before he could persuade the Half King and three of his
tribesmen to accompany him as guides. Buffeted by unceasing storms, they
toiled on to Venango, where there was an English trading-house, which the
French had seized and converted into a military post. Chabert de Joncaire
commanded, and received the party most civilly. Major Washington was
banqueted that evening by the officers of the post, and as the wine
flowed freely, the French forgot their prudence, and declared
unreservedly that they intended keeping possession of the Ohio, whether
the English liked it or not. Joncaire, however, asserted that he could
not receive Dinwiddie's letter, and referred Major Washington to his
superior officer at Fort le Boeuf. So, leaving Venango, for four days
more the party struggled northward. The narrow traders' path had been
quite blotted out, and the forest was piled waist-deep with snow. At
last, when it seemed that human endurance could win no further, they
sighted the squared chestnut walls of Fort le Boeuf.

The commander here, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, also received them well,
and to him Major Washington delivered his letter from Governor Dinwiddie,
asking by what right the French had crossed the Lakes and invaded British
territory, and demanding their immediate withdrawal. Saint-Pierre was
three days preparing his answer, which he intrusted to Major Washington,
and at the end of that time the latter, with great difficulty persuading
his Indians to accompany him, started back to Virginia. They reached
Venango on Christmas Day. Here their horses gave out, and he and Gist
pushed forward alone on foot, leaving the others to follow as best they
might. A French Indian fired at them from ambush, but missed his mark,
and to escape pursuit by his tribesmen, they walked steadily forward for
a day and a night, until they reached the Allegheny. They tried to make
the crossing on a raft, but were caught in the drifting ice and nearly
drowned before they gained an island in the middle of the river. Here
they remained all night, foodless and well-nigh frozen, and in the
morning, finding the ice set, crossed in safety to the shore. Once
across, they reached the house of a man named Fraser, on the
Monongahela,--a house they were to see again, but under far different
circumstances,--and leaving there on the first day of January, they made
their way back to the settlements without adventure. Major Washington had
reached Mount Vernon that af