The Beginner's American History Part 13

[Footnote 1: Plantation: George Washington was born on a plantation (or large estate cultivated by slaves) on Bridges Creek, a small stream emptying into the Potomac. See map in paragraph 127. Not long after George's birth (February 22, 1732), his father moved to an estate on the Rappahannock River, opposite Fredericksburg. See map in paragraph 127 for this place and Mount Vernon.]

[Footnote 2: Celestial: heavenly, divine.]

124. Washington's sports and games; playing at war; "Captain George."--But young Washington was not always copying good sayings; for he was a tall, strong boy, fond of all out-door sports and games.

He was a well-meaning boy, but he had a hot temper, and at times his blue eyes flashed fire. In all trials of strength and in all deeds of daring, George took the lead; he could run faster, jump further, and throw a stone higher than any one in the school.

When the boys played "soldier," they liked to have "Captain George"

as commander. When he drew his wooden sword, and shouted Come on!

they would all rush into battle with a wild hurrah. Years afterward, when the real war came, and George Washington drew his sword in earnest, some of his school companions may have fought under their old leader.

125. The great battle with the colt, and what came of it.--Once, however, Washington had a battle of a different kind. It was with a high-spirited colt which belonged to his mother. n.o.body had ever been able to do anything with that colt, and most people were afraid of him. Early one morning, George and some of his brothers were out in the pasture. George looked at the colt prancing about and kicking up his heels. Then he said: "Boys, if you'll help me put a bridle on him, I'll ride him." The boys managed to get the colt into a corner and to slip on the bridle. With a leap, George seated himself firmly on his back. Then the fun began. The colt, wild with rage, ran, jumped, plunged, and reared straight up on his hind legs, hoping to throw his rider off. It was all useless; he might as well have tried to throw off his own skin, for the boy stuck to his back as though he had grown there. Then, making a last desperate bound into the air, the animal burst a blood-vessel and fell dead. The battle was over, George was victor, but it had cost the life of Mrs. Washington's favorite colt.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WASHINGTON'S HOME WHEN A BOY.]

When the boys went in to breakfast, their mother, knowing that they had just come from the pasture, asked how the colt was getting on.

"He is dead, madam," said George; "I killed him." "Dead!" exclaimed his mother. "Yes, madam, dead," replied her son. Then he told her just how it happened. When Mrs. Washington heard the story, her face flushed with anger. Then, waiting a moment, she looked steadily at George, and said quietly, "While I regret the loss of my favorite, I rejoice in my son, who always speaks the truth."

126. Washington goes on a visit to Mount Vernon; he makes the acquaintance of Lord Fairfax.--George's eldest brother, Lawrence Washington, had married the daughter of a gentleman named Fairfax,[3] who lived on the banks of the Potomac. Lawrence had a fine estate a few miles above, on the same river; he called his place Mount Vernon. When he was fourteen, George went to Mount Vernon to visit his brother.

Lawrence Washington took George down the river to call on the Fairfaxes. There the lad made the acquaintance of Lord Fairfax, an English n.o.bleman who had come over from London. He owned an immense piece of land in Virginia. Lord Fairfax and George soon became great friends. He was a gray-haired man nearly sixty, but he enjoyed having this boy of fourteen as a companion. They spent weeks together on horseback in the fields and woods, hunting deer and foxes.

[Footnote 3: Fairfax. This was the Hon. William Fairfax; he was cousin to Lord Fairfax, and he had the care of Lord Fairfax's land.]

127. Lord Fairfax hires Washington to survey[4] his land; how Washington lived in the woods; the Indian war-dance.--Lord Fairfax's land extended westward more than a hundred miles. It had never been very carefully surveyed; and he was told that settlers were moving in beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains,[5] and were building log-cabins on his property without asking leave. By the time Washington was sixteen, he had learned surveying; and so Lord Fairfax hired him to measure his land for him. Washington was glad to undertake the work; for he needed the money, and he could earn in this way from five to ten dollars a day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map ill.u.s.trating Washington's early life.]

Early in the spring, Washington, in company with another young man, started off on foot to do this business. They crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains, and entered the Valley of Virginia, one of the most beautiful valleys in America.

The two young men would work all day in the woods with a long chain, measuring the land. When evening came, Washington would make a map of what they had measured. Then they would wrap themselves up in their blankets, stretch themselves on the ground at the foot of a tree, and go to sleep under the stars.

Every day they shot some game--squirrels or wild turkeys, or perhaps a deer. They kindled a fire with flint and steel,[6] and roasted the meat on sticks held over the coals. For plates they had clean chips; and as clean chips could always be got by a few blows with an axe, they never washed any dishes, but just threw them away, and had a new set for each meal.

While in the Valley they met a band of Indians, who stopped and danced a war-dance for them. The music was not remarkable,--for most of it was made by drumming on a deer-skin stretched across the top of an old iron pot,--but the dancing itself could not be beat. The savages leaped into the air, swung their hatchets, gashed the trees, and yelled till the woods rang.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WASHINGTON SEES AN INDIAN WAR-DANCE.]

When Washington returned from his surveying trip, Lord Fairfax was greatly pleased with his work; and the governor of Virginia made him one of the public surveyors. By this means he was able to get work which paid him handsomely.

[Footnote 4: Survey: to find out the form, size, and position of a piece of land by measuring it in certain ways.]

[Footnote 5: See map in this paragraph.]

[Footnote 6: Flint and steel: see picture in paragraph 84.]

128. Washington at the age of twenty-one; the French in the west; the governor of Virginia sends Washington to see the French commander.--By the time Washington was twenty-one he had grown to be over six feet in height. He was straight as an arrow and tough as a whip-lash. He had keen blue eyes that seemed to look into the very heart of things, and his fist was like a blacksmith's sledgehammer. He knew all about the woods, all about Indians, and he could take care of himself anywhere.

At this time the English settlers held the country along the seash.o.r.e as far back as the Alleghany Mountains.[7] West of those mountains the French from Canada were trying to get possession of the land.

They had made friends with many of the Indians, and they hoped, with their help, to be able to drive out the English and get the whole country for themselves.

In order to hold this land in the west, the French had built several forts[8] south of Lake Erie, and they were getting ready to build some on the Ohio River. The governor of Virginia was determined to put a stop to this. He had given young Washington the military t.i.tle of major;[9] he now sent Major Washington to see the French commander at one of the forts near Lake Erie. Washington was to tell the Frenchman that he had built his forts on land belonging to the English, and that he and his men must either leave or fight.

Major Washington dressed himself like an Indian, and attended by several friendly Indians and by a white man named Gist,[10] who knew the country well, he set out on his journey through what was called the Great Woods.

The entire distance to the farthest fort and back was about a thousand miles. Washington could go on horseback part of the way, but there were no regular roads, and he had to climb mountains and swim rivers.

After several weeks' travel he reached the fort, but the French commander refused to give up the land. He said that he and his men had come to stay, and that if the English did not like it, they must fight.

[Footnote 7: Alleghany (Al'le-ga'ni): see map in paragraph 127. (It is also spelled Allegheny.)]

[Footnote 8: Forts: see map in paragraph 127.]

[Footnote 9: Major (ma'jer): an officer in the army next above a captain, but below a colonel.]

[Footnote 10: Gist (Jist).]

129. The journey back; the Indian guide; how Washington found his way through the woods; the adventure with the raft.--On the way back, Washington had to leave his horses and come on foot with Gist and an Indian guide sent from the fort. This Indian guide was in the pay of the French, and he intended to murder Washington in the woods.

One day he shot at him from behind a tree, but luckily did not hit him. Then Washington and Gist managed to get away from him, and set out to go back to Virginia by themselves. There were no paths through the thick forest; but Washington had his compa.s.s with him, and with that he could find his way just as the captain of a ship finds his at sea. When they reached the Alleghany River they found it full of floating ice. They worked all day and made a raft of logs. As they were pushing their way across with poles, Washington's pole was struck by a big piece of ice which he says jerked him out into water ten feet deep. At length the two men managed to get to a little island, but as there was no wood on it, they could not make a fire. The weather was bitterly cold, and Washington, who was soaked to the skin, had to take his choice between walking about all night, or trying to sleep on the frozen ground in his wet clothes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WASHINGTON AND GIST ON THE RAFT.]

130. Major Washington becomes Colonel Washington; Fort Necessity; Braddock's defeat.--When Major Washington got back to Virginia, the governor made him colonel. With a hundred and fifty men, Colonel Washington was ordered to set out for the west. He was to "make prisoners, kill or destroy," all Frenchmen who should try to get possession of land on the Ohio River. He built a small log fort, which he named Fort Necessity.[11] Here the French attacked him. They had five men to his one. Colonel Washington fought like a man who liked to hear the bullets whistle past his ears,--as he said he did,--but in the end he had to give up the fort.

Then General Braddock, a noted English soldier, was sent over to Virginia by the king to drive the French out of the country. He started with a fine army, and Washington went with him.[12] He told General Braddock that the French and the Indians would hide in the woods and fire at his men from behind trees. But Braddock paid no attention to the warning. On his way through the forest, the brave English general was suddenly struck down by the enemy, half of his army were killed or wounded, and the rest put to flight. Washington had two horses shot under him, and four bullets went through his coat.

It was a narrow escape for the young man. One of those who fought in the battle said, "I expected every moment to see him fall"--but he was to live for greater work.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FALL OF GENERAL BRADDOCK ON THE BATTLE-FIELD.]

[Footnote 11: Fort Necessity: see map in paragraph 127.]

[Footnote 12: See map of Braddock's march in paragraph 127.]

131. End of the war with the French; what the king of England wanted to do; how the people here felt toward him.--The war with the French lasted a number of years. It ended by the English getting possession of the whole of America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. All this part of America was ruled by George the Third, king of England. The king now determined to send over more soldiers, and keep them here to prevent the French in Canada from trying to get back the country they had lost. He wanted the people here in the thirteen colonies[13] to pay the cost of keeping these soldiers. But this the people were not willing to do, because they felt that they were able to protect themselves without help of any kind. Then the king said, If the Americans will not give the money, I will take it from them by force,--for pay it they must and shall. This was more than the king would have dared say about England; for there, if he wanted money to spend on his army, he had to ask the people for it, and they could give it or not as they thought best. The Americans said, We have the same rights as our brothers in England, and the king cannot force us to give a single copper against our will. If he tries to take it from us, we will fight. Some of the greatest men in England agreed with us, and said that they would fight, too, if they were in our place.

[Footnote 13: Thirteen colonies: see footnote 4 at the end of paragraph 102.]

132. The king determines to have the money; the tea-ships, and the "Boston tea-party."--But George the Third did not know the Americans, and he did not think that they meant what they said. He tried to make them pay the money, but they would not. From Maine to Georgia, all the people were of one mind. Then the king thought that he would try a different way. Shiploads of tea were sent over to New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston, If the tea should be landed and sold, then every man who bought a pound of it would have to pay six cents more than the regular price. That six cents was a tax, and it went into the king's pocket. The people said, We won't pay that six cents.

When the tea reached New York, the citizens sent it back again to England. They did the same thing at Philadelphia. At Charleston they let it be landed, but it was stored in damp cellars. People would not buy any of it any more than they would buy so much poison, so it all rotted and spoiled. At Boston they had a grand "tea-party."

A number of men dressed themselves up like Indians, went on board the tea-ships at night, broke open all the chests, and emptied the tea into the harbor.