way of counter-balancing the Chippewas and
Ottawas, who were devoted to the French. The colonies, however, felt
as yet too much like isolated territories; the spirit of union was
wanting. Some pleaded a want of military funds; some questioned the
justice of the cause; some declined taking any hostile step that might
involve them in a war, unless they should have direct orders from the
crown.

Dinwiddie convened the House of Burgesses to devise measures for the
public security. Here his high idea of prerogative and of
gubernatorial dignity met with a grievous countercheck from the
dawning spirit of independence. When he propounded his scheme of
operations on the Ohio, some of the burgesses had the hardihood to
doubt the claims of the king to the disputed territory; a doubt which
the governor reprobated as savoring strongly of a most disloyal French
spirit. Others demurred to any grant of means for military purposes
which might be construed into an act of hostility. To meet this
scruple it was suggested that the grant might be made for the purpose
of encouraging and protecting all settlers on the waters of the
Mississippi. And under this specious plea ten thousand pounds were
grudgingly voted.

Ways and means being provided, Governor Dinwiddie augmented the number
of troops to be enlisted to three hundred, divided into six companies.
The command of the whole, as before, was offered to Washington, but he
shrank from it, as a charge too great for his youth and inexperience.
It was given, therefore, to Colonel Joshua Fry, an English gentleman
of worth and education, and Washington was made second in command,
with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. The recruiting, at first, went on
slowly. Governor Dinwiddie proclaimed a bounty of two hundred thousand
acres of land on the Ohio River, to be divided among the officers and
soldiers who should engage in this expedition; one thousand to be laid
off contiguous to the fort at the fork, for the use of the garrison.
This was a tempting bait to the sons of farmers, who readily enlisted
in the hope of having, at the end of a short campaign, a snug farm of
their own in this land of promise.

It was a more difficult matter to get officers than soldiers. Very few
of those appointed made their appearance; one of the captains had been
promoted; two declined; Washington found himself left, almost alone,
to manage a number of self-willed, undisciplined recruits. Happily he
had with him, in th