RETURN FROM VENANGO--A TRAMP ON FOOT--MURDERING TOWN--THE INDIAN GUIDE--
TREACHERY--AN ANXIOUS NIGHT--PERILS ON THE ALLEGANY RIVER--QUEEN
ALIQUIPPA--THE OLD WATCH-COAT--RETURN ACROSS THE BLUE RIDGE.
On the 25th of December, Washington and his little party set out by land
from Venango on their route homeward. They had a long winter's journey
before them, through a wilderness beset with dangers and difficulties. The
packhorses, laden with tents, baggage, and provisions, were completely
jaded; it was feared they would give out. Washington dismounted, gave up
his saddle-horse to aid in transporting the baggage, and requested his
companions to do the same. None but the drivers remained in the saddle. He
now equipped himself in an Indian hunting-dress, and with Van Braam, Gist,
and John Davidson, the Indian interpreter, proceeded on foot.
The cold increased. There was deep snow that froze as it fell. The horses
grew less and less capable of travelling. For three days they toiled on
slowly and wearily. Washington was impatient to accomplish his journey, and
make his report to the governor; he determined, therefore, to hasten some
distance in advance of the party, and then strike for the Fork of the Ohio
by the nearest course directly through the woods. He accordingly put the
cavalcade under the command of Van Braam, and furnished him with money for
expenses; then disencumbering himself of all superfluous clothing, buckling
himself up in a watch-coat, strapping his pack on his shoulders, containing
his papers and provisions, and taking gun in hand, he left the horses to
flounder on, and struck manfully ahead, accompanied only by Mr. Gist, who
had equipped himself in like manner.
At night they lit a fire, and "camped" by it in the woods. At two o'clock
in the morning they were again on foot, and pressed forward until they
struck the south-east fork of Beaver Creek, at a place bearing the sinister
name of Murdering Town; probably the scene of some Indian massacre.
Here Washington, in planning his route, had intended to leave the regular
path, and strike through the woods for Shannopins Town, two or three miles
above the fork of the Ohio, where he hoped to be able to cross the Allegany
River on the ice.
At Murdering Town he found a party of Indians, who appeared to have known
of his coming, and to have been waiting for him. One of them accosted Mr.
Gist, and expressed great joy at seeing him. The wary woodsman regarded him
narrowly, and thought he had seen him at Joncaire's. If so, he and his
comrades were in the French interest, and their lying in wait boded no
good. The Indian was very curious in his inquiries as to when they had left
Venango; how they came to be travelling on foot; where they had left their
horses, and when it was probable the latter would reach this place. All
these questions increased the distrust of Gist, and rendered him extremely
cautious in reply.
The route hence to Shannopins Town lay through a trackless wild, of which
the travellers knew nothing; after some consultation, therefore, it was
deemed expedient to engage one of the Indians as a guide. He entered upon
his duties with alacrity, took Washington's pack upon his back, and led the
way by what he said was the most direct course. After travelling briskly
for eight or ten miles Washington became fatigued, and his feet were
chafed; he thought, too, they were taking a direction too much to the
north-east; he came to a halt, therefore, and determined to light a fire,
make a shelter of the bark and branches of trees, and encamp there for the
night. The Indian demurred; he offered, as Washington was fatigued, to
carry his gun, but the latter was too wary to part with his weapon. The
Indian now grew churlish. There were Ottawa Indians in the woods, he said,
who might be attracted by their fire, and surprise and scalp them; he
urged, therefore, that they should continue on: he would take them to his
cabin, where they would be safe.
Mr. Gist's suspicions increased, but he said nothing. Washington's also
were awakened. They proceeded some distance further: the guide paused and
listened. He had heard, he said, the report of a gun toward the north; it
must be from his cabin; he accordingly turned his steps in that direction.
Washington began to apprehend an ambuscade of savages. He knew the
hostility of many of them to the English, and what a desirable trophy was
the scalp of a white man. The Indian still kept on toward the north; he
pretended to hear two whoops--they were from his cabin--it could not be far
off.
They went on two miles further, when Washington signified his determination
to encamp at the first water they should find. The guide said nothing, but
kept doggedly on. After a little while they arrived at an opening in the
woods, and emerging from the deep shadows in which they had been
travelling, found themselves in a clear meadow, rendered still more light
by the glare of the snow upon the ground. Scarcely had they emerged when
the Indian, who was about fifteen paces ahead, suddenly turned, levelled
his gun, and fired. Washington was startled for an instant, but, feeling
that he was not wounded, demanded quickly of Mr. Gist if he was shot. The
latter answered in the negative. The Indian in the mean time had run
forward, and screened himself behind a large white oak, where he was
reloading his gun. They overtook, and seized him. Gist would have put him
to death on the spot, but Washington humanely prevented him. They permitted
him to finish the loading of his gun; but, after he had put in the ball,
took the weapon from him, and let him see that he was under guard.
Arriving at a small stream they ordered the Indian to make a fire, and took
turns to watch over the guns. While he was thus occupied, Gist, a veteran
woodsman, and accustomed to hold the life of an Indian rather cheap, was
somewhat incommoded by the scruples of his youthful commander, which might
enable the savage to carry out some scheme of treachery. He observed to
Washington that, since he would not suffer the Indian to be killed, they
must manage to get him out of the way, and then decamp with all speed, and
travel all night to leave this perfidious neighborhood behind them; but
first it was necessary to blind the guide as to their intentions. He
accordingly addressed him in a friendly tone, and adverting to the late
circumstance, pretended to suppose that he had lost his way, and fired his
gun merely as a signal. The Indian, whether deceived or not, readily chimed
in with the explanation. He said he now knew the way to his cabin, which
was at no great distance. "Well then," replied Gist, "you can go home, and
as we are tired we will remain here for the night, and follow your track at
daylight. In the mean time here is a cake of bread for you, and you must
give us some meat in the morning."
Whatever might have been the original designs of the savage, he was
evidently glad to get off. Gist followed him cautiously for a distance, and
listened until the sound of his footsteps died away; returning then to
Washington, they proceeded about half a mile, made another fire, set their
compass and fixed their course by the light of it, then leaving it burning,
pushed forward, and travelled as fast as possible all night, so as to gain
a fair start should any one pursue them at daylight. Continuing on the next
day they never relaxed their speed until nightfall, when they arrived on
the banks of the Allegany River, about two miles above Shannopins Town.
Washington had expected to find the river frozen completely over; it was so
only for about fifty yards from either shore, while great quantities of
broken ice were driving down the main channel. Trusting that he had
out-travelled pursuit, he encamped on the border of the river; still it was
an anxious night, and he was up at daybreak to devise some means of
reaching the opposite bank. No other mode presented itself than by a raft,
and to construct this they had but one poor hatchet. With this they set
resolutely to work and labored all day, but the sun went down before their
raft was finished. They launched it, however, and getting on board,
endeavored to propel it across with setting poles. Before they were half
way over the raft became jammed between cakes of ice, and they were in
imminent peril. Washington planted his pole on the bottom of the stream,
and leaned against it with all his might, to stay the raft until the ice
should pass by. The rapid current forced the ice against the pole with such
violence that he was jerked into the water, where it was at least ten feet
deep, and only saved himself from being swept away and drowned by catching
hold of one of the raft logs.
It was now impossible with all their exertions to get to either shore;
abandoning the raft therefore, they got upon an island, near which they
were drifting. Here they passed the night exposed to intense cold by which
the hands and feet of Mr. Gist were frozen. In the morning they found the
drift ice wedged so closely together, that they succeeded in getting from
the island to the opposite side of the river; and before night were in
comfortable quarters at the house of Frazier, the Indian trader, at the
mouth of Turtle Creek on the Monongahela.
Here they learned from a war party of Indians that a band of Ottawas, a
tribe in the interest of the French, had massacred a whole family of whites
on the banks of the great Kanawha River.
At Frazier's they were detained two or three days endeavoring to procure
horses. In this interval Washington had again occasion to exercise Indian
diplomacy. About three miles distant, at the mouth of the Youghiogeny
River, dwelt a female sachem, Queen Aliquippa, as the English called her,
whose sovereign dignity had been aggrieved, that the party on their way to
the Ohio, had passed near her royal wigwam without paying their respects to
her.
Aware of the importance, at this critical juncture, of securing the
friendship of the Indians, Washington availed himself of the interruption
of his journey, to pay a visit of ceremony to this native princess.
Whatever anger she may have felt at past neglect, it was readily appeased
by a present of his old watch-coat; and her good graces were completely
secured by a bottle of rum, which, he intimates, appeared to be peculiarly
acceptable to her majesty.
Leaving Frazier's on the 1st of January, they arrived on the 2d at the
residence of Mr. Gist, on the Monongahela. Here they separated, and
Washington having purchased a horse, continued his homeward course, passing
horses laden with materials and stores for the fort at the fork of the
Ohio, and families going out to settle there.
Having crossed the Blue Ridge and stopped one day at Belvoir to rest, he
reached Williamsburg on the 16th of January, where he delivered to Governor
Dinwiddie the letter of the French commandant, and made him a full report
of the events of his mission.
We have been minute in our account of this expedition as it was an early
test and development of the various talents and characteristics of
Washington.
The prudence, sagacity, resolution, firmness, and self-devotion manifested
by him throughout; his admirable tact and self-possession in treating with
fickle savages and crafty white men; the soldier's eye with which he had
noticed the commanding and defensible points of the country, and every
thing that would bear upon military operations; and the hardihood with
which he had acquitted himself during a wintry tramp through the
wilderness, through constant storms of rain and snow; often sleeping on the
ground without a tent in the open air, and in danger from treacherous
foes,--all pointed him out, not merely to the governor, but to the public
at large, as one eminently fitted, notwithstanding his youth, for important
trusts involving civil as well as military duties. It is an expedition that
may be considered the foundation of his fortunes. From that moment he was
the rising hope of Virginia.