UNITED STATES.

PERIOD IV.

DISTINGUISHED FOR THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

Extending from the Declaration of War by England against France, 1756, to the Commencement of Hostilities by Great Britain against the American Colonies, in the Battle of Lexington, 1775.

Sec. 1. The war, which ended in the treaty of Aix la Chapelle, in 1748, had been highly injurious to the general prosperity of his Majesty's Colonies in America; and the return of peace found them in a state of impoverishment and distress. Great losses had been sustained in their commerce, and many of their vessels had been seized on the coast by privateers. Bills of credit to the amount of several millions, had been issued to carry on the war, which they were now unable to redeem, and the losses of men in various expeditions against the enemy, had seriously retarded the increase of population.

The expenses of the northern colonies, including NewEngland and New-York, during the war, were estimated at not less than one million pounds sterling. Massachusetts alone is said to have paid half this sum, and to have expended nearly four hundred thousand pounds, in the expe dition against Cape Breton. The expenses of Carolina, for the war in that quarter, were not less in proportion.

To supply the deficiency of money, bills of credit were issued to the amount of several millions. The bills issued by Massachusetts during two or three years of the war,

amounted to between two and three millions currency; while at the time of their emission, five or six hundred pounds were equal to only one hundred pounds sterling. Before the complete redemption of these bills, says Dr. Trumbull, in those colonies, where their credit was best supported, the depreciation was nearly twenty for one.

The losses sustained by the colonies, in the fall of many of their bravest men, during this and the last Indian war, were severely felt. From 1722 to 1749, a period of twen ty-seven years, the losses of Massachusetts and New-Hampshire equalled the whole increase of their numbers; whereas, in the natural course of population, their numbers would have more than doubled.

Such, in few words, was the general state of the colonies, at the close of this war. The return of peace was hailed as the harbinger of better days, and the enterprising spirit of the people soon exerted itself to repair the losses, which had been sustained. Commerce, therefore, again flourished; population increased; settlements. were extended; and the publick credit revived.

Sec. 2. Scarcely, however, had the colonies time to reap the benefits of peace, before the prospect was clouded, and the sound of approaching war filled the land with general anxiety and distress. After an interval of only about eight years, from 1748 to May 18th, 1756, Great Britain, under George II., formally declared war against France, which declaration was reciprocated on the ninth of June, by a similar declaration on the part of France, under Louis XV., against Great Britain.

The general cause, leading to this war, commonly called the "French and Indian war," was the alleged encroachments of the French, upon the frontiers of the colonies in America, belonging to the English rown.

These encroachments were made upon Nova Scotia in the east, which had been ceded to Great Britain by the

12th article of the treaty of Utrecht, but to a considerable part of which the French laid claim, and, in several places, were erecting fortifications. In the north and west, they were settling and fortifying Crown Point, and, in the west, were not only attempting to complete a line of forts from the head of the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, but were encroaching far on Virginia.

The circumstances which served to open the war, was the alleged intrusion of the Ohio Company upon the territory of the French. This company consisted of a number of influential men, from London and Virginia, who had obtained a charter grant of six hundred thousand acres of land, on and near the river Ohio, for the purpose of carrying on the fur trade with the Indians, and of settling the country.

The governor of Canada had early intelligence of the transactions of this company. Fearing that their plan would deprive the French of the advantages of the fur trade, and prevent communications between Canada and Louisiana, he wrote to the governor of New-York and Pennsylvania, claiming the country east of the Ohio to the Alleganies, and forbidding the further encroachments of the English traders.

As yet, the Pennsylvanians had principally managed the trade with the Indians. But, being now about to be deprived of it, by the Ohio Company, who were opening a road to the Potomac, they excited the fears of the Indians, lest their lands should be taken from them, and gave early intelligence to the French, of the designs and transactions of the company.

The French governor soon manifested his hostile determination, by seizing several of the English traders, and carrying them to a French port on the south of Lake Erie. -The Twightwees, a tribe of Indians in Ohio, near Miami river, among whom the English had been trading, resented the seizure, and, by way of retaliation, took several French traders, and sent them to Pennsylvania.

In the mean time, a communication was open

ed along the French Creek and Allegany river, between Fort Presqu' Ile, on Lake Erie, and the Ohio; and French troops were stationed at convenient distances, secured by temporary fortifications.

The Ohio Company, thus threatened with the destruction of their trade, were now loud in their complaints. Dinwiddie, lieutenant governor of Virginia, to whom these complaints were addressed, laid the subject before the assembly, which ordered a messenger to be dispatched to the French commandant on the Ohio, to demand the reasons of his hostile conduct, and to summon the French to evacuate their forts in that region.

Sec. 3. The person entrusted with this service was George Washington, who at the early age of twenty-one, thus stepped forth in the publick cause, and began that line of services, which ended in the independence of his country.

The service to which Washington was now appointed, was both difficult and dangerous; the place of his destination being above four hundred miles distant, two hundred of which lay through a trackless desert inhabited by Indians. He arrived in safety, however, and delivered a letter from Gov. Dinwiddie to the commandant. Having received a written answer, and secretly taken the dimensions of the fort, he returned. The reply of the commandant to Gov. Dinwiddie was, that he had taken possession of the country, under the direction of the governor-general of Canada, to whom he would transmit his letter, and whose orders only he would obey.

Sec. 4. The British ministry, on being made acquainted with the claims, conduct, and determination of the French, without a formal decla

ration of war, instructed the Virginians to resist their encroachments by force of arms. Accordingly, a regiment was raised in Virginia, which was joined by an independent company from South Carolina, and with this force Washington, who was appointed to command the expedition, and was now raised from the rank of major to that of colonel, marched early in April, 1754, towards the Great Meadows, lying within the disputed territories, for the purpose of expelling the French. The enterprise of Washington and his troops was highly creditable to them, but the French forces being considerably superior, he was obliged to capitulate, with the privilege, however, of returning with his troops to Virginia.

On his arrival at the Great Meadows, he learned that the French had dispossessed some Virginians of a fortification, which the latter were erecting for the Ohio Company, at the confluence of the Allegany and Monongahela, and were engaged in completing it, for their own use. He also learned, that a detachment from that place, then on its march towards the Great Meadows, had encamped for the night, in a low and retired situation.

Under the guidance of some friendly Indians, and under cover of a dark and rainy night, this party he surprised and captured. Having erected, at the Great Meadows, a small stockade fort, afterwards called Fort Necessity, he proceeded with his troops, reinforced by troops from NewYork, and others from South Carolina, to nearly four hundred men, towards the French fort, Du Quesne, now Pittsburg, with the intention of dislodging the enemy. Hearing, however, that the enemy were approaching, he judged it prudent to retire to Fort Necessity. Here the enemy, one thousand five hundred strong, under the command of M. de Villiers, soon appeared, and commenced a furious attack on the fort. After an engagement of several hours, de Villiers demanded a parley, and offered terms of capitulation. These terms were rejected; but during the night, July 4th, articles were signed, by which Washington was permitted, upon surrendering the fort, to march with his troops, unmolested, to Virginia.