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Period XV.

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.

Section I. 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 New-England 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 expedition against Cape Bre ton. 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. Th. bills issued by Massachusetts, during two or three years of the war, amounted to beween two and three millions currency; while at the tin of

their emission, five or six hundred pounds were equal to dy 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 twenty-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 publick credit revived

Section II. 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 Crown.

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 fortift

cations. 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 circumstance 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 governour 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 governour of New-York and Pennsylvania, claiming the country east of the Ohio to the Alleghanies, 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 governour soon manifested his hostile determinanation, 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 opened along the French Creek and Alleghany river, between Fort Presqu' Ile, on Lake Erie, and the Ohio; and French troops were station

ed 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, lieut. governour of Virginia, to whom these complaints were addressed, laid the subject before the assembly, which ordered a messenger to be despatched 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

Section III. 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 governour-general of Canada, to whom he would transmit his letter, and whose orders only he would obey.

Section IV. The British ministry, on being made acquainted with the claims, conduct, and determination of the French, without a formal declaration of war, instructed the Virginians to resist their encroachments, by force of arms