Like all Virginians, I was disturbed during this time by the news of
the insolence of the French on the frontier, and began to feel that my
brother’s money, put into the Ohio Company, was in peril, for we were
like to be soon cooped up by a line of forts, and our trade in peltries
was already almost at an end, and about to pass into the hands of the
French. We learned with pleasure that the royal governors were ordered
to insist on the retirement of these overbusy French, who claimed all
the land up to the Alleghanies, but I did not dream that I was soon to
take part in the matter.
About that time, or before, there had been much effort to secure the
Six Nations of Indians as allies. One of their chiefs, Tanacharisson,
known as the Half-King, because of holding a subsidiary rule among the
Indians, advised a fort to be built by us near to the Forks of the
Ohio, on the east bank, and Gist, the trader, set out on this errand.
A Captain Trent was charged to carry our King’s message to the French
outposts; but having arrived at Logstown, one hundred and fifty miles
from his destination, and hearing of the defeat of our allies, the
Miamis, by the French, he lost heart and came back to report. The Ohio
Company at this time complained to the governor of the attacks on their
traders, and this gentleman, being concerned both for his own pocket
and for his Majesty’s property, resolved to send some one of more
spirit to bear the King’s message ordering the French to retire and to
cease to molest our fur traders about the Ohio.
It was unfortunate that Governor Robert Dinwiddie, who was now eager
to defend his interests in the Ohio Company, had lost the prudent
counsel of its late head, my brother Lawrence. He would have made a
better envoy than I, for at the age of twenty-one a man is too young
to influence the Indians, on account of a certain reverence they have
for age in council. I was ignorant of what was intended when I received
orders to repair to Williamsburg. To my surprise, and I may say to my
pleasure, I learned that I was to go to Logstown. I was there to meet
our allies, the Indians, and secure from them an escort and guides, and
so push on and find the French commander. I was to deliver to him my
summons, and wait an answer during one week, and then to return. I was
also to keep my eyes open as to all matters of military concern.
Whatever distrust I had in regard to my powers as an envoy, I said
nothing, for in case of an order a soldier has no alternative but to
obey. Had I been in the governor’s place I should have sent an older
man.
I received my credentials at Williamsburg, and rode away the day after,
October 31, 1753, intending no delay.
Van Braam was assigned to me as my French interpreter, and I gathered
my outfit of provisions, blankets, and guns at Alexandria, and horses,
tents, and other needed matters at Winchester, and was joined near
Wills Creek――where now is the settlement called Cumberland――by Mr. Gist
and an Indian interpreter, one Davidson.
The same day, November 13, to my pleasure, Lord Fairfax rode into camp
and spent the night. It was raining and at times snowing, but Gist
soon set up a lean-to, and with our feet to the fire we talked late
into the night, his lordship smoking, as was his habit.
I have many times desired to be able to make drawings of the greater
trees, but, although I could plot a survey well, beyond this I could
never go. I speak of this because of my remembrance of that night, and
how mighty the trees seemed by the campfire light around the clearing.
It was his lordship who called my attention to the trees. He had a way,
most strange to me, of suddenly dropping the matter in hand before it
was fully considered. He would be silent a space and speak no more, or
turn presently to another matter most remote. All of this I learned to
accept without remonstrance, out of respect for this great gentleman,
as was fitting in one of my years. I never got accustomed to his ways,
for it has been always my desire to deal with the subject in hand fully
and to an end. Nor did I see this wilderness as his lordship saw it;
for, while I made note of trees for what logs they would afford, and
as to the soil and the lay of the land, his lordship I have seen stand
for ten minutes looking at a great tree as though he found much to
consider of it. In like manner I have seen him stop when the hounds
were in full cry, a thing most astonishing, and sit still in the
saddle, looking down at a brook or up at the sunrise.
As we lay by the fire he remained without speaking for a long while,
until the men, having found some old and dried birch logs, cast them
on the fire, and a great roaring red flame lighted the woods and was
blown about by the cold wind. His lordship said, “See, George, how the
shadows of the trees are dancing”――a thing very wild, that I never
should have much noticed had not he called on me to observe it. After
this he was silent until suddenly he began to ask questions as to my
men and my route, and what I meant to do and say in the French camps.
At last he said, “You are going to stir up a nest of hornets,” and,
finally, that the former messenger, Trent, was a coward.
When he had again been silent a long while, he said that this time,
at least, he was not responsible for my appointment, and Dinwiddie
was a fool to send a boy on a man’s errand. This was my own opinion,
but I made no reply. At last he filled his pipe again, and called for
a coal, and said, “But by George, George, you never were a boy, not
since I knew you.” I ventured to say that but for his former influence
this office would not have come to me. To this he made no answer, but
bid me distrust every Indian, especially the Half-King, who was not
treacherous but uncertain, and not less every Frenchman, and added that
I was so young that they would think that I could be easily fooled. I
said that might be an advantage, for I meant to see all there was to
see, and had told Van Braam to keep his ears open.
His lordship laughed, and said I might thank Heaven there were no women
in the business, and with this, bidding me have the fire made up for
the night, we lay down to sleep in the lean-to.
I find it interesting now in my old age to discover myself thus able to
recall, little by little, what his lordship said. I was pleased at the
notice he took of me, but a lad, and lay long awake under the lean-to,
thinking upon such counsels as his lordship had been pleased to give.