George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

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The French officer treated with derision the sim-

chap. V.} 1753.

ple words of the red chieftain of vagrants of the wilderness, men who belonged to no confederacy, except as they were subordinate to the Six Nations. ‘Child,’ he replied, ‘you talk foolishly; you say this land belongs to you; but not so much of it as the black of your nail is yours. It is my land; and I will have it, let who will stand up against it;’ and he threw back the belt of wampum in token of contempt.

The words of the French commander filled the Half-King with dismay. In September, the mightiest men of the Mingo clan, of the Delawares, the Shawnees, the Wyandots, and the Miamis, met Franklin, of Pennsylvania, with two colleagues, at Carlisle. They wished neither French nor English to settle in their country; if the English would lend aid, they would repel the French. The calm statesman distributed presents to all, but especially gifts of condolence to the tribe that dwelt at Picqua;¹ and returning, he made known that the French had successively established posts at Erie, at Waterford, and at Venango, and were preparing to occupy the banks of the Monongahela.

Sanctioned by the orders from the king, Dinwiddie,² of Virginia, resolved to send ‘a person of distinction to the commander of the French forces on the Ohio River, to know his reasons for invading the British dominions, while a solid peace subsisted.’ The envoy whom he selected was George Washington. The young man, then just twenty-one, a pupil of the