"HERE ARE YOUR INSTRUCTIONS."
"We must trust some one, Major Washington, and I sent not for you until I and my council had fully determined what to do. Here are your instructions. You will see that you are directed to set out with a suitable escort at once for the Ohio River, and convene all the chiefs you can at Logstown. You are to find out exactly how they stand towards us. You are then to take such a route as you think judicious to the nearest French post, deliver a letter from me, sealed with the great seal of the colony, to the French commandant, and demand an answer in the name of his Britannic Majesty. You are to find out everything possible in regard to the number of French forts, their armament, troops, commissariat, and where they are situated; and upon the information you bring will depend to a great degree whether there shall be war between England and France. When will you be ready to depart?"
"To-morrow morning, sir," answered George.
[to be continued.]
[BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN.]
BY JAMES BARNES.
The first Thomas Macdonough was a Major in the Continental army, and his three sons also possessed desires for entering the service of their country. The oldest had been a midshipman under Commodore Truxton, but being wounded in the action between the Constellation and L'Insurgent, he had to retire from the navy, owing to the amputation of his leg. But his younger brother, Thomas Macdonough, Jun., succeeded him, and he has rendered his name and that of Lake Champlain inseparable; but his fearlessness and bravery were shown on many occasions long before he was ordered to the Lakes.