quaint himself with the numbers and
force of the French stationed on the Ohio and in its vicinity; their
capability of being reinforced from Canada; the forts they had
erected; where situated, how garrisoned; the object of their advancing
into those parts, and how they were likely to be supported. Washington
set off from Williamsburg on the 30th of October, 1753, the very day
on which he received his credentials. At Fredericksburg he engaged his
old "master of fence," Jacob Van Braam, to accompany him as
interpreter.

Having provided himself at Alexandria with necessaries for the
journey, he proceeded to Winchester, then on the frontier, where he
procured horses, tents, and other travelling equipments, and then
pushed on by a road newly opened to Wills' Creek, where he arrived on
the 14th of November. Here he met with Mr. Gist, the intrepid pioneer,
whom he engaged to accompany and pilot him in the present expedition.
He secured the services also of one John Davidson as Indian
interpreter, and of four frontiersmen. With this little band, he set
forth on the 15th of November through a wild country, rendered almost
impassable by recent storms of rain and snow.

As the rivers were all swollen so that the horses had to swim them,
Washington sent all the baggage down the Monongahela in a canoe under
care of two of the men, who had orders to meet him at the confluence
of that river with the Alleghany, where their united waters form the
Ohio. "As I got down before the canoe," writes he in his journal, "I
spent some time in viewing the rivers, and the land at the fork, which
I think extremely well situated for a fort, as it has the absolute
command of both rivers." The Ohio company had intended to build a fort
about two miles from this place, on the south-east side of the river;
but Washington gave the fork the decided preference. French engineers
of experience proved the accuracy of his military eye, by subsequently
choosing it for the site of Fort Duquesne, noted in frontier history.

In this neighborhood lived Shingiss, the king, or chief sachem, of the
Delawares. Washington visited him at his village, to invite him to the
council at Logstown. He was one of the greatest warriors of his tribe,
and subsequently took up the hatchet at various times against the
English, though now he seemed favorably disposed, and readily accepted
the invitation.

They arrived at Logstown after sunset on the 24th of November. The
half-king