This opinion was in truth
erroneous, for, when the time of testing came, the Indians of the
West fought on the side of France. Montcalm had many hundreds of
them under his banner. The expedition meant the definite and
final throwing down of the gauntlet by France. With all due
ceremony she had declared that the Ohio country was hers and that
there she would allow no English to dwell.
Legardeur de Saint-Pierre could hardly have known, when he left
the hard region of the Saskatchewan in 1752, that a year later he
would be sent to protect another set of outposts of France in the
West. In 1753 we find him in command of the French forces in the
Ohio country. Celoron had been sent to Detroit. If Saint-Pierre
had played his part feebly on the Saskatchewan, he was now made
for a brief period one of the central figures in the opening act
of a world drama. It is with a touch of emotion that we see on
the stage, as the opponent of this not great Frenchman, the
momentous figure of George Washington.
The fight for North America was now rapidly approaching its final
phase in the struggle which we know as the Seven Years' War.
Pages:
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178