On the 14th, the snow was so deep that Washington sent off his horses very lightly loaded, in the care of four of his men, to Venango, having determined to go down himself, with the remainder of his party, in a canoe. Young Washington had to contend with a variety of mild and artful means used to detain his convoy of Indians, and to draw them away from the English interests. He was at length obliged to assume a tone of remonstrance before he could induce the French and Indians to part.—The French commandant, at last, ordered a plentiful store of provisions to be put on board Washington’s boat, and appeared very friendly and complaisant. They had a tedious passage down the Creek. They found it extremely crooked. Several times they came near being staved against the rocks. At times they were all hands obliged to get out, and remain in the water half an hour or more, getting over the shoals. At one place, the ice had lodged and blocked up the passage by water, so that they were obliged to carry their boat a quarter of a mile across a neck of land. They did not reach Venango till the 22d. Here they found their horses.
The next day, when Washington was prepared to leave Venango, he inquired of the Half-King whether he intended to go down with him by land or to go by water. He replied that White Thunder had hurt himself badly, and was sick and unable to walk, and that he must carry him down in a canoe. As Washington found that the Half-King intended to stay behind a few days, he cautioned him against the flatteries of the French. He desired Washington not to be concerned, for he knew the French too well to be influenced by them against the English. He offered to order the young hunter to attend Washington and his party, and procure provisions for them on their journey. He said he should soon be at the forks, and there deliver a speech, to be carried to his Honor the Governor of Virginia. Washington then took leave of the Half-King, and with his party left Venango.
They had not proceeded far, before the horses seemed to be so feeble, and the baggage so heavy for them, that Washington and his party, except the drivers, dismounted and went on foot with packs on their backs to help forward the baggage. Washington, in an Indian walking dress, continued with his men three days under this arrangement, till he found there was no probability of his reaching home in this manner, in any reasonable season. He then committed the party to the charge of his French interpreter with proper directions, tied himself up in a watch coat, put his necessary papers into his pack with his provisions, took his gun in his hand, and set forward with Mr. Gist, fitted in the same manner, the nearest way home through the woods. The day following, just after they had passed a place called Murdering Town, they fell in with a party of Indians in the French interest, who had been lying in wait for them. One of the Indians fired at Washington, not fifteen steps from him, but providentially missed him. They instantly took the fellow into custody, and kept him with them till about nine o’clock in the evening, when they let him go, and walked all night without making any stop, that they might get so far the start of the Indians as to be out of the reach of their pursuit the next day, having no doubt their tracks would be followed as soon as it was light.
The next day they continued travelling till it was quite dark, when they reached the Allegany river about two miles above the forks of the Ohio. There was no way for them to get over the river but upon a raft. The next morning they set about making one, with the assistance of but one poor hatchet, and finished it just after sunset.—The next day they launched it, went on board and pushed off; but before they were half across the river, they were so wedged in between flakes of ice running forcibly down stream, that they expected every moment their raft would sink and themselves perish. Young Washington put out his setting pole to stop the raft, that the ice might pass by it, when the rapidity of the stream threw the ice with so much violence against his pole that it jerked him into the river. He instantly seized hold of one of the raft logs and saved himself from the dashing flakes of ice, by springing to his former station on the raft. In spite of all their efforts they could not get to either shore; but were obliged to quit their raft and pass from one mass of ice to another, till they reached a small island in the river. Here they spent the night. The cold was so extremely severe that Mr. Gist had all his fingers and part of his toes frozen. They left the island the next morning, on the ice, without difficulty, and went to the house of a trader, on the Monongahela, a few miles distant. About three miles from this house, there was an Indian settlement on the spot where the Monongahela and Youghiogany rivers unite, where the Indian Queen Alliquippa held her rude court. She had expressed great concern that Washington and his party had passed her by without attention, on his way to the French fort; and, as he was now waiting for horses, (which, by the by, he failed to obtain,) he took this opportunity to make a visit to her majesty. Though it is evident that Queen Alliquippa, like persons of similar rank and birth in Europe, was very tenacious of the respect due to royalty, we are not informed by Washington, with what particular marks of attention she received him. We may, however, form some idea of the style which he found prevalent at court, from the nature of the present which he made her. He presented her with a box coat.
About thirty miles from this Indian settlement, Washington bought a fresh horse, rode on to Wills Creek, and reached Williamsburg on the 16th of January, 1754.—He immediately waited upon the Governor, delivered his letter from the French commandant, together with a journal of his proceedings and observations during the tour. This journal was published in England, and has been several times reprinted in this country. Major Washington thus completed his perilous expedition, and accomplished the objects of it in such a faithful and able manner as gave entire satisfaction.
[CHAPTER FIFTH.]
Major Washington, at the age of twenty-two, is appointed to command the regular Virginia forces, consisting of two companies—being increased to six companies, he is raised to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and made second in command—his modesty—the fort, just begun at the fork of the Ohio, surrenders to the French—Washington attacks and defeats a party of French.
By the then existing law of Virginia, the militia could not be required to march more than five miles beyond the boundary line of the colony. For this reason, if for no other, the militia alone could not be depended upon for the defence of the colony. After Washington’s return, the Governor and council of Virginia determined to raise two companies, of one hundred men each, by enlistment, and send them to erect and defend a fort at the fork of the Ohio, now Pittsburg, that being the spot pointed out by Washington as well situated for a fort. Major Washington, then but twenty-two years old, was appointed to command these two companies. He was to enlist one of the companies himself, and he did enlist about fifty men. Captain Trent, having partly filled the other company in the back settlement, was ordered immediately to the place of destination. It was soon determined, however, to increase this force to three hundred men, and to divide them into six companies. In a letter to a friend of his, then a member of the Governor’s council, Major Washington says: “The command of this whole force I neither expect nor desire; for I must be impartial enough to confess, it is a charge too great for my youth and inexperience. Knowing this, I have too sincere a love for my country to undertake that which may tend to the prejudice of it.”