The delegates to Albany, tied and bound by
instructions from their Assemblies, had to listen to plain words
from the savages. The one Englishman who, in dealing with the
Indians, had tact and skill equal to that of Frontenac of old,
was an Irishman, Sir William Johnson. To him the Iroquois made
indignant protests that the English were as ready as the French
to rob them of their lands. If we find a bear in a tree, they
said, some one will spring up to claim that the tree belongs to
him and keep us from shooting the bear. The French, they added,
are at least men who are prepared to fight; you weak and
un-prepared English are like women and any day the French may
turn
you out. Benjamin Franklin told the delegates that they must
unite to meet a common enemy. Unite, however, they would not. No
one of them would surrender to a central body any authority
through which the power of the King over them might be increased.
The Congress--the word is full of omen for the future--failed to
bring about the much-needed union.
In February, 1755, Braddock arrived in Virginia with his army,
and early in May he was on his march across the mountains with
regulars, militia, and Indians, to the number of nearly fifteen
hundred men, to attack Fort Duquesne and to rid the Ohio Valley
of the French.
Pages:
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188