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As it happened, Ramezay, because of a slight accident did not lead the expedition and the command fell upon one, Coulon de Villiers. In the warfare of surprise in the wilderness, he was of long experience. Seventeen years before as a young man, he had assisted in a similar expedition against the Outagamies. Seven years later it was he who defeated George Washington, the future Father of his Country, at Fort Necessity. Eventually he was captured by Sir William Johnson at the Seige of Fort Niagara. With Coulon were others of equal fame and note. There was Captain Beaujeu, who eight years later was to meet his fame and death at the defeat of Braddock, in the wilderness and swamps of the Monongahela. And it is to Beaujeu that we are indebted to the knowledge of the expedition. For each day he recorded its events in a diary, which he completed at night with cold and numbed fingers before the great fires which they made at the end of the day as they rested and slept.* With them, too, was one Chevalier de la Corn. A native Canadian he had
already achieved notoriety and success associating in warfare with the friendly
Indians. He remained in military service, fighting his last battle with Montcalm
at the Siege of Quebec, where he was wounded. Back |
