ble commerce. From these various points the influence of the French was disseminated among the Indians; and, while the Six Nations, and a branch of the Miamis, were almost the only Indian allies of the English, the French were connected by ties of interest and friendship with nearly all the tribes of the north and west.*

The Miami villages which stood at the head of the river Maumee, the Wea villages which were situated about Ouiatenon, on the Wabash river, and the Piankeshaw villages which stood on and about the site of Vincennes, were, it seems, regarded by the early French fur traders as suitable places for the establishing of trading-posts. It, is probable, that, before the close of the year 1719, temporary trading-posts were erected at the sites of Fort Wayne, Ouiatenon, and Vincennes. These points had, it is believed, been often visited by traders before the year 1700.

The descendants of the early French settlers on the border of the river Wabash have preserved a traditional account of the making of a grant of a large tract of land, in the year 1742, by the Indians in that quarter, for the use of the French inhabitants of Post Vincennes. In the year 1794, and again in 1817, the French residents of Vincennes made some fruitless efforts to obtain, from the government of the United States, an acknowledgment of the validity of this old Indian grant. They stated, in a memorial which was laid before the senate of the United States, that their ancestors, natives of France, came at a very early period of the eighteenth century, under the authority and protection of France, to establish themselves in trade and commerce with the natives who possessed and inhabited the country on the river Wabash; that the Indians gra' to them a large portion of territory to promote the jects of their establishment; that, from the time of their settlement on the borders of the Wabash, for the greater part of the eighteenth century, they held quiet and undisturbed possession of their lands; and that their right was never questioned by any power or authority whatever. They said that among

* Frost's U. S., 170.

The Indian village at the site of Vincennes was called Chip-kaw-kay. The French post has been called, by various writers, Post Vincennes, Post Vincent, St. Vincent, Au Poste, etc.

the early settlers were found men of the first rank in the nation from which they emigrated; that, some being opulent, and many in comfortable circumstances, they were able not only to support themselves in the enjoyments which the blessings of a fine climate and abundant means placed within their reach, but also to provide employment and plentiful means of subsistence for "boatmen and others under their care." The memorial further stated, that the early French settlers, thus situated, were "contented and happy-never troubling, by their conduct or importunities, the various governments under which, by the vicissitudes of human events, they were placed."

In 1749, a church or mission was established, under the charge of the missionary Meurin, at the Piankeshaw village, which stood at the site of Post Vincennes. In the course of the next year, 1750, a small fort was built at that place; and another light fortification was erected, about the same time, at the mouth of the Wabash river. The white population of Vincennes was considerably increased in the course of the years 1754, 1755, and 1756, by the arrival of emigrants from Kaskaskia, Detroit, Canada, and New Orleans.

In the spring of the year 1754, Major Washington received orders, from the governor of Virginia, to proceed with a detachment of two hundred men to the point at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, and there to complete a fort which the Ohio Company had begun to build.* The attempt that was made to execute this order was defeated by the French. M. Contrecœur, a French officer, who had under his command a force consisting of about one thousand men, with eighteen pieces of cannon, passed down the Allegheny river from Venango, early in the spring of 1754, and

*Governor Dinwiddie issued a proclamation inviting the people to enlist in the service against the French, and, as an inducement, promised that the quantity of two hundred thousand acres of land should be laid out and divided among the adventurers, when the service should be at an end. One hundred thousand acres of land was to be laid out at the confluence of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers; and the other one hundred thousand acres on the Ohio. On the appearance of this proclamation, Mr. Hamilton, the governor of Pennsylvania, wrote to Governor Dinwiddie reminding him that the proposed grants of lands, and the settlements which might be made thereon, should not be made use of to prejudice the right of the province of Pennsylvania to the territories about the upper waters of the river Ohio.

landed, on the 17th of April, with his French and Indian warriors, at the point which Washington had been ordered to fortify. After driving off a small detachment of Virginia militia under the command of Captain Trent, and a few workmen who were engaged at that place in the service of the Ohio Company, the French erected Fort du Quesne. This fort was completed in the month of April, 1754.

About the close of the year 1754, there were, in the country lying northward of the river Ohio, seventeen French posts, viz: two on French creek; du Quesne; Sandusky; Miamis, on the river Maumee; St. Joseph, on the St. Joseph of lake Michigan; Pontchartrain, at Detroit; Michilimacinac; Fox river, of Green bay; Crevecœur, and Rockfort or Fort St. Louis, on the river Illinois; Vincennes; mouth of the Ohio; mouth of the Wabash; Cahokia; Kaskaskia; and mouth of the Missouri.*

Between the years 1749 and 1754, the French and their Indian allies captured several English traders on the borders of the river Ohio, seized their peltries and other commodities to the value of twenty thousand pounds sterling,† and took possession of a blockhouse and truckhouse, which the agents of the Ohio Company had erected on the banks of the Ohio at Loggstown. The Twightwees or Miamis, in resentment of these injuries done to their English allies, captured three French traders, and sent them, as prisoners, to the English authorities of Pennsylvania. In the year 1752, the English trading-post on Loramie's creek was taken by the French and their Indian allies, who killed fourteen of the Twightwees in order to punish that tribe for their temporary alliance of friendship with the English. In November, 1752, Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, sent a friendly message to the Twightwees. In this message, which was written on a sheet of parchment about eight inches square, the governor said: "I received your belt of wampum and scalp by the bearer, Thomas Burney, and your speeches, with a beaver blanket, pipe, and belt of wampum, by Captain Trent and Mr. Montour. It has given

* Present state of North America, London ed., 1755.-N. A. Rev., xlix, 70.— Annals of the West, 41.

Rider's History, xl, 71.-Smollett, ii, 152.

Situated on one of the head branches of the Great Miami-lat. north 40° 16' and lon. west 7° 15'.

FRENCH FORTS—FRANKLIN'S PROPOSITION.

57

me great concern for the late stroke that you have received from the Indians in the interest of the French, and of their barbarous murdering of your people." The message was signed by "Dinwiddie," and addressed to the "Sachems and warriors of the Twightwees, our friends and brethren.”

When Washington, acting under the instructions of the governor of Virginia, visited the headwaters of the river Ohio, in 1753, he was informed, by some French boatmen, that the French had in their possession, at that time, four small forts on the banks of the river Mississippi, between New Orleans and Fort Chartres, in the district of Illinois. At New Orleans there were "thirty-five companies, of forty men each, with a pretty strong fort, mounting eight carriage guns;" and in the Illinois district, there were "several companies, and a fort mounting six guns." The Frenchmen also informed Washington, that there was a "small palisadoed fort" on the river Ohio, at the mouth of the Wabash.

In the year 1754, a plan was proposed, by Dr. Benjamin Franklin, for establishing strong English colonies in the territory northwest of the river Ohio, to prevent "the dreaded junction of the French settlements in Canada with those of Louisiana." Dr. Franklin proposed to plant one colony in the valley of the river Scioto; and to erect small fortifications at Buffalo creek, on the Ohio; at the mouth of Tioga, on the south side of lake Erie; at Hockhocking; and at or near the mouth of the Wabash river. He also advocated the policy of taking "Sandusky, a French fort near lake Erie;" and proposed that "all the little French forts south and west of the lakes quite to the Mississippi, be removed, or taken and garrisoned by the English." "Every fort," he said, "should have a small settlement around it; as the fort would protect the settlers, and the settlers defend the fort, and supply it with provisions."*

In the month of May, 1754, while the Virginia forces were approaching Fort du Quesne, the commadant of that post, M. De Villiers, sent the Sieur de Jumonville, at the head of a small party, with a formal summons to Washington, requiring him to withdraw, with his forces, from the territories of

*Franklin's Writings, edited by Sparks, iii. 70.

France. This small detachment of French troops was attacked, on the 28th of May, by the Virginians under Washington, at a place called the Little Meadows. Jumonville was slain; and of his followers, some were killed, and others captured. Soon after this event, De Villiers, at the head of a force of about nine hundred men, consisting of French and Indians, moved from Fort du Quesne to attack the Virginians. Washington, who had, at this time, only about three hundred men under his command, retreated to a place called the Great Meadows; and, at that place, on the first of July, began to fortify a rude post, to which he gave the name of Fort Necessity.*

This post was attacked by the French and Indians, on the 3d day of July, 1754. After Washington had made a gallant defense of his position, he agreed to capitulate on terms which were proposed by De Villiers. The conduct of the French commanding officer was, on this occasion, honorable and magnanimous. It was stipulated, in the articles of capitulation, that Washington, with his weak detachment, should march from the fort with the honors of war, and carry with them their military stores, baggage, and all their arms, with the exception of the artillery. De Villiers, in giving an account of the taking of Fort Necessity, says: "On the 4th [of July], at the dawn of day, I sent a detachment to take possession of the fort. The garrison defiled; and the number of their dead and wounded excited my pity, in spite of the resentment which I felt for the manner in which they had taken away the life of my brother." + +

*The site of Fort Necessity at the Great Meadows is three or four hundred yards south of what is now called the National Road, four miles from the foot of Laurel Hill.-BUTLER.

This remark alludes to the death of the Sieur de Jumonville