106 THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE 
two hemispheres. In 1750, the Ohio Company, formed 
for the purpose of colonizing the valley, had surveyed 
the country as far as the present site of Louisville. 
In 1753 the French, taking the alarm, crossed Lake 
Erie and began to fortify themselves at Presque Isle 
and at Venango on the Allegheny River. This 
aroused the ire of Virginia, and George Washington 
—a venturous and hardy youth of twenty-one, but 
gifted with a sagacity beyond his years— was sent 
by Governor Dinwiddie to Venango to order off the 
trespassers. Washington got scanty comfort from 
this mission; but the next spring both French and 
English tried to forestall each other in fortifying the 
all-important place where the Allegheny and Monon- 
gahela rivers join to form the Ohio, the place where 
the city of Pittsburg now stands. In the course of 
these preliminary manceuvres, Washington fought his 
first battle at Great Meadows,—though as yet war 
had not been declared between France and England, 
—and being attacked by an overwhelmingly superior 
force, was obliged to surrender, with the whole of his 
little army. So the French got possession of the much- 
coveted situation, and erected there Fort Duquesne as 
a menace to all future English intruders. In 1755 the 
English accepted the challenge, and it was in attempt- 
ing to reach Fort Duquesne that the unwary Brad- 
dock was slain, and his army so wofully defeated by 
swarms of Ottawas, Hurons, and Delawares, which the 
Frenchmen’s forest diplomacy had skilfully gathered 
together. 
The defeat of Braddock is memorable on many 
accounts, but chiefly for the way in which it inured 
to the credit of the youthful Washington, while it dis- 

