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BREAKING OUT OF THE INDIAN WAR.

CHAPTER VI.

BREAKING OUT OF THE INDIAN WAR.

It has been noticed in a preceding chapter, that in the year 1753, emissaries from the Western Indians came among the Valley Indians, inviting them to cross the Alleghany Mountains, and that in the spring of the year 1754, the Indians suddenly and unexpectedly moved off, and entirely left the valley.

That this movement of the Indians was made under the influence of the French, there is but little doubt. In the year 1753, Maj. Geo. Washington, (since the illustrious Gen. Washington), was sent by Governor Dinwiddie, the then colonial governor of Virginia, with a letter to the French commander on the western waters, remonstrating against his encroachments upon the territory of Virginia. This letter of remonstrance was disregarded by the Frenchman, and very soon afterwards the war commonly called Braddock's war, between the British government and France commenced. In the year 1754, the government of Virginia raised an armed force with the intention of disloging the French from their fortified places within the limits of the colony. The command of this army was given to Col. Fry, and George Washington was appointed Lieutenant-colonel under him. Their little army amounted to three hundred men. Washingaton advanced at the head of two companies of this regiment, early in April, to the Great Meadows, where he was informed by some friendly Indians, that the French were erecting fortifications in the forks between the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, and also that a detachment was on its march from that place towards the Great Meadows. War had not been formally declared between France and England, but as neither was disposed to recede from their claims to the lands on the Ohio, it was deemed inevitable, and on the point of commencing. Several circumstances were supposed to indicate a hostile intention on the part of the French detachment. Washington, under the guidance of some friendly Indians, on a dark rainy night surprised their encampment, and firing once, rushed in and surrounded them. The commander, Dumonville, was killed, with eight or nine others; one escaped, and all the rest immediately surrendered. Soon after this affair, Col. Fry died, and the command of the regiment devolved on Washington, who speedily collected the whole at the Great Meadows. Two independent companies of regulars, one from South Carolina, soon arrived at the same place. Col. Washington was now at the head of nearly four hundred men. A stockade, afterwards

9 Printer's mark.