[Footnote 147:  Journal of Washington in Precis des Faits, 109.  This Journal, which is entirely distinct from that before cited, was found by the French among the baggage left on the field after the defeat of Braddock in 1755, and a translation of it was printed by them as above.  The original has disappeared.]

Five days before, Contrecoeur had sent Jumonville to scour the country as far as the dividing ridge of the Alleghanies.  Under him were another officer, three cadets, a volunteer, an interpreter, and twenty-eight men.  He was provided with a written summons, to be delivered to any English he might find.  It required them to withdraw from the domain of the King of France, and threatened compulsion by force of arms in case of refusal.  But before delivering the summons Jumonville was ordered to send two couriers back with all speed to Fort Duquesne to inform the commandant that he had found the English, and to acquaint him when he intended to communicate with them.[148] It is difficult to imagine any object for such an order except that of enabling Contrecoeur to send to the spot whatever force might be needed to attack the English on their refusal to withdraw.  Jumonville had sent the two couriers, and had hidden himself, apparently to wait the result.  He lurked nearly two days within five miles of Washington’s camp, sent out scouts to reconnoitre it, but gave no notice of his presence; played to perfection the part of a skulking enemy, and brought destruction on himself by conduct which can only be ascribed to a sinister motive on the one hand, or to extreme folly on the other.  French deserters told Washington that the party came as spies, and were to show the summons only if threatened by a superior force.  This last assertion is confirmed by the French officer Pouchot, who says that Jumonville, seeing himself the weaker party, tried to show the letter he had brought.[149]

[Footnote 148:  The summons and the instructions to Jumonville are in Precis des Faits.]

[Footnote 149:  Pouchot, Memoire sur la derniere Guerre.]

French writers say that, on first seeing the English, Jumonville’s interpreter called out that he had something to say to them; but Washington, who was at the head of his men, affirms this to be absolutely false.  The French say further that Jumonville was killed in the act of reading the summons.  This is also denied by Washington, and rests only on the assertion of the Canadian who ran off at the outset, and on the alleged assertion of Indians who, if present at all, which is unlikely, escaped like the Canadian before the fray began.  Druillon, an officer with Jumonville, wrote two letters to Dinwiddie after his capture, to claim the privileges of the bearer of a summons; but while bringing forward every other circumstance in favor of the claim, he does not pretend that the summons was read or shown either before or during the action.  The French account