raft which, with only "one poor hatchet,"
cost them an entire day's labor to construct. When crossing the river,
Washington, while using the setting pole, was thrown violently into the
water at a depth of ten feet, and saved his life by grasping a log. They
spent the night, in their frozen clothing, on a little island on which,
had they been forced to stay till sunrise, they would, beyond question,
have fallen into the hands of the Indians; but the intense cold which
froze the feet of Washington's companion, also sealed the river and
enabled them to escape on the ice.

_Another Mission_

The year following the mission to Venango (1754) Colonel Washington was
sent in command of a small force in the same direction; but by reason of
the greatly superior strength of the enemy, the expedition resulted in a
calamitous retreat. By a singular coincidence, the compulsory evacuation
of the English stronghold--"Fort Necessity," as it was called--occurred
on the _Fourth of July_, 1754--a date afterward made forever glorious in
great measure by the inestimable services of the young commander of this
earlier and ill-fated military expedition. But such were the ability,
energy, and power evinced by its youthful commander, that the disaster
resulted in his own greatly enhanced reputation as a born leader of men.

_Braddock and Washington_

In the following year (1755) a gigantic effort was made by England to
recover lost ground, and to repair the military misadventures of 1754.
The history of Braddock's disastrous expedition is familiar to every
schoolboy in the land. At this period, Colonel Washington had retired
from the army in disgust at the unjust regulations which gave undue
preference to officers holding commissions from the Crown over abler
men--some of them their seniors of the same rank--in the service of the
provinces. He was, however, at length induced--in great measure from
motives of the purest patriotism, and partly, no doubt, from his strong
leaning toward a military career--to accept a position on the staff of
the commanding General, Braddock, a soldier of courage and large
experience, but, as events afterward proved, a haughty, self-willed, and
passionate man.

During the passage of Braddock's forces through the Alleghany Mountains,
Washington was attacked by so violent and alarming a sickness that its
result was for a time extremely uncertain; on his partial recovery the
General caused him to move with the heavy