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1752.

William Douglass, M. D. a native of Scotland, author of "A Summary, Historical and Political, of the first Planting, progressive Improvements, and present State of the British Settlements in North America," died in Boston. Mary Davie died Deaths. at Newton (Masschusetts), aged 116 years.2 William Bradford, printer, died at New York, in the 94th year of his age.3

1753.

French and

English.

THE peace which had subsisted between France and Great Causes influencing a Britain since 1748, was but a truce for digesting and maturing rupture be an extensive plan, in relation to an important tract of American tween the territory. The French, excluded from all the frontier coast of North America, aimed to repair this disadvantage by possessing the river St. Lawrence to the north, and the Mississippi to the south, and then connecting their colonies of Louisiana and Canada through the intermediate lakes and waters. To the English this project would naturally appear as prejudicial in its operation, as it was, in their view, unjust in its principle. The claims of the two nations were founded on different pretensions. The French had the advantage of a prior settlement in New France; but the English counterbalanced it, by restricting them to their actual settlements at the time of the grant of the Plymouth company (in 1620) of all the lands between the 40th and 48th degrees of north latitude, and by claims, founded on treaties with the natives; insisting, moreover, that the country of the Six Nations was ceded to them by the French in the treaties of Utrecht and Aix la Chapelle. On supposition that the English title was good, about 20 forts, erected by the French, beside block houses, or stockade trading places, were unwarrantable encroachments.

alarmed;

While the disputed territory of Acadie furnished one field for Governor hostility, the country along the lakes and intermediate rivers of Canada furnished another. The grant of lands to the Ohio company had alarmed the governor of Canada with the apprehension, that the English were pursuing a scheme, which might deprive the French of the advantages arising from the trade with the

Woodbridge; and for many years this was the only one in the province. The printing which had been done for government, by presses set up occasionally,. was executed at Burlington.

1 Pemberton, MS. Chron. The first volume of his work was printed in 1749; the second, in 1751. See Eliot and Allen, Biog,

2 Ibid. Her portrait, drawn by Smibert, is in the Museum of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

3 Allen, Biog. He came to America about 1680, and landed where Philadelphia now stands, before the city was laid out, or a house built. See Thomas, v. ii. VOL. II.

7

1753. Twightees, and cut off the communication between Canada and Louisiana. He had written to the governors of New York and complains Pennsylvania, acquainting them that the English traders had enofencroach- croached on the French territories by trading with their Indians,

ments.

British

traders seized.

and that, if they did not desist, he should be obliged to seize them wherever found. This menace did not divert the Ohio company from prosecuting its design of surveying the country as far as the falls in Ohio river. While Mr. Gist was making that survey for the company, some French parties with their Indians seized three British traders, and carried them to Presqu' Isle, on lake Erie, where a strong fort was then erecting. The British, alarmed at this capture, retired to the Indian towns for shelter; and the Twightwees, resenting the violence done to their allies, assembled, to the number of 500 or 600, scoured the woods, and, finding three French traders, sent them to Pennsylvania. The French, determined to persist, built a second fort, about build more 15 miles south of the former, on one of the branches of the Ohio; and another still, at the confluence of the Ohio and Wabache; and thus completed their long projected communication between the mouth of the Mississippi and the river St. Lawrence.

French

forts.

Complaints,

The Ohio company complaining loudly of these aggressions of French on the country which had been granted to it as part of the

encroach

ments.

territory of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie, lieutenant governor of that colony, considered the encroachment as an invasion of his province, and judged it his duty to demand, in the name of the king, that the French should desist from the prosecution of designs, which he considered as a violation of the treaties subsisting between the two crowns. This service, it was foreseen, would be rendered very fatiguing and hazardous by the extensive tract of country, almost entirely unexplored, through which an envoy must pass, as well as by the hostile dispositions of some of the Indian inhabitants, and the doubtful attachment of others. Uninviting, however, and even formidable, as it was, a regard to the intrinsic importance of the territory in question, with extensive views into the future interest of the American colonies, incited an enterprising and public spirited young man to undertake it. GEORGE WASHINGTON, then in his 22d year, instantly Washington is sent engaged in the difficult and perilous servicee. Attended by one to the Ohio. person only, he set out from Williamsburg on the 31st of October.

1 M. du Quesne, who succeeded M. de la Gallissionere in the government of Canada, having received instructions to take possession of the countries on the Ohio for the crown of France, in the beginning of 1753 ordered the Sieur de St. Pierre with a detachment to take post on the river aux Bœufs, and there to remain until he received farther orders. De St. Pierre took post there accordingly, and erected a fort for its security. Of this Mr. Dinwiddie had early intelligence. Mante, Introd.

The season was uncommonly severe, and the length of his journey was above 400 miles, 200 of which lay through a trackless desert, inhabited by Indians. On the 14th of November, he arrived at Wills creek, then the exterior settlement of the English, where he procured guides to conduct him over the Alleghany mountains; and, after being considerably impeded by the snow and high water, he on the 22d reached the mouth of Turtle creek, on the Monongahela. Pursuing his route, he ascended the Alleghany river, and at the mouth of French creek found the first fort occupied by the troops of France. Proceeding up the creek to another fort, he was received, on the 12th of December, by M. Lagardier de St. Pierre, commanding officer on the Ohio, to whom he delivered the letter of governor Dinwiddie. The chief officers retired, to hold a council of war; and Washington seized that opportunity of taking the dimensions of the fort, and making all possible observation.

Having received a written answer for the Virginia governor, he returned to Williamsburg. The answer of St. Pierre stated, that he had taken possession of the country by direction of the governor general of Canada; that he would transmit governor Dinwiddie's letter to him; and that to his orders he should yield implicit obedience.3

1753.

The anniversary of the Society in Boston for encouraging in- Anniver dustry and employing the poor was publicly celebrated. In the sary celeafternoon, about 300 young female spinsters, decently dressed, Boston.

1 In crossing a river on a raft, he was thrown off by a cake of ice, and very narrowly escaped drowning. It being impossible for him to make either shore, he happily reached an island in the river, and was saved. "The cold," he observes," was so extremely severe, that Mr. Gist [then his companion] had all his fingers, and some of his toes frozen; and the water was shut up so hard, that we found no difficulty in getting off the island, on the ice, in the morning." Washington's Journal.

2" It is situated on the south or west fork of French creek, and is almost surrounded" by water. "Four houses compose the sides. The bastions are made of piles driven into the ground, standing more than 12 feet above it, and sharp at top; with port holes cut for cannon, and loop holes for the small arms to fire through. There are eight 6 pound pieces mounted in each bastion, and one piece of 4 pound before the gate. In the bastions are a guard house, chapel, doctor's lodging, and the commander's private store: round which are laid platforms for the cannon and men to stand on. There are several barracks without the fort. there are also several other houses, such as stables, smith shops, &c." Washington's Journal. According to his best judgment, there were 100 men at that fort, exclusive of officers. He gave orders to the persons with him to take an account of the canoes, "which were hauled up to convey their forces down in the spring;" and there were counted 50 of birch bark, and 170 of pine, beside many others, which were blocked out, in readiness for being made.

3 Marshall, Life of Washington, i. 375–378; ii. 3-5, and Note 1 at the end of vol. ii, which gives Washington's Journal entire. That Journal is mentioned in Bibliotheca Americana [133.] as printed at London in 1753. Gordon, i. 99, 100. Univ. Hist. xl. 198; xli. 550, 551. Brit. Emp. iii. 105–118, 199. Mante, i. 6.

brated at

1753. appeared on the common at their spinning wheels. The wheels were placed regularly in three rows, and a female was seated at each wheel. The weavers also appeared, cleanly dressed, in garments of their own weaving. One of them, working at a loom on a stage, was carried on men's shoulders, attended with music. An immense number of spectators was present at this interesting spectacle.1

Exports

from N. Carolina.

Bethabara.

Treaty with the Ohio Indians.

From North Carolina there were exported, this year, upward of 60,000 barrels of tar, 12,000 barrels of pitch, 10,000 barrels turpentine, and about 30,000 deer skins; beside lumber and other commodities.2

The settlement of Bethabara, in North Carolina, was begun by a number of the Moravian brethren, from Pennsylvania.3

A treaty was holden in October at Carlisle with the Ohio Indians. The lands on the river Ohio, it appears, yet belonged to the Six Nations, which, having long since put them under the protection of the crown of England, had neither approved nor countenanced the proceedings of the French, in erecting forts on that river, and the countries adjacent.4 A Conference was holden at St. George's in York county (Maine) between Sir William Pepperrell, baronet, Jacob Wendell, Thomas Hubbard, John Winslow, esquires, and Mr. James Bowdoin, commissioners apEastera In- pointed by governor Shirley, with the Eastern Indians and the dians and Penobscots; at which upward of 30 of the Chiefs of the Penobscot tribe signed and sealed a Ratification of the Articles of the Treaty made at Falmouth in 1749.5

Sept. 20.

Penobscots.

Philadel

phia.

Philadelphia contained 2300 houses, and about 18,000 inhabitants. The academy, recently founded in that city, received a charter of incorporation from the proprietors of Pennsylvania, Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, accompanied with a donation of £500 sterling.7

In the last month of this year, and the first month of the next,

1 Pemberton, MS. Chron. Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. iii. 253. The Rev. Dr Cooper delivered a discourse, and a collection was made for the benefit of the Institution. A Manufactory house, a large and handsome brick building, was erected about this time in Longacre street, and an excise, laid by the general court on carriages and other articles of luxury, was appropriated to it. Its original design was for carrying on manufactures in the town, particularly the linen manufacture; but, "some untoward circumstances taking place," that manufacture was wholly set aside. The Institution continued but three or four years.

2 Europ. Settlements, ii. 72, 260. N. Carolina exported 61,528 barrels of tar; 12,055 do. of pitch; 10,429 do. turpentine. See TABLES.

3 Adams, View of Religions, P. 2. Art. NORTH CAROLINA.

4 Franklin, Pennsylv. 155, 309.

5 Conference, printed at Boston in 1753.

6 Adams, Letter xvii.

7 Life of Franklin, 130. See 1750.

a very malignant fever prevailed in Holliston (Massachusetts);

of which 53 persons died.1

1753.

George Berkeley, bishop of Cloyne in Ireland, a distinguished Death of G. benefactor of Yale College, died, aged 73 years.2

Berkeley.

1754.

march to

THE answer of St. Pierre called for spirited measures. A Virginia regiment was immediately raised by the Virginia colony; and th Washington, who was appointed lieutenant colonel, marched ward Ohio. early in April with two companies, in advance of the other troops, to the Great Meadows, lying within the disputed territory. Here he learned by some friendly Indians, that the French, having dispossessed a party of workmen, employed by the Ohio company to erect a fort on the southern branch of the Ohio,3 were engaged in completing a fortification at the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela; and that a detachment from that place, then on its march toward the Great Meadows, had encamped for the night in a low retired situation. Convinced that this was a hostile movement, colonel Washington, availing

1 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. iii. 19. This was a very great mortality in “a small town, consisting of about 80 families, and not more than 400 souls."

2 Clap, Hist. Yale College. Life of Pres. Stiles. Trumbull, Conn. ii. c. 12. Chandler, Life of Johnson. Miller, ii. 349. Verplanck, Discourse before New York Hist. Soc. in vol. iii. of its Collections. At Christ Church, Oxford, where he was buried, a handsome monument is erected to his memory. The inscription, written by bishop Markham, has the following lines:

Viro,

Seu Ingenii et Eruditionis,
Seu Probitatis et Beneficentiæ,

Laudem spectamus;

Inter summos omnium Etatum
Numerando.

Pope, a contemporary, ascribes

"To Berkeley every virtue under heaven."

"Berkeley built and resided in a house now occupied, and situated about half a mile in a northeasterly direction from the State house in Newport. He gave an elegant organ to the Episcopal church in Newport, and also a small Library. His usual place of study was a clift of rocks near his dwelling." MS. Letter from a friend in Rhode Island, 31 Dec. 1827. His house was called Whitehall, and he gave that structure with the farm annexed to it, together with his Library, to Yale College. See A. D. 1732. By a typographical error, the donation is there made to the colony, instead of to "that college." Berkeley's portrait, by Smibert, is in Yale College. Smibert was the first regularly instructed painter in North America. He had been Berkeley's fellow traveller in Italy, and was brought out by him to act as instructer in drawing and architecture in the intended institution. His picture is large, and represents Berkeley and his family, together with the artist himself, on their first landing in America.

3 This fort was taken the 17th of April, by a force of upwards of 600 Frenchmen and 18 pieces of cannon. The garrison was permitted to retire. Minot.

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