I have only one other incident to relate of Lord Fairfax, which took place just before his death. He was an Englishman, and opposed to the Revolutionary war; but he continued to live in Virginia, at Greenway Court. At last the year 1781 came, and Lord Fairfax grew very ill. He was at Winchester at the time, which is not far from Greenway; and one day he heard the people shouting and cheering in the streets. He asked his old servant what it all meant, and he told him that the people were shouting because Lord Cornwallis, the great English general, had surrendered to General Washington at Yorktown. At this the old lord groaned.

"Take me to bed, Joe," he said, in a low voice; "it is time for me to die!"

And you no doubt understand what the old Englishman meant. He had been the friend of young George Washington, and brought him on in life; and now this same young fellow had defeated the great Lord Cornwallis, and compelled England to give up America. It was time for him to die, therefore, he said; and soon afterward he expired, greatly mourned, there can be no doubt, by Washington.

His life was

This was the end of old Lord Fairfax. a sad one, in spite of his great wealth, for his last days were spent in the lonely forests beyond the Blue Ridge, without wife or children to cheer his declining years. I never heard that Washington visited him there in these latter years. The boy with the rosy cheeks and the curly locks, who had stopped at Greenway Court, was now the grave commander-in-chief of the American army, and had no time to spare. But he must have wished to visit the old house again, and its master, who had been the friend of his boyhood.

WASHINGTON IN THE WILDERNESS.

I.

IT is so interesting to follow George Washington through these first years of his career, that I will go on now and tell you of an expedition which he made at this time into the "Great Woods," as they were called, beyond the Ohio River.

Both the English and the French claimed this country. The English, you know, had settled at Jamestown in 1607, but the French had possession of Canada long before, and it was now a question to whom the western country belonged. It was full of English and French hunters, who traded with the Indians; and it became a great point with both sides to secure the friendship of the savages, in case fighting broke out, as it probably would.

This led to the expedition I now mean to tell you about. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia and the Governor of Canada were watching each other; and at last Dinwiddie resolved to send the French a message. This message was to the effect that the western country belonged to England, and that,as the French had no right to it, they were not to build their forts on it. The person to be sent was also to make friends of the Indians; and for this important expedition Governor Dinwiddie selected young George Washington.

The events here spoken of took place in the year 1753, when Washington was twenty-one years old. It was a proof of the confidence placed in him, to choose so young

a man for a mission requiring the utmost prudence and good-sense, as well as courage. But Washington was now very well known. He had not done much, but had impressed every one with a high opinion of his character. A proof of this is that at the age of nineteen, three years before this time, he had been appointed adjutant-general of one of the military districts of Virginia. In performing his duties as such, he must have shown that he was a capable person, as he was now selected by the governor to carry his important message into the wilderness.

He set out on the very day he received his commission from the governor at Williamsburg. At Winchester his party was waiting. It consisted of three white hunters and two friendly Indians, and a Mr. Gist, who was an experienced woodsman. As the weather was very cold (the month being November), small tents were packed on horses, which were intrusted to the white men; and thus equip ped the party set forward and reached the Monongahela.

The point Washington aimed for was an Indian village called Logstown, a little below where the city of Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania, at present stands. As the river flowed in that direction, it would enable him to float the tents and baggage down in canoes; so some of these were procured and the loads placed in them, in charge of some of the men, while the rest of the party followed along the bank.

They at last reached the Forks of the Ohio near Pittsburg. The weather was intensely cold, but Washington stopped to look at the position. He saw at a glance how strong it was, and that it was the very place for a fort; which was a proof of his good-sense, for Fort Duquesne was afterward erected there by the French.

At last he reached Logstown, and here he had a long talk with the "Half King" of the Indians, whose name

was Tanacharisson. The object of this talk was to persuade him to promise to have nothing to do with the French; but Tanacharisson, although he was friendly to the English, was afraid to do so, and evaded making any promises. He was full of polite speeches, after the Indian fashion; but the French commander, he said, was at

a fort near Lake Erie, and, if Washington wished, he would go with him to see this commandant.

Washington accepted his offer, and set out with Tanacharisson and other Indians, who guided him to a place called Venango. Here a cunning old French captain,

named Joncaire, met them, and set plenty of drink before them. The object of this was to make Washington drunk, and induce him to talk freely; but the plan did not succeed, and he soon left Captain Joncaire, and pushed on with the Indians toward the fort near Lake Erie.

After a long and freezing ride he reached the fort, and was courteously received. The commandant was an old French officer, called the Chevalier de St. Pierre, with a silvery head, and clad in a fine uniform. He made the young Virginian a low bow, and invited him into the fort, and Washington then handed him a letter which he had brought from Governor Dinwiddie. This the chevalier received with another polite bow, and then he retired to read it.

Two days then passed, and, on one pretence or other, the old chevalier delayed giving an answer to the letter. Washington soon saw what this meant. The chevalier was extremely polite, but he was quite as cunning, and during all this time was endeavoring secretly to persuade Tanacharisson to remain friendly to the French. Washington found this out, and was very angry; but the smiling old Frenchman informed him that he was mistaken in supposing any such thing; and at last he gave him a reply to Governor Dinwiddie's letter. This showed that the chevalier was a good soldier as well as a diplomatist. He informed his Excellency Governor Dinwiddie that he would send his letter to the Marquis Duquesne, in Canada; but as to giving up the country, he could not and would not do so: he was ordered to hold it, and he meant to obey his orders.

This was all Washington could obtain from him, and he now prepared to set out on his return. The old Chevalier de St. Pierre was both polite and cunning to the last. He furnished Washington with plenty of canoes to carry