It is with the
greatest concern I acquaint you, that Mr. Ward, ensign in Captain Trent's
company, was compelled to surrender his small fort at the Fork of the
Monongahela to the French, on the 17th instant, who fell down from Venango,
with a fleet of three hundred and sixty batteaux and canoes, upwards of one
thousand men, and eighteen pieces of artillery, which they planted against the
fort, drew up their men, and sent the enclosed summons to Mr. Ward, who, having
but an inconsiderable number of men, and no cannon, to make a proper defence,
was obliged to surrender. They suffered him to draw off his men, arms, and
working-tools, and gave leave that he might retreat to the inhabitants.
I have heard of your
Honor's great zeal for his Majesty's service, and for all our interests on the
present occasion. You will see, by the enclosed speech of the Half-King, that
the Indians expect some assistance from you; and I am persuaded you will take
proper notice of their moving speech, and their unshaken fidelity.
I thought it more
advisable to acquaint your Honor with it immediately, than to wait till you
could get intelligence by the way of Williamsburg and the young man, as the
Half-King proposes.
I have arrived thus
far with a detachment of one hundred and fifty men. Colonel Fry, with the
remainder of the regiment and artillery, is daily expected. In the mean time,
we advance slowly across the mountains, making the roads, as we march, fit for
the carriage of
our great guns; and
are designed to proceed as far as the mouth of Red-stone Creek, which enters the
Monongahela about thirty-seven miles above the fort taken by the French, from
whence we have a water carriage down the river. And there is a storehouse built
by the Ohio Company, which may serve as a receptacle for our ammunition and
provisions.
Besides these
French, that came from Venango, we have credible accounts, that another party
are coming up the Ohio. We also have intelligence, that six hundred of the
Chippewas and Ottawas are marching down Scioto Creek to join them. I hope your
Honor will excuse the freedom I have assumed in acquainting you with these
advices; it was the warm zeal I owe my country, that influenced me to it, and
occasioned this express.
* This letter was immediately laid before the
legislature by the governor. A bill was then pending for a grant of ten
thousand pounds for the King's use, but it was obstructed in its progress by
the opposition of the Governor to the plan proposed by the Assembly for raising
the money, and no relief was obtained for the expedition. — Votes of the Pennsylvania Assembly, Vol.
IV. p. 313.
Whatever doubts
there may have been in the minds of some members of the Assembly, as to the King's
title to the Western lands, these doubts were not publicly urged as a reason
for withholding a grant of money. But the truth is, that, when the contest
between France and England began, neither power had any just title to the lands
west of the Ohio River. There could be no pretence, by either party, of
conquest, purchase, or occupancy. The French had been accustomed to pass from
Canada and the Lakes down the Wabash and through the Illinois country to
Louisiana, and a few English traders had recently gone over the mountains and
bartered with the Indians. The English government had even granted five hundred
thousand acres of land there to the Ohio Company. The claim by the English was
founded on the treaties of Utrecht and Aix-la-Chapelle, in which France
consented that Great Britain should have jurisdiction over all the regions
possessed by the Iroquois, or Six Nations. But there is no proof, that the
territory in question belonged to the Iroquois. In fact, there is the strongest
evidence to the contrary.
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