Notwithstanding all our efforts, we could not get to either shore, but
were obliged, as we were near an island, to quit our raft and make to
it. The cold was so extremely severe that Mr. Gist had all his fingers
and some of his toes frozen, and the water was shut up so hard that we
found no difficulty in getting off the island on the ice in the
morning, and went to Mr. Frazier's."
Here they succeeded in procuring horses, and in a few days more, Major
Washington handed in his report to the Governor at Williamsburg.
This report stirred the Virginia House of Burgesses to action. It
showed that the whole western frontier was imperilled. One of
Washington's recommendations, that a fort be built at the fork of the
Ohio, was put into effect at once; and a Captain Trent was sent out
with some woodsmen to begin its construction. But before the fort was
completed a force of French descended upon it and captured it. Near
its site they themselves built a larger one, which they called Fort
Duquesne--the site of the later city of Pittsburgh.
This action on the part of the French was equivalent to a declaration
of war. It was really the beginning of the Seven Years' War between
England and France, for the control of America--a drama in which
Washington was to have no little part.
Pages:
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26