chiefs was humble; but they
begged that the English traders, of whom there were, at that moment,
ten in the town, might stay a little longer, since the goods they
brought were necessary to them.

After making presents to the chiefs, the party proceeded on their way,
putting up the coats of arms and burying the lead inscriptions. At
Scioto a large number of Indians were assembled, and the French were
very apprehensive of an attack, which would doubtless have been
disastrous to them, as the Canadians of the party were altogether
unused to war. A council was held, however, at which Celoron could
obtain no satisfaction whatever, for the interests of the Indians were
bound up with the English.

There can be no doubt that, had they been able to look into the future,
every Indian on the continent would have joined the French in their
effort to crush the English colonies. Had France remained master of
America the Indians might, even now, be roaming free and unmolested on
the lands of their forefathers. France is not a colonizing nation. She
would have traded with the Indians, would have endeavoured to
Christianize them, and would have left them their land and freedom,
well satisfied with the fact that the flag of France should wave over
so vast an extent of country; but on England conquering the soil, her
armies of emigrants pressed west, and the red man is fast becoming
extinct on the continent of which he was once the lord.

Celoron's expedition sailed down the Ohio until it reached the mouth of
the Miami, and toiled for thirteen days against its shallow current,
until they reached a village of the Miami Indians, ruled over by a
chief called, by the French, La Demoiselle, but whom the English, whose
fast friend he was, called Old Britain. He was the great chief of the
Miami confederation.

The English traders there withdrew at the approach of the French. The
usual council was held, and Celoron urged the chief to remove from this
location, which he had but newly adopted, and to take up his abode,
with his band, near the French fort on the Maumee. The chief accepted
the Frenchman's gifts, thanked him for his good advice, and promised to
follow it at a more convenient time; but neither promises nor threats
could induce him to stir at once.

No sooner, indeed, had the French departed, than the chief gathered the
greater part of the members of the confederation on that spot; until,
in less than two years after the visit of C