Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/249

] to meet him. This, however, never took place; Lawrence Washington received no permanent benefit by his absence, and he reached home just in time to die. His death took place, July 26th, 1752, at the age of thirty-four. Lawrence's death imposed new and very trying duties upon George. He was named one of his brother's executors, and in case of his infant niece's death, he was to inherit the ample estate of Mount Vernon. The main responsibility of managing this large property fell upon George, and it need hardly be said that in this, as in other things, he manifested the highest conscientiousness and integrity.

Thus, though only in the dawn of manhood, George Washington was already one who had made his mark: it remained now only that the door of opportunity be opened to test what he was capable of effecting on a larger stage of operations. The way was soon after plainly pointed out to him, and he was ready to enter upon it with all the zeal, energy, and courage of his noble nature.

On a previous page, we have spoken of Governor Dinwiddie's determination to send a messenger to the nearest French post on the Ohio, to demand explanations in regard to their plans and purposes in encroaching, as the governor affirmed, upon his majesty's territories. George Washington was the one immediately thought of for so difficult and delicate a commission. "It is true," as Mr. Irving says, "that he was not yet twenty-two years of age, but public confidence in his judgment and abilities had been manifested a second time, by renewing his appointment of adjutant-general, and assigning him the northern division. He was acquainted too with the matters in litigation, having been in the bosom councils of his deceased brother. His woodland experience fitted him for an expedition through the wilderness; and his great discretion and self-command for a negotiation with wily commanders and fickle savages. He was accordingly chosen for the expedition."

On the 30th of October, 1753, Washington set off from Williamsburg, taking Van Braam, an old soldier, with him, as an interpreter, he himself never having learned the French language. He reached Wills' Creek (Cumberland River,) on the 14th November, where he engaged Mr. Gist, the intrepid pioneer and intimately acquainted with the country, to accompany and pilot him in the present expedition. With Van Braam, Gist, and five others, Washington set out the next day to make his way through a wild region, just then almost impassable by recent storms of rain and snow. At Logstown, about twenty miles below the Fork of the Ohio, where the Monongahela and the Allegany unite to form that river, he held a conference with the Indian sachems, and had a taste of the peculiar diplomacy of the aborigines, which is, in some respects, fully equal to that of more civilized people, in its want of truthfulness and straight-forwardness. The chiefs furnished Washington with an escort to Venango, which was some seventy miles distant. Such was the inclemency of the weather, and the difficulty of travelling, that