e lakes, and floating in canoes down the
Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. Wherever they went they built
forts and claimed the country for their king. At the same time the
English were settling along the Atlantic shores and pushing slowly back
into the country.

You should know that the French and the English were not the best of
friends. They had their wars in Europe, and every time they got into war
there they began to fight in America also. This made terrible times in
the new country. The French had many of the Indians on their side, and
they marched through the woods and attacked some of the English towns,
and the cruel Indians murdered many of the poor settlers who had done
them no harm. There were three such wars, lasting for many years, and a
great many innocent men, women and children, who had nothing to do with
the wars in Europe, lost their lives. That is what we call war. It is
bad enough now, but it was worse still in those days.

The greatest of all the wars between the French and the English was
still to come. Between the French forts on the Mississippi and the
English settlements on the Atlantic there was a vast forest land, and
both the French and the English said it belonged to them. In fact, it
did not belong to either of them, but to the Indians; but the white men
never troubled themselves about the rights of the old owners of the
land.

While the English were talking the French were acting. About 1750 they
built two or three forts in the country south of Lake Erie. What they
wanted was the Ohio River, with the rich and fertile lands which lay
along that stream. Building those forts was the first step. The next
step would be to send soldiers to the Ohio and build forts there also.

When the English heard what the French were doing they became greatly
alarmed. If they did not do something very quickly they would lose all
this great western country. The governor of Virginia wished to know what
the French meant to do, and he thought the best way to find out was to
ask them. So he chose the young backwoods surveyor, George Washington,
and sent him through the great forest to the French forts.

Washington was very young for so important a duty. But he was tall and
strong and quick-witted, and he was not afraid of any man or anything.
And he knew all about life in the woods. So he was chosen, and far west
he went over plain and mountain, now on horseback and now on foot,
following the Indian tra