hiladelphia, he marched slowly on to join a force
operating against the French in the region of Lake George, more than
two hundred miles to the north. He took with him only the regulars, the
provincial regiments being under the control of the governors of their
own states.

Washington therefore remained behind in Virginia with the regiment of
that colony. The blanks made in Braddock's fight were filled up, and
the force raised to a thousand strong. With these he was to protect a
frontier of three hundred and fifty miles long, against an active and
enterprising foe more numerous than himself, and who, acting on the
other side of the mountain, and in the shade of the deep forests, could
choose their own time of attack, and launch themselves suddenly upon
any village throughout the whole length of the frontier.

Nor were the troops at his disposal the material which a commander
would wish to have in his hand. Individually they were brave, but being
recruited among the poor whites, the most turbulent and troublesome
part of the population, they were wholly unamenable to discipline, and
Washington had no means whatever for enforcing it. He applied to the
House of Assembly to pass a law enabling him to punish disobedience,
but for months they hesitated to pass any such ordinance, on the excuse
that it would trench on the liberty of free white men.

The service, indeed, was most unpopular, and Washington, whose
headquarters were at Winchester, could do nothing whatever to assist
the settlements on the border. His officers were as unruly as the men,
and he was further hampered by having to comply with the orders of
Governor Dinwiddie, at Williamsburg, two hundred miles away.

"What do you mean to do?" he had asked James Walsham, the day that the
beaten army arrived at Fort Cumberland.

"I do not know," James said. "I certainly will not continue with
Dunbar, who seems to me to be acting like a coward; nor do I wish to go
into action with regulars again; not, at least, until they have been
taught that, if they are to fight Indians successfully in the forests,
they must abandon all their traditions of drill, and must fight in
Indian fashion. I should like to stay with you, if you will allow me."

"I should be very glad to have you with me," Washington said; "but I do
not think that you will see much action here. It will be a war of
forays. The Indians will pounce upon a village or solitary farm house,
murder and scalp the in