University of Virginia Library

TRANSLATION.

"In the year 1749, reign of Louis XV., King of France, we, Celeron,
commandant of a detachment sent by Monsieur the Marquis de la
Galisoniere, commandant-general of New France, to re-establish tranquillity
in some Indian villages of these cantons, have buried this plate at
the mouth of the river Chinodashichetha, the 18th of August, near the
river Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of renewal of possessions,
which we have taken of the said river Ohio, and of all those
which fall into it, and of all the land on both sides, as far as to the sources
of said rivers, the same as were enjoyed, or ought to have been enjoyed,
by the preceding kings of France, and that they have maintained
it by their arms and treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht
and Aix-la-Chapelle."

From the mouth of the Great Kanawha the voyage was continued
down the Ohio, and on the 30th day of August the expedition reached
the mouth of the Riviere a la Roche (Great Miami), and the voyage on
the Ohio ended. The following is an extract from Celeron's journal,
now deposited in the archives at Paris, as translated by Marshall:
"Buried on the point formed by the intersection of the right bank of
the Ohio with the left bank of the Rock river, the sixth and last plate,
August 31, 1749." This plate has never been found. After journeying
up the Miami some distance, the detachment began its homeward march,
and reached Montreal on the 10th day of November.

In the same year George II., who regarded the British possessions as
personal property, granted to a corporation known as "The Ohio Company,"
a title to five hundred thousand acres of land, to be located in
the Ohio Valley. The company was composed of twelve gentlemen, all
residents of Virginia and Maryland, except a Mr. Hanbury, of London.
This land was to be located partly south of the Ohio, between the Monongahela
and Great Kanawha rivers, and partly north of the Ohio. In
1750 Christopher Gist was sent out by the company for the purpose of
exploring and locating these tracts of land in the west. He traversed
the country beyond the Ohio, and returned by way of the Kanawha,
making thorough exploration of the country east of that river. This
was the first exploration made by the English in the Kanawha Valley,
and Gist the first Englishman who reached the mouth of the Kanawha.
His journal is now in the library of the Historical Society of Massachusetts.
Thus it will be seen that the two great rival powers beyond the
Atlantic were each determined to hold possession of the great valley,

and it became evident that the final struggle for territorial supremacy
in America was near at hand. The English, acting upon the principle
of action that "They should take who have the power," and the French
upon nearly a similar one, that "They should keep who can," were both
resting from an eight years' war, under the truce secured by the treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle, while their commissioners were trying to outwit
each other in the matter of the disputed lands in the west. (Smollett's
George II., chapter 8.) But the calm was similar to that which precedes
the storm. The cloud of war which had for a time disappeared
from Europe was now hanging over the wilds of North America. Here
was to be heard the clash of arms, the "Forward, march," the daily
reveille, the battle cry, the strains of martial music—sounds so strange
beneath the dark shades of an American forest. The storm burst with
all its fury, and continued to rage for six long years—years characterized
by acts of the most savage cruelty known to the annals of warfare;
years in which the two leading nations of the world employed against
each other the ruthless savages, whose bloodthirsty dispositions incited
them to deeds too horrible to contemplate—deeds the record of which
will ever remain as the darkest blots upon the pages of the history of
these nations.

But the struggle ended, and the world knows the result. The dominion
and power of France have disappeared, and no traces of her lost
sovereignty exist save in the few names she has left on the prominent
streams and landmarks of the country, and in the leaden plates
which, inscribed in her language, still lie buried on the banks of the
beautiful river. Her temporary occupation of the country, the voyages
of her navigators, and the discoveries of her discoverers, live only on the
pages of history and in her archives, where she has carefully preserved
them. Thus the Ohio Valley, together with all of South-western Virginia,
passed from under the dominion of France to that of the Island
Empire. But another title to the valley was yet to be abrogated, that
of the original owners—the Indians, who, for perhaps a thousand years,
had roamed over its hills and vales in pursuit of game; who had made
it their principal thoroughfare in their missions of blood and rapine ever
since the Anglo-Saxon set foot on these shores and had began his march
in pursuit of the empire star. This title was yet to cost the lives of
many hundreds of those sturdy pioneers who had braved the perils of
the wilderness. Over its entire extent was to be heard the frightful
war-whoop of the savage, and night was to be made lurid by the flames
of burning homes. Then, to record an account of these scenes will next
be our province.