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Who could this person be? He is alone and has stopped
on his water route long enough to build a fire, have a bit to eat
and drink, maybe even to dry items that have gotten wet along the
way. This is the 18th century—somewhere. Is he English . . . or
their enemy, the French? We cannot see enough of his flintlock to
tell if it is of French or English design. He appears to be a trader,
but doesn’t have much with him. The cloth near his leg reveals his
goods: silver trade items. His pistol is fully cocked; is he fearful?
He has no furs and his Algonquin canoe isn’t large enough for many
anyway. His mismatched paddles might have come from two different
Indian tribes. Could this man be the English trader, John Frasier,
as he escaped downriver from the French soldiers at Venango — his
trading post on the Allegheny River —in 1752? The French had come
down from what is now Canada into the Ohio Valley, along the Allegheny
River, to rid the region of English influence. They confiscated
Frasier’s trading post and a blacksmith shop. Frasier lost all his
trade goods but escaped capture.
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