canoe down the Ohio. They were now beyond the settlements of the whites. An unbroken forest shut in the river, whose bosom, dotted with islands, was disturbed only by the paddle of the red man or the plash of wild fowl. Night coming on they hauled their boat ashore, and kindling a fire on the banks lay down to rest. At daylight they again pushed off. The third day it snowed, and along the white banks, and through the colonnade of trees the solitary boat shot downward-now dancing over the rifts, and again suddenly brought up on a shoal, threatening to upset. all in the stream. Toward evening they saw smoke rising from amid the trees below them, and on turning a bend of the river suddenly came upon an Indian village of twenty cabins. Running the boat ashore, they encamped here for the night, and were entertained hospitably by the natives. Hearing that two traders had been killed a little farther on, they hesitated about proceeding, but at length concluded to venture forward, and kept down the river, stopping occasionally to allow Washington to examine the lands along the creeks and streams that put into the Ohio. The call of the wild turkey and the scream of the water-fowl were the only sounds that broke the stillness of the solitude. They scared the wild deer quenching his noonday thirst with the crack of their rifles, and roused the beast of prey from his lair, in solitudes hitherto unvisited by the white man.

On the 28th they came upon the Indian chief Kiashuta, with his hunting-party, by whom they were kindly received, and detained till nine o'clock next morning. Cold autumn rains and snow drenched them by day and chilled them at night, but Washington continued his investigations, now piercing several miles inland, and again accompanying the boat on foot along the bank. At length they reached the Great Kanhawa, the end of their journey. He had now gone two hundred and sixty-five miles from Pittsburg,

through a country claimed by the Indians, and where the claim of the white man had never been reared. Passing up this river to observe the land they proceeded ten miles and encamped. Next morning they pushed on four miles farther, and then encamped to go hunting. The forest soon rung with the report of their pieces, and before night the party had brought in five buffaloes and three deer. The next day they set out on their return. Strange wild fowl, with a cry he had never heard before, huge trees, with trunks forty-five feet in circumference, together with every picturesque object of nature, arrested Washington's attention, as well as the rich bottoms which were destined soon to be crowded with an enterprising people.

He was absent nine weeks in all, not reaching Mount Vernon till the first of December. This was his fifth trip to the Ohio, and served to keep up his familiarity with the fatigues of a camp life that he was fast forgetting in the luxuries of home. All this time he was not an indifferent spectator of the strife between the colonies and the mother country respecting their mutual rights, but sympathized deeply with the former.

How strangely Providence shaped the life of this man, to fit him for the high destiny that awaited him. Five years of better training could not have been' devised. Stark and Putnam and others, had an experience fitting them only for partisan warfare, while such generals as Artemus Ward were not inured to the hardships and trials through which Washington had triumphantly passed. Besides, as commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, he was obliged to bear with undisciplined militia and a contradictory and officious governor-left to carry on a campaign without supplies-keep together half-starved and half-clothed troops-compelled to be patient under abuse and neglect-to have courage when others desponded, and win universal confidence by his integrity and justice. In short he had

been tried beforehand in every difficulty and temptation that was to beset or befall him as the leader of a free people. His five years as colonel was an epitome of the seven years he spent at the head of the national army. God had proved him, and said clearly by his providence, "Thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things."

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CHAPTER IV.

Character of the Colonists-First Attempt to Tax the Provinces-Its Reception by the People-Taxation discussed in the British Parliament-Speech of Col. Barre-Attitude of Virginia-Speech of Patrick Henry-South Carolina and Gadsden-Attacks on Stamp-Master J. Ingersoll-First Congress at New YorkThe Stamp Act Repealed-Excitement and Joy of the Colonists-Washington's Views of it-Duties on Tea, Paper, etc.-Tea thrown overboard in Boston Harbor-Port Bill-Virginia Assembly and conduct of Washington-Fast DayFairfax Resolutions-Washington's Letter to Mr. Bryan Fairfax-He is elected a Delegate to the First General Congress-Action of Congress-Prayer by Duche-Washington's standing in Congress-Lexington and Concord-Excitement of the People-Stockbridge--The Second Congress-Washington Chairman of every Committee-Appointed Commander-in-Chief-Battle of Bunker Hill--Journey of Washington to Cambridge-Takes command of the ArmyIts character-Appearance of the Encampment-Washington's first orderOrganization of the Army-Difficulties that beset him--Forced to act contrary to his wishes.

DURING the long interval that Washington passed on his plantation engaged in the quiet routine of his agricultural duties and pleasures, the colonies were shaken from limit to limit with the fierce discussion of the doctrine of civil rights.

In New England, the inhabitants, coming directly from the old Puritan stock, were naturally jealous of those rights for which they had abandoned their native land, while both they and the other colonists could not but draw in freedom with every breath in the untrammeled life of the wilder

Besides, cultivators of the soil are always characterized by independence. The fluctuations of trade, the stoppage of commerce, and the derangement of currency may prevent their becoming rich, but these cannot prevent the earth from yielding her fruits, so that the disasters of war do not reach to the means of livelihood, and hence do not outweigh all other considerations. Added to all this, a boundless wilderness thronged with savages would naturally attract to it only the more hardy, enterprising, self-reliant,

and fearless class of men, restless under restraint and prompt and resolute in the assertion of their rights.

As the colonies increased in strength and wealth England judiciously avoided intermeddling with their internal regulations, and the Assemblies of the different provinces were really more independent than the Parliament of England. Such a stock, so educated by external circumstances, and strengthened in their views by long continued concessions on the part of the mother country, would naturally rebel against the first effort to reduce them to bondage. England, however, was not aware to what depth the sentiment of liberty had struck, nor of the sternness and courage with which the colonists would resist the first encroachment on their rights. Regarding the French war as rather the quarrel of the colonies than her own, she resolved they should help sustain the government which had protected them not only from the rapacity of the French, but from the cruelties of the savages. But at the first suggestion of the British ministry that this should be done by taxation, the colonists were thrown into a high state of excitement, and urgent remonstrances were made to prevent a step so fatal to their liberties.

[1763.] The proposition to lay a stamp-tax was first made under Egremont's administration, but a change in the cabinet prevented it from being immediately carried out. An excise, land-tax, and all other methods for raising a revenue seemed impracticable. But first came the Navigation Act, forbidding America to trade with foreign nations and compelling her to buy only of England. All other trade was declared contraband, and custom-house officers were sent over, and national vessels ordered to cruise along our coasts to make seizure of all goods that had not come through English ports. This aroused a storm of indignation, and the colonists, finding no other mode of revenge, began to do without English manufactures. The loom and