ral, were highly approved; and the railing of others. ftrongly recommended. They alfo concurred with him in fentiment, that a road ought to be made from the German Flats to Ofwego; and declared, it appeared to them very neceffary to ftrengthen Fort Edward, and erect another at the South Bay. The former was a depofit for ftores, and at the concurrence of all the routes from Crown-Point to Albany. The latter would command the route taken by barron Dieskau for his defigned attack upon Fort Edward; a route through which incurfions were frequently made upon our northern frontier. A fort at the South Bay was conceived requifite, to cover our convoys of provisions for the northern expedition from the infults of the enemy, who, in flying parties, infefted the paffage from Albany* to William-Henry. The propriety of this advice, my Lord, must be evident to every man of a tolerable acquaintance with the country; and thefe were the very fentiments which the General repeatedly communicated to Sir William Johnfon, in his letters, after the action at Lake George; which were then flighted by the cabal, who ftudiously opposed him in all his measures,

Thus I have fhewn your Lordfhip the reafons why the general plan continued to be unexecuted, till the fitting of this laft council of war, Mr. Shirley, however, in hopes of the arrival of the expected reinforcements, and loath to be diverted from his favourite defigns upon Lake Ontario, continued to throw large quantities of provifions and ftores into Schenectady, and all the magazines between that place and Ofwego. This, it was fuppofed, was done to induce his fucceffor, from thefe ample fupplies, to act upon this quarter; it being univerfally imagined, that Crown-Point was now become the main object of the miniftry. Till the arrival of General Webb, on the 7th of June, this was only conjecture, and general report. The effects of the mifreprefentations of American affairs in England, then became evident to all; for the ftores, laid in at Schenectady, were

now

*For the building of a fort at South Bay, preparations were making when Mr. Shirley refigned the command of the army : but the work has fince been neglected; and the paffage from Fort Edward to our camp at William-Henry, infefted all this fummer, and many of our pecple cut off, as was forefeen by this council.

now reconveyed to Albany, for the northern expedition; and fresh clamours excited against Mr. Shirley, for his fupplies towards the western operations. On the 15th of June, Major General Abercrombie landed at New-York; and ten days after, at Albany; where he immediately took upon himself the command of the army. Shirley continued there no longer than to deliver over to the new General the proper returns, and communicate fuch information as appeared neceffary, with refpect to the present fituation of affairs.

The whole force, of which General Abercrombie now took the command, confifted of the 44th, 48th, 50th, and 51ft regiments, four independent companies, the New-Jerfey regiment, four companies raised by the province of. North-Carolina, Otway's, and the Highland regiments,* and the provincial forces deftined against Crown-Point.

Inftructions had been given to Sir William Johnson, to procure a large body of the Six Nations, to join in any attempt that might be made upon the Lake Ontario; and to engage 100 more for the affiftance of the provincial army. To effect which, he was then holding a conference with the deputies of the Six Cantons at Onondaga, from whence he was to proceed immediately to Ofwego. Mr. Shirley had, befides, raised a company of Indians from Stockbridge, to be employed in ranging the woods between Fort William-Henry and Montreal and that his Majefty's fervice upon Lake Ontario might be free from the obftructions, by which it had been the year before greatly embarraffed, he had enlifted 40 companies of batteau-men, each

of

50 men, a captain and an affiftant, for tranfporting ftores and provifions to Ofwego. These were put under the direction of Captain Bradstreet, an active, vigilant officer, inured to the hardships to which that fervice inevitably expofed him. This, though one of the most judicious measures that could have been taken, was made the subject of low invective. The faction at New-York laboured to reprefent it as a project to involve the Crown in a needlefs expenfe but time has given the fulleft evidence of the propriety of this ftep; and proper it will appear to

your

* These two regiments arrived with him, and consisted of about 900

men.

than

your Lordship, before the conclufion of this letter. General Shirley wifely forefaw, that the Indians of the Six Na tions, whatever influence over them Sir William Johnson might pretend, could not be engaged even to protect the King's troops in the paffage through their own country; and that unless the communication was kept open to Of wego, nothing could be effected upon the Lake, nor the garrifon itself preferved from falling into the hands of the enemy. Accordingly, no fooner did the spring open, a little blockaded poft, with twenty-five men, at the Carrying-Place, in the very center of the Oneida country, was cut off; the Oneidas themselves being unquestionably concerned in the maffacre. Nothing could fecure us against the repetition of these infults, but paffing through the country with large fquadrons of batteaux: and to facilitate the transportation, Mr. Shirley, who canvaffed every expedient for the prefervation of Ofwego, employed a working party of eighty men, under a director, to remove the obftructions in the Wood-Creek; by this means, the portage from the Mohawk River, across the great Carry ing-Place, was reduced from eight miles to one. Nor did he omit obferving to his fucceffor, that an attempt upon Niagara was of the last importance; the lofs or prefervation of our Indians depending upon the fuccefs of the operations on Lake Ontario.

7

Relative to the Crown-Point expedition, he recommended the march of part of the army, in a new-discovered route, on the weft fide of Lake George, to the enemy's advanced works, five miles fhort of Ticonderoga; which being carried, the heavy artillery and ftores might be there landed, and transported through a road to Ticonderoga and Fort Frederick: and after the reduction of those fortreffes, he advised General Abercrombie immediately to conftruct armed veffels, to fecure the command of Lake Champlain.

Your Lordship may remember, that an attempt was propofed, at the congrefs in December, against Fort Du Quefne, with an army of 3000 provincials. Governor Sharpe was to have commanded in that enterprise; but there remained now no hopes of its profecution. Virginia chofe to be entirely upon the defenfive. Maryland was

wholly

wholly inactive; her frontier being covered by the adjoining provinces: and as to Pennfylvania, fhe raifed indeed 1500 men, but only with a view to protect her outfarms; nor probably would thus far have confulted her own fafety, but for the daily murders and horrid cruelties perpetrated upon her borders.

With refpect to the circumftances of Indian affairs to the northward: While Mr. Shirley was at Ofwego, and upon his return, as I before obferved to your Lordship, he proposed to the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, and Oneidas, the erection of fmall forts, for the protection of their refpective castles. The two laft tribes confented; defiring alfo, that the forts might be mounted with cannon: and the Tufcoraras afterwards fent deputies to him, with the like requeft. The Senecas and Cayugas had alfo lately fignified their acquiefcence to Sir William Johnson; and the General transmitted him the plan of a fort, directing the prosecution of the work with all poffible dispatch, as a moft effectual means to fecure the Indian country to his Majesty.

Before Mr. Shirley left Ofwego the last year, he propofed to the Six Nations, their convening this fummer, in a grand council there, the Indians on the north fide of Lake Ontario, and round Lake Erie, to confult their common intereft, and maintain a correfpondence by annual councils at Ofwego. And to draw off the latter from their attachment to the French, recommended to the Six Nations. their concurrence, in opening a free trade with the foreign Indians, at the entrance of the Onondaga river, upon terms more advantageous to all the Indians than any hitherto purfued. This fpring, Sir William Johnson informed his Excellency, that the Six Nations were extremely well pleased with the projects relating both to the trade at Of wego, and the construction of forts in their cantons. To accelerate the latter, the General fupplied him with 5000l. fterling, in addition to 5000l. advanced to him by General Braddock and yet, my Lord, he was conftrained to confefs, in a fubfequent letter,* that, unless his Excellency could engage feveral companies of rangers, he defpaired of the prefervation even of a free paffage through their country: and whether he has, to this day, built a single fort, * May 10, 1756.

as

as the General proposed, I have not been able, after much inquiry, to discover.

Equally unpromifing was the fituation of our affairs with the fouthern Indians. Some hopes, indeed, were entertained of the fidelity of the Cherokees, a people warlike and powerful; in whose territories the Virginians were erecting a fortrefs. The Shawanese, nevertheless, continued their irruptions into that province: and Governor Dinwiddie was obliged to draft the militia, to oppose their progrefs, and preferve the town of Winchefter. Thefe Indians alfo, with the Susquehannas and Delawares, committed frequent hoftilities upon the Pennfylvanians. Governor Morris, for the protection of the country, carried a line of forts on the weft fide of the Kittatiny mountains, all along the extended frontier of that colony, from Delaware to the river Potowmac. The government of NewJersey proceeded even to declare war against the Delaware Indians; and would have penetrated into their fettlements, had not affurances been fent by Sir William Johnson from the council at Onondaga, that the Delawares and Shawanese, in obedience to the Six Nations, were under renewed and pofitive engagements to refrain from any farther outrages upon the fouthern frontiers. If any fuch promises were really made, it is certain they were immediately broken, many of our inhabitants having fince been murdered and captiva-ted by the favages of thofe very tribes. Whence we may fairly conclude, that either the Six Nations connived at thefe infractions of their commands, or that their ancient fovereignty is become the contempt of their tributaries. In fact, my Lord, the matter is still worse. Too much reafon is there to believe the truth of both these alternatives.

I informed your Lordship, that Sir William Johnson was ordered to proceed from Onondaga to Ofwego, with as many Indians as could be perfuaded to march with him, not only for the more effectual prefervation of that poft, but to execute the plan which Gen. Shirley had concerted, for the establishment of an annual council there, with those Indians who had been long in the French intereft, and seemed ready to liften to propofals for an alliance with us. It was expedient, my Lord, that he fhould have complied with thefe inftructions; nay, it was his duty; but no W [Vol. vii.]

fooner