The leader-enterprise. [volume] (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1912-1915, 1913-03-28

"a 10 the IIlaIn uasInp .oiiCi-
nent. 1t was imperative they should
be effectually forestalled, and that at
once.
Duquesne Decides to Fight.
The Marquis DuQuesne, with his
quick soldier blood, at last took the
decisive step for France. He had
hardly come to his colony, to serve
his royal master as governor upon the
St Lawrence, when he determined to
occupy the upper waters of the Ohio,
and block the western passes against
the English with a line of military
posts.
The matter did not seem urgent to
the doubling ministers at Versailles.
BE on your guard against new under
takings," said official letters out OF
France; private interests are gener-
ally at the bottom of them" But Du-
quesne knew that it was no mere pri-
vate interest of fur trader or specu-
lator that was at stake now. The ri
valry between the two nations had
gone too far to make it possible to
draw back. Military posts had al
ready been established by the bold
energy of the French at Niagara, the
key to the western lakes, and at
Crown Point upon Champlain, where
lake and river struck straight to-
wards the heart of the English trad
ing settlements upon the Hudson.
Accept the Challenge.
The English accepting the chal-
lenge, had planted themselves at Os-
wego, upon the very lake route itself,
and had made port there to take
the furs that came out of, the west,
and, though very sluggish in the bust
ness, showed purpose, of aggressive
movement everywhere that advantage
offered. English settlers by the hun
ern mountains in Pennsylvania, and
down into that "Virginian Already"
the sweet valley of the Shenandoah;
thrifty Germans, few; hardy Scots
Irish, a great many-the blood most
to be feared and checked. 1t was
said that quite three hundred Eng
lish traders passed the mountains ev-
cry year into the region of the Ohio,
Enterprising gentlemen in Virginia
Lawrence and Augustine Washing
ton among the rest-has joined infiu-
ential partners in London in the for
nation of an Ohio company for the
settlement of the western country and
the absorption of the western trade;
had sent out men who knew the re-
gion to make interest with the In
| dians and fix upon points of vantage
for trading posts and settlements; had
already set out upon the business by
erecting storehouses at Wills Creek,
in the heart of the Alleghanies, and
farther westward still, upon Bedstone
Creek, branch of the Monongahela
iteslf
The French Build a Fort.
It was high time to act; and Du
Quesne, having no colonial assembly,
to hamper him, acted very promptly
When spring came, 1853, he sent fiji
teen hundred men into Lake Erie, tc
Presque Isle, where a fort Of squared
logs was built, and a road cut through
the forests to a little river whose wa
tiers, when at the food, would carry
boats direct to the Allegheny and the
great waterway of the Ohio itself.
An English lieutenant at Oswego
had described the multitudious feet
of canoes upon Ontario carrying this
levy to it's place of landing in the
lake beyond, and vagrant French
man had told him plainly what it was.
1t was an army of six hundred men,
he boosted, going to the Ohio, ito
cause all the English to quit those
parts" 1t was plain to every Eng
Hsh governor in the colonies who had
his eyes open that the French would
not stop with planting fort upon an
obscure branch of the Allegheny, but
that they would indeed press forward
to take possession of the Ohio, drive
every English trader forth, draw all
the native tribes to their interest by
force or favor, and close alike the
western lands and the western trade
in very earnest against all the kings
subjects.
Governors See the Danger.
Governor Dinwiddie was among the
first to see the danger and the need
for action, as, in truth, was very nat
ural. In Office and out, his study had
been the colonial trade, and he had
been merchant and official now a long
time. He was one of the twenty
stockholders of the Ohio company,
and had come to his governorship in
Virginia with his eye upon the west
ern country He had but to look
about him to perceive that Virginia
would very likely be obliged to meet
the crisis unaided, if, indeed, he could
induce even her to meet it.
Governor Hamilton, Of Pennsylva-
MIA, also saw how critically affairs
stood, it is true, and what ought to be
done. His agents had met and acted
with the agents of the Ohio company
already in seeking Indian alliances
and fixing upon points of vantage be-
yond the Alleghanies. But the Penn
sylvania assembly could by no argu-
ment or device be induced to vote
money or measures in the business.