ed firm in his
alliance; and the English traders, by constant presents, and by selling
their goods at the lowest possible rates, kept him and his warriors
highly satisfied and contented.

The French, in vain, tried to stir up the friendly tribes to attack
Oswego on Lake Ontario, and the village of Old Britain, which were the
two centres to which the Indians went to trade with the English; but
they were unsuccessful until, in June, 1752, Charles Langlade, a young
French trader, married to a squaw at Green Bay, and strong in influence
with the tribes of that region, came down the lakes with a fleet of
canoes, manned by two hundred and fifty Ottawa and Ojibwa warriors.
They stopped awhile at the fort at Detroit, then paddled up the Maumee
to the next fort, and thence marched through the forests against the
Miamis.

They approached Old Britain's village in the morning. Most of the
Indians were away on their summer hunt, and there were but eight
English traders in the place. Three of these were caught outside the
village, the remaining five took refuge in the fortified warehouse they
had built, and there defended themselves.

Old Britain and the little band with him fought bravely, but against
such overwhelming numbers could do nothing, and fourteen of them,
including their chief, were killed. The five white men defended
themselves till the afternoon, when two of them managed to make their
escape, and the other three surrendered. One of them was already
wounded, and was at once killed by the French Indians. Seventy years of
the teaching of the French missionaries had not weaned the latter from
cannibalism, and Old Britain was boiled and eaten.

The Marquis of Duquesne, who had succeeded Galissoniere as governor,
highly praised Langlade for the enterprise, and recommended him to the
minister at home for reward. This bold enterprise further shook the
alliance of the Indians with the English, for it seemed to them that
the French were enterprising and energetic, while the English were
slothful and cowardly, and neglected to keep their agreements. The
French continued to build forts, and Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia,
sent George Washington to protest, in his name, against their building
forts on land notoriously belonging to the English crown.

Washington performed the long and toilsome journey through the forests
at no slight risks, and delivered his message at the forts, but nothing
came of it. The governor of Virgini