Le Moine, Baron de Longueiul, then governor of Montreal, being next in seniority, assumed the reins of power until the arrival of a successor.

The Marquis du Quesne de Menneville was appointed governor of Canada, Louisiana, Cape Breton, &c., on the recall of M. de la Jonquière in 1752; he was reputed a man of ability, but was of haughty and austere disposition. Galissonière who had recommended the appointment, furnished him with every information respecting the colony and the territorial claims of France; thus instructed he landed at Quebec in August, where he was received with the usual ceremonies.

The orders given to the new governor with regard to the disputed boundaries, were such as to leave little doubt on his mind, that the sword alone could enable him to secure their execution, and the character of his stubborn though unwarlike rivals, promised a determined resistance to his views.5 His first attention was therefore directed to the military

to be changed for tallow candles, observing that the latter would answer every purpose, and were less expensive.'"-Smith's History of Canada, vol. i., p. 223.

While Britain claimed an indefinite extent to the west, France insisted on confining her to the eastern side of the Alleghany mountains, and claimed the whole country whose waters run into the Mississippi, in virtue of her right, as the first discoverer of that river. The delightful region between the summit of those mountains and the Mississippi was the object for which these two powerful nations contended, and it soon became apparent that the sword alone could decide the contest."-Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. i., p. 294; Belsham, vol. ii., pp. 363, 364.

resources of his command; he forthwith organised the militia of Quebec and Montreal under efficient officers, and attached bodies of artillery to the garrison of each city; the militia of the country parishes next underwent a careful inspection, and nothing was neglected to strengthen the efficiency of this army.

In 1753 several French detachments were sent to the banks of the Ohio with orders to establish forts

"Thus France would have enjoyed, in time of peace, the whole Indian trade, and the English colonies, in time of war, must have had a frontier of 1200 miles to defend against blood-thirsty savages, conducted by French officers, and supported by regular troops. It was, in fact, to attempt the extinction of the British settlements, and yet without such interior communication as was projected between Canada and Louisiana, the French settlements on the St. Lawrence and Mississippi, could never, it was said, attain any high degree of consequence or security; the navigation of one of those rivers being at all seasons difficult, and that of the other blocked up with ice during the winter months, so as to preclude exterior support or relief. This scheme of usurpation, which is supposed to have long occupied the deliberations of the court of Versailles, was ardently embraced by M. de la Jonquière, now commander-in-chief of the French forces in North America, and by la Galissonière, a man of a bold and enterprising spirit, who had been appointed governor of New France in 1747. By their joint efforts, in addition to those of their predecessors, forts were erected along the Great Lakes, which communicate with the River St. Lawrence, and also on the Ohio and Mississippi. The vast chain was almost completed from Quebec to New Orleans, when the court of England, roused by repeated injuries, broke off the conferences relative to the limits of Nova Scotia.' Russell's Modern Europe, vol. iii., p. 273.

See Appendix, No. LXV.

7 "The governors of Canada, who were generally military men, had, for several preceding years, judiciously selected and fortified

and to secure the alliance of the Indians by liberal presents, and splendid promises. The wily savages, however, quickly perceived that the rival efforts of the two great European powers would soon lead to a war of which their country must be the scene,

such situations as would give their nation most influence with the Indians, and most facilitate incursions into the northern English provinces. The command of Lake Champlain had been acquired by erecting 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 now intended to unite these posts with the Mississippi, by taking positions which should enable them to circumscribe, and at the same time annoy, the frontier settlements of the English. The execution of this plan was probably in some degree accelerated by an act of the British government. The year after the conclusion of the war with France, several very influential persons, both in England and Virginia, who associated under the name of the Ohio Company, obtained from the Crown a grant for 600,000 acres of land, lying in the country which was claimed by both nations. Several opulent merchants, as well as noblemen and gentlemen, being members of this Company, its objects were commercial as well as territorial; and measures were immediately taken to derive all the advantages expected from their grants in both these respects, by establishing houses for carrying on their trade with the Indies. The governor of Canada, who obtained early intelligence of this intrusion, as he deemed it, into the dominions of his Christian Majesty, wrote immediately to the governors of New York and Pennsylvania, informing them that the English traders had encroached on the French territory, by trading with the Indians, and warning them that, if they did not desist, he should be under the necessity of seizing them wherever they should be found. This threat having been disregarded, it was put in execution by seizing the British traders among the Twightwees, and carrying them as prisoners to a fort on Lake Erie."-Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. i., p. 297.

*The Twightwees were Indians who lived on the banks of the Ohio.

and they endeavoured to the utmost of their ability to rid themselves of both their dangerous visitors. Disregarding these efforts and intreaties, both the English and French advanced nearer to each other, and the latter fortified several posts upon the Alleghany, and the Ohio. When the hostile designs of France became thus apparent, Mr. Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia, which was the most exposed of the British provinces, undertook to check these aggressions upon his own responsibility, and formed a regiment of militia for the purpose. A small detachment raised by the Ohio Company was immediately sent to protect the traders, and take possession of the Forks of the Ohio and Monongahela, the precise spot where the first efforts of the French would probably be made. They had scarcely begun the erection of a fort when M. de Contrecœur with 1200 men arrived from Venango in 300 canoes, drove them from the ground and completed and occupied their fortification; to this since well known spot he gave the name of Fort du Quesne. In the meantime the

"The country taken possession of by the French troops had actually been granted as a part of the territory of Virginia to the Ohio Company, who were in consequence commencing its settlements." -Marshall's Life of Washington, vol., p. 298.

"Which was the less to be wondered at," remarks Major Washington in his Journal, "as the garrison of the fort consisted but of thirty-three effective men." They were commanded by

Captain Trent.

1 This name was given in honour of the then governor of Canada, the Marquis du Quesne de Menneville. Fort du Quesne is now called Pittsburg.

Virginia militia marched to the aid of the English, and met them on their retreat at Wills Creek; the colonel of this body had died soon after it took the field, and the command devolved upon the officer next in seniority-GEORGE WASHINGTON, the father of the Great Republic.

To gain intelligence of the movements of the Vir1754 ginians, frequent expeditions were dispatched from Fort du Quesne. One of these, forty-five in number, commanded by M. Jumonville,2 was surprised by Colonel Washington, and destroyed or captured with the exception of one man.3 The victors immediately proceeded to intrench themselves on the scene of action, a place called Little Meadows, with the view of holding their ground till reinforcements should arrive; they gave to their little stronghold the name of Fort Necessity. They were soon after joined by

2 Smollett says that "Jumonville bore a summons to Colonel Washington, requiring him to quit the fort, which he pretended was built on ground belonging to the French or their allies. So little regard was paid to this intimation, that the English fell upon this party, and, as the French affirm, without the least provocation, either slew or took the whole detachment. De Villiers, incensed at these unprovoked hostilities. . . ."-Smollett, vol. iii., p. 421.

"This skirmish, of small importance, perhaps, in itself, was yet among the principal causes of the war. It is no less memorable as the first appearance in the pages of history of one of their brightest ornaments, of that great and good man,-GENERAL WASHINGTON." -Lord Mahon's History of England, vol. iv., p. 65.

"This event was no sooner known in England than the British ambassador at Paris received directions to complain of it to the French ministry, as an open violation of the peace."-Smollett, vol. iii., p. 421.