XVIII

SCANDAL, ABUSE, MUTINY, LITIGATION, DESPAIR

IS heart was filled with uncertainty as to Mary Philipse. His only satisfaction was that he carried bad news for Captain Dagworthy, whom his protector, Governor Sharpe, thereafter kept under his wing as Maryland's exclusive property.

But there was worse news for Washington. The moralists were scandalized by the immorality of his soldiers, and the French and Indians were burning and murdering in the very outskirts of Winchester. They had cut off Fort Cumberland.

The Assembly was convening at Williamsburg and there was great talk of another drive against the French. But as always, the colonies were still unwilling to get together.

Virginia passed a bill to increase her own army to fifteen hundred, by drafting enough militia to supply the deficiency of recruits. But it was stipulated that they must never be marched out of the province.

Still, the Indians and French were deep inside the province and there was enough to do to throw them back across the boundaries. Washington was welcomed to Virginia by the story of attacks in broad daylight on the little forts he had established wherever he could.1

The day after he reached Winchester, on April 7th, 1756, he wrote Dinwiddie, telling of several murders near there; the terror of the people was so great that "unless a stop

is put to the depredations of the Indians, the Blue Ridge will soon become our frontier."

He strongly urged that the inhabitants be concentrated in defensive positions, working each other's farms by turns. The Burgesses proposed a chain of forts, but he objected that that would require "an inconceivable number of men." His objections were not heeded. He urged the enlisting of friendly Indians. "It is in their power to be of infinite use to us; and without Indians we shall never be able to cope with those cruel foes to our country."

He sent along with this letter the scalp of a French officer, Monsieur Douville, overtaken by some of the soldiers of Washington. He added this comment on the white man's scalp: "I hope, although it is not an Indian's, they will meet with an adequate reward at least, as the monsieur's is of much more consequence. The whole party jointly claim the reward, no person pretending solely to assume the merit.2

One may read a vast amount about Washington without finding any reference to this ghastly business of his sending a Frenchman's scalp and asking that the soldiers who took it should receive adequate reward for their "merit." But he was like all the rest, subdued to the conditions of the war about him. Scalps, white or red, meant no more in their day than the motor-massacre of our day.

By this time the colonies were frantic for scalps. The best people wanted them; as in Massachusetts long ago, the good folk had earned good money for the little skulls of Indian children, and had brought them in in meal sacks like cabbages. In August, 1755, Virginia had made the standard offer of £10 for every male Indian scalp over twelve years old. In April, 1757, the price was raised to £15, with a bonus of £1 for every further scalp taken by the same scalper in the next two years. Maryland still kept

her price up to £50. Scalps were worth more than any other form of fur-worth more than gold.

The pathetic thing about Douville was that the Virginians who scalped him had found on his person orders from Captain Dumas, the conqueror of Braddock, bidding Douville to harass convoys, burn magazines, and take prisoners, but to "employ all his talents to prevent the savages from committing any cruelties upon those who may fall into their hands. Honor and humanity ought, in this respect, to serve as our guide. Dumas."

3

It is desolating to find George Washington passing along with approval the scalp of a young French officer ordered to prevent atrocities.

More than a year later, he sent a still more dreadful bundle, mentioned by Dinwiddie in a cheerful postscript:

"This Minute by Express from Colo. Washington, that a Party of our Indians, under comand of Lieut. Baker, with some Cherokee Indians, met with 10 Frenchmen at Turtle Creek, near Ft. Du Quesne and kill'd and scalp'd 5, 2 of which were officers." 4

But scalping was part of the day's work.

On April 9th, Washington reports the death of Douville to Governor Morris of Pennsylvania, commenting: "The accident that has determined the fate of Monsieur has, I believe, dispersd his party, for I don't hear of any mischief done in this colony since." He warns the Governor that it will be in French power "if the colonys continue in their fatal lethargy, to give a final stab to liberty and property. Nothing I more sincerely wish than a union to the colonys in this time of eminent danger. . Virginia will do everything that can be expected to promote the publick good.

"I went to Williamsburg fully resolved to resign my commission, but was diswaded from it at least for a time. If the hurry of business, in which I know your Honor is genly.

engaged, will admit of an opportunity to murder a little time in writing to me, I shoud receive the favour as a mark of that esteem which I coud wish to merit." "

Young Washington is now a man of inter-colonial importance, able to ask the Governor of Pennsylvania to "murder a little time" and write to him. Even Governor Sharpe is beginning to appreciate him, and on April 10th writes to Governor Shirley urging what Governor Shirley had already thought of:

"The enclosed letter I am desired to forward to your Excellency from Colo. Washington, and to request you to commissionate and appoint him second in command, in case these colonies shall raise a sufficient number of troops for carrying on an expedition or making a diversion to the westward this summer. As Mr. Washington is much esteemed in Virginia, and really seems a gentleman of merit, I should be exceedingly glad to learn that your Excellency is not averse to favoring his application and request.'

In his next letter to the Governor Washington has learned the glorious news that the Assembly is going to increase the establishment still further. It saved him from a certain humiliation, since almost nobody had paid any attention to his call in spite of the utter dismay of the settlers.

"All my Ideal hopes of raising a Number of Men to scour the adjacent Mountains have vanished into Nothing. Yesterday was the appointed Time for a general Rendezvous of all who were willing to accompany Me for that desirable End, and only 15 appeared; So that I find myself reduced to the further Necessity of waiting at this Place a few Days longer till the Arrival of a Party which was ordered from Fort Cumberland to escort Me up, the Roads being so infested that none but Hunters who travel the Woods by Night can pass in Safety.

"I have done every Thing in my Power to quiet the Minds of the Inhabitants, by detaching all the Men that I have any Comand over, to the places which are most exposed; there have also been large Detachments from Fort Cumberland in Pursuit of the

Enemy these 10 Days Past, and yet nothing, I fear, will prevent them from abandoning their Dwellings and flying with utmost Precipitation. There have been no Murders committed since I came up, but the Express I sent to Colo. Stephen (notwithstanding he was an excellent Woodsman and a very active Fellow) was fired upon 5 Times at a place called the Flats, within 6 Miles of Fort Cumberland. He had several Balls thro' his Coat, and his Horse shot under him, yet made his Escape from them.

"By a Letter from a Gent. in W'msburg, we are informed that the Assembly have generously given the further Sum of £20,000, and voted the augmenting our Forces to 2,000 Men. . . .

He gives a carefully-thought-out plan for raising these men by drafting; he describes their proper pay, and outlines an organization scheme "established more after the British Manner than We now are . . . and I humbly conceive where we can pattern after our Mother Country upon as easy Terms as pursuing Plans of our own, that we shou'd at least pay that Deference to her Judgment and Experi

His prestige was so great that his military enthusiasm for his mother country prepared another sorrow for his pacifistic mother:

"P.S.-I have a brother that has long discovered an Inclination to enter the Service, but has till this been disswaded from it by my Mother, who now, I believe, will give consent. I must, therefore, beg that if your honour shou'd issue any new Commissions before I come down, that you will think of him and reserve a Lieutenancy. I flatter myself that he will endeavour to deserve it as well as some that have, and others that may get.'

To this last request, Dinwiddie answered April 23rd, "I have not the least Objection to your Broths' being a Lieut." " But which brother it was and what, if anything, was ever done about it, does not appear.

Perhaps the service lost its charm, for troubles thickened