The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1913-03-22

writing to Governor Hamilton of Penn
sylvan1a, to speak of this youth OF
twenty-one as "a person Of distinc
ton"
Washington performed his errand
as Dinwiddie must have expected he
would. He received his commission
and the governors letter to the French
commandant on the last day of Octo
her,. and set out the same day for the
mountains. Jacob Vanbraam. the
Dutch soldier of fortune who had been
bis 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 we'll, 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 tho French Fort.
It 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 f1v.
Ing from a house from which an Eng.
lish trader had been driven out. and
the French officers there had uttered
brutally frank avowal of their DUR
pose in that wilderness as they sat at
wine with the alert and temperate
young Virginian. 1T was their abso.
lutte design" they said, Ito take DOS.
session OF the Ohio, and, by g.
they would do it. They were
sensible the English could raise two
men for their one, yet they knew their
motions we're too slow and dilatory to
prevent any undertaking of THEIRS
The commandant Courteous.
The commandant 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-
fession 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 letter which boast
ed the French lawful masters of all
the continent beyond the Alleghanfes.
When Washington .. reached VII.
namsburg, in the middle Of January.
1854, 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
/ n meeting all their subtle shifts; and
+ be had borne hardshins that tried