Paris, does not appear. As the plates all contained the same amount of matter, they were probably nearly of the same saze.

Hildreth thought the names Chinodaichta and Ye-nan-gu-e were the names given these streams by the savages. He dismissed the idea that the Marietta plate could have been brought from Venango on the Allegheny. At the time Hildreth wrote, Dr. Marshall had not brought to light Celoron's Journals. Hildreth thought also that the time occupied in voyaging and in depositing the plates and the legal forms attendent of the Process Verbaux must have occupied several months. Celoron's and Bonnecamps' Journals fix the duration. The object of their mission Hildreth points out was to take possession of the country in a legal form and in such a manner as could be established thereafter by written evidence. To this the French were undoubtedly urged by the proceedings of the Ohio Land Company. "No nation," says Dr. Hildreth, "ever had a fairer claim to a newly discovered country than the French had to the Valley of the Ohio, but a wise Providence had ordained that the beautiful region should be possessed by the Anglo-Saxon race and not by the Gallic."

The inscription on the plate found at the mouth of the Kanawha was translated by L. Soyer, at the time mayor of Marietta, a native of France -"one well skilled in the French language," Hildreth states. Craig, in the issue of his magazine, "The Olden Time," for May, 1846, (Vol. I, No. 5), has two items relating to the plate found at the mouth of the Kanawha. His heading for the first is "Tokens of French Possession Along the Ohio;" the second an extract from the Parkersburg (West Virgina) "Gazette," April 21, 1846, under the heading "Relic of the French Dominion Found at Point Pleasant." Craig, in the first article, said that he had this plate in his possession, but could add nothing to the description given of it in the article which he copied from the Parkersburg paper, except to say that on the back of the plate these words were distinctly seen: "Paul La Brosse, Fecit." ("La Brosse made it"). Craig did not know how many of these plates were deposited, or at what points on the Ohio, which river in French estimation included the Allegheny. Craig knew of the plate found at Marietta, and records that Mr. Atwater had seen one that was found at Venango. Craig said the Point Pleasant plate was the third found.

Craig does not print the newspaper article in full, for want of space. He notes that the writer of the article alludes to some confusion as to dates as to the periods when M. Galissioniere was governor of Canada, and quotes Kalm to show that La Jonquiere arrived in Montreal August 14. 1749.19

Craig quotes Bouchette in a paragraph where the latter states that Galissioniere succeeded La Jonquiere August 16, 1749, whereas the opposite is true. The correspondent of the Parkersburg paper said nothing about the arms of France on the plate, but Craig noted at once the lily

19 Aug. 15, 1749-"The new Governor-General of Canada, the Marquis de la Jonquiere, arrived last night. The people assembled at the home of M. Vaudreuil, etc." Kalm, "Travels," Second Edition, pp. 310-312.

in six places. Craig received the plate "at so late a day he could not have a fac-simile of it" for the May number of the "Olden Time." This view did not appear until the July number. (Vol. I, Insert, opposite p. 336). Craig attempted to correct Bouchette's error noted above and made a new one.20 Craig said the name, Galissoniere, where it first occurs on the page should be La Jonquiere and the latter name stand in the place of Galissoniere in the sentence. Jonquiere served from August 17, 1749, to March 17, 1752, when he died. The statement concerning him in Joncaire's letter in the "Olden Time" (Vol. I, p. 269), is correct. The name Galissoniere is correct as sending Celoron on the expedition.21 De Hass (p. 50), in his story of the leaden plates, says:

One of these plates has recently been discovered at the mouth of the Kanawha (Point Pleasant). It was found by a son of John Beale, Esq., in April, 1846. [Mr. Beale now lives in Covington, Ky.] We have procured an exact drawing of the relic and made a literal translation of the inscription which is here given.

De Hass' drawing is the same as Craig's and doubtless was furnished by Craig. The other two plates recovered were one at Venango, and one at Marietta, a copy of the one found at Marietta given by Dr. Hildreth. ("Pioneer History," p. 21). In the "History of Venango" (1890), Craig's plate is inserted opposite page 39.

We shall not follow Celoron farther except to tell of them passing St. Yotoc, evidently a corruption of Scioto, called by Bonnecamps Sinihoto on his map. There was a village of the Shawanese at the mouth of the river which Pouchot calls in his "Memoires," Sonhioto. Deterred by rain, Celoron remained a week at St. Yotoc, which seems neither French nor Indian in etymology. They put out again in their canoes on August 27th and went down the Ohio as far as White river; La Blanche, they called it. August 30th they passed the great north bend of the Ohio and reached the mouth of the Great Miami, a celebrated river in our Western history, the Riviere de la Roche of the French voyagers. They turned their flotilla into this stream. Here at its mouth they buried the sixth and last plate. So far, no trace of this plate has ever been found. September 1st they began the toilsome ascent of the Miami, and on the 13th arrived at the Indian village of Demoiselles, the residence of "La Demoiselle," chief of that portion of the Miamis or Twightwees who were favorable to the English. This town became noted in subsequent Indian wars, and was destroyed by General George Rogers Clark in his expedition in 1782. Wayne built a fort there, later called Fort Loramie. The French under Celoron remained at "Demoiselles" a week in order to recruit and prepare for their portage to the Maumee river. They burned their canoes, and having obtained some ponies, set out overland for Detroit. They expected to be five and a half days to the first French post. This first stop was at Kis-Ka-kon, subsequently Fort Wayne, Indiana. The French had a garrison there under command of M. de Raymond.

20"Olden Time;" Vol. I, pp. 239-336.

21 The letter to Governor Hamilton from Joncaire in French can be found in "The Colonial Records of Pennsylvania,” Vol. V, p. 540. Patterson has it in his "History of the Backwoods," in English, p. 42. See also Hazard's "Register;" Vol. IV.

Here Celeron was provided with pirogues and provisions. September 27th part of the expedition started overland for Detroit, and the remainder went down the Maumee in their boats. Detroit was reached October 6th. Celoron returning to Montreal via Lake Erie, did not get away from the mouth of the Maumee until October 8th. His Indian allies could not resist the chance to go on a drunken debauch there with the white man's firewater. However, when they came to, the voyage was continued with nothing worthy of notice. Fort Niagara was reached October 19th and after a three days' rest there, they coasted along the south shore of Lake Ontario, their frail boats badly shattered by the autumnal gales, arriving at Fort Frontenac on November 6th, the men greatly fatigued with the hardships of the voyage. With as slight delays as possible they pushed on, reaching Montreal November 10th, having according to Celoron traveled at least 1,200 leagues-five months in the wilderness. De Bonnecamps, S. J., closing his Journal, penned this tribute to his chief:

As for Monsieur de Celoron, he is a man attentive, clear-sighted, and active; firm, but pliant when necessary; fertile in resources and full of resolution—a man, in fine, made to command. I am no flatterer and I do not fear that what I have said should make me pass for one.

In 1750, after Celoron's return the French proceeded to erect forts in "the Debatable Land."

CHAPTER XIII.

Washington and Gist; Emissary and Guide.

In the narration of events leading to the struggle for the Valley of the Ohio, only a small part of the great struggle for the continent, the narrator has arrived at the point where, as Cyrus Townsend Brady puts it, the greatest figure of his age enters the pages of history, the “immortal Washington," as old time orators and writers always mention him. Washington makes his debut on these pages as an ambassador, and his embassy has been placed among the most notable in the annals of our country. It will appear in the story that this mission was futile, and how the little party of white men with Washington at their head, and his intrepid guide, Christopher Gist, took their leave of the French at their rude frontier fort at Venango and plunged southward in the primeval woodland extending for leagues in all directions. "Exhausted and worn out from the tremendous hardships they had undergone," says Brady, "depressed by their lack of success-although their mission had not been altogether a failure-their pack-horses jaded and feeble, they were in no condition to undertake the terrible journey which intervened between them and the report which would mark the completion of thir duty."1

The story of Washington's mission to the French forts in what was later Northwestern Pennsylvania, has been told and elaborated by all American historians, among the most readable that of Parkman ("Montcalm and Wolfe," Chapter V). The embassy had been sent by Dinwiddie to protest against the French occupation of the region of Western Pennsylvania, for many years claimed to be part of Virginia, which story will develop as this history proceeds. Dinwiddie's letter challenged the French invasion and summoned the invaders to withdraw. "He could find none so fit to bear his message," says Parkman, “as a young man of twenty-one. It was this rough Scotchman who launched Washington on his illustrious career."2

Before proceeding with the story of the embassy, it will be well to know something of the embassador as he then appeared, and something of the rough Scotchman. This is furnished by Dr. Toner:

Between 19 and 20, Washington had been a licensed surveyor in Virginia for three years, and shortly before sailing had been commissioned one of the adjutant generals of Virginia with the rank of major and the pay £150 a year. Although he made no pretensions to having a finished education, or to being an extensive reader of books, yet he was well informed on all the affairs of life, and his manners and address proclaimed him a gentleman and clearly indicated that his associations were with men of character and culture. If we had no other means of knowing the fact, the "Journal to the Barbadoes" of itself would show that Washington possessed strong and acute natural powers of observation and that his mind was, for his years, unusually matured and well stored with practical knowledge and historical facts.

1"Colonial Fights and Fighters;" C. T. Brady, p. 189. 2"M. & W.;" Vol. I, p. 138.