reat preparations made by the French to
descend the Allegheny in the spring and take possession of the Ohio
valley, but we hoped to forestall them. The triangle between the forks
of the Ohio was admirably adapted for fortification, and it was
proposed to throw up a fort there so that the French would get a warm
reception when their canoes came floating down the river, and be forced
to retreat to the Lakes. Dinwiddie's energy was wide-felt, and the
whole colony was soon astir.

He convened the House of Burgesses, laid Colonel Washington's report
before it, and secured a grant of L10,000 for purposes of defense; he
urged the governors of the other colonies, from the Carolinas north to
Jersey, to send reinforcements at once to Will's Creek, whence the start
was to be made; he sent messengers with presents to the Ohio Indians,
pressing them to take up the hatchet against the French, and authorized
the enlistment of three hundred men. William Trent, an Indian trader, and
brother-in-law of Colonel George Croghan, was commissioned to raise a
company of a hundred men from among the backwoodsmen along the frontier,
and started at once for the Ohio country to get his men together and
begin work on the fort, the main body to follow so soon as it could be
properly equipped.

Long before this I had secured my uniform and accoutrements,--which my
three shillings a day were far from paying for,--and was kept busy
superintending the storage of wagons or drilling under Captain Adam
Stephen, in whose company I was, at Alexandria. The men were for the most
part poor whites, who had enlisted because they could earn their bread no
other way, and promised to make but indifferent soldiers. We were
provided with ten cannon, all four-pounders, which had been presented by
the king to Virginia, and eighty barrels of powder, together with
small-arms, thirty tents, and six months' provision of flour, pork, and
beef. These were forwarded to Will's Creek as rapidly as possible, but at
the best it was slow work, and April was in sight before the expedition
was ready to move. During near all of this time, Colonel Washington was
virtually in command, for Colonel Fry was taken with a fever, which kept
him for the most part to his bed. There seemed no prospect of his
improvement, so he ordered the expedition to advance without him, he to
follow so soon as he could sit a horse. That time was never to come, for
he died at Will's Creek on the last day of Ma