the river after the evacuation of Fort Duquesne-now Pitts-
burg, as the date on the rock seemed to correspond with that
event. The inscriptions are now obliterated.
The rock in question is situated about four miles below
Letart Falls, and is detached from a confused mass of rocks
that have fallen from the cliff above. The village of Antiquity
takes its name from this rock. -Silas Jones
Comments on the Foregoing by Stillman C. Larkin.
The opinion of Judge Elliot (who at an early period lived
near the noted rock, and saw the inscriptions,) that they were
made by a party of Frenchmen, is doubtless correct. But what
particular party did the work is not so clear. The English
and French nations were contending for many years by diplo-
macy, and by wars, to secure the title and possession of the
Ohio Valley, and were not slack in employing every available
means to strengthen their claims. In a history of the Kan-
awha Valley by Professor V. A. Wilson, is the following:
"In 1748, the British Parliament passed laws authorizing the
formation of many new settlements and issuing land grants
for the settlement of the upper Ohio. In view of such ag-
gression the Governor General of Canada, by order of his
home government, determined to place along the 'Oyo,' or
La Belle Riviere, a number of leaden plates suitably inscribed,
asserting the claims of France to lands on both sides of the
river, even to the source of the tributaries. The command
consisted of eight subaltern officers, six cadets, 180 Canadians
and 55 Indians, an armorer, 20 soldiers, 270 men in all.
The expedition left Montreal on the 15th of June, 1749, and
the 29th reached the junction of the Monongahela and the
Allegheny rivers, where the first plate was buried. The expe-
dition then descended the river depositing plates at the mouths
of the principal tributaries, and on the 18th of August they
