Several other attempts were made by the French to settle the country; but, by some unaccountable fatality, instead of seating themselves on the fertile borders of the Mississippi, they continually landed about the barren sands of Biloxi, and the bay of Mobile. It was not until the year 1722, that the miserable remnant of those who had been carried thither at various times, was transplanted to New Orleans; nor until the year 1731, that the colony began to flourish.
Scheme for connecting Louisiana with Canada.
It had received the name of Louisiana, and soon extended itself by detached settlements, up the Mississippi and its waters, towards the great lakes.[144] As it advanced northward, the vast and interesting plan was formed of connecting it with Canada by a chain of forts.
The fine climate and fertile soil of upper Louisiana enabling it to produce and maintain an immense population, rendered it an object which promised complete gratification to the views of France; while the extent given to it by that nation, excited the most serious alarm among the colonies of Britain.
The charters granted by the crown of England to the first adventurers, having extended from the Atlantic to the South Sea, their settlements had regularly advanced westward, in the belief that their title to the country in that direction, could not be controverted. The settlements of the French, stretching from north to south, necessarily interfered with those of the English. Their plan, if executed, would completely environ the English. Canada and Louisiana united, as has been aptly said, would form a bow, of which the English colonies would constitute the chord.
While Great Britain claimed, indefinitely, to the west, as appertaining to her possession of the sea coast; France insisted on confining her to the eastern side of the Apalachian, or Alleghany, mountains; and claimed the whole country drained by the Mississippi, in virtue of her right as the first discoverer of that river. The delightful region which forms the magnificent vale of the Mississippi was the object for which these two powerful nations contended; and it soon became apparent that the sword must decide the contest.
The white population of the English colonies was supposed to exceed one million of souls, while that of the French was estimated at only fifty-two thousand.[145]
This disparity of numbers did not intimidate the governor of New France—a title comprehending both Canada and Louisiana; nor deter him from proceeding in the execution of his favourite plan. The French possessed advantages which, he persuaded himself, would counterbalance the superior numbers of the English. Their whole power was united under one governor, who could give it such a direction as his judgment should dictate. The genius of the people and of the government was military; and the inhabitants could readily be called into the field, when their service should be required. Great reliance too was placed on the Indians. These savages, with the exception of the Five Nations, were generally attached to France, and were well trained to war. To these advantages was added a perfect knowledge of the country about to become the theatre of action.
The British colonies, on the other hand, were divided into distinct governments, unaccustomed, except those of New England, to act in concert; were jealous of the power of the crown; and were spread over a large extent of territory, the soil of which, in all the middle colonies, was cultivated by men unused to arms.
The governors of Canada, who were generally military men, had, for several preceding years, judiciously selected and fortified such situations as would give them most influence over the Indians, and facilitate incursions into the northern provinces. The command of Lake Champlain had been acquired by the erection of a strong fort at Crown Point; and a connected chain of posts was maintained from Quebec, up the St. Lawrence, and along the great lakes. It was intended to unite these posts with the Mississippi by taking positions which would favour the design of circumscribing and annoying the frontier settlements of the English.
Great Meadows and the Site of Fort Necessity
On this battleground in the western Pennsylvania wilderness, which marked the beginning of the French and Indian War, July 3, 1754, a force of 400 men under young Major Washington was defeated by 900 French and Indian allies, and for the first and last time in his military career Washington surrendered. He stipulated, however, that he and his troops were to have safe conduct back to civilization, and agreed not to build a fort west of the Allegheny Mountains for a year. Washington was then twenty-two years old.
1750
The execution of this plan was, probably, accelerated by an act of the British government. The year after the conclusion of the war, several individuals both in England and Virginia who were associated under the name of the Ohio company, obtained from the crown a grant of six hundred thousand acres of land, lying in the country claimed by both nations. The objects of this company being commercial as well as territorial, measures were taken to derive all the advantages expected from their grant, in both these respects, by establishing trading houses, and by employing persons to survey the country.
The governor of Canada, who obtained early information of this intrusion, as he deemed it, into the dominions of his most christian majesty, wrote to the governors of New York and Pennsylvania, informing them that the English traders had encroached on the French territory by trading with their Indians; and giving notice that, if they did not desist, he should be under the necessity of seizing them wherever they should be found. At the same time the jealousy of the Indians was excited by impressing them with fears that the English were about to deprive them of their country.
His threat having been disregarded, the governor of Canada put it in execution by seizing the British traders among the Twightwees, and carrying them prisoners to Presque-isle, on Lake Erie; where he was erecting a strong fort. About the same time, a communication was opened from Presque-isle, down French creek, and the Alleghany river, to the Ohio. This communication was kept up by detachments of troops, posted at proper distances from each other, in works capable of covering them from an attack made only with small arms.[146]
1753
This territory having been granted as part of Virginia, to the Ohio company, who complained loudly of these aggressions, Dinwiddie, the lieutenant governor of that province, laid the subject before the assembly, and dispatched MAJOR WASHINGTON, the gentleman who afterwards led his countrymen to independence, with a letter to the commandant of the French forces on the Ohio; requiring him to withdraw from the dominions of his Britannic majesty.
This letter was delivered at a fort on the river Le Boeuf, the western branch of French creek, to Monsieur le Guarduer de St. Pierre, the commanding officer on the Ohio, who replied that he had taken possession of the country by the directions of his general, then in Canada, to whom he would transmit the letter of the lieutenant governor, and whose orders he should implicitly obey.
1754
Preparations were immediately made, in Virginia, to assert the rights of the British crown; and a regiment was raised for the protection of the frontiers. Early in the spring, Major Washington had advanced with a small detachment from this regiment into the country to be contended for, where he fell in with and defeated a party of French and Indians who were approaching him in a manner indicating hostile designs. On being joined by the residue of his regiment, the command of which had devolved on him, he made great exertions to pre-occupy the post at the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers; but, on his march thither, was met by a much superior body of French and Indians, Defeat at the Little Meadows.who attacked him in a small stockade hastily erected at the Little Meadows, and compelled him, after a gallant defence to capitulate. The French had already taken possession of the ground to which Washington was proceeding, and, having driven