of, to Governor Hamilton. The Indians were very suspicious of Céloron, and here his Iroquois and Abenaki allies deserted him. They treated his speech with contempt and tore down the plates which had been nailed upon the trees.

Céloron left Chiningué on the eleventh and at noon of the thirteenth interred a plate of lead “at the entrance of the river and on the south bank of the Kenawah, which discharges itself to the east of the river Ohio.”[25] According to Bonnécamps’s journal, the plate was interred at the mouth of the Kanonouaora. This third plate was probably buried at the mouth of Wheeling Creek in West Virginia, though the descriptions of the place as given by both Céloron and Bonnécamps are so vague that it is quite impossible to identify positively the site.[26]

At seven o’clock on the morning of the fourteenth, the expedition was again on its way down the river. They passed two rivers, the entrances of which, Céloron tells us, were very beautiful. On the fifteenth the route was continued, and a leaden plate was interred “at the foot of a maple, which forms a tripod with a red oak and a cone pine, at the entrance of the river Yenanguekouan, on the west shore of this river ... and in the same place attached to a tree the arms of the King.”[27] Father Bonnécamps gives, as the name of this river, Jenanguékoua. This, the fourth plate, was interred at the mouth of the Muskingum River in Ohio, on the site of old Fort Harmar and within the present city of Marietta. This plate, found in 1798 by some boys bathing in the Muskingum, was presented to the Antiquarian Society of Massachusetts in the library of which it is now preserved.

On the sixteenth at nine o’clock, the party resumed its journey, making nearly twelve leagues. On the seventeenth Céloron makes record of having seen two “beautiful” rivers the names of which he says he does not know. “I disembarked early to hunt, being altogether reduced to a diet of bread.”[28]

The journey was resumed at an early hour the next day, but the party was forced to camp at noon, as the rain prevented their continuing. On this day, the eighteenth of August, the fifth leaden plate was “buried, at the foot of a tree, on the southern shore of the Ohio and the eastern shore of Chiniondaista.”[29] Father Bonnécamps gives the name of this river, the Great Kanawha, Chinodaichta. The spelling of the name on the plate, which was found in 1846 and has been preserved by the Virginia Historical Society, differs somewhat from that of the Journal, that on the plate being Chinodahichetha. This place, where the fifth plate was interred, was named Point Pleasant, West Virginia, by the early settlers and still bears that name.

At this point the expedition was delayed on account of rain, but all reëmbarked on the twentieth, and during the day encountered a Loup, who, upon being asked how many inhabitants there were at St. Yotoc,[30] replied there were eighty or a hundred cabins. On the following day Joncaire, two chiefs of the Sault de St. Louis, three Abenakis chiefs, and M. de Niverville were sent ahead to St. Yotoc “to tranquilize the nations and restore their spirits, in case any carrier of news had troubled them.”

Céloron gave his envoys a start of several hours before resuming his journey. By embarking early on the morning of the twenty-second, they were enabled to reach St. Yotoc that day, and encamped opposite the village. The next three days were spent in holding councils. The Chaouanons (Shawanese) inhabitants of “St. Yotoc” were very suspicious of the French and their intentions. Bonnécamps says: “Monsieur the Commandant had great difficulty to reassure them.” “The situation of the village of the Chaouanons is quite pleasant—at least, it is not masked by the mountains, like the other villages through which we had passed. The Sinhioto river, which bounds it on the West, has given it its name. It is composed of about sixty cabins. The Englishmen there numbered five. They were ordered to withdraw, and promised to do so.”

The expedition embarked on the morning of the twenty-sixth of August and reached Rivière la Blanche[31] that night at ten o’clock. Here they waited two days for Le Baril, the chief, and his band of Miamis, to join them and proceed to La Demoiselle to hear Céloron’s speech. “Finally, on the morning of the 31st, they appeared, followed by their women, their children, and their dogs. All embarked, and about 4 o’clock in the afternoon we entered Rivière à la Roche, after having buried the 6th and last leaden plate on the western bank of that river,[32] and to the north of the Ohio.”[33] “I ... have buried on the point formed by the right shore of the Ohio, and the left of the River la Roche, a plate of lead, and attached to a tree the arms of the king.”[34]

With the burial of this sixth and last leaden plate, which, so far as known, has never been discovered, Céloron’s voyage on La Belle Rivière ended, and on the morning of the first of September the canoes began the ascent of the shallow Rivière à la Roche en route to Quebec by way of Lake Erie.

Through the eyes of these travelers the Governor of New France looked upon the great valley of the Ohio and realized its extent and strategic value. The many large rivers entering it, the Indian villages which dotted its banks and, more than all else, the avidity of English traders for the fur trade of these villages, were the items in the report of these first voyageurs which led quickly to the French fort-building here and precipitated the old French War.