o his government, had been instructed to repel force by
force if necessary, after he had remonstrated with them; he had also
received a supply of cannon and warlike stores. A treaty with the Ohio
tribes was held September, 1753, at Winchester, when, in exchange for
presents of arms and ammunition, they promised their aid, and consented
that a fortlet should be erected by the governor of Virginia on the
Monongahela.

Dinwiddie, deeming it necessary to remonstrate against the French
encroachments, found in Major Washington a trusty messenger, who
cheerfully undertook the hazardous mission. Starting from Williamsburg
on the last day of October, he reached Fredericksburg on the next day,
and there engaged as French interpreter Jacob Van Braam, who had served
in the Carthagena expedition under Lawrence Washington. At Alexandria
they provided necessaries, and at Winchester baggage and horses, and
reached Will's Creek, now Cumberland River, on the fourteenth of
November. Thence, accompanied by Van Braam, Gist, and four other
attendants, he traversed a savage wilderness, over rugged mountains
covered with snow, and across rapid swollen rivers. He reconnoitred the
face of the country with a sagacious eye, and selected the confluence of
the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, where they form the beautiful
Ohio, as an eligible site for a fort. Fort Du Quesne was afterwards
erected there by the French. After conferring, through an Indian
interpreter, with Tanacharisson, called the half-king, (as his authority
was somewhat subordinate to that of the Iroquois,) Washington provided
himself with Indian guides, and, accompanied by the half-king and some
other chiefs, set out for the French post. Ascending the Alleghany River
by way of Venango, he at length delivered Dinwiddie's letter to the
French commander, Monsieur Le Gardeur de St. Pierre, a courteous Knight
of the Order of St. Louis. Detained there some days, young Washington
examined the fort, and prepared a plan and description of it. It was
situated on a branch of French Creek, about fifteen miles south of Lake
Erie, and about seven hundred and fifty from Williamsburg. When he
departed with a sealed reply, a canoe was hospitably stocked with
liquors and provisions, but the French gave him no little anxiety by
their intrigues to win the half-king over to their interests, and to
retain him at the fort. Getting away at last with much difficulty, after
a perilous voyage of six days th