When Celoron de Blainville was sent to the Allegheny in 1749, by
the Governor of New France, his message was that ‘the Governor of
Canada desired his children on Ohio to turn away the English
Traders from amongst them and discharge them from ever coming to
trade there again, or on any of the Branches
When Celoron de Blainville was sent to the Allegheny in 1749, by
the Governor of New France, his message was that ‘the Governor of
Canada desired his children on Ohio to turn away the English
Traders from amongst them and discharge them from ever coming to
trade there again, or on any of the Branches.’ He sent away all
the traders whom he found, giving them letters addressed to their
respective governors denying England”s right to trade in the
West. To offset this move, within two years Pennsylvania sent
goods to the value of nine hundred pounds in order to hold the
Indians constant. The Governor had already ordered the traders to
sell whiskey to the Indians at ‘5 Bucks’ per cask and had told
the Indians, through his agent Conrad Weiser, that if any trader
refused to sell the liquor at that price they might ‘take it from
him and drink it for nothing.’ There was but one way for the
French to meet such competition. Without delay they fortified the
Allegheny and began to coerce the natives. Driving away the
carpenters of the Ohio Company from the present site of
Pittsburgh, they built Fort Duquesne. The beginning of the Old
French War ended what we may call the first era of the pack-horse
trade.
