* * * * * TRANSLATION OF THE ENTIRE INSCRIPTION In the year 1749, during the reign of Louis XV., King of France, we, Céleron, commander of a detachment sent by the Marquis de la Gallissonière, commander in chief of New France, to restore tranquillity in some savage villages of these districts, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Ohio and ... this ... near the river Ohio, alias Beautiful River, as a monument of our having retaken possession of the said river Ohio and of those that fall into the same, and of all the lands on both sides as far as the sources of the said rivers, as well as of those of which preceding kings have enjoyed possession, partly by the force of arms, partly by treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle. * * * * * A second plate was buried below the mouth of French Creek; a third near the mouth of Wheeling Creek; and a fourth at the mouth of the Muskingum, where half a century later it was found protruding from the river bank by a party of boys while bathing. Yet another was unearthed at the mouth of the Great Kanawha by a freshet, and was likewise found by a boy while playing at the water's edge. The last plate was hidden where the Great Miami joins the Ohio; and this done, Céloron crossed Ohio to Lake Erie and went back to Montreal.[1] [Footnote 1: Read T. J. Chapman's _The French in the Allegheny Valley_, pp. 9-23, 187-197; Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I., pp. 36-62; Winsor's _The Mississippi Basin_, pp. 252-255.] %77. The French build Forts on the Allegheny.%--This formal taking possession of the valleys of the Allegheny and the Ohio was all well enough in its way; but the French knew that if they really intended to keep out the British they must depend on forts and troops, and not on lead plates. To convince the French King of this, required time; so that it was not till 1752 that orders were given to fortify the route taken by Céloron in 1749. The party charged with this duty repaired to the little peninsula where is now the city of Erie, and there built a log fort which they called Presque Isle. Having done this, they cut a road twenty miles long, to the site of Waterford, Pa., and built Fort Le Boeuf, and later one at Venango, the present site of the town of Franklin.