ed; "but they say he behaved in
Braddock's action as bravely as if he really loved the whistling of
bullets."

[484:A] Ancestor of the late General Gordon, of Albemarle.

[487:A] Sabine's Loyalists, 476.

CHAPTER LXIII.

1756-1758.

First Settlers of the Valley--Sandy Creek Expedition--Indian
Irruption--Measures of Defence--Habits of Virginians--
Washington and Dinwiddie--Congress of Governors--Dinwiddie
succeeded by Blair--Davies' Patriotic Discourse.

THE inhabitants of tramontane Virginia are very imperfectly acquainted
with its history. This remark applies particularly to that section
commonly called the Valley of Virginia, which, lying along the Blue
Ridge, stretches from the Potomac to the Alleghany Mountains. Of this
many of the inhabitants know little more than what they see. They see a
country possessing salubrity and fertility, yielding plentifully, in
great variety, most of the necessaries of life, a country which has
advantages, conveniences, and blessings, in abundance, in profusion, it
may almost be said in superfluity. But they know not how it came into
the hands of the present occupants; they know not who were the first
settlers, whence they came, at what time, in what numbers, nor what
difficulties they had to encounter, nor what was the progress of
population. One who would become acquainted with these matters must
travel back a century or more; he must witness the early adventurers
leaving the abodes of civilization, and singly, or in families, or in
groups composed of several families, like pioneers on a forlorn hope,
entering the dark, dreary, trackless forest, which had been for ages the
nursery of wild beasts and the pathway of the Indian. After traversing
this inhospitable solitude for days or weeks, and having become weary of
their pilgrimage, they determined to separate, and each family taking
its own course in quest of a place where they may rest, they find a spot
such as choice, chance, or necessity points out; here they sit down;
this they call their home--a cheerless, houseless home. If they have a
tent, they stretch it, and in it they all nestle; otherwise the umbrage
of a wide-spreading oak, or mayhap the canopy of heaven, is their only
covering. In this newfound home, while they are not exempt from the
common frailties and ills of humanity, many peculiar to their present
condition thicken around them. Here they must endure excessive labor,
fatigue, and