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[Illustration: Original Cover]
[Illustration: THE HOUSE WHERE THE FIRST AMERICAN FLAG WAS MADE.]
AMERICAN PIONEERS AND PATRIOTS.
GEORGE WASHINGTON;
OR,
LIFE IN AMERICA ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
BY
JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.
_ILLUSTRATED._
NEW YORK:
DODD & MEAD, PUBLISHERS,
751 BROADWAY.
_Copyright, Dodd & Mead, 1875._
PREFACE.
As Columbus and La Salle were the most prominent of the Pioneers of
America, so was Washington the most illustrious of its Patriots. In
the career of Columbus we have a vivid sketch of life in the tropical
portions of the New World four hundred years ago.
The adventures of La Salle, in exploring this continent two hundred
years ago, from the Northern Lakes to the Mexican Gulf, are almost
without parallel, even in the pages of romance. His narrative gives
information, such as can nowhere else be found, of the native
inhabitants, their number, character, and modes of life when the white
man first reached these shores.
The history of George Washington is as replete with marvels as that of
either of his predecessors. The world during the last century has made
more progress than during the preceding five. The life of Washington
reveals to us, in a remarkable degree, the state of society in our
land, the manners and customs of the people, their joys and griefs, one
hundred years ago.
We search history in vain to find a parallel to Washington. As
a statesman, as a general, as a thoroughly good man, he stands
pre-eminent. He was so emphatically the Father of his country that it
may almost be said that he created the Republic. And now, that we are
about to celebrate the Centennial of these United States--the most
favored nation upon which the sun shines--it is fitting that we should
recall, with grateful hearts, the memory of our illustrious benefactor
George Washington.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE. 3
CHAPTER I.
The Youth of George Washington. 9
CHAPTER II.
The First Military Expedition. 44
CHAPTER III.
The French War. 78
CHAPTER IV.
The Warrior, the Statesman, and the Planter. 108
CHAPTER V.
The Gathering Storm of War. 138
CHAPTER VI.
The Conflict Commenced. 170
CHAPTER VII.
Progress of the War. 202
CHAPTER VIII.
The Siege of Boston. 232
CHAPTER IX.
The War in New York. 264
CHAPTER X.
The Vicissitudes of War. 295
CHAPTER XI.
The Loss of Philadelphia, and the Capture of Burgoyne. 325
CHAPTER XII.
Concluding Scenes. 341
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
CHAPTER I.
_The Youth of George Washington._
Lawrence and John Washington--Their Emigration--Augustine
Washington--His Marriage with Jane Ball--Birth of
George--The Parental Home--The Scenery--Anecdotes--The
Mother of Washington--Education--Lord Fairfax--The Surveying
Tour--George at the age of seventeen years--The Mansion of Lord
Fairfax--Contrast between the English and the French--British
Desperadoes--The Ferocity of War--Military Organization--Claims
of France and England--Scenes of Woe--Heroic Excursion of
Washington to the Ohio.
About two centuries ago there were two young men, in England, by the
name of Lawrence and John Washington. They were gentlemen of refinement
and education, the sons of an opulent and distinguished family.
Lawrence was a graduate of Oxford University, and was, by profession,
a lawyer. John entered into commercial and mercantile affairs, and was
an accomplished man of business. The renown of Virginia, named after
Elizabeth, England’s virgin queen, was then luring many, even of the
most illustrious in wealth and rank, to the shores of the New World.
Lawrence and John embarked together, to seek their fortunes on the
banks of the Potomac.[1]
It was a lovely morning in summer when the ship entered Chesapeake Bay,
and sailing up that majestic inland sea, entered the silent, solitary,
forest-fringed Potomac. Eagerly they gazed upon the Indian wigwams
which were clustered upon the banks of many a sheltered and picturesque
cove; and upon the birch canoes, which were propelled by the painted
and plumed natives over the placid waters. The two brothers purchased
an extensive tract of land, on the western bank of the Potomac, about
fifty miles above its entrance into the bay. Here, with an estate of
thousands of acres spreading around them, and upon a spot commanding
a magnificent view of the broad river and the sublime forests, they
reared their modest but comfortable mansion.
John married Miss Pope. We have none of the details of their lives,
full of incidents of intensest interest to them, but of little
importance to the community at large. Life is ever a tragedy. From the
times of the patriarchs until now, it has been, to most of the families
of earth, a stormy day with a few gleams of sunshine breaking through
the clouds. Children were born and children died. There were the joys
of the bridal and the tears of the funeral.
Upon the death of John Washington, his second son, Augustine, remained
at home in charge of the paternal acres. He seems to have been, like
his father, a very worthy man, commanding the respect of the community,
which was rapidly increasing around him. He married Jane Butler, a
young lady who is described as remarkably beautiful, intelligent--and
lovely in character. A very happy union was sadly terminated by the
early death of Jane. A broken-hearted husband and three little children
were left to weep over her grave.
The helpless orphans needed another mother. One was found in Mary Ball.
She was all that husband or children could desire. Subsequent events
drew the attention of the whole nation, and almost of the civilized
world, to Mary Washington, for she became the mother of that George,
whose name is enshrined in the hearts of countless millions. It is the
uncontradicted testimony that the mother of George Washington was, by
instinct and culture, a lady; she had a superior mind, well disciplined
by study, and was a cheerful, devout Christian.
Augustine and Mary were married on the 6th of March, 1730. They
received to their arms their first-born child, to whom the name of
George was given, on the 22d of February, 1732. Little did the parents
imagine that their babe would go out into the world, from the seclusion
of his home amid the forests of the Potomac, to render the name of
Washington one of the most illustrious in the annals of our race.
George Washington was peculiarly fortunate in both father and mother.
All the influences of home tended to ennoble him. Happiness in
childhood is one of the most essential elements in the formation of
a good character. This child had ever before him the example of all
domestic and Christian virtues. The parental home consisted of a
spacious, one-story cottage, with a deep veranda in front. It was,
architecturally, an attractive edifice, and it occupied one of the most
lovely sites on the banks of the beautiful and majestic Potomac.
Soon after the birth of George, his father moved from the banks of
the Potomac to the Rappahannock, nearly opposite the present site of
Fredericksburg. Here he died, on the 12th of April, 1743, at the age
of forty-nine.
The banks of the Rappahannock were covered with forests, spreading in
grandeur over apparently an interminable expanse of hills and vales.
In those days there were but few spots, in that vast region, which
the axe of the settler had opened to the sun. But the smoke from the
Indian camp-fires could often be seen curling up from the glooms of the
forests, and the canoes of Indian hunters and warriors often arrested
the eye, as they were gliding swiftly over the mirrored waters.
Trained by such parents, and in such a home, George, from infancy,
developed a noble character. He was a handsome boy, gentlemanly in
his manners, of finely developed figure, and of animated, intelligent
features. His physical strength, frankness, moral courage, courtesy,
and high sense of honor, made him a general favorite. Every child has
heard the story of his trying the keen edge of his hatchet upon one
of the favorite cherry trees of his father’s, and of his refusal to
attempt to conceal the fault by a lie.[2]
Augustine Lawrence, the father of George, died when his son was but
twelve years of age. Mary, a grief-stricken widow, was left with six
fatherless children. She proved herself amply competent to discharge
the weighty responsibilities thus devolving upon her. George ever
honored his mother as one who had been to him a guardian angel. In her
daily life she set before him a pattern of every virtue. She instilled
into his susceptible mind those principles of probity and piety which
ever ornamented his character, and to which he was indebted for success
in the wonderful career upon which he soon entered.
In the final division of the parental property, Lawrence, the eldest
child of Jane Butler, received the rich estate called Mount Vernon,
which included twenty-five hundred acres of land. George received,
as his share, the house and lands on the Rappahannock. The paternal
mansion in Westmoreland passed to Augustine.
Lady Washington, as she was called, was deemed, before her marriage,
one of the most beautiful girls in Virginia. Through all the severe
discipline of life, she developed a character of the highest
excellence. And thus she obtained an influence over the mind of her
son, which she held, unimpaired, until the day of her death.
The wealthy families of Virginia took much pride in their equipage,
and especially in the beauty of the horses which drew their massive
carriages. Lady Washington had a span of iron-grays, of splendid figure
and remarkable spirit, and of which she was very fond. One of these,
though very docile by the side of his mate in the carriage harness, had
never been broken to the saddle. It was said that the spirited animal
would allow no one to mount him. George, though then a lad of but
thirteen years of age, was tall, strong, and very athletic.
One morning, as the colts were feeding upon the lawn, George, who had
some companions visiting him, approached the high-blooded steed, and
after soothing him for some time with caresses, watched his opportunity
and leaped upon his back. The colt, for a moment, seemed stupefied with
surprise and indignation. Then, after a few desperate, but unavailing
attempts, by rearing and plunging, to throw his rider, he dashed over
the fields with the speed of the wind.
George, glorying in his achievement, and inconsiderate of the peril to
which he was exposing the animal, gave the frantic steed the rein.
When the horse began to show signs of exhaustion, he urged him on,
hoping thus to subdue him to perfect docility. The result was that a
blood-vessel was burst, and the horse dropped dead beneath his rider.
George, greatly agitated by the calamity, hastened to his mother with
the tidings. Her characteristic reply was:
“My son, I forgive you, because you have had the courage to tell me the
truth at once. Had you skulked away, I should have despised you.”
In school studies George was a diligent scholar, though he did not
manifest any special brilliance, either in his power of acquiring
or communicating information. He was endowed with a good mind, of
well balanced powers. Such a mind is probably far more desirable, as
promotive of both happiness and usefulness, than one conspicuous for
the excrescences of what is called genius. He left school the autumn
before he was sixteen.[3]
There is still in existence a manuscript book, which singularly
illustrates his intelligence, his diligence, and his careful business
habits. This lad of thirteen had, of his own accord, carefully copied,
as a guide for himself in future life, promissory notes, bills of sale,
land warrants, leases, wills, and many other such business papers. Thus
he was prepared, at any time, to draw up such legal documents as any of
the farmers around might need.
In another manuscript book he had collected, with great care, the most
important rules of etiquette which govern in good society.[4] Had some
good angel whispered in the ear of George, at that early age, that he
was in manhood to enter upon as sublime a career as mortal ever trod,
and soaring above the rank of nobles, was to take position with kings
and emperors, he could hardly have made better preparations for these
responsibilities than his own instincts led him to make.
It may be almost said of George Washington, as Lamartine said of Louis
Philippe, that he had no youth; he was born a man. At sixteen years
of age George finished his school education. And though a Virginia
school, in that day, and in the midst of so sparse a population, could
not have been one of high character, George, by his inherent energies,
had made acquisitions of practical knowledge which enabled him, with
honor, to fill the highest stations to which one, in this world, can be
elevated.[5]
George was fond of mathematical and scientific studies, and excelled
in all those branches. With these tastes he was led to enter upon
the profession of a civil engineer. There was great demand for such
services, in the new and almost unexplored realms of Virginia, where
the population was rapidly increasing and spreading farther and farther
back into the wilderness. Notwithstanding the extreme youth of George,
he immediately found ample and remunerative employment; for his
commanding stature, and dignity of character, caused him everywhere to
be regarded as an accomplished man.
His handwriting was as plain as print. Every document which came from
his pen was perfect in spelling, punctuation, capitals, and the proper
division into paragraphs. This accuracy, thus early formed, he retained
through life.
Upon leaving school at Westmoreland, George ascended the river to visit
his elder brother Lawrence, at Mount Vernon. It was then, as now, a
lovely spot on the western bank of the river, commanding an enchanting
view of land and water. Mr. William Fairfax, an English gentleman of
wealth and high rank, had purchased a large tract of land in that
vicinity, and had reared his commodious mansion at a distance of about
eight miles from Mount Vernon. The aristocratic planters of the region
around were frequent guests at his hospitable home. Lawrence Washington
married one of his daughters.
Lawrence Washington was suddenly attacked with a painful and alarming
sickness. A change of climate was recommended. With fraternal love
George accompanied his brother to the West Indies. The invalid
continued to fail, through the tour, and soon after reaching home died.
Lawrence was a man of great excellence of character. His amiability
rendered his home one of peculiar happiness. At the early age of
thirty-four he died, leaving an infant child, and a youthful widow
stricken with grief. He left a large property. The valuable estate
of Mount Vernon he bequeathed to his infant daughter. Should she die
without heirs, it was to revert to his brother George, who was also
appointed executor of the estate.
Lord Fairfax visited William, his younger brother, and was so pleased
with the country, and surprised at the cheapness with which its fertile
acres could be bought, that he purchased an immense territory, which
extended over unexplored regions of the interior, including mountains,
rivers, and valleys. Lord Fairfax met George Washington at his brother
William’s house. He was charmed with the manliness, intelligence, and
gentlemanly bearing of the young man. George was then but one month
over sixteen years of age. And yet Lord Fairfax engaged him to survey
these pathless wilds, where scarcely an emigrant’s cabin could be
found, and which were ranged by ferocious beasts, and by savages often
still more ferocious. It may be doubted whether a boy of his age was
ever before intrusted with a task so arduous.
It was in the month of March, in the year 1748, when George Washington,
with an Indian guide and a few white attendants, commenced the
survey. The crests of the mountains were still whitened with ice and
snow. Chilling blasts swept the plains. The streams were swollen into
torrents by the spring rains. The Indians, however, whose hunting
parties ranged these forests, were at that time friendly. Still there
were vagrant bands, wandering here and there, ever ready to kill and
plunder. The enterprise upon which Washington had entered was one full
of romance, toil, and peril. It required the exercise of constant
vigilance and sagacity.
Though these wilds may be called pathless, still there were here and
there narrow trails, which the moccasined foot of the savage had
trodden for uncounted centuries. They led in a narrow track, scarcely
two feet in breadth, through dense thickets, over craggy hills, and
along the banks of placid streams or foaming torrents. The heroic boy
must have found, in these scenes of solitude, beauty, and grandeur,
some hours of exquisite enjoyment. In a sunny spring morning he would
glide down some placid river, in the birch canoe, through enchanting
scenery, the banks fringed with bloom and verdure. There were towering
mountains, from whose eminences, the eye embraced as magnificent a
region of lake and forest, river and plain, as this globe can anywhere
present.
It was generally necessary to camp out at night, wherever darkness
might overtake them. With their axes a rude cabin was easily
constructed, roofed with bark, which afforded a comfortable shelter
from wind and rain. The forest presented an ample supply of game.
Delicious brook trout were easily taken from the streams. Exercise
and fresh air gave appetite. With a roaring fire crackling before the
camp, illumining the forest far and wide, the adventurers cooked their
supper, and ate it with a relish which the pampered guests in lordly
banqueting halls have seldom experienced. Their sleep was probably more
sweet than was ever found on beds of down. Occasionally the party would
find shelter for the night in the wigwam of the friendly Indian.
Strange must have been the emotions which at times agitated the bosom
of this pensive, reflective, heroic boy, as at midnight, far away from
the haunts of civilization, in the wigwam of the savage, he listened
to the wailings of the storm, interrupted only by the melancholy cry
of the night bird, and the howl of wolves and other unknown beasts
of prey. By the flickering light of the wigwam fire, he saw, sharing
his couch, the dusky forms of the Indian hunter, his squaw, and his
pappooses. Upon one or two occasions they found the lonely cabin of
some bold frontiersmen, who had plunged into the wilderness, and who
was living at but one remove above the condition of the savage. From
the journal which he kept we make the following extract, under date of
March 15, 1748. He is describing a night at an emigrant’s cabin.
“Worked hard till night, and then returned. After supper we were
lighted into a room; and I, being not so good a woodman as the rest,
stripped myself very orderly, and went into the bed, as they call it,
when, to my surprise, I found it to be nothing but a little straw
matted together, without sheet or anything else, but only one thread
bare blanket, with double its weight of vermin. I was glad to get up
and put on my clothes, and lie as my companions did. Had we not been
very tired, I am sure we should not have slept much that night. I made
a promise to sleep no more in a bed, choosing rather to sleep in the
open air before a fire.”
One night, after a very hard day’s work, when soundly sleeping, his
camp and bed, which were made of the most combustible materials, took
fire, and he very narrowly escaped being consumed in the flames. After
spending several months on the survey, he wrote to a friend in the
following strain:
“The receipt of your kind letter of the 2d instant afforded me
unspeakable pleasure. It convinces me that I am still in the memory of
so worthy a friend; a friendship I shall ever be proud of increasing.
Yours gave me the more pleasure, as I received it among barbarians and
an uncouth set of people. Since you received my letter of October last,
I have not slept above three or four nights in a bed. But after walking
a good deal all the day, I have lain down before the fire, on a little
hay, straw, fodder, or bearskin, whichever was to be had, with man,
wife, and children, like dogs and cats and happy is he who gets the
berth nearest the fire. I have never had my clothes off, but have lain
and slept in them, except the few nights I have been in Fredericksburg.”
Such experiences not only develop, but rapidly create character.
George returned, from the successful accomplishment of this arduous
enterprise, with all his manly energies consolidated. Though but
seventeen years of age, he was a mature, self-reliant man, prepared to
assume any of the responsibilities of manhood.
The imperial State of Virginia needed a public surveyor. This lad
of seventeen years had already risen so high in the estimation of
the community, that he was appointed to that responsible office. For
three years he performed, with singular ability, the duties which
thus devolved upon him. Great must have been the enjoyment which he
found, in the field of labor thus opened before him. The scenes to
which he was introduced must have been, at times, quite enchanting.
The wonderful scenery presented to the eye in beautiful Virginia,
the delicious climate, the grandeur of the star-bespangled sky, as
witnessed from the midnight encampment, the majestic forests abounding
in game, the placid lake, whose mirrored waters were covered with
water-fowl of every variety of gorgeous plumage, the silent river,
along which the Indian’s birch canoe glided almost as a meteor--all
these infinitely diversified scenes must, at times, have entranced a
young man in the vigor of youth and health, and buoyant with the spirit
of high enterprise.
Lord Fairfax had become the firm friend of George Washington.
The opulent English nobleman had reared for himself a large and
architecturally beautiful mansion of stone, beyond the Blue Ridge,
in one of the most sheltered, sunny, and lovely valleys of the
Alleghanies. This beautiful world of ours can present no region
more attractive than that in which Lord Fairfax constructed his
transatlantic home.[6]
His opulence enabled him to live there in splendor quite baronial. Many
illustrious families had emigrated to this State of wonderful beauty
and inexhaustible capabilities. There was no colony, on this continent,
which could present more cultivated and polished society than Virginia.
Distinguished guests frequented the parlors of Lord Fairfax. Among them
all, there were none more honored than George Washington. He was one of
the handsomest and most dignified of men, and a gentleman by birth, by
education, and by all his instincts.
The tide of emigration, pouring in a constant flood across the
Atlantic, was now gradually forcing its way over the first range of
the Alleghanies, into the fertile and delightful valleys beyond. Still
farther west there were realms, much of which no white man’s foot had
ever trod, and whose boundaries no one knew.
The French, who were prosperously established in Canada, and who, by
their wise policy, had effectually won the confidence and affection
of the natives, were better acquainted with this vast region than
were the English; and they much more fully appreciated its wonderful
capabilities. And still the English colonies, in population, exceeded
those of the French ten to one.
Almost from the beginning, the relations of the English with the
natives were hostile. And it can not be denied that the fault was with
the English. The Indians were very desirous of friendly intercourse.
It was an unspeakable advantage to them, and they highly prized it,
to be able to exchange their furs for the kettles, hatchets, knives,
guns, powder and shot of the English. With the bullet they could strike
down the deer at three times the distance to which they could throw an
arrow. The shrewd Indian, who had used flints only to cut with, could
well appreciate the value of a hatchet and a knife.
Our Puritan fathers were very anxious to treat the Indians with
brotherly kindness. And so were the governmental authorities generally
in all the colonies. But there was no strength in the Christian
principles of good men, or in the feeble powers which were established
in the colonies, to pursue, arrest, and punish the desperadoes who,
from the frontiers, penetrated the wilderness with sword and rifle,
shot down the Indians, plundered the wigwams, and inflicted every
outrage upon their wives and daughters. No candid man can read an
account of these outrages without saying:
“Had I been an Indian I would have joined in any conspiracy, and would
have strained every nerve, to exterminate such wretches from the land
they were polluting.”
The untaught natives could draw no fine distinctions. When the Indian
hunter returned to his wigwam, and found it plundered and in ashes,
his eldest son dead and weltering in blood, and heard from his wife
and daughters the story of their wrongs, he could make no distinction
between the miscreants who had perpetrated the demoniac deed, and the
Christian white men who deplored such atrocities and who implored God
to interpose and prevent them. The poor Indian could only say:
“The white man has thus wronged me. Oh, thou Great Spirit, whenever I
meet the white man, wilt thou help me to take vengeance.”
Increasing population increased these outrages. There was no law in the
wilderness. These British desperadoes regarded no more the restraints
of religion than did the bears and the wolves. They behaved like
demons, and they roused the demoniac spirit in the savages. Crime was
followed by crime, cruelty by cruelty, blood by blood. But for man’s
inhumanity to man beautiful Virginia, with her brilliant skies, her
salubrious air, her fertile fields, her crystal streams, her majestic
mountains, her sublime forests, her placid lakes, might have been
almost like the Garden of Eden. If the heart of man had been imbued
with the religion of Jesus, the whole realm might have been adorned
with homes, in some degree, at least, like those found in the mansions
of the blest. But the conduct of depraved men converted the whole
region into a valley of Hinnom, abounding in smouldering ruins, gory
corpses, and groans of despair.
Rapidly, on both sides, the spirit of vengeance spread. The savages,
with their fiend-like natures roused, perpetrated deeds of cruelty
which demons could not have surpassed. They made no discrimination. The
English were to be exterminated. When the frontiersman was roused, at
midnight, by the yell of the savages, and being left for dead upon the
ground, with his scalp torn from his head, after some hours of stupor
revived to see his cabin in ashes, the mangled corpses of his children
strewn around, with their skulls cleft by the tomahawk, and not finding
the remains of wife or daughter, was sure that they were carried into
Indian captivity, perhaps to be tortured to death, for the amusement
of howling savages--as thus bleeding, exhausted, and in agony he crept
along to some garrison house, he was in no mood to listen to the
dictates of humanity. Thus the terrible conflict which arose, assumed
the aspect of a war between maddened fiends.
George Washington had attained the age of nineteen years. Youthful
as he was, he was regarded as one of the prominent men of the State
of Virginia. Every day brought reports of tragedies enacted in the
solitudes of the wilderness, whose horrors will only be fully known
in that dread day of judgment when all secrets will be revealed. It
became necessary to call the whole military force of Virginia into
requisition, to protect the frontiers from the invasion of savage
bands, who emerged from all points like wolves from the forest.
The State was divided into districts. Over each a military commander
was appointed, with the title of Major. George Washington was one of
these majors. The responsibilities of these officers were very great,
for they were necessarily invested with almost dictatorial powers. The
savages would come rushing at midnight from the wilderness, upon some
lonely cabin or feeble settlement. An awful scene of shrieks and flame
and death would ensue, and the band would disappear beyond the reach of
any avenging arm. In such a war the tactics of European armies could be
of but little avail.
The State of Virginia was then, as now, bounded on the west by the Ohio
river, which the French called La Belle Rivière. England claimed nearly
the whole North American coast, as hers by the right of discovery,
her ships having first cruised along its shores. The breadth of the
continent was unknown. Consequently the English assumed that the
continent was theirs, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, whatever its
breadth might be.[7]
But the ships of France were the first which entered the river
St. Lawrence; and her voyagers, ascending the magnificent stream,
discovered that series of majestic lakes, whose fertile shores
presented inviting homes for countless millions. Her enterprising
explorers, in the birch canoe, traversed the solitary windings of
the Ohio and the Mississippi. Hence France claimed the whole of that
immense valley, almost a world in itself, whose unknown grandeur no
mind then had begun to appreciate.
It was then a law of nations, recognized by all the European powers,
that the discovery of a coast entitled the nation by whom the discovery
was made, to the possession of that territory, to the exclusion of
the right of any other European power. It was also an acknowledged
principle of national law, that the discovery and exploration of a
river entitled the nation by whom this exploration was made, to
the whole valley, of whatever magnitude, which that river and its
tributaries might drain.[8]
These conflicting claims led to the march of armies, the devastations
of fleets, terrific battles--blood, misery, and death. France, that
she might retain a firm hold of the territory which she claimed, began
to rear a cordon of forts, at commanding points, from the great lakes,
down the Ohio and the Mississippi, until she reached the Spanish claims
in the south. Though France had discovered the Mississippi, in its
upper waters, the Spanish chevalier, De Soto, had previously launched
his boats near its entrance into the Gulf, and his tragic life was
closed by burial beneath its waves.
An awful struggle, which caused as great woes perhaps as this sorrowful
world has ever endured, was now approaching, for the possession of this
continent. France and England were the two most powerful kingdoms, if
perhaps we except Spain, then upon the globe. The intelligent reader
will be interested in a more minute account of the nature of those
claims, which English historians, generally, have somewhat ignored,
but upon which results of such momentous importance to humanity were
suspended.
In the year 1497, John Cabot, with a fleet of four, some say five
ships, sailed from Bristol, England, and discovered the coast of
Labrador. But little is known respecting this voyage, for the journal
was lost. He returned to England, greatly elated, supposing that he had
discovered the empire of China.
The next year his son, Sebastian, who had accompanied his father on the
former voyage, sailed from Bristol, with two ships, in the month of
May, and touched the coast of Labrador, far away in the north. Finding
it excessively cold, even in July, he directed his course south, and
cruised along, keeping the coast constantly in sight, until, passing
Nova Scotia, he entered the broad gulf of Maine. He continued his
voyage, it is supposed, until, rounding the long curvature of Cape
Cod, he found an open sea extending far to the west. He passed on until
he reached the latitude of Cape Hatteras, when, finding his provisions
failing him, he returned home. It was this voyage upon which England
founded her claim to the whole of that portion of the continent whose
coast had been thus explored. The breadth of the continent was entirely
unknown.[9]
Upon this claim the grants to the Virginia, as also to the Connecticut
colony, were across the whole breadth of the continent. King Charles
I., in the fifth year of his reign, in the year 1630, granted to one
of his favorites, Sir Robert Heath, all that part of America which
lies between thirty-one and thirty-six degrees of north latitude, from
the Atlantic to the Pacific. This truly imperial gift included nearly
the whole sea-coast of North and South Carolina, extending from sea to
sea.[10]
The Spanish adventurer, De Soto, whose wonderful exploits are recorded
in one of the volumes of this series, discovered the Mississippi, near
its mouth, in the year 1541. Some years before this, in 1508, a French
exploring expedition entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and framed a map
of its shores. In 1525, France took formal possession of the country.
Ten years after, in 1535, M. Cartier ascended the St. Lawrence,
which he so named, as he entered the river on that saint’s day. This
wonderful stream, whose bed expands into a series of the most majestic
lakes on this globe, presents a continuous water-course of over two
thousand miles, and is supposed to contain more than one-half of all
the fresh water on this planet.[11]
Several trading expeditions visited the region. In 1608 the city of
Quebec was founded. French voyagers, in the birch canoe, extensively
explored rivers and lakes, for the purchase of furs. They established a
mission on the banks of Lake Huron, in the year 1641, and pushing their
explorations to Lake Superior, established one there in 1660. Another
mission was founded in 1671, at the Falls of St. Mary, which acquired
much renown. In that same year France took formal possession of the
vast regions of the north-west.
Two years after this, in 1673, Marquette and his companions discovered
the Mississippi. In 1680, Father Hennepin explored that stream to
its sources far away in the north. In 1682, La Salle performed his
wonderful voyage down the whole length of the river, to the Gulf. A
minute account of the romantic adventures he encountered, will be
found in the History of La Salle, one of the volumes of this series. In
1699, Lemoine D’Iberville entered the Mississippi with two good ships,
explored its mouths, and ascended the river about seventy-five miles,
carefully sounding his way. One morning, greatly to his surprise, he
saw a British corvette, with twelve cannon, under full sail, breasting
the current. He ordered the British immediately to leave the river,
stating that he had ample force to compel them to do so. The British
officer felt constrained to obey, though not without remonstrance. He
said:
“England discovered this country fifty years ago; and has a better
right to it than the French have. We will soon come back and teach you
that the country is ours.”
This was the first meeting of the two rival nations in the Mississippi
valley. The bend in the river, where this occurrence took place, has
since been called the “English Bend.”[12]
Such was the nature of the conflicting claims advanced by France and
England. France was proud; England haughty. Neither would consent to
an amicable compromise, or to submit the question to the arbitration
of referees. As the year rolled on, English emigrants, crowding the
Atlantic coasts, were looking wistfully across the Alleghanies. The
French, descending from Canada, had established several trading posts,
which were also fortifications, in the beautiful valley of the Ohio.
There is much discrepancy in the details of these movements, which
have descended to us through very unreliable sources. The writer has
space here only to give the facts which are generally admitted. It is
universally admitted that the French won the love of the Indians to
an extraordinary degree. An aged chief of the Six Nations, said, at
Easton, in 1758:
“The Indians left you because of your own fault. When we heard that the
French were coming we asked you for help and arms. But we did not get
them. The French came. They treated us kindly, and gained our love. The
Governor of Virginia settled on our lands for his own benefit, and,
when we wanted help, forsook us.”[13]
Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, hearing of these encroachments, as he
regarded them, decided to send a commissioner across the Alleghanies,
to one of these posts, with a double object in view. One, and the
avowed object, was to remonstrate, in the name of Great Britain,
against this trespass, as he pronounced it, upon British territory.
The other, and the true object, was to ascertain the number, strength,
and position of the French garrisons, and to survey a route by which an
army might be sent for their capture.[14]
It was indeed a perilous enterprise; one from which the boldest spirit
might recoil. The first garrison which could be reached was on the
Ohio river, about one hundred and twenty miles below the point where
Pittsburg now stands. Here the French were erecting a strong fortress,
to which the Indians resorted for trade. There was an intervening
wilderness, from the settlements in Virginia, to be traversed, of
pathless forests, gloomy morasses, craggy mountains, and almost
impenetrable thickets, of nearly six hundred miles. Bands of savages,
on the war-path or engaged in the hunt, were ever ranging these wilds.
Many were exasperated by wrongs which they themselves had received, or
of which they had heard, inflicted by the white men. The Indians, in
all these north-western regions, had welcomed the French as brothers;
and truly fraternal relationship existed between them. And they had
nearly all learned to hate the English, who have never succeeded in
winning the love of any people.
In such a journey, one must depend entirely, for subsistence, upon
the game which could be taken. There was danger of being crippled by
a strain or a broken bone, and of thus perishing, beyond the reach of
all aid. There was no little danger from the tomahawk of the savage.
It was also probable that the French officers would not allow the
commissioner, whom they would regard as a spy, to return to the English
colonies with information so valuable to their foes. Principles of
justice and mercy have never had much control in military affairs. It
would be very easy for the French so to arrange matters, that a band
of savages should massacre and plunder the party of the commissioner,
in the depths of the forest, under such circumstances that it would
necessarily be regarded as merely a savage outrage.
There was no one to be found willing to expose himself to such
hardships, and his life to such risks. At length George Washington,
who was then but twenty years and six months old, came forward
and volunteered his services. It was universally regarded, by the
community, as an act of great heroism. Governor Dinwiddie, a blunt
and sturdy Scotchman, eagerly accepted his proffered services. As he
grasped the hand of the youthful Washington, he exclaimed:
“Truly you are a brave lad. And if you play your cards well, you shall
have no cause to repent of your bargain.”
The sobriety and dignity of character of Washington were such, that
no one thought of accusing him of boyish fool-hardiness. And he had
such experience in the deprivations and perils of the wilderness, that
it could not be questioned that he fully understood the nature of the
enterprise in which he had engaged.
On the 14th of November, 1753, Washington set out, from Williamsburg,
Virginia, on this perilous expedition. His party consisted of eight
men, two of them being Indian guides. The storms of winter were rapidly
approaching. Already the crests of the mountains were whitened with
snow. The autumnal rains had swollen the brooks into torrents. Warmly
clad in furs, the party did not fear the cold. With their axes they
could speedily rear a camp, which would shelter them from the fiercest
storm. Wood was abundant; and the most dreary of midnight scenes may be
enlivened by the blaze of the camp fire.
In such a shelter, before such a fire, with choice cuts of venison, the
fattest of nature’s poultry, and delicious trout fresh drawn from the
brook, these hardy adventurers, accustomed to the woodman’s lodging
and the woodman’s fare, could enjoy the richest of repasts, and all the
comforts of the warm and bright fireside.
Many days were passed, full of incidents, romantic adventures, and
hair-breadth escapes, when the barriers of the Alleghanies were
safely surmounted, and the explorers, winding their way through the
defiles, descended into the fertile and grand valley beyond. The Indian
guides conducted them by a route which led to the upper waters of the
Monongahela river. This stream, flowing toward the north, meets the
Alleghany, which takes its rise near the great lakes. This union forms
the Ohio.
Upon this solitary stream the Indians constructed birch canoes, and
the little party paddled down, through sublime solitudes, a distance
of nearly three hundred miles, to the mouth of the river, where
Pittsburg now stands. The voyage occupied eight days. Occasionally
they passed a small cluster of Indian wigwams. Silently the impassible
children of the forest gazed upon them as they passed, offering no
molestation. There was something truly awe-inspiring in the silence of
the wilderness. No voice was heard. No blow of axe or hammer sent its
reverberations to the ear. There was no report of the musket to break
the solemn stillness. The arrow of the hunter, in its flight through
the air, gave forth no sound.
Having reached the mouth of the Monongahela, they heard that the French
had an important military fort on French Creek, called also Rivière aux
Bœufs, about fifteen miles south of Lake Erie.[15] The French were in
possession of a strong station at Presque Isle, on the southern coast
of Lake Erie. From this point they had constructed a good wagon road to
the head of boat navigation on French Creek. Here they reared another
fort, as is supposed, about the year 1752.[16] “Through rivers and
creeks, snow, rain and cold,” Washington and his little party, toiling
through the dreary wilderness, reached French Creek on the 11th of
November. Washington had for his companion, Mr. Christopher Gist (who
was a frontiersman of great energy and experience), beside his Indian
guides, with four other white men and two Indians.[17] Forty-one days
were spent in this arduous journey. They found a small French outpost
at Venango, where the French commandant, Captain Joncaire, received
them cordially, and guided them to the head-quarters.
On this journey, Washington very carefully examined the Forks of the
Ohio, as a suitable place for the erection of a fort. He descended the
Ohio about twenty miles to an Indian village called Logstown. Here, in
a council with the chief, he endeavored to draw the tribe away from the
French and into a friendly alliance with the English;[18] and also to
obtain an escort of warriors to conduct him across the country, through
the wilderness, to the French post, which was distant one hundred and
twenty miles. In this he was but partially successful. Four Indians
only accompanied him. This made his party amount to twelve. There were
six white men and six Indians. Tanachanson, the chief sachem, and
representative of the Six Nations, accompanied Washington’s party.