was turned to war.

His father died when he was eleven years old, and George was sent to
live with his married brother Augustine. Here he attended school, was
eager in the acquirement of knowledge, and became expert in all athletic
exercises. He very nearly entered on a naval career, but at his mother's
earnest entreaty renounced the project, and returning to school, studied
land-surveying.

Lawrence, his brother, having married into the Fairfax family, George
came under the notice of Lord Fairfax, owner of immense tracts of
country, who was so pleased with the lad's character and accomplishments
that he entrusted him with the task of surveying his possessions. At the
age of sixteen George Washington set out into the wilderness, and
acquitted himself so well that he was appointed public surveyor. He thus
gained an intimate knowledge, and of the ways of the Indians.

The English and French governments were at this time making conflicting
claims to the Ohio valley, and their agents were treating with the
various Indian tribes. At length the French prepared to enforce their
claim by arms, and Washington received, in 1751, a commission as
adjutant-general over a military district of Virginia. In October, 1753,
he was sent by Governor Dinwiddie on a mission to the French commander,
from which he returned in the following January; and his conduct on this
occasion, when he had to traverse great distances of unknown forest at
midwinter, and to cope with the craft of white men and savages alike,
marked him out as a youth fitted for the most important civil and
military trusts.

_Conflicts with the French_

Washington was for the first time under fire in April, 1754, when he had
been sent, as second in command of the colonial forces, to take charge
of a fort on the Ohio. He fell in with a French party of spies, whom his
small force, with Indian assistance, put to flight. His fort, named Fort
Necessity, was defended by three hundred men, but was attacked in July
by a greatly superior force of French and Indians, and Washington had to
capitulate, marching out with the honours of war.

When it was determined, the same autumn, by the Governor and the British
Secretary of State, that the colonial troops should be reduced to
independent companies, so that there should no longer be colonial
officers above the rank of captain, Washington, in accordance with the
dawning republicism of America, resigned his commission, and settl