ugh he was still only a boy in years he
showed such splendid ability and judgment in business matters that the
whole care of the family interests soon fell upon his shoulders.

We have already seen how deeply this boy impressed older men with his
rare judgment, and it is scarcely strange to find that he was soon after
picked out by the governor of Virginia to command an expedition sent
through the wilderness to treat with the Indians and French. This
required physical strength and firm purpose, the courage to deal with
the Indians and shrewdness to treat with the French. Washington was
known to have all these qualities. His youth was the only thing against
him, and that the governor was glad to overlook.

It was a rough and perilous expedition, made partly in frail canoes down
the great rivers, and partly by fighting a way through the unbroken
woods. Washington met the Indians whom the French had tried hard to win
over to their side, and by the most skilful diplomacy induced the chiefs
to send back the wampums which the French had given them as tokens of
alliance. He had studied the Indian character and knew the twists and
turns of their peculiar type of mind. He was frank and outspoken with
them, and as a result won their confidence, so that for a great part of
his journey chiefs of the Delawares, the Shawnees and other tribes
traveled with him.

Besides his success with the red men, George Washington, with his
surveyor's knowledge, made a careful study of the country through which
he passed, the result of which study was of the greatest value in later
years when he commanded an army in that region.

He picked out the place where the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers meet
as an admirable site for a fort and made a report of its advantages from
a military point of view. Only a year or two later French engineers
proved the correctness of his judgment by settling on the spot as the
site of Fort Du Quesne, which is now Pittsburg.

Successful as he had been with the Indians, Washington was scarcely less
successful with the civilized French commander. This man, like those at
Belvoir, recognized at once the self-command, the extreme intelligence,
and the modesty of the youth who appeared before him. The old officer
and the young pioneer met as equals and fought diplomatically across the
table as to which nation should win the alliance of the red men. The
negotiations were extremely difficult, enough to try the skill of a m