over the broken and rocky road.  The regulars, though they also were raised in the provinces, refused to give the slightest help.  Toiling on for two days, they reached the Great Meadows on the first of July.  The position, though perhaps the best in the neighborhood, was very unfavorable, and Washington would have retreated farther, but for the condition of his men.  They were spent with fatigue, and there was no choice but to stay and fight.

Strong reinforcements had been sent to Fort Duquesne in the spring, and the garrison now consisted of about fourteen hundred men.  When news of the death of Jumonville reached Montreal, Coulon de Villiers, brother of the slain officer, was sent to the spot with a body of Indians from all the tribes in the colony.  He made such speed that at eight o’clock on the morning of the twenty-sixth of June he reached the fort with his motley following.  Here he found that five hundred Frenchmen and a few Ohio Indians were on the point of marching against the English, under Chevalier Le Mercier; but in view of his seniority in rank and his relationship to Jumonville, the command was now transferred to Villiers.  Hereupon, the march was postponed; the newly-arrived warriors were called to council, and Contrecoeur thus harangued them:  “The English have murdered my children, my heart is sick; to-morrow I shall send my French soldiers to take revenge.  And now, men of the Saut St. Louis, men of the Lake of Two Mountains, Hurons, Abenakis, Iroquois of La Presentation, Nipissings, Algonquins, and Ottawas,—­I invite you all by this belt of wampum to join your French father and help him to crush the assassins.  Take this hatchet, and with it two barrels of wine for a feast.”  Both hatchet and wine were cheerfully accepted.  Then Contrecoeur turned to the Delawares, who were also present:  “By these four strings of wampum I invite you, if you are true children of Onontio, to follow the example of your brethren;” and with some hesitation they also took up the hatchet.

The next day was spent by the Indians in making moccasons for the march, and by the French in preparing for an expedition on a larger scale than had been at first intended.  Contrecoeur, Villiers, Le Mercier, and Longueuil, after deliberating together, drew up a paper to the effect that “it was fitting (convenable) to march against the English with the greatest possible number of French and savages, in order to avenge ourselves and chastise them for having violated the most sacred laws of civilized nations;” that, thought their conduct justified the French in disregarding the existing treaty of peace, yet, after thoroughly punishing them, and compelling them to withdraw from the domain of the King, they should be told that, in pursuance of his royal orders, the French looked on them as friends.  But it was further agreed that should the English have withdrawn to their own side of the mountains, “they should be followed to their settlements to destroy them and treat them as enemies, till that nation should give ample satisfaction and completely change its conduct."[154]