anbraam had misled them.

Dinwiddie, recounting the affair to Lord Albemarle, says that
Washington, being ignorant of French, was deceived by the
interpreter, who, through poltroonery, suppressed the word assassination.

Captain Mackay, writing to Washington in September, after a
visit to Philadelphia, says: "I had several disputes about our
capitulation; but I satisfied every person that mentioned the subject
as to the articles in question, that they were owing to a bad
interpreter, and contrary to the translation made to us when we
signed them."

At the next meeting of the burgesses they passed a vote of thanks
for gallant conduct to Washington and all his officers by name,
except Vanbraam and the major of the regiment, the latter being
charged with cowardice, and the former with treacherous misinterpretation
of the articles.

Sometime after, Washington wrote to a correspondent who had
questioned him on the subject: "That we were wilfully or ignorantly
deceived by our interpreter in regard to the word _assassination_
I do aver, and will to my dying moment; so will every officer
that was present. The interpreter was a Dutchman little acquainted
with the English tongue, therefore might not advert to the tone and
meaning of the word in English; but, whatever his motives for so doing,
certain it is that he called it the _death_ or the _loss_ of
the Sieur Jumonville. So we received and so we understood it, until, to
our great surprise and mortification, we found it otherwise in a
literal translation." Sparks, _Writings of Washington_, II. 464, 465.

Appendix D

Chapter 7. Braddock

It has been said that Beaujeu, and not Contrecoeur, commanded
at Fort Duquesne at the time of Braddock's expedition. Some
contemporaries, and notably the chaplain of the fort, do, in fact,
speak of him as in this position; but their evidence is overborne
by more numerous and conclusive authorities, among them Vaudreuil,
governor of Canada, and Contrecoeur himself, in an official
report. Vaudreuil says of him: "Ce commandant s'occupa le 8
[_Juillet_] a former un parti pour aller au devant des Anglois;" and
adds that this party was commanded by Beaujeu and consisted of
250 French and 650 Indians (_Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Aout,
1755_). In the autumn of 1756 Vaudreuil asked the Colonial Minister
to procure a pension for Contrecoeur and Ligneris. He says:
"Le premier de ces Messieurs a commande longtemps au fort
Duquesne; c'est lu