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
Late in the summer of 1753, M. Marin sent fifty men to erect a third
fort in the chain from Lake Erie, at Venango, just below the junction of
French creek and the Allegheny river, on the present site of Franklin,
Pennsylvania. Possession was taken of the site by Captain Chabert de
Joncaire, who spent the winter in the trader Frazier's hut, having been
opposed by the Delaware chieftain Half King who said "that the land was
theirs, and that they would not have them build upon it." In the spring,
however, machinery for a sawmill was brought from Canada, and oak and
chestnut trees were cut down and sawn into timbers for a new fort which
was completed in April. It was not an elaborate work but answered its
purpose as an entrepôt for goods going down to Fort Duquesne. It was
named Fort Machault, from Jean Baptiste Machault, a celebrated French
financier and politician and favorite of La Pompadour. The fort was a
parallelogram about seventy-five by one hundred and five feet with
bastions in the form of polygons at the four angles. The gate fronted
the river. It contained a magazine protected by three feet of earth, and
five barracks two stories high furnished with stone chimneys. The
soldiers' barracks consisted of forty-four buildings erected around the
fort on the north and east sides.
Thus, strong in her resources of military and civil centralization,
France at last moved swiftly into the West. In this, her superiority
over the English colonies was as marked as her success in winning her
way into the good graces of the Indians. French and English character
nowhere show more plainly than in the nature of their contact with the
Indians as each met them along the St. Lawrence, Allegheny, and the
Great Lakes. The French came to conciliate the Indians, with no scruples
as to how they might accomplish their task. The coureur-de-bois threw
himself into the spirit of Indian life and very nearly adopted the
Indian's ideals. The stolid English trader, keen for a bargain, justly
suspicious of his white rival, invariably distant, seldom tried to
ingratiate himself into the friendship of the red man. The voyageur
flattered, cajoled, entertained in his wild way, regaled at tables,
mingled without stint in Indian customs. Sir Guy Carleton wrote, "France
did not depend on the number of her troops, but on the discretion of her
officers who learned the language of the natives ... distributed the
king's presents, excited no jealousy and gained the affections of an
ignorant, credulous but brave people, whose ruling passions are
independence, gratitude, and revenge." The Englishman little affected
the conceits of the red man, seldom opened his heart and was less
commonly familiar. He ignored as much as possible Indian habits; the
Frenchman feigned all reverence for them, with a care never to rupture
their stolid complacency. The English trader clad like a ranger or
trapper, made no more use of Indian dress than was necessary. The
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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