n Canada, and taken up their abodes about the Ohio and its branches.
The French pretended to hold them under their protection; but their
allegiance, if ever acknowledged, had been sapped of late years by the
influx of fur traders from Pennsylvania. These were often rough,
lawless men, generally in the employ of some trader, who, at the head
of his retainers and a string of pack-horses, would make his way over
mountains and through forests to the banks of the Ohio, establish his
head-quarters in some Indian town, and disperse his followers to
traffic among the hamlets, hunting-camps, and wigwams, exchanging
blankets, gaudy colored cloth, trinketry, powder, shot, and rum, for
valuable furs and peltry. In this way a lucrative trade with these
western tribes was springing up and becoming monopolized by the
Pennsylvanians.

To secure a participation in this trade, and to gain a foothold in
this desirable region, became now the wish of some of the most
intelligent and enterprising men of Virginia and Maryland, among whom
were Lawrence and Augustine Washington. With these views they
projected a scheme, in connection with John Hanbury, a wealthy London
merchant, to obtain a grant of land from the British government, for
the purpose of forming settlements or colonies beyond the Alleghanies.
Government readily countenanced a scheme by which French encroachments
might be forestalled, and prompt and quiet possession secured of the
great Ohio valley. An association was accordingly chartered in 1749,
by the name of "the Ohio Company," and five hundred thousand acres of
land was granted to it west of the Alleghanies; between the
Monongahela and Kanawha rivers; though part of the land might be taken
up north of the Ohio, should it be deemed expedient. The company were
to pay no quit-rent for ten years; but they were to select two-fifths
of their lands immediately; to settle one hundred families upon them
within seven years; to build a fort at their own expense, and maintain
a sufficient garrison in it for defence against the Indians. Mr.
Thomas Lee, president of the council of Virginia, took the lead in the
concerns of the company at the outset, and by many has been considered
its founder. On his death, which soon took place, Lawrence Washington
had the chief management. His enlightened mind and liberal spirit
shone forth in his earliest arrangements.

Before the company had received its charter, the French were in the
field. Early i