Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/503

 GEORGE WASHINGTON 483 physical strength. He took the lead in all the athletic sports and exercises of his compan- ions. Though no great reliance can be placed upon most of the anecdotes which are related of his boyhood and youth, it is certain that he grew up of a vigorous, and in early life spare and agile frame, capable of much physical en- durance, remarkably strong in the arms, and a bold and graceful rider. Nor is there any doubt that he early acquired among his con- temporaries that character for justice, veracity, and sterling honor, which he sustained through life. His elder brother Lawrence held a com- mission in one of the American regiments which were sent in 1740 to reenforce the army under Gen. Wentworth and Admiral Vernon, in the unsuccessful expedition against Carta*- gena. While on this expedition Oapt. Law- rence Washington formed intimate personal relations with the admiral, and on his return at the close of the war he gave to his newly occupied residence at Hunting creek the name of Mount Vernon, in honor of that popular naval hero. When George was 14 years old a midshipman's warrant was obtained for him, and it is said that his clothes were packed to go on board ship. His mother alone never cordially approved of the plan, and it was finally abandoned in consequence of her op- position. Tradition represents her as a wo- man of vigorous character and masculine will. He was trained by her in habits of frugality and industry, to obey rightful authority, and to speak the truth. George Washington had ever been the favorite of Lawrence, and after leav- ing school passed much of his time at Mount Vrnon, occupied in summer with the usual routine of plantation life, and in winter and the studious hours of the year with his favor- ite branch of surveying, in which he became a great proficient. He made it his profession, and was much employed by the eccentric Lord Fairfax, an English nobleman who had made his home in Virginia, where he had a vast estate and lived in a substantial stone dwell- ing called Greenway Court, in the Shenandoah valley, which was then a wilderness. Three years were spent in this way, Washington passing the summers in surveying Lord Fair- fax's estates, and the winters principally at Mount Vernon. The foundations of his for- tune, as far as it was derived from his own acquisitions, were probably laid in part by the knowledge gained by actual inspection of the rich lands in western Virginia, of which he afterward became a large proprietor. In the course of his surveying tours he frequently en- countered parties of friendly Indians, and be- came familiar with their manners, a knowledge which soon stood him greatly in stead. The very scene of his labors as a surveyor, the N. W. frontier of Virginia, became the theatre of those movements and operations which formed the memorable commencement of his military career. The French and Indian war had its origin in the jealousy with which the French government contemplated the projects of the Ohio company, which was formed about this time, and of which Lawrence Washington was an active member. The attention of several of the colonial assemblies, and of that of Virginia among the first, was early called to this subject. In the anticipation of an Indian war, and prob- ably of a rupture with France, the government of that colony began military preparations. The province was divided into districts, in one of which Washington, then but 19 years of age, received the appointment of adjutant with the rank of major. But soon afterward his brother Lawrence was ordered to the West In- dies for his health, and it was determined that George should accompany him. They sailed for Barbadoes in September, 1751, and arrived after a voyage of five weeks. They had scarce- ly been a fortnight in the island when George was attacked with smallpox, by which ho was slightly marked through life. Finding no ma- terial relief in Barbadoes, Lawrence Wash- ington proposed to remove to Bermuda in the spring, and George was sent back to con- duct his sister-in-law to the last named isl- and. He reached Virginia after a most tempes- tuous voyage ; but his brother's health grew rapidly worse, and the proposed removal to Bermuda was abandoned. This was the only occasion on which Washington ever left the American continent. Lawrence Washington returned to Virginia in the summer of 1752, and died shortly after at the age of 34, leav- ing a large fortune to an infant daughter who did not long survive him. By his will, of which George was one of the executors, the estate of Mount Vernon was, on the demise of the daughter, given to George, who added to it materially by subsequent purchases. Though the youngest of the -executors named in the will, owing to his more intimate acquaintance with his brother's affairs, and his prospective interest in the property, the active management of the estate devolved upon him. In the mean time the prospect of a collision on the frontier increased. On the arrival of Dinwiddie as co- lonial governor, the military establishment was reorganized, and the province was divided into four districts, of which the northern, including several counties, was assigned to Washington as adjutant general. The struggle of the French and English for the possession of the North American continent was the great event of the middle of the 18th century. France intrenched herself on the St. Lawrence and at the mouth of the Mississippi, and aimed by a line of posts through the interior to confine the English to the comparatively narrow strip occupied by the Anglo-American colonies along the coast. The intervening territory, watered by the Ohio, was claimed by both, but settled as yet by neither ; in fact, it was occupied by Indians with the exception of a settlement of twelve Virginia families headed by Capt. Gist, who had estab- lished themselves on the Monongahela. The Canadians erected a fort on a branch of French