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carrying out this engagement; to commit no further hostilities; each nation to send deputies authorized to conclude a peace; and to ratify by a treaty the conditions they had accepted.

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The Mingoes and Delawares without delay delivered their prisoners, even their own children born from white women, which, remarks Bouquet, considering their attachment to their children, is a convincing proof of their sincerity and humiliation. The Shawances in the first instance refused to accept. the conditions, particularly objecting to give hostages. Bouquet at one period thought he would be forced to attack them. He dreaded that they would be driven to despair, and would massacre the one hundred and fifty prisoners known to be in their hands. Accordingly, he sought a private interview with the leading chiefs, and succeeded in convincing them of the folly of their obstinacy, and that by its continuance they exposed themselves to destruction: finally, they consented to accept the same terms as the Delawares.

They immediately delivered forty prisoners, giving six of their principal chiefs as hostages for the observance of the treaty, and they despatched parties in order to obtain the remainder of their captives, and conduct them to fort Pitt. They undertook, when the prisoners were all delivered, that deputies should meet Johnson, to agree upon the conditions of the peace. Some of the Shawanees deputies losing heart watched an opportunity to escape. The Delawares were very angry with this behaviour, and sent the Shawanees a message desiring them to furnish wiser men to make the peace. They even made light of the proceeding, promising they would see that the engagements entered into by that tribe would be fulfilled. The prisoners who had been surrendered informed Bouquet that the principal chiefs of the Delawares had been against the war, and that the troops who had been murdered had been killed, not by the Delawares, but by the Wyandots and Ottawas, and other western tribes.

At this date two hundred prisoners had been delivered, and Can. Arch., A., 7, p. 91.

1764]

RETURN OF THE COLUMN.

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one hundred additional were expected from the Shawanees. Many of them from long captivity had become perfectly savage, and had to be bound, to be delivered up. In reporting the success of the campaign, Bouquet bore testimony to the good service performed by the Virginian volunteers; he mentioned particularly the services of colonel Lewis, as it was to him he owed the reinforcement. He recommended that his son who had served in the campaign as a lieutenant should receive a commission in the regular force, as a debt due to the father's patriotism. He likewise described the light dress and activity of the Virginians as worthy of commendation, and as making a great impression on the Indians.

Previous to starting for fort Pitt, Bouquet sent some Delawares to the Wabash and the Miami to give notice of the peace, so that in that quarter there would be no excuse for further trouble. To Gage, he strongly recommended that the presence of traders should not be permitted among the Indian tribes, to cheat them and create feelings of enmity against the British; that the French from New Orleans should be entirely excluded from the British forts; that possession should be taken as soon as practicable of fort Chartres; and that armed bateaux should continually cruise upon the northern Mississippi, to prevent all traffic declared to be illegal.

Bouquet arrived at fort Pitt on the 28th of November. The Royal Americans at once marched to the east, followed, on the succeeding days, by the 1st and 2nd Pennsylvanian battalions. Five companies of the 42nd remained at fort Pitt ; a company was placed at fort Ligonier; one also at fort Bedford; with half a company at fort Cumberland. On his return to Philadelphia, where he arrived about the 5th of January, Bouquet was received with the distinction which his eminent services justly deserved; in all quarters with respect and homage, especially by the families of the released prisoners. It had been an expedition without bloodshed, one soldier only having been found killed near the Muskingum, whose death remains a mystery. The probability is that it was caused by some imprudence of his own, and that the facts were known to Bouquet, for no reprisal was mentioned.

The peace obtained commanded the public confidence, for it was known to be based on sound principles, and that it promised to be durable, and not one of those illusory treaties to be violated on the first opportunity. The accomplishment of this desired event was everywhere recognized as a national benefaction. Prominent in the marks of public and private respect was the vote of thanks by the general assembly of Pennsylvania. It was carried unanimously at the first meeting of the house of representatives on the 15th of January, 1765. Bouquet had resolved to return to England; doubtless at this date his health was not what could be desired. The address records this intention, and continues, " that moved with a due sense of the important services you have rendered to his majesty, his northern colonies in general, and to this province in particular," in the remarkable victory near Bushy run, "striking terror through the tribes," laying a foundation for a lasting as well as honourable peace, "these eminent services and your constant attention to the civil rights of his majesty's subjects in this province, demand, Sir, the grateful tribute of thanks from all good men," and on behalf of themselves and the freemen of the province, the legislature tendered “their most sincere and hearty thanks." On the 4th of February, Bouquet replied in language equally courteous, not forgetting to do justice to the regular and provincial troops who had served with him, and wishing the legislature all prosperity and happiness.

The one mark of favour Bouquet received was to be made a ' brigadier, for which promotion he was chiefly indebted to Gage. Had Bouquet been a member of one of the great families he would have obtained honours and a pension, but such marks of distinction were reserved for the traffickers in political life, whose principal merit was subserviency to the crown.* George Grenville, then in power, had no sympathy

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* Only a few months later, on his retirement from the chancellorship to accept the post of president of the council in the ministry of Chatham, lord Northington, one of the most unscrupulous of the 'king's friends," who had constantly opposed his colleagues of the Rockingham administration, received a pension of £4,000 a year from the time he quitted office, and the reversion of the

1765]

IMPERIAL NEGLECT OF BOUQUET.

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with a character like Bouquet. His cold, methodical nature could test a service only by the political benefit he obtained from it, and in those days unless the claim was preferred from within the charmed circle of the "king's friends," there was little distinction to be obtained from the throne. When the marquis of Rockingham assumed office in July in the mother country, all memory of Bouquet's service had passed away, or if remembered, in no way received recognition. An honour similar to that paid by Pennsylvania, was voted to Bouquet by the house of burgesses of Virginia. Although of prior date, having been recorded on the 25th of December, it was not communicated to him until he had been notified of the thanks of Pennsylvania. A letter from governor Fauquier, expressing the highest esteem and consideration, accompanied the proceedings.

Such a vote from Pennsylvania and from Virginia, in each case, is the more remarkable when we bear in mind the events which rapidly followed it. Virginia, which had equally benefited by the peace, to obtain which imperial troops played so prominent a part, was the first to shew how rapidly all sense of it could evaporate. In the March of 1765, the American stamp act received the royal assent; in May, Virginia passed a resolution denying the right of the British government to interfere with the general taxation of the colony. In July George Grenville had ceased to be minister;* and in October, the first general congress of the colonies was held at New York. It was not until February of the following year that Philadelphia entered into the ranks of the opponents against the stamp act.

clerk of the Hanaper for two lives. Mr. Lecky describes this man "as a coarse, drunken, unprincipled lawyer, of no very extraordinary abilities." He had attached himself to the Leicester house set, and his service had been unflinchingly to carry out the royal will regardless of its justice or wisdom as subserviently and meanly as a eunuch of an eastern despot.

"We are inclined to think on the whole that the worst administration which has governed England since the revolution was that of George Grenville. His public acts may be classed under two heads : outrages on the liberty of the people and outrages on the dignity of the crown." Lord Macaulay's Essay "The Earl of Chatham," Edinburgh Review, October, 1844.

On Bouquet's arrival at New York in April, he was informed of his promotion to the rank of brigadier general, and of his appointment to the command at Florida. He made preparations for proceeding thither, much of the detail of the command being in confusion. He returned to Philadelphia on the 17th of April, and on the 20th started in a small schooner to undertake his new duties. During the next four months we hear nothing of him. Mention is first made of his name in November, by Gage, in a letter to Conway, when we are told that Bouquet died at Pensacola, in the beginning of September, 1765. He was then about forty-six years old and unmarried. There had been an affaire de cœur between Bouquet and a young lady named Willing, belonging to a family of respectability living in Philadelphia. In 1762, she married a Mr. Francis, a man of independent means, who had arrived from London a few months previously. It may be inferred that some half-formed engagement between them had been recognized. Bouquet acutely felt this desertion, and he wrote with most depressed feelings of his disappointment. His old comrade Ourry endeavoured to give him consolation. It was his language on this this occasion which reveals Bouquet's

bitterness of heart.*

By his first will in 1763, Willing had been named his executor, to some extent shewing that the marriage of the daughter had not led him to break with the family. In April, 1765, a few months before his death, when it may be assumed he was suffering from illness, he made a second will, appointing Haldimand his heir and executor. Bouquet was a collector, and we owe to him the preservation of many

*

"J'ai lu mon cher ami, et relu avec attention votre triste lettre du premier, et suis sensiblement touché de votre état. Je vois que votre esprit agité, comme la mer après une rude secousse de tremblement de terre, n'a pas encore repris son assiette. Je n'avois que trop bien prévu l'effet funeste; plût à Dieu que je l'eusse aussi bien pu prevenir !

"Je suis attendri du recit touchant que vous me faites de votre situation douloureuse, et je vous conjure par ce que vous tenez de plus cher et de plus sacré, de ne vous pas laisser aller à la merci d'une passion qui vous mene, et qui vous privera bientôt, si vous n'y prenez garde, des moyens qui vous restent encore pour la dompter." [Can. Arch. Report, 1889, p. xxxi.]

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