The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-03-28

/
] writing to Governor Hamilton Of Penn
sylvania, to speak of this youth OF
twenty-one as "a person Of distinc-
ton"
Washington performed his errand
| as Dinwiddie must have expected ne
would. He received his commission
| and the governors letter to the French
! commandant on the last day of Octo-
! Der, and set out the same day for the
| mountains Jacob Vanbraam, the
| Dutch soldier of fortune who had been
| his fencing master at Mount Vernon,
accompanied him as interpreter, and
! Christopher Gist, the hardy, self-reli-
/ ant frontier trader, whom the Ohio
company had employed to make inter
est for them among the Indians of the
far region upon the western rivers
which he knew so well, was engaged
to act as his guide and counselor;
and with a few servants and pack
horses he struck straight into the for
ests in the middle of bleak November.
Reaches the French Fort.
1t was the eleventh Of December
before the jaded party rode, in the
cold dusk, into the drenched and miry
/ clearing where the dreary little fort
stood that held the French command
er. Through two hundred and fifty
miles and more of forest they had
/ dragged themselves over swollen riv-
ers, amidst an almost ceaseless fall Of
rain or snow, with not always an In
dian trail, or the beaten track Of the
bison, to open the forest growth for
! their tagging horses, and on the watch
always against savage treachery.
1t had become plain enough before
they reached their destination what
answer they should get from the
French. Sixty miles nearer home than
these lonely headquarters of the
French commander at Fort lie Boeuf
they had come upon an outpost where
the French colors were to be seen fly
ing from q house from which an Eng
lish trader had been driven out, and
the French officers there had uttered
brut8lly frank avOWal Of their pur,
pose in that wilderness as they sat at
Wine with the alert ana temperate
young Virginian. ut was their abso-
Lutte design" they said, "'to take pos
session of the Ohio, and, by c.,
they would do it. They were
sensible the English could raise two
men for their one, vet they knew their
motions were too slow and dilatory to
prevent any undertaking OF theirs"
The Commandant Courteous.
TIE c0mmandant at Fort lie Boeuf
received the wayWorn ambassador
very courteously. and even graciously
"a thoughtful, elderly man. Washing
ton noted him, with much the air OF
soldier'-but would make no pro
fessi0n even that he would consider
the English summons to withdraw:
and the little party of Englishmen
presently turned back amid the win
ter's storms to carry through the
frozen wilderness a letter which boast
ed the French lawful masters Of all
the continent beyond the Alleghanies.
When Washington reached VIII
liamsburg, in the middle of January,
1884, untouched by even the fearful
fatigues and anXieties Of that daring
Journey, he had accomplished nothing
but the establishment Of his own char
acter in the eyes of the men who were
to meet the crisis now at hand. He
had been at infinite pains. at every
stage Of the dreary adventure. to win
and hold the confidence of the Indi-
ans who were accounted friends Of the
English, and had displayed an older
mans patience, address and fortitude
in meeting all their subtle shifts; and
he had borne hardships that tried
even the doughty Gist
When the horses gave out, he had
left them to come by easier stages,
while he made his way afoot, with
only single companion, across the
weary leagues that lay upon his home
ward way. Gist, his comrade in the
hazard, had been solicitously "unwil-
ling he should undertake such travel.
who had never been used to walking
before this time" but the imperative
young commander would not be
stayed, and the journey was made.
spite of sore feet and frosts and ex-
hausting WEAKNESS. He at least knew
what the French were about. with
what strongholds and forces. and