f a good officer. Mr. Dinwiddie expected no other reply,
and therefore had projected a fort to be erected near the forks of the
river. The province undertook to defray the expense, and the stores for
that purpose were already provided; but by some fatal over sight, the
concurrence of the Indians was neither obtained nor solicited, and
therefore they looked upon this measure with an evil eye, as a manifest
invasion of their property.

PERFIDY OF THE FRENCH.

While the French thus industriously extended their encroachments to the
southward, they were not idle in the gulf of St. Lawrence, but seized
every opportunity of distressing the English settlement of Nova Scotia.
We have already observed, that the town of Halifax was no sooner built,
than they spirited up the Indians of that neighbourhood to commit
hostilities against the inhabitants, some of whom they murdered, and
others they carried prisoners to Louisbourg, where they sold them for
arms and ammunition, the French pretending that they maintained this
traffic from motives of pure compassion, in order to prevent the
massacre of the English captives, whom, however, they did not set at
liberty without exacting an exorbitant ransom. As these skulking parties
of Indians were generally directed and headed by French commanders,
repeated complaints were made to the governor of Louisbourg, who still
answered, that his jurisdiction did not extend over the Indians,
and that their French conductors were chosen from the inhabitants of
Annapolis, who thought proper to remain in that country after it was
ceded to the English, and were in fact the subjects of Great Britain.
Even while the conferences were carried on for ascertaining the limits
of Nova Scotia, the governor of Canada detached M. la Come, with some
regular troops, and a body of militia, to fortify a post on the bay
of Chignecto, on pretence that this and a great part of the peninsula
belonged to his government. The possession of this post not only secured
to the Indians of the continent a free entrance into the peninsula,
and a safe retreat in case of pursuit; but also encouraged the French
inhabitants of Annapolis to rise in open rebellion against the English
government.

MAJOR LAURENCE DEFEATS THE FRENCH NEUTRALS.

In the spring of the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty, general
Cornwallis, governor of Halifax, detached major Laurence with a few men
to reduce them to obedience. At his approac