundaries of New France and the English Colonies along the seaboard. Well could Celoron call attention to this treaty and those of Riswick and Utrecht with all their advantages in favor of his country-advantages for

the very fact that they were non-committal. It is a notorious fact that after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle the French ministry gave more attention to the strength and resources of Canada and Louisiana. The possession of these distant colonies with the almost uninterrupted water communication seemed to unfold the means of subduing the English power in America. During 1752 and 1753 the French forts at Crown Point and Niagara were strengthened and LeBeef and Venango were erected. Presq' Isle had come earlier than the last two by a few months only. All these posts were put in the best possible state of defence, and those also in distant Louisiana. The dissensions among the English Colonies made it difficult to collect a sufficient force to oppose the French. When the clash came the advantage was with the French. Their wily and able diplomats retained enough Indians on their side to furnish them formidable allies. Weiser and Croghan could not detach enough to count. Their efforts merely deferred the war.1

The activities of the Ohio Company of Virginians in the spring of 1754 bringing about the crisis at the Forks of the Ohio, the first overt act of the French and Indian War, 1754-1758, in Western Pennsylvania, and the frequent mention of that company, requires some history of its formation, powers and intentions. In the narration of the events leading up to hostilities in the summer of 1754 it is always to be remembered that it was Virginians who began the war, and in the opening skirmish when Jumonville fell, Washington first heard the sound of bullets.2

The story of this company is taken from the first Appendix to the "History of Western Pennsylvania and the West"-copied from Sparks' "Washington" (Vol. II, pp. 478-483). See also "Olden Time," Vol. I, pp. 291-296.

THE OHIO COMPANY.

In 1748, Thomas Lee, one of his Majesty's Council in Virginia, formed the design of effecting settlements on the wild land west of the Allegheny Mountains, through the agency of an association of gentlemen. Before this there were no English residents in those regions. A few traders wandered from tribe to tribe, and dwelt among the Indians, but they neither cultivated nor occupied the lands. With the view of carrying his plan into operation, Lee associated himself with twelve other persons in Virginia and Maryland, and with John Hanbury, a merchant in London, who formed what they called, "The Ohio Company." Lawrence Washington, and Augustine Washington, brothers of George Washington, were among the first who engaged in this scheme. A petition was presented to the king in behalf of the company, which was approved, and 500,000 acres of land were granted almost in the terms requested by the company. The object of the company was to settle the lands and to carry on the Indian trade upon a large scale. Hitherto the trade with the western Indians had been mostly in the hands of the Pennsylvanians. The company conceived that they might derive an important advantage over their competitors in this trade from the water communication of the Potomac and the eastern branches of the Ohio, whose headwaters approximated each other. The lands were to be chiefly taken on the south side of the Ohio, between the Monongahela and Kenhawa rivers, and west of the Alleghenies. The privilege was reserved, however, by the company of embracing a portion of the lands on the north side of the river, if it should be deemed expedient. Two hundred thousand acres were to be selected immediately, and to be held for ten years free from rent or any tax to the King, on condition that the company should at its own expense seat one hundred families on the lands within seven years, and build à fort and maintain a garrison sufficient to protect the settlement.

The first steps taken by the company were to order Mr. Hanbury, their agent in

1"History of England;" Vol. II, p. 34. (The Smollett citation is the four lines at bottom of p. 256, beginning "The English," etc. The next paragraph, beginning "The peace," etc., and concluding on p. 257, is our author's narrative.-EDITOR).

2Letter to his brother John, May 31, 1754, in "Writings of Washington;" Ford, Vol. I, p. 89.

Pitts.-17