1754.] FRENCH AND ENGLISH DIPLOMACY. 101 



dered children. Their native jealousy was roused 

 to its utmost pitch. Many of them thought that 

 the two white nations had conspired to destroy 

 them, and then divide their lands. " You and the 

 French," said one of them, a few years afterwards, 

 to an English emissary, " are like the two edges of 

 a pair of shears, and we are the cloth which is cut 

 to pieces between them." ^ 



The French labored hard to conciliate them, ply- 

 ing them with gifts and flatteries,^ and proclaiming 

 themselves their champions against the English. 

 At first, these arts seemed in vain, but their effect 

 soon began to declare itself; and this effect was 

 greatly increased by a singular piece of infatuation 

 on the part of the proprietors of Pennsylvania. 

 During the summer of 1754, delegates of the sev- 

 eral provinces met at Albany, to concert measures 

 of defence in the war which now seemed inevitable. 

 It was at this meeting that the memorable plan of 

 a union of the colonies was brought forward; a 

 plan, the fate of which was curious and significant, 

 for the crown rejected it as giving too much power 

 to the people, and the people as giving too much 



1 First Journal of C. F. Post. 



2 Letters of Robert Stobo, an English hostage at Fort du Quesne. 



" Shamokin Daniel, who came with me, went over to the fort [du 

 Quesne] by himself, and counselled with the governor, who presented 

 him with a laced coat and hat, a blanket, shirts, ribbons, a new gun, pow- 

 der, lead, &c. When he returned he was quite changed, and said, ' See 

 here, you fools, what the French have given me. I was in Philadelphia, 

 and never received a farthing ; ' and (directing himself to me) said, ' The 

 EngUsh are fools, and so are you.'" — Post, First Journal. 



Washington, while at Fort Le Boeuf, was much annoyed by the con- 

 duct of the French, who did their utmost to seduce his Indian escort by 

 bribes and promises. 



