but had rather made their rivalry more bitter. During this period, as we have seen, the English population was pushing northward and westward toward the headwaters of the principal rivers (§ 123). The French, in turn, were working southward from Canada and eastward from the Mississippi Valley, and had already planted more than sixty military posts between the mouths of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. It was only a question of time until rival parties of hunters or explorers would come into collision.

162. The Ohio Company; Washington's First Public Charge. The organization of the Ohio Company hastened the collision between the English and the French. A grant of five hundred thousand acres near the head of the Ohio was obtained by a company of Virginia planters for settlement and for trade in furs. They built a road into this region and made preparations to send out settlers, when news came to Virginia that the French were already moving into the Ohio Valley.

Governor Dinwiddie resolved to send young George Washington to the French with orders for them to leave (1753). It was a dangerous undertaking for a young man with a few guides to invade that wild country, filled with hostile Indians and French, who loved nothing better than to take an Englishman's scalp. But Washington made the journey, delivered his message, visited the French commander, and saw him preparing to move farther south. He returned and reported that the French had refused to leave.

Men were immediately sent to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio, but before the fort was finished the French floated down the Allegheny and compelled the English to surrender (1754). The French completed the work and named it Fort Duquesne. (See map, page 127.)

Washington was already moving into the region with

a company of Virginia volunteers, while the French were marching a larger force southward to meet him. After a skirmish, Washington built Fort Necessity, which he was compelled to surrender to superior numbers. War had begun. Both parties were determined. There could be no agreement. Each received aid from the home country, and preparations for a great struggle were now begun in earnest.

163. Treaty with the Iroquois. For nearly one hundred and fifty years the Iroquois1 had been the enemies of the French. Again the English sought their aid. A meeting with the Indians was held at Albany in the summer of 1754. New England, the Middle Colonies, Maryland, and Virginia sent their representatives.

The Iroquois came in slowly, for they were hesitating. They, too, saw the meaning of the coming struggle, and complained against the English. Hendricks, chief of the Mohawks, said: "Look at the French. They are men; they are fortifying everywhere. But, we are ashamed to say it, you are like women." The English, however, gave the Indians more and costlier presents than ever before, and they departed with pledges of lasting friendship.

164. The Albany Plan of Union (1754). For a number of years leading men in America had been talking of a union of the colonies for mutual defense. Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, who had risen from a poor printer to a place of fame in both Europe and America, was heart and soul in favor of united action. He prepared a plan for bringing the English colonies into a league to enable them to act more quickly and with greater power. Franklin's plan provided: (1) That the chief officer of the united colonies should be a "PresidentGeneral," appointed and paid by the king. (2) That

In 1713 the Tuscaroras of North Carolina, a kindred tribe, joined the Five Nations. The Iroquois thus became the Six Nations.

there should be a "Grand Council" elected by the colonial assemblies, with power to make treaties with the Indians, build forts, appoint military officers, raise troops, and levy taxes for these purposes.

This plan the delegates at Albany unanimously recommended to the colonies and to the king. But both parties rejected it-the colonies because it was too aristocratic and the king because it was too democratic. Although the colonies now faced war without any regular plan of helping each other, they were convinced that some sort of union was necessary.

165. Braddock's Defeat; Other Expeditions of 1755. General Braddock came over as commanderin-chief of the British, and held a congress of governors at Alexandria, Virginia. Four campaigns were planned: (1) Braddock was to capture Fort

Duquesne. (2) Sir

William Johnson,

whom the Iroquois FORT DUQUESNE AND ITS APPROACHES
had adopted, was to
muster the Mohawks and the New York militia against
Crown Point. (3) A force was to drive the French from
Niagara. (4) Nova Scotia was to be subdued.

Showing Braddock's line of march, and the line of
French forts