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But the elder brother's health suddenly failed, and symptoms of consumption alarmed him and his friends. He tried a voyage to England without benefit, and in September, 1751, a trip to Barbadoes, accompanied in the latter by his brother George, who seems to have felt such interest and solicitude as only a tender and loving heart can suggest.

His journal of this time, when he was in his nineteenth year, is very characteristic. All the voyage over he copied the log each day into his note-book, with his own comments on the weather, &c., and during his short stay on the island he seems to have occupied himself in observing the manners of the inhabitants, and especially in criticising the modes of cultivation, economy and government.*

"The Governor of Barbadoes seems to keep a proper state, lives very retired and at little expense, and is a gentleman of good sense. By declining much familiarity, he is not over-zealously beloved."

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This is a Washingtonian touch; it breathes the very spirit of the whole practice of the writer's after life, so often complained of by those who would fain have been allowed familiarity with him. He felt no disapprobation of the trait he thus noted, but rather concluded, we may presume, that by living retired and not courting mere popularity or private adherency, the governor gained in dignity and safety what he lost in momentary service and following.

The journal goes on to say-"There are several singular risings in the island, one above the other, so that scarcely any part is deprived of a beautiful prospect, both of sea and land, and, what is contrary to observation in other countries, each elevation is better than the next below. . . . . The earth in most parts is extremely rich, and as black as our richest marsh meadows. How wonderful that such people should be in debt, and not be able to indulge themselves in all the luxuries as well as necessaries of life. Yet so it happens. Estates are often alienated for debts. How persons coming to estates of two, three and four hundred acres, (which are the largest,) can want, is to me most wonderful.

There are few who can be called middling people. They are very rich or very poor; for, by a law of the island, every gentleman is obliged to keep a white person for every ten acres, capable of acting in

the militia, and, consequently, the persons so kept cannot but be very poor. They are well disciplined and appointed to their several stations, so that in any alarm every man may be at his post in less than two hours."

These few extracts serve to show the unaffected and simple style in which Washington was thus early in the habit of recording his impressions—an example which, if well followed by all the young gentlemen of our day who travel the world over, would be better even than a Smithsonian Institute "for the advancement of knowledge among men." The conscientious (not constitutional) moderation of Washington's expressions has often been remarked; only once in the course of this record of a visit to the tropics, by one who so loved the face of nature that he never remained in a city but at the call of duty, does a gleam of enthusiasm betray itself, where he says"In the cool of the evening we rode out,

... and were perfectly enraptured with the beautiful prospects which every side presented to our view,-the fields of cane, corn, fruit-trees, &c., in a delightful green."

But the most characteristic parts of the journal are the following entries:

"November 4th, 1751.-This morning received a card from Major Clarke, with an invitation to breakfast and dine with him. We went,-myself with some reluctance, as the small-pox was in his family."

"17th.-Was strongly attacked with the small-pox. Sent for Dr. Lanahan, whose attendance was very constant till my recovery and going out, which were not till Thursday the 12th of December."

"December 12th.-Went to town and called on Major Clarke's family, who had kindly visited me in my illness, and contributed all they could, in sending me the necessaries the disorder required."

And this is all. The small-pox — a "strong" attack-is passed over as a small interlude, not worthy of being noticed in particulars, or calling for the slightest expression of self-pity. Yet, throughout Washington's whole life he is rather remarkable for the interest he takes in the health of his friends and servants. We have before us, as we write, a letter written by him to General Greene, Jan. 22d, 1780, from Head Quarters at Morristown, remonstrating very warmly on the

* It may be proper to mention that the extracts in these pages are taken, not from the originais, but from Sparks Writings of Washington,” vol. i. p. 4.

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subject of the discomfort suffered by his servants for want of additional quarters. "Nor is there at this moment," he writes, in that fine, bold, measured hand that he learned at Mr. Williams's school, “a place in which a servant can lodge with any degree of comfort. . . . . Hardly one of them able to speak for the colds they have caught."

After Mr. Laurence Washington was established in lodgings, under the care of a physician, his brother left him to return home, to await the result of the experiment; but no benefit resulting to the invalid from his West Indian sojourn, it was arranged that his wife, under George's escort, should meet him at Bermuda, where a new attempt was to be made. But all these efforts gained not even a reprieve. The progress of the disease was so rapid, that nothing remained but a hurried return home, where death put a speedy termination to hopes and fears, and the elder brother, who had, since the father's death, been a second parent and worthy guide for George, was removed, on the 26th of July, 1752, at the early age of thirty-four. This occurred at Mount Vernon, and Washington, who was evidently the main dependence and assistant in his brother's affairs throughout his illness, now took charge of his business and also of his family, consisting of his widow and one daughter, sickly from her birth. The widow married again, the daughter died, and the estate at Mount Vernon became, by Laurence's will, the property of George Washington, and an inseparable appendage to that illustrious

name for ever.

Washington had even earlier than this commenced his military career, by accepting an appointment in the militia-that of one of four adjutants-general, carrying the rank of major. This brought him back to his old school-day business of drilling and inspecting troops, and we find him as active and zealous in it as in every thing else that he undertook. No perfunctory service was his, in this or any other case. He fitted himself for his duties by practice in military exercises and the study of writers on tactics, as if he had foreseen that he must one day command armies. He travelled through the counties included in his district, receiving his recruits, inspecting their accoutrements, and acquainting himself diligently with the whole state of things as it regarded his official duties. Wherever he went, the first place was accorded to him, and he took then, as ever, the position of command, without the least assumption or offence. From the very

beginning, men seem to have been as willing to come under his influence as he could possibly be to have them there. If we can gather any thing distinct from the accounts of those times in Virginia, duties and instruments seem to have tended towards him as towards a centre of attraction, making good the observation of Fourier, that some people are natural foci-a fact which is very evident, and by no means unaccountable.

All this drilling was by no means fruitless or premature. Warlike doings on the part of the French upon the frontiers soon began to call for some attention from the authorities, and it was necessary at least to ask the aggressors what they meant. The Virginia Governor, Dinwiddie, not quite so well skilled in his business as was at least one of his adjutants in the preparation of soldiers, had already sent a messenger with presents to the Indians, and the ulterior design of discovering the intentions of the French, but the returns were unsatisfactory, and the information manifestly fallacious. The French were represented as hopelessly formidable and rapacious, allowing no Englishman to trade beyond the mountains, on the ground that all west of the Alleghanies belonged to the domains of their master. The truth was, that the French had begun the formation of the famous cordon of military posts from Canada to the southern part of the Mississippi, and that they had in this operation managed to get very much the start of the not very warlike colonists, who at a somewhat late hour began to feel that both honor and interest required an immediate check upon such encroachments.

Both French and English had, before it came to this, made treaties with the Indians, sometimes with tribes rival or inimical to each other, sometimes with those whose only object was to obtain the largest possible amount of presents from both parties, whether for aid on the one hand or betrayal on the other. What the Indians in general thought of this contest between two great nations for their hunting-grounds, may be guessed from the shrewd question put by one of them to a gentleman on a tour of observation among them-"Whereabouts do the Indian lands lie, since the French claim all the land on one side the Ohio River, and the English all on the other?"

Indian alliances complicated the coming war a good deal, for messengers and reconnoitring parties were sure to fall in with plenty of red men, and it was often very difficult to distinguish friend from foe,

especially when both were found under the same ochre and feathers at an interval of a few hours. The business of traversing the woods was almost as hazardous as in the time of Tancred, when the trees could hear and talk. But Governor Dinwiddie had sagacity enough to know where to apply after his first messenger failed, and Major George Washington required no second bidding to become his honor's commissioner, to ascertain the intentions of the Indians in certain quarters, and, a still more delicate errand-to. demand of the French commandant by what authority and with what design he presumed to invade British dominions.

Here is the commission of the youthful major, only just major in the legal sense: "I, reposing especial trust and confi

dence in the ability, conduct, and fidelity of you, the said George Washington, have appointed you my express messenger, and you are hereby authorized and empowered to proceed hence, with all convenient and possible dispatch, to that part or place on the river Ohio where the French have lately erected a fort or forts, or where the commandant of the French forces resides, in order to deliver my letter and message to him, and after waiting not exceeding one week, for an answer, you are to take leave and return immediately back.

"To this commission, I have set," &c.. &c.

"All his Majesty's subjects, and all in amity or alliance with the crown of Great Britain," were also charged to further "George Washington. Esquire, commis

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sioner under the great seal," and "to be aiding and assisting to the said George Washington and his attendants, in his present passage to and from the river Ohio, as aforesaid."

The party consisted of eight personsMr. Gist, the same who received from the Indians the posing question as to the -ownership of the lands on either side the Ohio; an experienced woodsman, and valuable aid; John Davidson, an interpreter for the Indians, and Jacob Van Braam, (from whom Washington learned the art of fencing), a Dutchman, who could speak French, which Washington himself could not. These, with four attendants, completed the chief's party, which set out from Williamsburg, Virginia, October 31st, 1753. It must have required some courage and no little confidence in one's resources of health, strength, and perseverance, to begin a journey of five hundred and sixty miles, through woods and over mountains, on horseback, in the winter season, with the prospect of camping out nearly every night. We have seen a charming picture of the party making their slow way through the woods in a heavy snowstorm, one of the most lifelike, expressive, and rememberable of pictures, yet we have ungratefully forgotten to what American artist the pleasure was due. Let this mention be our atonement for the fault.

It was a fortnight before the cavalcade reached Will's Creek, the confines of civilization, and plunged into the pathless forests of the Alleghanies, to encounter all the horrors of cold, fatigue, and danger.

The inclemency of the season," says Mr. Sparks, "the Alleghanies covered with snow, and the valleys flooded by the swelling waters, the rough passages over the mountains, and the difficulties in crossing the streams by frail rafts, fording or swiming, were obstacles that could be overcome but slowly and with patience." And by energy and patience they were overcome, and the young soldier found himself, on the twenty-fifth day after leaving Williamsburg, at Logstown, an Indian settlement, where his orders required him to hold a conference with Tanackarison,-known as the Half-king,-and other sachems of the Six Nations, and obtain from them guides and guards for the remainder of the journey, as well as all possible information as to the intentions of the French. The Half-king's intelligence was that the French had already built several forts on the Mississippi and one on the Ohio; and when required to pilot the messenger's party to the quarters of the French commandant, he said that the nearest and most

level road was now impassable, by reason of great marshes, so that it would take five or six "nights' sleep" to reach the nearest fort, where visitors must not count upon a very civil welcome.

He, the Half-king, had been received very sternly by the commander, and in reply to the abrupt question, what his business was, had replied by a speech which, as recorded from his own lips by the severely veracious pen of Washington, presents as remarkable dignity and good sense as ever novelist put into the mouth of the ideal red man,-a style of eloquence which we are in the habit of classing as the millionth dilution of the Ossianic poetry.

"Fathers," he said, "I have come to tell you your own speeches, what your own mouths have declared. Fathers, you, in former days, set a silver basin before us, wherein was the leg of a beaver, and desired all the nations to come and eat of it, to eat in peace and plenty, and not to be churlish to one another; and that if any such person should be found to be a disturber, I here lay down by the edge of the dish a rod which you must scourge them with; and if your father should get foolish in my old days, I desire you may use it upon me as well as others.

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Now, fathers, it is you who are the disturbers in this land, by coming and building your towns, and taking it away unknown to us, and by force.

"Fathers, we kindled a fire a long time ago, at a place called Montreal, where we desired you to stay, and not to come and intrude upon our land. I now desire you may dispatch to that place, for, be it known to you, fathers, that this is our land and not yours.

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Fathers, I desire you may hear me in civilness, if not, we must handle that rod which was laid down for the use of the obstreperous. If you had come in a peaceable manner, like our brothers, the English, we would not have been against your trading with us as they do; but to come, fathers, and build houses on our land, and take it by force, is what we can not submit to.

"Fathers, both you and the English are white; we live in a country between; therefore, the land belongs neither to the one nor the other. But the Great Being above allowed it to be a place of residence for us; so, fathers, I desire you to withdraw, as I have done our brothers, the English; for I will keep you at arm's length. I lay this down as a trial for both, to see which will have the greatest regard to it, and that side we will stand by, and make equal sharers with us. Our

brothers the English, have heard this, and I come now to tell it to you; for I am not afraid to discharge you off this land."

The French commandant seems to have replied in a very truculent spirit, as reported by the Indian chief:

"Now, my child, I have heard your speech; you spoke first, but it is my time to speak now. Where is my wampum, that you took away with the marks of towns upon it? This wampum I do not know, which you have discharged me off the land with; but you need not put yourself to the trouble of speaking, for I will not hear you. I am not afraid of flies or musquitoes, for Indians are such as those; I tell you, down that river I will go, and build upon it, according to my command. If the river was blocked up, I have forces sufficient to burst it open, and tread under my feet all that stand in opposition, together with their alliances; for my force is as the sand upon the sea-shore; therefore here is your wampum; I sling it at you. Child, you talk foolish; you say this land belongs to you, but there is not the black of my nail yours. I saw that land sooner than you did, before the Shannoahs and you were at war; Lead was the man who went down and took possession of that river. It is my land, and I will have it, let who will stand up for or say against it. I will buy and sell with the English. If people will be ruled by me they may expect kindness, but not else."

Mr. Sparks, remarking upon these speeches, says well, "The high-minded savage was not aware that, as far as he and his race were concerned, there was no difference between his professed friends and open enemies. He had never studied in the school of politics, which finds an excuse for rapacity and injustice in the law of nations, nor learned that it was the prerogative of civilization to prey upon the ignorant and defenceless."

On the 26th a council was held, and Washington in his turn made a speech, with the usual sprinkling of "Brothers," but stating succinctly and candidly the objects of his journey. The Half-king desired him not to be in a hurry, and suggested some reasons for delay, to which Washington, after much argument and remonstrance, was obliged to yield, for fear of defeating the object of his journey. "As I found it was impossible," he says, to get off without affronting them in the most egregious manner, I consented to stay."

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Three chiefs and one of the best hunters were at length appointed to compose the convoy, and on the 4th of December they

arrived at Venango, an old Indian town at the mouth of French Creek, on the Ohio, "without any thing remarkable happening," says Washington, "but a continued series of bad weather."

Here they fell in with Captain Joncaire, an interpreter, and one who had great influence over the Indians. He assumed to be the commander of the Ohio, but recommended to the young commissioner to carry his business to the general, who had his quarters at the near fort. At first the French were extremely civil, but when the wine began to go round, they verified the proverb by telling much that they had intended to conceal: that it was their absolute design to take possession of the Ohio, and that they would do it too; for although they knew the English could raise two men for their one, yet their motions were too slow and dilatory to prevent any undertaking of the French. Captain Joncaire plied the Indians with liquor, and used every possible artifice to entice them to go no further, but after much difficulty the party was once more on the road, and, travelling four days more through "excessive rains, snows, and bad travelling through many mires and swamps," they at length reached the fort, and found the French commandant, a knight of St. Louis, Legardeur de St. Pierre, a gentlemanly old soldier. fort was a considerable one, garrisoned at that time by about one hundred men, and a large number of officers. While the officers were debating upon the Governor's missive, Washington was reconnoitering in every direction, taking the dimensions of the fort, counting the canoes, &c. The latter amounted to about fifty, laid up in readiness to convey the forces down the river in the Spring. On Washington's inquiring of the commandant by what authority he had made prisoners of several English subjects, he said that the country belonged to the French, and that he had orders to make prisoners of every Englishman who attempled to trade on the waters of the Ohio.

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The Sieur St. Pierre was profuse in civilities, but did every thing in his power to separate the Indian convoy from the party. Washington says, in the journal,

"I cannot say that ever in my life I suffered so much anxiety as I did in this affair." His life had not been very long, but his expressions were always very moderate, so that we may imagine his perplexity. To leave the Half-king behind, was to give him and his following over to the French interest, which was not to be thought of. Washington went

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