Interest and management with them. Under this man several others were employed-these persons went to the Indian Castles, & by bribes, keeping them constantly feasting and drunk, calumniating my character, depreciating my commission, authority & management, in short by the most Licentious & abandoned proceedings, raised such a confusion amongst the Indians particularly the Two Mohock Castles, that their Sachems were under the utmost consternation, sent Deputies down to me to know what was the occasion of all these surprising Proceedings, that I had told them I was appointed Sole Superintendent of their affairs wch. had given an universal satisfaction thro' all their Nations, but that now every Fellow pretended to be vested with Commissions & authority &c. I sent several Messages and the Interpreters up to quiet their minds, for my military department would not suffer me to leave Albany, as I was marching with the troops under my command, or I would have gone up & should have soon overset all these violent measures. I have at Albany a great number of Letters and Papers wch, give particular relations of the Behavior & villainous Conduct of these Agents of Gov. Shirley, but if I had them here I would not trouble your Lordships with a Detail wch tho' very shocking would be extreamly tedious. I shall only say in general, that a complication of more Scurrilous Falsehoods, more Base & Insolent Behaviour, more corrupt, more Destructive measures to overset that Plan of general Harmony wch I had with infinite Pains & at a great expense to the public so lately established, could not have taken place than did in ye. conduct of these Agents of Govt. Shirley's. I spoke of it to Govt. Shirley, I wrote to him of it, but without Remedy. They pleaded his authority for all they did, and said they had his Commissions, & I can't but presume it must have been done with his knowledge and consent, in which I am confirmed by his letters to me. The reason or the pretended reason wch. Govt. Shirley gives for his opposing my Indian management and employing these Persons, is, that I would not get some Indians to escourt him from Schenectady to Oswego. I had indeed mentioned it to some of their Sachems, who told me that, as his way to Oswego lay through their severall countries & Oswego itself is in the Senecas Country, they could not conceive there was any occasion for their escourting him, & that when he came to Oswego there was no fear but many of the Six Nations would according to my desire meet him there and assist him. Numbers of the Troops had gone up without any molestation not the least Interruption had been given to any one, the Traders to Oswego were daily going & returning with single Battoes. those who are acquainted with Indian Affairs well know, that it would have been the worst of policy for the French at that time to violate the tranquility of the country of the Six Nations. Tis true some small parties of enemy Indians had been discovered between Schenectady & my house, but they are looked upon as a set of free Booters & Govr. Shirley's Body Guard would have been a full security to him against any such—even his primier Lydius when I talked to him on this head told me he saw no want of Indians to escourt him & that he would endeavour to dissuade him from it. It is with Reluctance I trouble your Lordships with these matters, but as I have been honoured with a station of great Importance & entrusted with monies belonging to the Crown, it behoves me on every acct. not to be wholly silent, and I have said as little as I possibly could to give your Lordships some Idea of affairs for wch. I apprehend myself accountable to your Board. Gov. Shirleys conduct not only shook the system of Indian affairs, gave me fresh vexation and perplexity but occasioned considerable and additional Expenses wch. would otherwise have been saved; the profuse offers weh, his agents made to the Indians in order to debauch them from joining me, tho' it did not succeed but with very few, yet gave to all such self-importance, that when I urged to any of them who made demands upon me the unreasonableness of them &c. they reproached me that they had refused Gov. Shirley's great offers from whom they would have had every thing they wanted. Under these circumstances & the acct. coming at that time of our unhappy defeat on the Ohio, I was forced to make compliances wch otherwise they would neither have expected nor I have submitted to. My Lords, I will hasten to a conclusion. From Gov. Shirley's late Behaviour & his Letters to me I am under no doubt that he is become my inveterate enemy and that the whole weight of his Power & abilities will be exerted to blast if he can my Character -here and here only am I anxious-Gross Falsehoods (such he has already asserted in his letters to me,) artful misrepresentations, Deliberate malice, Resentment worked up by People in his confidence, whose Interest, nay whose very livelihood depends upon their inflaming him-these my Lords are circumstances wch. I own disturb me-I am sensible Gov". Shirley has in many respects been an active and a useful servt. to the Crown-his rank in public Life will natturally give him consequence and gain him Influence. Were I to lay open in a particular manner the whole scene of my Conduct with regard to the public & him, and from the Papers & Letters in my possession to contrast his conduct with regard to the Disputes between us. I say were I to do this & any one should think it worth their while calmly to peruse & impartially to examine the full state of the Affair between us, I would rest Character, Fortune, & Life upon the Decision—but I apprehend, unless I am properly called upon to do this, such a voluminous appeal would not find either leisure or Patience from those Persons to read it & consider it whose opinions would be of the greatest Consequence, they would rather I believe think me Impertinent & too full of my own Importance. Therefore my present address on this Subject to your Lordships is to entreat you will at least receive those accusations against me wch. I suspect already are or will be transmitted by Govr. Shirley, with a suspension of your Judgment. If your Lordships are disposed to have the whole amply laid before you, & I live to receive yr commands, they shall be obeyed with all possible dispatch. In the mean time I beg leave to declare to your Lordships with the most unfeigned Sincerity as I did to the late General Braddock-that my only motives for accepting the Commission & powers he conferred upon me, were to serve my King & my Country at this important crisis. I stipulated with him for no reward for myself-and whatever Expectations I might indulge they were never equal to the fatigue nor the Disadvantages to my private Fortune weh, I foresaw I should & weh, I have suffered. My Lords, animated by my Loyalty, by my Zeal for the public safety and welfare (both which were at stake) and by some desire of Fame, I accepted General Braddock's Commission & executed the trust reposed in me Chearfully to the utmost of my abilities & with Integrity. Govt. Shirleys interfering in the authoritave & ill-judged manner he has done, was injurious to the true system of Indian Affairs, a violation of the terms of my Commission & an arbitrary Insult upon my Character. And I must beg leave to inform yr. Lordships that if His Majesty should think proper to honour me with the management of Indian Affairs, I am in Duty bound to declare, that I do not think I can fulfill his royal Expectations & do that Service to my Country wch. Majesty may expect from me, if my Proceedings are to be controuled by any Gov. who may by being ill advised or from Personal Resentments or from other undue motives, take upon him to counteract my measures. I must further beg leave to observe that unless the monies appointed to carry on Indian affairs are confided to my disposal & a certain Fund fixt on, I shall be ever liable to have my measures perplexed & opposed & often perhaps prevented from bringing into Effect Schemes wch by a precarious Fund I may be forced to drop & so loose that chain wch may bind the whole Structure. By Govr Shirley's ill-grounded Resentments, from the imperious Stile he writes to me since Gen1 Braddock's Death, from his threatening Intimations, I am confirmed in this Lesson, that a Subordinate Power here with regard to Indian affairs & a Fund dependent upon the will & pleasure of his Majesty's Gov's in these Colonies will be incompatible both with my abilities and Inclinations to Conduct them, & as I have no private or mercenary views to serve by them, I must humbly beg leave to decline the Charge unless I am put upon the footing as above intimated. I shall always be desirous to take advice from any of His Majestys servts in these parts & to be accountable for my conduct to any Judicature His Majesty may think proper to appoint, but to be subjected to the Caprice & political views of Govrs. I cannot think will ever harmonize with one uniform Direction of Indian Affairs, & persuaded I am if they are branched out into various channels of power, the British Indian Interest in these parts will be unstable, perplexed, & in the end totally lost, and upon that footing I would not choose to have the least hand in them. I am building a Fort at this Lake where no house was ever before built nor a rod of land cleared, wch the French call Lake St Sacrament, but I have given it the name of Lake George, not only in honor to His Majesty but to ascertain his undoubted Dominion here. When the Battoes (certain small Boats so called) are brought from the last Fort I caused to be built at the Great Carrying Place abt 17 miles from hence, I propose to go down this Lake with a part of the Army and take post at the end of it about 50 miles from hence at a pass called Tionderogue abt 15 miles from Crown Point there wait the coming up of the rest of the Army & then attack Crown Point. The whole amount of our Troops fit for Duty at present are abt 3100-but the colonies are sending Reinforcements, for it is expected we shall have the main strength of Canada to contend with & great numbers of Indians. Our Battoes must all come hither by land upon carriages wch makes it very tedious & I believe we have near 600 to come. I am with the utmost respect, My Lords, your Lordships Most Obet. RUMOR OF A BATTLE BETWEEN THE ENGLISH & FRENCH. Garret Vanzandt of the City of Albany being examined New } SS. York S says he came from Albany thursday last at Sunset, employed by Mr. Hansen to carry Dispatches from the Camp to the Governor. That he heard Major General Johnson was attacked in his Camp at Lake George by a Body of about 4 or 5000 French, on Monday Morning last about 10 oclock, that the Battle continued about 6 Hours, and then the French retreated precipitately leaving all their Baggage and all their Provisions-That he heard 6 or 700 of the French were killed, and about 100, of the English. Among the latter are Col Pitkin, Col. Williams, Capt. Jonathan Stevens, Capt. Farrel, Capt. Stoddert, Cap: Wm McGennis, That General Johnson was wounded through the upper part of the thigh. That Capt. Butler, Capt. Teady Magin and Hendrick the Mohawk |