Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/404

374 rigid discipline. Running, leaping, and wrestling were among his favorite pastimes. He became a fearless rider, too, and no horse is said to have been too fiery for him. " Above all," as Irving well says, " his inherent probity, and the principles of justice on which he regulated his conduct, even at this early period of his life, were soon appreciated by his school-mates ; he was referred to as an umpire in their disputes, and his decisions were never reversed." A crisis in Wash- ington's life oc- curred before he left school. His eldest half-broth- er, Lawrence, had already been an officer in the Eng- lish service, and was at the siege of Carthagena under Admiral Vernon, for whom he formed a great re- gard, and whose name he afterward gave to his estate on the Potomac. Observing George's military propensities, and think- ing that the English navy would afford him the most promising field for future distinction, Law- rence obtained a midshipman's warrant for him in 1746, when he was just fourteen years old, and George is said to have been on the point of em- barking on this English naval service. The earnest remonstrance of his mother was interposed, and the project reluctantly abandoned. He thereupon resumed his studies, and did not leave school till the autumn before his sixteenth year. Soon after- ward he went to reside with his brother Lawrence, who had married a Fairfax of Belvoir, and had es- tablished himself at Mount Vernon.

Washington's education was now finished, so far as schools and school- masters were concerned, and he never enjoyed or sought the advantages of a col- lege. Indeed, only a month after he was sixteen he entered on the active career of a surveyor of lands, in the employment of William Fairfax, the father of his brother's wife, and the manager of the great estate of his cousin, Lord Fairfax. In this work he voluntarily subjected himself to every variety of hardship and personal danger. Those Alleghany valleys and hills were then a wilderness, where dif- ficult obstructions were to be overcome, severe ex- posures to be endured, and savage tribes to be con- ciliated or encountered. For three successive years he persevered undauntedly in this occupation,"hav- ing obtained a commission from the president and master of William and Mary college as a public surveyor for Culpeper county, which entitled his surveys to a place in the county office, where they were held in high esteem for completeness and accu- racy. During these three years he allowed himself but little relaxation, yet found time in the winter months for an occasional visit to his mother, and for aiding her in the management of her affairs. And now, at nineteen years of age, he received an appointment as adjutant-general, with the rank of major, to inspect and exercise the militia in one of the districts into which Virginia was di- vided in view of the French encroachments and the Indian depredations with which the frontiers were menaced. Before he had fairly entered on this service, however, he was called to accompany his brother Lawrence to the West Indies, on a voy- age for his brother's health, and was absent from home for more than four months, during which he had a severe attack of small-pox. His brother re- mained longer, and returned at last only to die, leaving George as one of his executors, and involv- ing him in large responsibilities as well as in much personal affliction. Meantime his appointment, as adjutant-general was renewed by Gov. Dinwiddie, and he was assigned to the charge of one of the grand military divisions of the colony. A wider field of service was thus opened to Washington, on which he entered with alacrity. War between France and England was now rapidly approach- ing, involving a conflict for the possession of a large part of the American continent. French posts were already established on the banks of the Ohio, with a view of confining the English colonies within the Alleghany mountains. Gov. Dinwiddie, under instructions from the British ministry, re- solved upon sending a commissioner to the officei commanding the French forces to inquire by what authority he was invading the king s dominions, and to ascertain, if possible, his further designs. Washington was selected for this delicate and dan- gerous mission, after several others had declined to undertake it. He accepted it at once, and to- ward the end of November, 1753. he set out from Williamsburg, without any military escort, on a journey of nearly 600 miles — a great part of it over " lofty and rugged mountains and through the heart of a wilderness." The perilous inci- dents of this expedition cannot be recounted here. They would occupy a whole article by themselves. His marvellous and providential escapes, at one time from the violence of the savages, at another from assassination by a treacherous guide, at a third from being drowned in crossing the Alleghany river on a raft, have been described in all the accounts of his early manhood, substantially from his own journal, published in London at the time. He reached Williamsburg on his return on 16 Jan., 1754, and delivered to Gov. Dinwiddie the reply of the French commander to his message of inquiry. No more signal test could have been afforded of Washington's various talents and characteristics, which this expedition served at once to display and to develop. "From that moment," says Irving, " he was the rising hope of Virginia." He was then but just finishing his twenty-first year, and immediately after his return he was appointed to the chief command of a little body of troops raised for meeting immediate exigencies ; but the military establishment was increased as soon as the governor could convene the legislature of Virginia, and Washington was appointed lieutenant-colonel of a regiment, with Joshua Fry, an accomplished Oxford scholar, as his colonel Upon Washington at once devolved the duty of going forward with such companies as were enlisted, and the sudden death of Col. Fry soon left him in full command of the expedition. The much-misrepresented skirmish with the French troops, resulting in the death of Jumonville, was followed, on 3 July, 1754, by the battle of the Great Meadows, where Washington held his ground, in Fort Necessity, from eleven in the morning to eight at night, against a great superiority of numbers, until the French requested a parley. A capitulation ensued,, in every way honorable to Washington as it was translated and read to him, but which proved, when printed, to contain terms in the French language which he never would