Washington's Road (Nemacolin's path) the First Chapter of the Old French WarHulbert, Archer Butler
History
Washington's Road (Nemacolin's path) the First Chapter of the Old French War
Hulbert, Archer Butler
United States -- History -- French and Indian War, 1754-1763; Washington, George, 1732-1799 -- Military leadership
Though both came from beyond the same ocean, the Iroquois found that
there was a great difference between the founders of "New England" and
the founders of "New France." The former settled down quietly, bought
land, cleared it and raised crops. They treated the Indian very
respectfully--paying little attention to him or his land. The French,
however, were different. There was no end to their running about. Their
arrival was scarcely noised abroad before they were seen hurrying up the
inland rivers on missions of various import.
And so the Iroquois came to hate the French, especially after their
first encounter with them on the shores of Lake Champlain when the white
captain, Champlain, fired a horrid arquebus which killed two chieftains
and wounded another, and liked to have scared the whole Indian army to
death. This hatred was augmented as the French made friends with the
Algonquin tribes of the lower St. Lawrence, who, having fled from before
the Iroquois warriors like dust before the wind, now, in revenge,
piloted the French up the Ottawa and showed them a way to enter the
Great Lakes of the Iroquois by the back door, Georgian Bay. Once
acquainted with the five Great Lakes, the French were even less
satisfied than before, and down into the hunting-grounds of the Iroquois
they plunged in search of a great river and a sea which would lead to
China. Already they had named the portage around one of the St.
Lawrence rapids _La Chine_, believing that the river led "to China"--a
country of which the farthest western nations, the fierce Chippewas and
Dacotahs, even, had never heard!
As the eighteenth century grew older, the Iroquois became too busy with
affairs of war and diplomacy and trade to come each year to their
western hunting-grounds and guard them with the ancient jealousy.
Situated as they were between the French and English settlements they
found a neutral rôle difficult to maintain and they became fitfully
allied now with the Albany, now with the Quebec governments, as each
struggled to gain possession of the great fur trade which was controlled
by the Six Nations who claimed to control the Ottawa, St. Lawrence, and
all the New York rivers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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