quick for the English.
Captain Contrecoeur, an alert officer, had embarked about a thousand
men with field-pieces, in a fleet of sixty bateaux and three hundred
canoes, dropped down the river from Venango, and suddenly made his
appearance before the fort, on which the men were working, and which
was not half completed. Landing, drawing up his men, and planting his
artillery, he summoned the fort to surrender, allowing one hour for a
written reply. All that the ensign could obtain was permission to
depart with his men, taking with them their working tools.

Such was the ensign's story. He was accompanied by two Indian
warriors, sent by the half-king to ascertain where the detachment was,
what was its strength, and when it might be expected at the Ohio. They
bore a speech from that sachem to Washington, and another, with a belt
of wampum for the governor of Virginia. In these he plighted his
steadfast faith to the English, and claimed assistance from his
brothers of Virginia and Pennsylvania. One of these warriors
Washington forwarded on with the speech and wampum to Governor
Dinwiddie. The other he prevailed on to return to the half-king
bearing a speech from him, addressed to the "Sachems, warriors of the
Six United Nations, Shannoahs and Delawares, our friends and
brethren." In this he informed them that he was on the advance with a
part of the army, to clear the road for a greater force coming with
guns, ammunition, and provisions; and he invited the half-king and
another sachem to meet him on the road, as soon as possible, to hold a
council.

In fact, his situation was arduous in the extreme. Regarding the
conduct of the French in the recent occurrence an overt act of war, he
found himself thrown with a handful of raw recruits far on a hostile
frontier, in the midst of a wilderness, with an enemy at hand greatly
superior in number and discipline; provided with artillery, and all
the munitions of war, and within reach of constant supplies and
reinforcements. Besides the French that had come from Venango, he had
received credible accounts of another party ascending the Ohio; and of
six hundred Chippewas and Ottawas marching down Scioto Creek to join
the hostile camp. Still, notwithstanding the accumulating danger, it
would not do to fall back, nor show signs of apprehension. His Indian
allies in such case might desert him. The soldiery, too, might grow
restless and dissatisfied.

In this dilemma he called a counci