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Show Vtl' VT-KE STORY or THE FIRST VESfS Z7L THE PRESIDENT .P.-r-..k Installment 2 One man, Indeed, gave at least a touch of another quality to the life Washington saw. This was Lord Fairfax, who had been almost two years in Virginia when the boy quit school, and who was now determined, as soon as might be, to take up his residence at his forest lodge within the Blue Ridge. George greatly struck his lordship's fancy, as he did that of all capable men, as a daring lad in the hunt and a sober lad in counsel; and drawn into such companionship, com-panionship, he learned a great deal that no one else in Virginia could have; taught him so well the scrupulous scrupu-lous deportment of a high-bred and nonorable man of the world; the use of books by those who preferred affairs af-fairs the way in which strength may be rendered gracious, and indepen-lence indepen-lence made generous. A touch of old world address was to be learned at Belvoir. 1 His association with Lord Fairfax, moreover, put him in the way of making mak-ing his first earnings as a surveyor. Fairfax had not come to America merely to get away from the world of fashion in London and bury himself In the wilderness. His chief motive r- it f i i A K - ' I Lord Fairfax. was one which did him much more credit, and bespoke him a man and a true colonist. It was his purpose, he declared, to open up, settle and cultivate culti-vate the vast tracts of beautiful and fertile land he, had inherited in Virginia, Vir-ginia, and he proved his sincerity by immediately setting about the business. busi-ness. It was necessary as a first step that he should have surveys made, in order or-der that he might know how his lands lay, how bounded and disposed through the glades and upon the 6treams of the untrodden forests. Surveys Fairfax Estate. In Washington he (Fairfax) had a surveyor ready to his hand. The lad was but sixteen, indeed, was largely self-taught in surveying; and had had no business yet that made test of his quality. But surveyors were scarce, and boys were not tender at sixteen in that robust, out-of-door colony. col-ony. Fairfax had an eye for capacity. He knew the athletic boy to be a fearless fear-less woodsman, with that odd, calm judgment looking forth, at his steady gray eyes; perceived how seriously he took himself in all that he did. and how thorough he was at succeeding: and had no doubt he could run his lines through the thicketed forests as well as any man. At any rate, he commissioned him to undertake the task, and was not disappointed in the way he performed it. Within a very few weeks Washington Washing-ton conclusively showed his capacity. In March. 174S, with George Fairfax, William Fairfax's son, for company, he rode forth with his little band of assistants through the mountains to the wild country where his work lay. and within the month almost he was back again, with maps 1 and figures which showed Ills lordship very clearly clear-ly what lands he hr.d upon the sparkling spark-ling Shenandoah and the swollen upper up-per waters of the Potomac. 'Twas all he wanted before making his home where his estafe lay in the wilderness. wilder-ness. Before the year was out he had established himself at "Greenway Court"; huntsmen and tenants and guests had found their way thither, and life was fairly begun, upon the rough rural barony. Likes His Work. It had been wild and even perilous work for the young surveyor, but just out of school, to go in the wet springtime spring-time into that wilderness, when the rivers were swollen and ugly with the rains and melting snows from oft the mountains, where there was scarcely a lodging to be had except In the Mray. comfortless cabins of the scat-cr'ej scat-cr'ej M'ttlcrs. or on the ground about -,. ' re :n the open wood3, and where a woodman's wits were needed to come even tolerably off. But there was a strong relish in such an experience for Washington, which did not wear off with the novelty of it. There is an unmistakable note of boyish satisfaction satis-faction in the tone in which he Bpeaks of it. "Since you received my letter in October last," he writes to a young comrade, "I have not sleep'd above three nights or four in a bed, but, after walking a good deal all the day, I lay down before the ( fire upon a little lit-tle hay, straw, fodder, or bear-akin, whichever is to be had, with man, wife and children, like a parcel of dogs and cats, and happy is he who gets the berth- nearest 'the fire. I have never had my clothes off, but lay and sleep In them, except the few nights I have lay'n in Fred-erick Fred-erick Town." For three years he kept steadily at the trying business, without los3 either of health or courage, now, deep in the forests laboriously laying off the rich bottom lands and swelling hill-sides of that wild but goodly country coun-try between the mountains, now at "Greenway Court" with his lordship, intent upon the busy life there, following fol-lowing the hounds, consorting with huntsmen and Indians and traders, waiting upon the ladies who now and again visited the lodge; when other occupations failed, reading up and down in his lordship's copy of the Spectator, or in the historians who told the great English story. Made Official Surveyor. His first success in surveying brought him frequent employment in the valley. Settlers were steadily making their way thither, who must needs have their holdings clearly bounded and defined. Upon his lordship's lord-ship's recommendation and his own showing of what he knew and could do, he obtained appointment at the hands of the President and Master of William and Mary, the colony's careful agent in the matter, as official surveyor for Culpepper county, "took the usual oaths to his majesty's person per-son and government," and so got for his work the privilege of authoritative authorita-tive public record. Competent surveyors were much in demand, and, when once he had been officially accredited in his profession, Washington had as much to. do both upon new lands and old as even a young man's energy and liking for an independent Income could reasonably demand. Lives at Mount Vernon. His home he made with his brother at Mount Vernon, where he was always al-ways so welcome; and he was as often as possible witn nis motner at her place upon the Rappahannock, to lend the efficient lady such assistance as she needed in the business of the estate she held for herself and her children. At odd intervals he studied tactics, practiced the manual of arms or took a turn at the broadsword with the old soldiers who so easily found excuses for visiting Major Washington at Mount Vernon. But, except when winter weather forbade him the fields, he was abroad, far and near, busy with his surveying, survey-ing, and incidentally making trial of his neighbors up and down all the country-side round about, as his errands er-rands threw their open doors in his way. His pleasant bearing and his quiet satisfaction at being busy, his manly, efficient ways, his evident self-respect, self-respect, and his frank enjoyment of life, the engaging mixture in him of man and boy, must have become familiar fa-miliar to everybody worth knowing throughout all the Northern Neck. Goes to the Bahamas. But three years put a term to his surveying. In 1751 he was called imperatively im-peratively off, and had the whole course of his life changed, by the Illness Ill-ness of his brother. Lawrence Washington Wash-ington had never been robust; those long months spent at the heart of the fiery South with Vernon's fever-stricken fever-stricken fleet had touched his sensitive sensi-tive constitution to the quick, and at last a fatal consumption fastened upon up-on him. Neither a trip to England nor the waters of the warm springs at home brought him recuperation, and in the autimn of 1751 his physician physi-cian ordered him to the Bahamas for the winter. George, whom he so loved and trusted, went with him, to nurse and cheer him. But even the gentle sea-air of the Islands wrought no cure of the stubborn stub-born malady. The sterling, gifted, lovable gentleman, who had made his quiet seat at Mount Vernon rhe home of so much that was honorable and of good report, came back the next summer sum-mer to die in his prime, at thirty-four. George found himself named executor in his brother's will, and looked to of a sudden to guard all the interests of the young widow nnd her little daughter daugh-ter in the management of a large estate. es-tate. That trip to the Bahamas had been his last cuting as a boy. He had enjoyed the novel journey with a very keen and natural relish while it promised his brother health. The radiant ra-diant air of those summer isles had touched him with a new pleasure, and the cordial hospitality of the homesick home-sick colonists had added the satisfaction satisfac-tion of a good welcome. He had braved the smallpox in one household with true Virginian punctilio punc-tilio rather than refuse an invitation to dinner, had taken the infection, and had come home at last bearing some permanent marks of a three weeks' sharp illness upon him. But he had had entertainment enough to strike the balance handsomely against such inconveniences, had borne whatever what-ever came in his way very cheerily, with that wholesome strength of mind which made older men like him, and would have come oft remembering nothing but the pleasure of the trip had his noble brother only found his health again. As it was, Lawrence's death put a final term to his youth. Five other executors were named in the will; but George, as it turned out, was to be- looked to to carry the burden of administration, and gave full proof of the qualities that had made his brother broth-er trust him with so generous a confidence. con-fidence. Becomes a Major of Militia. His brother's death, in truth, changed everything for him. He seemed of a sudden to stand as Lawrence's Law-rence's representative. Before they set out for the Bahamas Lawrence had transferred to him his place in the militia, obtaining for him, though he was but nineteen, a commission as major and district adjutant in his stead; and after his return in 1752. Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie, the crown's new representative in Virginia, Vir-ginia, added still- further to his responsibilities re-sponsibilities as a soldier by reducing the military district of the colony to four, and assigning him one of the four, under a renewed commission as major and adjutant-general. His brother's will not only named him an executor, but also made him residuary legatee of the estate of Mount Vernon Ver-non in case his child should die. He had to look to the discipline and accoutrement ac-coutrement of the militia of eleven counties, aid his mother in her business, busi-ness, administer his brother's estate, l.and assume on all hands the duties and responsibilities of a man of affairs af-fairs when he was but just turned of twenty. The action of the colonial government govern-ment in compacting the organization and discipline of the militia by reducing reduc-ing the number of military districts dis-tricts was significant of a sinister sinis-ter change in the posture .of affairs af-fairs beyond the borders. The movements of the French in the west had of late become more ominous than ever; 'twas possible the Virginia Virgin-ia militia might any day see an end of that "everlasting peace" which good Mr. Beverley had smiled to see them complacently enjoy, and that tne young major, who was now adjutant-general of the northern division, might find duties abroad even more serious and responsible than his duties du-ties at home. War Was Inevitable. Whoever should be commissioned to meet and deal with the Frencu upon up-on the western rivers would have to handle truly critical affairs, decisive of the fate of the continent, and it looked as if Virginia must undertake the fateful business. The northern borders, indeed, were sadly harried by the savage allies of the French; the brunt of the fighting hitherto had fallen upon the hardy militiamen of Massachusetts and Connecticut in the slow contest for English mastery upon up-on the continent. But there was really real-ly nothing to be decided in that quarter. quar-ter. The French were not likely to attempt at-tempt the mad task of driving out the thickly set English population, already al-ready established, hundreds of thousands thou-sands strong, upon the eastern ccasts. The French Move. Their true lines of conquest ran within. with-in. Their strength lay In their command com-mand of the great watercourses which flanked the English colonies both north and west. 'Twas a long frontier fron-tier to held, that mazy line of lake and river that ran all the waay from the Gulf of St. Lawrencce to the wide mouths of the sluggish Mississippi. French Well Armed and Ready. Throughout all the posts and settlements set-tlements that lay upon it from end to end there were scarcely eighty thousand Frenchmen, while the English Eng-lish teemed upon the coasts more than a million strong. But the forces of New France could be handled like ar army, while the English swarmed slowly westward, without discipline or direction, the headstrong subjects of a distant government they would not obey, the wayward constituents of a score of petty and jealous assemblies assem-blies tardy at planning, clumsy at executing ex-ecuting plans. They were still far away, too, from the mid-waters of the lakes and from the royal stream of the Mississippi itself, where lonely boats floated slowly down, with their cargoes of grain, meat, tallow, tobacco, tobac-co, oil, hides, and lead, out of the country of the Illinois, past the long, thin line of tiny isolated posts, to the growing village at New Orleans and the southern Gulf. But they were to be feared, none the less. I" their tide once flowed in. the French well knew it could not be turned back again. It was not far away from the Ohio now; and if once settlers out of Pennsylvania and Virginia Vir-ginia gained a foothold in any numbers num-bers on tha. river, they would control con-trol one of the great highways that led to the main basins of the continent. conti-nent. It was imperative they should be effectually forestalled, and that at once. Duquesne Decides to Fight. The Marquis Duquesne, with his quick soldier blood, at last took the decisive step for France. He had hardly come to his colony, to serve his royal master as governor upon the St. Lawrence, when he determined to occupy the upper waters of the Ohio, and block the western passes against the English with -.a line of military posts. The matter did not seem urgent to the doubting ministers at Versailles. "Be on your guard against new undertakings,'' under-takings,'' said official letters out of France; "private interests are generally gener-ally at the bottom of them." But Duquesne Du-quesne knew that it was no mere private pri-vate interest of fur trader or speculator specu-lator that was at stake now. The rivalry ri-valry between the two nations had gone too far to make it possible to draw back. Military posts had al- Authorized to Act. ready been established by the bold energy of the French at Niagara, the key to the western lakes, and at Crown Point upon Champlain, where 'lake and river struck straight towards to-wards the heart of the English trading trad-ing settlements upon the Hudson. Accept the Challenge. The English, accepting the ' challenge, chal-lenge, had planted themselves at Oswego, Os-wego, upon the very lake route itself, and had made a port there to take the furs that came out of the west, and, though very sluggish in the business, busi-ness, showed purpose of aggressive movement everywhere that advantage offered. English settlers by the hundred hun-dred were pressing towards the western west-ern mountains in Pennsylvania, and down into that "Virginian Arcady," the sweet valley of the Shenandoah; thrifty Germans, a few, hardy Scots-Irish, Scots-Irish, a great many the blood most to be feared and checked. It was said that quite three hundred English Eng-lish traders passed the mountain; every ev-ery year into the region of the Ohio. Enterprising gentlemen in Virginia Lawrence and Augustine Washington Washing-ton among the rest has Joined influential influ-ential partners in London in the formation for-mation of an Ohio company for the settlement of the western country and the absorption of the western trade; had sent out men who knew the region re-gion to make interest with the Indians In-dians and fix upon points of vantage for trading-posts and settlements; had already set out upon the business by erecting storehouses at Will's Creek, in the heart of the Alleghanies, and, farther westward still, upon Bedstone Creek, a branch of the Monongahela iteslf. The French Build a Fort. It was high timti to act; and Duquesne, Du-quesne, having no colonial asembly to hamper hira, acted very promptly. When spring came, 1753, he sent fifteen fif-teen hundred men into Lake Erie, to Presque Isle', where a fort of squared logs was built, and a read cut through the forests to a little river whose waters, wa-ters, when at the flood, would carry boats direct to the Alleghany and the great waterway of the Ohio itself. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |
