d. Native Americans did not adhere to the surrender terms negotiated between the French and British.
The French and their native allies drove south into New York and attacked Fort William Henry at the southern end of Lake George with a massive army in 1757. When the fort fell after a six day siege, the French commander, Marquis de Montcalm, granted the surrendering army the right to leave with their arms and possessions as long as they pledged not to take up arms against France for 18 months. Such generous terms had ample president in the European chivalry practices, but the 2000 Native Americans who had joined the assault (many of whom had traveled hundreds of miles from their homes) felt entitled to their share of captives and war spoils. Acting on those grounds, the native soldiers attacked the British who were peaceably evacuating the fort. Although the ensuing massacre both frightened and mobilized British colonists, it also opened a breach in the alliance between the French and Native Americans. Sensing that they played by different rules and had different priorities, the two sides grew reluctant to ban together again, and this change of heart would have great consequences for the war’s future course.