Appendix C
Chapter 5. Washington
_Washington and the Capitulation at Fort Necessity_.--Villiers,
in his Journal, boasts that he made Washington sign a virtual
admission that he had assassinated Jumonville. In regard to this
point, a letter, of which the following is an extract, is printed in
the provincial papers of the time. It is from Captain Adam
Stephen, an officer in the action, writing to a friend five weeks
after.
"When Mr. Vanbraam returned with the French proposals, we
were obliged to take the sense of them from his mouth; it rained
so heavy that he could not give us a written translation of them;
we could scarcely keep the candle lighted to read them by; they
were written in a bad hand, on wet and blotted paper, so that
no person could read them but Vanbraam, who had heard them
from the mouth of the French officer. Every officer there is
ready to declare that there was no such word as _assassination_
mentioned. The terms expressed were, _the death of Jumonville_. If
it had been mentioned we would by all means have had it altered,
as the French, during the course of the interview, seemed very
condescending, and desirous to bring things to an issue." He then
gives several other points in which Vanbraam had misled them.
Dinwiddie, recounting the affair to Lord Albemarle, says that
Washington, being ignorant of French, was deceived by the
interpreter, who, through poltroonery, suppressed the word assassination.
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