At the age of nineteen, in 1751, Washington was appointed one of the adjutants-general of Virginia, with the rank of major. In the autumn of that year he accompanied his brother Lawrence, then in declining health, to Barbadoes, in the West Indies, who returned to Virginia, and after lingering for awhile died at Mount Vernon, aged thirty-four.

In the same year also died the Rev. William Dawson, Commissary and President of William and Mary College. Davies expresses veneration for his memory.

After the arrival of Governor Dinwiddie, the colony was divided into four military districts, and the northern one was allotted to Major Washington. France was now undertaking to stretch a chain of posts from Canada to Louisiana, in order to secure a control over the boundless and magnificent regions west of the Alleghanies, which she claimed by a vague title of La Salle's discovery. The French deposited, (1749,) under ground, at the mouth of the Kenhawa and other places, leaden plates, on which was inscribed the claim of Louis the Fifteenth to the whole country watered by the Ohio and its tributaries. England claimed the same territory upon a ground equally slender—the cession made by the Iroquois at the treaty of Lancaster. A more tenable ground was, that from the first discovery of Virginia, England had claimed the territory to the north and northwest from ocean to ocean, and that the region in question was the contiguous back country of her settlements. The title of the native tribes actually inhabiting the country commanded no consideration from the contending powers. The French troops had now commenced establishing posts in the territory on the Ohio claimed by Virginia. Dinwiddie having communicated information of these encroachments to his government, had been instructed to repel force by force if necessary, after he had remonstrated with them; he had also received a supply of cannon and warlike stores. A treaty with the Ohio tribes was held September, 1753, at Winchester, when, in exchange for presents of arms and ammunition, they promised their aid, and consented that a fortlet should be erected by the governor of Virginia on the Monongahela.

Dinwiddie, deeming it necessary to remonstrate against the French encroachments, found in Major Washington a trusty messenger, who cheerfully undertook the hazardous mission. Starting from Williamsburg on the last day of October, he reached Fredericksburg on the next day, and there engaged as French interpreter Jacob Van Braam, who had served in the Carthagena expedition under Lawrence Washington. At Alexandria they provided necessaries, and at Winchester baggage and horses, and reached Will's Creek, now Cumberland River, on the fourteenth of November. Thence, accompanied by Van Braam, Gist, and four other attendants, he traversed a savage wilderness, over rugged mountains covered with snow, and across rapid swollen rivers. He reconnoitred the face of the country with a sagacious eye, and selected the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, where they form the beautiful Ohio, as an eligible site for a fort. Fort Du Quesne was afterwards erected there by the French. After conferring, through an Indian interpreter, with Tanacharisson, called the half-king, (as his authority was somewhat subordinate to that of the Iroquois,) Washington provided himself with Indian guides, and, accompanied by the half-king and some other chiefs, set out for the French post. Ascending the Alleghany River by way of Venango, he at length delivered Dinwiddie's letter to the French commander, Monsieur Le Gardeur de St. Pierre, a courteous Knight of the Order of St. Louis. Detained there some days, young Washington examined the fort, and prepared a plan and description of it. It was situated on a branch of French Creek, about fifteen miles south of Lake Erie, and about seven hundred and fifty from Williamsburg. When he departed with a sealed reply, a canoe was hospitably stocked with liquors and provisions, but the French gave him no little anxiety by their intrigues to win the half-king over to their interests, and to retain him at the fort. Getting away at last with much difficulty, after a perilous voyage of six days they reached Venango, where they met their horses. They growing weak, and being given up for packs, Washington put on an Indian dress and proceeded with the party for three days, when, committing the conduct of them to Van Braam, he determined to return in advance. With an Indian match-coat tied around, taking his papers with him, and a pack on his back and a gun in his hand, he proceeded on foot, accompanied by Gist. At a place of ill-omened name, Murderingtown, on the southeast fork of Beaver Creek, they met with a band of French Indians lying in wait for them, and one of them, being employed as a guide, fired at either Gist or the major, at the distance of fifteen steps, but missed. Gist would have killed the Indian at once, but he was prevented by the prudence of Washington. They, however, captured and detained him till nine o'clock at night, when releasing him, they pursued their course during the whole night. Upon reaching the Alleghany River they employed a whole day in making a raft with the aid only of a hatchet. Just as the sun was sinking behind the mountains they launched the raft and undertook to cross: the river was covered with ice, driving down the impetuous stream, by which, before they were half way over, they were blocked up and near being sunk. Washington, putting out his setting-pole to stop the raft, was thrown by the revulsion into the water, but recovered himself by catching hold of one of the logs. He and his companion, forced to abandon it, betook themselves to an island near at hand, where they passed the night, December the twenty-ninth, in wet clothes and without fire: Gist's hands and feet were frozen. In the morning they were able to cross on the ice, and they passed two or three days at a trading-post near the spot where the battle of the Monongahela was afterwards fought. Here they heard of the recent massacre of a white family on the banks of the Great Kenhawa. Washington visited Queen Aliquippa at the mouth of the Youghiogeny. At Gist's house, on the Monongahela, he purchased a horse, and, separating from this faithful companion, proceeded to Belvoir, where he rested one day, and arrived at Williamsburg on the 16th day of January, 1754, after an absence of eleven weeks, and a journey of fifteen hundred miles, one-half of it being through an untrodden wilderness. A journal which he kept was published in the colonial newspapers and in England. For this hazardous and painful journey he received no compensation save the bare amount of his expenses.

The governor and council resolved to raise two companies, of one hundred men each, the one to be enlisted by him at Alexandria, and the other by Captain Trent on the frontier, the command of both being given to Washington. He received orders to march as soon as practicable to the fork of the Ohio, and complete a fort, supposed to have been already commenced there by the Ohio Company. The assembly which met December, 1753, refused Dinwiddie supplies for resisting the French encroachments, "because they thought their privileges in danger," and they did not apprehend much danger from the French. The governor called the assembly together again in January, 1754, when at length, after much persuasion, they appropriated ten thousand pounds of the colonial currency for protecting the frontier against the hostile attempts of the French. The bill, however, was clogged with provisoes against the encroachments of prerogative. Dinwiddie increased the military force to a regiment of three hundred men, and the command was given to Colonel Joshua Fry, and Major Washington was made lieutenant-colonel. Cannon and other military equipments were sent to Alexandria. The English minister, the Earl of Holdernesse, also ordered the governor of New York to furnish two independent companies, and the governor of South Carolina one, to co-operate in this enterprise.

Early in April, 1754, Washington, with two companies, proceeded to the Great Meadows. At Will's Creek, on the twenty-fifth, he learned that an ensign, in command of Trent's company, had surrendered, on the seventeenth, the unfinished fort at the fork of the Ohio, (now Pittsburg,) to a large French force, which had come down under Contrecoeur from Venango, with many pieces of cannon, batteaux, canoes, and a large body of men. This was regarded as the first open act of hostility between France and England in North America. In the war which ensued Great Britain indeed triumphed gloriously, yet that triumph served only to bring on in its train the revolt of the colonies and the dismemberment of the empire.

Washington, upon hearing of the surrender of the fort, marched slowly for the mouth of Red Stone Creek, preparing the roads for the passage of cannon which were to follow. Governor Dinwiddie, about the same time, repaired to Winchester for the purpose of holding a treaty with the Indians, which, however, failed, only two or three chiefs of inferior note attending.

Virginia refused to send delegates to the Albany Convention; and the assembly and governor united in disapproving of Franklin's Plan of Union, adopted on that occasion. Dinwiddie during the previous year had proposed to Lord Halifax a plan of colonial government, dividing the colonies into two districts, northern and southern, in each of which there should be a congress, or general council, for the regulation of their respective interests.

The money appropriated by the assembly for the support of the troops was expended under the care of a committee of the assembly, associated with the governor, and the niggardly economy of this committee gave great disgust to Washington and the officers under him. He declared that he would prefer serving as a volunteer to "slaving dangerously for the shadow of pay through woods, rocks, mountains." Expecting a collision with the enemy, he wrote to Governor Dinwiddie, "We have prepared a charming field for an encounter." Ascertaining that a French reconnoitering detachment was near his camp, and believing their intentions hostile, he determined to anticipate them. Guided by friendly Indians, in a dark and rainy night he approached the French encampment, and early on the twenty-eighth of May, with forty of his own men and a few Indians, surrounded the French. A skirmish ensued; M. De Jumonville, the officer in command, and ten of his party were killed, and twenty-two made prisoners. Several of them appeared to have a mixture of Indian blood in them. The death of Jumonville created no little indignation in France, and became the subject of a French poem. It is said that Washington, in referring to this affair, remarked that "he knew of no music so pleasing as the whistling of bullets." This being mentioned in the presence of George the Second, he observed, "He would not say so if he had been used to hear many." The king had himself fought at the battle of Dettingen. Inquiry being many years afterwards made of Washington as to the expression, he replied, "If I said so, it was when I was young." Charles the Twelfth, of Sweden, expressed delight when he first heard the whistling of bullets. Of Washington's men one was killed and two or three were wounded. While the regiment was on its march to join the detachment in advance, the command devolved, at the end of May, on Lieutenant-Colonel Washington by the death of Colonel Fry. This officer, a native of England, was educated at Oxford. Coming over to Virginia, he appears to have resided for a time in the County of Essex. He was some time professor of mathematics in the College of William and Mary, and afterwards a member of the house of burgesses, and engaged in running a boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina to the westward. In concert with Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas, he made a map of Virginia, and he was, as has been mentioned before, a commissioner at the treaty of Logstown, in June, 1752. He died universally lamented.

Washington, in a letter addressed to Governor Dinwiddie about this time, said: "For my own part, I can answer that I have a constitution hardy enough to encounter and undergo the most severe trials, and I flatter myself, resolution to face what any man dares, as shall be proved when it comes to the test, which I believe we are upon the borders of." The provisions of the detachment being nearly exhausted, and the ground occupied disadvantageous, and the French at the fork of the Ohio, now called Fort Du Quesne, having been reinforced, and being about to march against the English, a council of war, held June the twenty-eighth, at Gist's house, thirteen miles beyond the Great Meadows, advised a retreat, and Colonel Washington fell back to the post at the Great Meadows, now styled Fort Necessity, which he reached on the first of July. His force, amounting, with the addition of an independent company of South Carolinians, to about four hundred men, were at once set to work to raise a breast-work and to strengthen the fortification as far as possible. Forty or fifty Indian families took shelter in the fort, and among them Tanacharisson, or the half-king, and Queen Aliquippa. They proved to be of more trouble than advantage, being as spies and scouts of some service when rewarded, but in the fort useless. Before the completion of the ditch, M. De Villiers, a brother of De Jumonville, appeared on the 3d of July, 1754, in front of the fort with nine hundred men, and at eleven o'clock A.M., commenced an attack by firing at the distance of six hundred yards, but without effect. The assailants fought, under cover of the trees and high grass, on rising ground near the fort. They were received with intrepidity by the Americans. Some of the Indians climbed up trees overlooking the fort, and fired on Washington's men, who returned the compliment in such style that the red men slipped down the trees with the celerity of monkeys, which excited a loud laugh among the Virginians.

The rain fell heavily during the day; the trenches were filled with water; and many of the arms of Washington's men were out of order. The desultory engagement lasted till eight o'clock in the evening, when the French commander, having twice sounded a parley, and the stock of provisions and ammunition in the fort being much reduced, it was accepted. About midnight, during a heavy rain, one half of the garrison being drunk, a capitulation took place, after the articles had been modified in some points at Washington's instance. The French at first demanded a surrender of the cannon; but this being resisted it was agreed that they should be destroyed, except one small piece reserved by the garrison upon the point of honor; but which they were eventually unable to remove.

These guns, probably only spiked and abandoned, were subsequently restored, and lay for a long time on the Great Meadows. After the Revolution it was an amusement of settlers moving westward, to discharge them. They were at last removed to Kentucky.

The troops were to retain their other arms and baggage; to march out with drums beating and colors flying, and return home unmolested. The terms of the surrender, as published at the time from the duplicate copy retained by Colonel Washington, implied ("by the too great condescension of Van Braam," the interpreter) an acknowledgment on his part that M. de Jumonville had been "assassinated." It appears that Washington was misled by the inaccuracy of Van Braam in translating the word, he being a Dutchman, and the only officer in the garrison who was acquainted with the French language. It was so stormy at the time that he could not give a written translation of the articles, and they could scarcely keep a candle lighted to read them by, so that it became necessary to rely upon the interpreter's word. The American officers present afterwards averred that the word "assassination" was not mentioned, and that the terms employed were, "the death of Jumonville." The affair is involved in obscurity: for why should the French require Washington to acknowledge himself the author of "his death," unless the killing was unjustifiable? On the other hand, with what consistency could Villiers allow such honorable terms in the same articles in which it was demanded of Washington that he should sign a confession of his own disgrace?

Of the Virginia regiment, three hundred and five in number, twelve were killed, and forty-three wounded. The loss sustained by Captain Mackay's Independent Company was not ascertained. Villiers' loss was three killed, and seventeen dangerously wounded. The horses and cattle having been captured or killed by the enemy, it was found necessary to abandon a large part of the baggage and stores, and to convey the remainder, with the wounded, on the backs of the soldiers. Washington had agreed to restore the prisoners taken at the skirmish with Jumonville; and to insure this, two captains, Van Braam and Stobo, were given up as hostages.

Washington, early on the 4th of July, 1754, perhaps the most humiliating of his life, marched out according to the terms; but in the confusion the Virginia standard, which was very large, was left behind, and was carried off in triumph by the enemy. But the regimental colors were preserved. In a short time the Virginians met a body of Indians who plundered the baggage, and were with difficulty restrained from attacking the men. Washington hastened back to Will's Creek, whence he proceeded to Williamsburg. The assembly voted him and his officers thanks, and gave him three hundred pistoles to be distributed among his men; but dissatisfaction was expressed at some of the articles of capitulation when they came to be made public.[468:A] Among the prisoners taken at the time when Jumonville was killed, was La Force, who, on account of his influence among the Indians, was looked upon as a dangerous character, and was imprisoned at Williamsburg. He managed to escape from prison in the summer of 1756, but was recaptured near West Point; and he was now kept in irons. This severe usage, and his being detained by Dinwiddie a prisoner, in violation of the treaty of Fort Necessity, cannot be justified, and was unjust to Stobo and Van Braam, who were, consequently, long retained as prisoners of war, and for some time confined in prison at Quebec. It is true that the French suffered the Indians to violate the article of the treaty securing the troops from molestation; but an excuse might be found in the difficulty of restraining savages.

Much blame was laid on poor Van Braam at the time, and in the thanks voted by the assembly his name was excepted, as having acted treacherously in interpreting the treaty. Washington, who had shortly before the surrender pronounced him "an experienced, good officer, and very worthy of the command he has enjoyed," appears to have been at a loss whether to attribute his misinterpretation to "evil intentions or negligence," but was rather disposed to believe that it was owing to his being but little acquainted with the English language. Van Braam appears to have been rather hardly judged in this affair.[468:B] Stobo, a native of Scotland, who emigrated early to Virginia, was brave, energetic, and a man of genius, but eccentric; his fidelity was never doubted. He was an acquaintance of David Hume, and a friend of Smollett, and was, it is said, the original of the character of Lismahago.

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