Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/28

10 George as one of his executors, and involving 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 approaching, 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, resolved upon sending a commissioner to the officer 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 dangerous mission, after several others had declined to undertake it. He accepted it at once, and toward 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 incidents of this expedition cannot be recounted here. His marvellous and providential escapes, at