Among his papers (in the fleur-de-lis cabinet of which I have spoken)
there are the first prophecies: two maps of the Lake George (Champlain)
region drawn by him on the inside of a red portfolio cover, marked 1842,
when he was nineteen years old; and next an odd-covered blank book in
which he began his note-making on the "Old French War," with such notes as
these: "Rights of the two nations"; "When did Marquette make his
discoveries?" "When did La Salle settle?" "Had not the French a right both
of prior discovery and prior settlement?" "The English never settled";
"The letters patent to Louisiana are preposterous, perhaps, but not more
so than the English claim from coasts back of the Mississippi"; "The first
blood was spilt by Washington. Jumonville would seem to have been sent
with peaceful intentions. His orders charged him to attack the French."
The title is written in a strong hand, but before he has half filled the
little book he makes entry that the "French War" is laid aside, for the
time, for the history of "Pontiac's War," and thus the latter part of this
thin note-book grew into "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," and that in turn
became sequel to the whole series of which it also was the promise, a
series of books so closely related that John Fiske speaks of them as "one
book.
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