to be traversed
was not less than five hundred and sixty miles, with an
equal distance to return. The season was winter. It was a
task calculated to try the powers and test the endurance of
the strongest and most energetic man.

The contest between France and England for American soil was
about to begin. Hitherto the colonists of those nations had
kept far asunder,--the French in Canada and on the great
lakes; the English on the Atlantic coast. Now the English
were feeling their way westward, the French
southward,--lines of movement which would touch each other
on the Ohio. The touch, when made, was sure to be a hostile
one.

England had established an "Ohio Company,"--ostensibly for
trade, really for conquest. The French had built forts,--one
at Presque Isle, on Lake Erie; one on French Creek, near its
head-waters; a third at the junction of French Creek with
the Alleghany. This was a bold push inland. They had done
more than this. A party of French and Indians had made their
way as far as the point where Pittsburgh now stands. Here
they found some English traders, took them prisoners, and
conveyed them to Presque Isle. In response to this, some
French traders were seized by the Twightwee Indians, a tribe
friendly to the English, and sent to Pennsylvania. The touch
had taken place, and it was a hostile one.

[Illustration: WASHINGTON'S HOME AT MT. VERNON.]

Major Washington--he had been a Virginian adjutant-general,
with the rank of major, since the age of nineteen--was
chosen for the next step, that of visiting the French forts
and demanding the withdrawal of their garrisons from what
was claimed to be English territory. The mission was a
delicate one. It demanded courage, discretion, and energy.
Washington had them all. No better choice could have been
made than of this young officer of militia.

The youthful pioneer proceeded alone as far as
Fredericksburg. Here he engaged two companions, one as
French, the other as Indian, interpreter, and proceeded.
Civilization had touched the region before him, but not
subdued it. At the junction of Will's Creek with the Potomac
(now Cumberland, Maryland), he reached the extreme outpost
of civilization. Before him stretched more than four hundred
miles of unbroken wilderness. The snow-covered Alleghanies
were just in advance. The chill of the coming winter already
was making itself felt. Recent rains had swollen the
streams. They could be crossed only on log-rafts, o