508 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



that he made the surveys, which, l)eing ])ul)Hshed, formed the basis of 

 the French map of 1757. In 1752, with Joshua Fry and two other 

 commissioners representing Virginia, Mr. Gist attended a treaty with 

 the Indians, with whom the French were tampering. This treaty was 

 held at Logstown, eighteen miles or so below Pittsburgh, on the Ohio. 

 Some years ago there was quite a discussion in the newspapers as to 

 the location of Logstown, whether it was on the north or on the south 

 side of the river. In fact there were two Logstowns, opposite each 

 other : one on the north bank, occupied by white or half-breed traders, 

 and the other on the south bank occupied by the Shawanese Indians. 



It is manifest that one of the principal objects of the Ohio Company 

 was to meet the French claim and occupation of lands upon the Ohio 

 and Alleghany by actual settlements to be made by English colonists 

 from Virginia. The headquarters of Leguardeur de St. Pierre, the 

 French commandant, were at Venango; and in 1753, Governor Din- 

 widdie, then also one of the projjrietors of the Ohio Company, sent 

 George Washington, a youth of twenty-one years, to the French com- 

 mandant, to ascertaiji the purpose of the threatened encroachment. 

 It was on this journey that Washington stood on the " Point " at the 

 confluence of our two rivers, which he reported in his Journal, as an 

 eligible place for a fort.** In 1754, the erection of a fort at the place 

 indicated was begun by Capt. William Trent in command of a body 

 of Virginia militia. After its commencement, Captain Trent returned 

 to Will's Creek (now Cumberland) leaving the construction of the fort 

 to Ensign Edward Ward; but on April 17, 1754, a hostile force of 

 about seven hundred French and Indians came down the Alleghany 

 under the command of Capt. Contrecour, to whom Ensign Ward ' with 

 but thirty-three men, surrendered the unfinished fort. The fort was 

 then completed by the French and named Fort DuQuesne, in honor 

 of the Marquis DuQuesne, the French Governor General of Canada. 



Thus were the French in the actual military occupation of the valley 

 of the Ohio. Then followed the events of the .so-called French and 

 Indian war : the battle of Fort Necessity, at Great Meadows in 

 what is now Fayette county, Washington's maiden engagement ; and 

 the surrender of the fort to the French on July 4, 1754; in the 

 next year the battle of Braddock's Defeat, on July 9, 1755, resulting 

 in the complete expulsion of the English from the waters of the Monon- 



6 The olden Time, Vol. I., p. 12. 



' Afterwards one of the Justices of the old Virginia Court.s. 



