The French in the Heart of AmericaFinley, John H. (John Huston)
History
The French in the Heart of America
Finley, John H. (John Huston)
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); French -- North America; Mississippi River Valley -- History
Washington, the major of colonial militia in the Alleghany Mountains, the
scout of a land company, has been entirely forgotten in Washington, the
father of a nation; but Jumonville, the French ensign with no land-scrip,
fighting certainly as unselfishly and with as high purpose, is not
forgotten in any later achievement. That skirmish ended all for him. But
let it be remembered even now that he was a representative of France
standing almost alone, at the confluence of all the waters for hundreds of
miles on the other slope of the Alleghanies, in defense of what other men
of France had won by their hardihood.
I heard a great audience at the Academy applaud the brave endurance of
French priests and soldiers in Asia. Some day I hope these unrenowned men
who sacrificed as much for France in America will be as notably
remembered. There is a short street in Pittsburgh that bears Jumonville's
name--a short street that runs from the river into a larger street with
the name of one of his seven brothers, De Villiers, Coulon de Villiers,
who hastened from Montreal, while another brother hastened from the
Illinois to avenge his death.
But the cairn on the hillside has grown to no high monument. Mr. Hulbert,
who has written with filial pen of the valley, says that occasionally a
traveller repairs a rough wooden cross made of boards or tree branches and
planted among the rocks of the cairn. [Footnote: A. B. Hulbert, "The Ohio
River," pp. 44, 45.] But on a recent visit to the grave out in that
lonesome ravine, I found that a permanent tablet had been placed there
instead of this fragile cross.
I must leave to your unrefreshed memories the exploits of Beaujeu and
Braddock, of Contrecoeur and Forbes, blow up Fort Duquesne of the past,
and come into the city of to-day, for I wish to put against this
background this mighty city where it is often difficult to see because of
the smoke.
The French, as we are well aware, came to their forts by water. Quebec,
Frontenac, Niagara, Presque Isle, the Rock St. Louis, St. Joseph,
Chartres, and many others stood by river or lake. But the going was often
slow. Céloron (whose name is often spelled Céleron but would seem not to
deserve that spelling) was fifty-three days in making his water journey
from Montreal to the site of Pittsburgh. But a Céloron of to-day may see
the light of the Bartholdi statue in New York harbor at ten o'clock by
night and yet pass Braddock's field in the morning (before the time that
Bonnecamp said the sun came up in the narrow valley of the Belle Rivière),
and have breakfast at the Duquesne Club in time for a city day's work. It
was about as far from Paris to Marseilles in 1750 as it is to-day from
Paris to Pittsburgh.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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