on a peninsula at the narrows towards
the south. The latter was the most advanced post of the French until
they built Fort Ticonderoga or Carillon on a high, rocky promontory at
the head of Lake Sacrement, afterwards called Lake George by General
Johnson--a sheet of water always famed for its picturesque charms. At
the foot of this lake, associated with so many memorable episodes in
American history, General Johnson, a clever, ambitious Irishman, a
nephew of Sir Peter Warren, in 1755, erected Fort William Henry, about
fourteen miles from Fort Edward or Lyman, at the great carrying place
on the upper waters of the Hudson. Returning to the St. Lawrence and
the lakes, we find Fort Frontenac or Cataraqui at the eastern end of
Lake Ontario, where the old city of Kingston now stands. Within the
limits of the present city of Toronto, La Galissonniere built Fort
Rouille as an attempt to control the trade of the Indians of the North,
who were finding their way to the English fort at Choueguen (Oswego),
which had been commenced with the consent of the Iroquois by Governor
Burnet of New York and was now a menace to the French dominion of Lake
Ontario. At the other extremity of this lake was Fort Niagara, the key
to the West.

{223}

At Detroit, Mackinac, and Sault Ste. Marie the French continued to hold
possession of the Great Lakes and the country to the west and south.
Their communications, then, between the West and Quebec were
established, but between the great valleys of the St. Lawrence and the
Mississippi, over which they claimed exclusive rights, there was
another valley which became of importance in the execution of their
scheme of continental dominion. In the years succeeding the treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle the English colonists awakened to the importance of the
valley of the Ohio, and adventurous frontiersmen of Virginia and
Pennsylvania were already forcing their way into its wilderness, when
France's ambition barred the way to their further progress. That
astute Canadian, Governor La Galissonniere, in 1749, recognised the
importance of the Ohio in relation to the Illinois and Mississippi, and
sent Celoron, a captain in the French service, to claim possession of
the valley of the former river and its tributaries. This officer made
a long and enterprising journey, in the course of which he affixed at
different points the arms of France to trees, and buried leaden plates
bearing the inscription, that they were me