year 1748, the sagacious Count Galissonière proposed to bring over ten thousand peasants from France, and plant them in the valley of that beautiful river, and on the borders of the lakes. But while at Quebec, in the Castle of St. Louis, soldiers and statesmen were revolving schemes like this, the slowly-moving power of England bore on with silent progress from the East. Already the British settlements were creeping along the valley of the Mohawk, and ascending the eastern slope of the Alleganies. Forests crashing to the axe, dark spires of smoke ascending from autumnal fires, were heralds of the advancing host; and while on the one side of the Alleganies, Celeron de Bienville was burying plates of lead, engraved with the arms of France, the ploughs and axes of Virginia backwoodsmen were enforcing a surer title on the other. The adverse powers were drawing near. The hour of collision was at hand."[1]
To the history of this last measuring of arms between the ancient rivals, and of its important bearing on the position of the colonies, in their disputes with the mother country, we now invite the reader's attention.
| CHAPTER VIII. |
1749—1755.
THE FOURTH INTERCOLONIAL WAR.
Designs and claims of the French—Counter claims of the English—No regard to the Indians' claims—The Ohio Company—Its policy and efforts—George Washington—Early life and training—His father's death—The mother of Washington—Receives an appointment as midshipman in the Navy—Method and orderly habits—Activity, spirit, energy—Studies surveying—Undertakes the duties of a surveyor—Military appointment—His brother Lawrence's ill health and death—Appointed by Governor Dinwiddie to visit the French post on the Ohio—His adventurous mission—Its results—His return—His journal—Appointed lieutenant-colonel—His military exploits—The affair with Jumonviile—Truth of the matter—Obliged to capitulate at Fort Necessity—Thanks of the Assembly to Washington—Convention of governors at Albany—Plan of union and confederation—Not received with favor—Levy of troops called for—Dieskau's force—III usage of colonial officers—Braddock commander-in-chief—Expeditions undertaken—Braddock's character and conduct—Franklin's help—His conversation with Braddock—Washington serves as aid-de-camp—His urgent advice rejected by Braddock—Splendid spectacle—Troops routed by Indians and French in ambush—Death of Braddock—Washington's preservation—Panic of the army—Prestige of royal troops destroyed.
We have already spoken of the designs of the French and their determination to obtain, if possible, the control of the entire region from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, based upon that law which gives to the discoverers of rivers, the jurisdiction over the lands watered by them. So long as the English colonies were confined to the immediate vicinity of the sea coast, there was little reason for them to interfere with the plans and pur-
- ↑ Parkman's "History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac," p. 56.
