George had to instruct himself in order that he might train the county officers. Study must in consequence have occupied much of his spare time during the spring and summer of 1753. Available books on tactics were hard, complicated reading for a man who did not have opportunity of drilling and exercising soldiers. As far as surviving records show, he did not visit in 1753 any of the counties under his care. George’s interest shifted as his duties changed. His few letters of later boyhood contained not one line on public affairs and not a single reference to the duty a Virginian owed King and Crown. Now, as Major Washington, Adjutant of the Southern District, he began to learn more about the political aspect of dealings on the frontier, and, in particular, about the advance of the French.
The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, October 18, 1748, had ended the war of the Austrian Succession; but, so far as England and France were involved, the settlement merely provided for restitution of the territory each had taken from the other. Like wrestlers well matched, the two ancestral adversaries broke off their struggle in order to get a new hold when an opening was offered. No boundary was drawn on the watershed of the Ohio, which both countries claimed. The French thought the English planned to separate Louisiana from Canada and to conquer the two Colonies separately; the British suspected that the French intended to cut them off from the back country and to pin them to the Atlantic coast. In the foreground was the prospect of winning or losing the fur trade.
In full appreciation of what the loss of the fur trade would mean, the French had become aggressive. During the first days of the Ohio Company the protection of the frontier had been little more than an argument to facilitate large grants to Virginia land speculators; now it was a reality. In 1749, the Marquis de la Galissonière, French Governor of Canada, had sent the Chevalier Céloron de Bienville to the Ohio Valley to reassert the claim of France to that region. Céloron had visited numerous Indian tribes and had penetrated to Logstown. There he had warned the Indians against the English. When the word of Céloron’s expedition reached the English Colonies, it convinced both Pennsylvanians and Virginians that they should strengthen their ties with the Six Nations and that they should confirm the treaty which had been made at Lancaster in 1744 but never had been ratified acceptably. Forts must be built to resist the French if they should return.
It was shortly after this that Governor Dinwiddie had arrived in Virginia and had become interested, financially and politically, in the Ohio Company and in the settlements it proposed to establish in the region claimed by the French. Soon he commissioned Joshua Fry, Lunsford Lomax and James Patton to deliver a present to the Six Nations at Logstown on May 15, 1752, procure the desired ratification of the Treaty of Lancaster, and renew friendly relations and gain new concessions. Fry and his companions had to spend many days in coaxing the Indians into a new agreement. Finally, on June 13, 1752, they won full confirmation of the treaty. Permission was given the English to build two strong trading posts on the Ohio and establish settlements south of that river.
This success of English Colonial diplomacy was offset that same month when Charles Langlade, a French trader, mustered 250 Ottawas and Ojibwas and badly defeated the Indian Chief, Old Britain, oddly styled the Demoiselle, a known friend of England. After that, nothing was heard of French activity in the disputed region until the winter of 1752-53. Word then reached Dinwiddie that the Miami Indians had gone over to the “other side” and that fifteen or sixteen French had come to Logstown and were establishing themselves there. Dinwiddie was alarmed. “We would fain hope,” he declared, “these people are only French traders, and they have no other view but trade. I hope there is no great army of French among the lakes.”
His hope was vain. A force of 1500 French troops landed in the spring of 1753 on the southern shore of Lake Erie and built forts and some stretches of road. These soldiers of King Louis spread their dominion swiftly and without resistance, only to find disease a worse foe than the Indians or the negligent English colonists. By autumn most of the survivors were sent back to Montreal. The number of those who remained at Forts Presque Isle and Le Boeuf was not known to the Virginians, but this much was plain: These men from Canada were in territory claimed by England, and if they pushed southward, they would reach the Ohio and close to English traders and settlers the rich lands that speculators had been eyeing ever since the Treaty of Lancaster had been signed.
The young Adjutant of the Southern District read in the Virginia Gazette of some of these events, and doubtless he learned from Colonel Fairfax that the situation on the Ohio had been described in dispatches to the home government. Perhaps, too, it was Fairfax who told him that the Governor had resolved to send a warning to the French commander to leave the country of the British King. George reflected, saw an opportunity, determined to seize it—and set out for Williamsburg: He would volunteer to carry the message to the Ohio.
CHAPTER / 2
When George Washington reached Williamsburg at the end of October 1753 he found the taverns crowded with Burgesses. The General Assembly had been called to meet November 1, in circumstances that aroused more than the usual curiosity of Colonials eager for news. On October 21 a sloop of war had brought special dispatches to the Governor, who promptly had sent letters under the King’s seal to the executives of the other Colonies. The proclamation for an early session of the Virginia lawmakers had then been issued.
George soon learned part of the reason for this activity. At the Palace, he was ushered into the presence of the Governor. Dinwiddie was aroused and probably impressed by the importance of the steps he was about to take. On June 16 he had written the home government concerning the need of building forts to prevent the French from occupying the Ohio country. Dispatches of August 28 had brought him instructions that accorded with his judgment. Encouraging promises of military equipment had been made. As a first step, Dinwiddie had been instructed to warn the French of their encroachment and formally call on them to leave British territory.
Governor and Council accepted promptly George’s offer to carry the message. Orders were drafted. Without delay he was to proceed to Logstown and there call on friendly Indian Sachems for a guard to attend him as far as he thought proper en route to the French commanding officer. When he reached the French station, Washington was to present a letter, which Dinwiddie handed him, and demand a reply, for which he was to wait not more than a week. This answer having been given, Major Washington was to request a French escort on his way back to the Virginia settlements. In addition, George was to procure all the information he could of the numerical strength, armament, defences, communications and plans of the intruders.
Besides his written instructions, George received detailed verbal orders: He was to proceed first to Wills Creek and there deliver to Christopher Gist, an experienced frontiersman, a written request from the Governor and Council that Gist act as Washington’s guide on the mission. The Virginia messenger, moreover, was to inquire of the French why they had made prisoners of British subjects trading with the Indians and why they had driven trader John Frazier from the house where he had lived for twelve years. Finally, speed was enjoined.
This mission was assigned young Washington when sparkling autumn weather was turning to the rains and the bleakness of November. George knew how unpleasant that month could be; but he was being honored by the assignment, and he had such an opportunity as no young Virginian had enjoyed in his generation of winning reputation. Off he went to Fredericksburg, and as he rode he planned: Besides Gist as guide, he would need men to look after the horses and baggage and to pitch a tent. Unless Gist knew the Indian tongues, it would be necessary to procure an interpreter. Further, someone must make the journey who could translate French and converse in it. George believed he could procure such a man. To the vicinity of Fredericksburg in 1752 had come a young Hollander, Jacob van Braam. Though his English was meagre, he was said to have a knowledge of French.
On reaching Fredericksburg, November 1, George found van Braam, who ag
reed to accompany him; and the two set out for Alexandria. From Alexandria the road of the emissary and the interpreter was for Wills Creek, which they reached November 14. Near at hand, on the Maryland shore, was the cabin of Gist. When George delivered the letter which asked Gist to accompany the Major, the frontiersman consented. While Gist made ready, George hired four men as “servitors.” One of these, an Indian trader Barnaby Currin, was to prove himself capable of bearing some of the responsibility of the wilderness. Of the others, John MacQuire also had traded with the Indians, and Henry Steward had some knowledge of the frontier. When the party set out on November 15 it consisted of seven men with their horses and baggage. Everything had been included that Washington had thought necessary—even an “Indian dress” for the Major.
Washington was to find Gist capable of handling both compass and canoe, a man altogether conscientious in the performance of duty. More than any other man, Gist was to be George’s teacher in the art of dealing with the uncertain savages. George scarcely could have had a better instructor: he had now to demonstrate how apt a pupil he would be.
The opening days of George’s apprenticeship as a frontiersman were novel and interesting enough, but not exacting. He and the others climbed upward, descended to the narrow valleys, mounted again to the tops of the passes, and crossed the stony streams. The journey was as rapid as the difficult country permitted. Northward the men moved through the mountains and, as they advanced, encountered their first snow. George and his companions crossed the Youghiogheny November 19. On the twenty-second the Englishmen reached the Monongahela at the mouth of Turtle Creek, close to Frazier’s settlement.
The trader had much news to relate. Friendly natives recently had visited him and had left wampum and a message for the Governor of Virginia to the effect that three nations of French Indians had taken up the hatchet against the English. Frazier passed the wampum to George along with the warning. Another item of information was that French troops had been advancing towards the Ohio from Lake Erie when mounted messengers had arrived with news that the “General” of the French, Pierre Paul, Sieur de Marin, had died. After that, the greater part of the French had been withdrawn northward to winter quarters. In this intelligence, the good and the bad were mingled. George knew that Dinwiddie and the royal government depended, in large measure, on friendly Indians of the Six Nations for the defence of the Virginia frontier. As for the French withdrawal, it might have large meaning for the future and might give England an advantage.
On November 23 George reached the strategic objective of the rival English and French, the wind-swept, uninhabited point of land where the Allegheny received the waters of the powerful Monongahela. There, or nearby, Governor Dinwiddie planned to erect the fort that was to keep the French from the Ohio and the Monongahela. George studied the ground carefully in order to ascertain, if he could, how the nearer stretches of the rivers could be commanded by English guns. He reached conclusions which he jotted down in notes for the rough journal he was keeping. Later he elaborated his views to this effect: “The land in the forks . . . I think extremely well situated for a fort, as it has the absolute command of both rivers. The land at the point is twenty or twenty-five feet above the common surface of the water; and a considerable bottom of flat, well-timbered land all around it, very convenient for building.”
About the time George finished the examination of this site, Currin and Steward arrived with the canoe and the baggage. They unloaded safely on the farther side of the Allegheny and then ferried over the other members of the party. Camp was made on the shore. The night was uneventful but it opened an interesting and eventful day. Nearby lived the Indian Chief Shingiss, a Delaware whom it seemed wise to invite to the council George had been instructed to hold with the powerful Indian, Half King, at Logstown. Policy and politeness dictated a personal call on Shingiss and on a lesser Chief, Lowmolach. Shingiss and Lowmolach both were, when acquainted with George’s purpose, entirely agreeable: They would go at once with the white men to Logstown.
On the first march George ever had made with Indians, between sunset and dusk they came to a rich bottom where were the huts and the long house known as Logstown, scene of Indian conferences and the home of Half King. This was the beginning of the serious part of the mission. Now, under his instructions, George was to find Half King and the other Sachems and ask them to supply guards for the journey to the French post. George’s call on Shingiss had been of small importance compared with this visit. To deal with Half King, the most influential leader of the district, George needed an interpreter, because Gist had never learned the Indian tongues of that region. What Gist lacked, the well-known trader John Davison possessed, and attended by this experienced master of the Indian speech, George sought the Indian.
Half King was away at his cabin on Little Beaver Creek, but George learned that Monakatoocha, a Chief second only to Half King, was in the village and went to call ceremoniously on him. Through Davison, he explained that he was a messenger to the French commander and was directed by the Governor of Virginia so to inform the Sachems. Then, George presented the Chief a string of wampum and a twist of tobacco. This done, he asked Monakatoocha to send for Half King. When the Chief promised to dispatch a runner the next morning, George thanked him and invited him and the other great men of the tribe to visit the English tent. It was a satisfactory though not a brilliant interview.
MAP / 2
THE FORKS OF THE OHIO, 1754-1759
The next day, November 25, was one of sensation. Into the town came a small group of French deserters. George talked at length with them and with the man who had them in charge, a British fur trader named Brown. The French deserters said that they were part of a force of a hundred who had been sent up the Mississippi to meet at Logstown a similar detachment from the garrisons on the south side of Lake Erie. All this seemed to confirm what had been suspected at Williamsburg. George doubtless guessed that the French had intended to advance to the forks and build a fort there. Eagerly, therefore, he continued his first examination of deserters, a distasteful but indispensable military duty.
Word came at 3 P.M. that Half King had arrived from Little Beaver Creek. Etiquette required that the English visitor should make the first call. George accordingly went over to the Sachem’s cabin and met Half King. This cherished friend of the English was an intelligent man, vain, brave, as candid as an Indian ever was, and possessed of an unusual knowledge of white men and their methods of fighting. When his passion was stirred, Half King would assert that the reason he hated the French was that they had killed, boiled and eaten his father. More immediately he had a bitter grudge because of treatment he recently had received at the hands of the Sieur de Marin.
George found Half King more than willing to talk—anxious to give all the information he could and to set forth his grievances with the full fury of outraged pride. All routes were quickly described. The better of them was impassable because of the swamps made by the overflow of streams. It would be necessary to proceed via Venango. Five or six good days’ journeys would be required. This explained, Half King launched into an account of his visit to the French fort. He had been received by de Marin with much sternness and had been asked very brusquely what he wanted. Half King had prepared in advance a speech for the occasion, and as he told George of the episode he insisted on repeating the substance of what he had announced to the French commandant.
If Half King told the truth about his speech, it was a bold call on the French to leave the watershed of the Ohio. The Indian manifestly thought it a good speech, and he went on to tell George that he had followed it by returning to the French commander a string of wampum, symbolic of one the French had given the Indians when they had made a previous, amicable visit. Then the Chief gamely and with burning eyes repeated the defiant reply of de Marin, a reply deliberately phrased to humiliate the Redman. With few preliminaries, the Frenchman had demanded: “Where is my wampum that you took away, with the marks of towns in it? This wampum
I do not know which you have discharged me off the land with. But you need not put yourself to the trouble of speaking, for I will not hear you.”
This had infuriated Half King; but, as repeated by him, it must have confused and alarmed and, at the same time, pleased George. George had new evidence of the French determination to occupy the Ohio, though he could afford to be happy that de Marin had outraged Half King’s pride. Half King explained what he had seen of French defences in the country between Logstown and Lake Erie. There were two forts, said the Chief. One was on the lake; the other was fifteen miles inland on French Creek and near a small body of water. A wide wagon road connected the two places. The forts were alike, though the one on Lake Erie was the larger. At length Half King left the tent with the understanding that he would assemble his great men to hear Washington’s request for an escort.
Next morning George greeted the assembled leaders and, with Davison as interpreter, undertook to explain his mission. What Washington asked in the way of an escort might involve Half King’s followers in a quarrel with French Indians or with the French themselves at a time when the English allies of the friendly tribes were far off. This danger probably had been increased by the clash between Half King and de Marin. If the Indians furnished a large escort and went boldly northward, they might be marching straight into a wintry war.
Half King was altogether for compliance with the Englishmen’s request. He was determined, in fact, to go back to the French fort and repeat to the new commandant what he had told de Marin. He urged the other Sachems to approve doing this, and after some discussion, they apparently acquiesced.
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