Washington was severely criticised for attack, and was charged with the Memoirs Hist. murder of Jumonville. this

Soc. Penn., v, 45, etc.

OF HUDSON'S RIVER. disaster, a soldier reached the headquarters of the

mandant

;

a council of

war was

French com

instantly assembled

;

its deli

berations almost as instantly resulted in sending out an over whelming force to meet and crush the advancing English. Washington fell back to the Great Meadows, where he threw

up the breastworks of Fort Necessity and manned its feeble But resistance was hopeless. Without supplies of ramparts. ammunition or of food, capitulation was a necessity. Accept ing permission to retire with his forces, Washington turned his face homeward. On the morning of the fourth of July, 1754, the French flag waved in triumph in the valley of the Ohio.

Not alone in the celerity of their movements had the French anticipated the English. With a zeal as remarkable as it was con tagious

among the Indians, they had pushed the

alliances

and

strengthened the tribes immediately dependent upon them to an extent which had transferred to them the active power which

had formerly been exercised by the Five Nations, when, armed by the English, they had first been commissioned a roving police over their contemporary tribes. In this respect the change had

been wonderful indeed since the confederates rallied in the war of 1688.

The liberality of the French had removed much of the

ancient prejudice against them ; the labors of the priests had won converts until in Canada the Iroquois were represented by as many organizations as