PREFACE
This story centres upon the early frontier and military career of George Washington, introducing him as the sixteen-year-old surveyor, and closing when at the age of twenty-six he married and retired, for a time, from public service. During that period, 1748–1758 inclusive, the Ohio Country, that interior west of the Alleghany Mountains, was wrested from France. The narrative deals with the youth Washington’s trip through three hundred miles of wilderness to the French forts near Lake Erie; his expedition to invest the Forks of the Ohio where the French were establishing Fort Duquesne; his service with the Braddock column; and his service under General Forbes when Fort Duquesne was taken at last. His courage as commissioner to the French at Lake Erie, his first victory, his defense of Fort Necessity, his performances upon Braddock’s Field, his endurance and fine spirit, are featured. All this was the training that demonstrated his fitness for command in the War of Independence. His companion hero of the story is a boy, Robert the Hunter, son of Mary Harris the White Woman and Feather Eagle a Delaware, but adopted by Tanacharison the Half-King of the Mingos upon the Ohio. Christopher Gist, the famous chief Scarouady, George Croghan, Andrew Montour, Captain Joncaire, Captain Jack the Black Rifle, Shingis the Delaware, Pontiac, and other historic border characters figure, as well as Doctor Craik, old Lord Fairfax, Vanbraam, and others of Washington’s personal confederates.