far apart the
posts were, and if they were to be supported from Quebec.[1]

[Footnote 1: Read T.J. Chapman's _The, French in the Allegheny Valley_,
pp. 23-47; Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I., pp. 128-161; Lodge's
_George Washington_, pp. 62-69.]

With that promptness which distinguished him during his whole life,
Washington set out on his perilous journey the very day he received his
instructions, and made his way first to Logstown, and then to Fort Le
Boeuf, where he delivered Governor Dinwiddie's letter to the French
commandant. The reply of Saint-Pierre--for that was the name of the
French commandant--was that he would send the letter of Dinwiddie to the
governor of Canada, the Marquis Duquesne (doo-kan'), and that, in the
meantime, he would hold the fort.

[Illustration: The French and the English Forts]

%79. Fort Duquesne.%--When Dinwiddie read the answer of Saint-Pierre,
he saw clearly that the time had come to act. The French were in force
on the upper Allegheny. Unless something was done to drive them out,
they would soon be at the forks of the Ohio, and once they were there,
the splendid tract of the Ohio Company would be lost forever. Without a
moment's delay he decided to take possession of the forks of the Ohio,
and raised two companies of militia of 100 men each. A trader named
William Trent was in command of one of the companies, and that no time
should be lost, he, with forty men, hurried forward, and, February 17,
1754, drove the first stake of a stockade that was to surround a fort on
the site of the city of Pittsburg. While the English were still at work
on their fort, April 17, 1754, a body of French and Indians came down
from Le Boeuf, and bade them leave the valley. Trent was away, and the
working party was in command of an ensign named Ward, who, as resistance
was useless, surrendered, and was allowed to march off with his men. The
French then finished the fort Trent had begun, and called it Fort
Duquesne, after the governor of Canada.

%80. "Join or Die."%--Meantime the legislature of Virginia voted
L10,000 for the defense of the Ohio valley, and promised a land bounty
to every man who would volunteer to fight the French and Indians. Joshua
Frye was made colonel, and Washington lieutenant colonel of the troops
thus to be raised. As some time must elapse before the ranks could be
filled, Washington took seventy-five men and (in March, 1754) set off to
help Trent; but he had not gone f