Revolution it was the smallest of the thirteen colonies, with a population of 50,000, of which one-half were slaves.

Completion of the Contact between New France and the English Colonies. The work of establishing a French colony at the mouth of the Mississippi, interrupted by the untimely death of the heroic La Salle, was taken up again in 1699 by Iberville. In the course of his operations Mobile was founded in 1702, and in 1718 a French company made the beginnings of the city of New Orleans. The boundary between the French and English colonies was now a very long line, running all the way from New Orleans to Montreal. It was a vague and undetermined line, nowhere fixed by treaty, but everywhere subject to the arbitrament of war. To guard their possessions, the French erected a chain of some sixty fortresses along this line. The general position and direction of this chain is marked by the sites of the towns or cities of New Orleans, Natchez, Vincennes, Fort Wayne, Toledo, Detroit, Ogdensburgh, and Montreal.

Thus at the moment when George Washington entered upon his public career, the contact between New France and the English colonies had just been completed all along the line. France hoped to establish, in the interior of North America, a Catholic and despotic empire, after the pattern of the Old Régime in the mother country; and she had made up her mind that the sway of the English race in America must be confined to the narrow strip of territory between the Atlantic and the Alleghanies. All of the continent west of this mountain range was to become a New France, and no English colonist must be allowed to cross the barrier. The struggle between the two great rivals was thus extended over the whole country, so that Virginia began to play a foremost part in it. For the first time the English colonies, north and south, began to act in concert against a common foe; and in overthrowing the enemy, they first began to feel their own strength when united. Out of this great war immediately grew the disputed questions which formed the occasion of the American Revolution. The causes having been long at work, the development of the crisis was sudden and prodigious. Men old enough to vote in

town-meeting at the time of Braddock's defeat were not yet fifty when Cornwallis surrendered his army at Yorktown. But in passing from 1755 to 1781, we enter a new world, and the man who did more than any other toward bringing about this wonderful change is the hero of our story, the modest, brave, far-sighted, iron-willed, high-minded general and statesman, whose fame is one of the most precious possessions of the human race, — George Washington.

LIFE OF WASHINGTON.

§ 1. BEFORE THE FRENCH WAR.

Ancestry. The Washington family is of an ancient English stock, the genealogy of which has been traced up to the century immediately succeeding the Norman Conquest. The name is that of the village and manor of Wessyngton or Wassengtone in the county of Durham, where for centuries the forefathers of George Washington were lords of the manor. There were several instances of military ability in the family. In the Great Rebellion Sir Henry Washington fought with distinguished valor on the side of King Charles; and his two uncles, John and Andrew, after the death of the king, migrated to Virginia, which was becoming a favorite resort of the persecuted Cavaliers. In 1657 the Washington brothers settled on the Northern Neck, between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, and there at the homestead on Bridges Creek John's grandson, Augustine, was born in 1694. He was twice married. By his first wife he had two sons, Lawrence and Augustine, who grew to maturity. By his second wife, the beautiful Mary Ball, he had four sons, George, Samuel, John Augustine, and Charles; and two daughters, Elizabeth and Mildred.

Childhood and Youth.

George, the eldest, was born on the

22d of February, 1732, in the homestead on Bridges Creek; but while he was still an infant his father moved to an estate in Stafford County, opposite Fredericksburg.

In those days the means of instruction in Virginia were limited, and it was the custom among the wealthy planters to send their sons to England to complete their education. This was done

by Augustine Washington with his eldest son Lawrence, then about fifteen years of age, and whom he no doubt considered the future head of the family. George was yet in early childhood: as his intellect dawned he received the rudiments of education in the best establishment for the purpose that the neighborhood afforded. It was what was called, in popular parlance, an "old field school-house"; humble enough in its pretensions, and kept by one of his father's tenants named Hobby, who moreover was sexton of the parish. The instruction doled out by him must have been of the simplest kind, reading, writing, and ciphering, perhaps; but George had the benefit of mental and moral culture at home, from an excellent father.

When George was about seven or eight years old his brother Lawrence returned from England, a well-educated and accomplished youth. There was a difference of fourteen years in their ages, which may have been one cause of the strong attachment which took place between them. Lawrence looked down with a protecting eye upon the boy whose dawning intelligence and perfect rectitude won his regard; while George looked up to his manly and cultivated brother as a model in mind and manners.

Lawrence Washington had something of the old military spirit of the family, and circumstances soon called it into action. Spanish depredations on British commerce had recently provoked reprisals. Admiral Vernon, commander-in-chief in the West Indies, had accordingly captured Porto Bello, on the Isthmus of Darien. The Spaniards were preparing to revenge the blow; the French were fitting out ships to aid them. Troops were embarked in England for another campaign in the West Indies; a regiment of four battalions was to be raised in the colonies and sent to join them at Jamaica. There was a sudden outbreak of military ardor in the province; the sound of drum and fife was heard in the villages, with the parade of recruiting parties. Lawrence Washington, now twenty-two years of age, caught the infection. He obtained a captain's commission in the newly raised regiment, and embarked with it for the West Indies in 1740. He served in the joint expeditions of Admiral Vernon and General Wentworth, in the land

forces commanded by the latter, and acquired the friendship and confidence of both of those officers. He was present at the siege of Carthagena, when it was bombarded by the fleet, and when the troops attempted to escalade the citadel. It was an ineffectual attack; the ships could not get near enough to throw their shells into the town, and the scaling ladders proved too short. That part of the attack, however, with which Lawrence was concerned, distinguished itself by its bravery. The troops sustained unflinching a destructive fire for several hours, and at length retired with honor, their small force having sustained a loss of about six hundred in killed and wounded.

We have here the secret of that martial spirit so often cited of George in his boyish days. He had seen his brother fitted out for the wars. He had heard by letter and otherwise of the warlike scenes in which he was mingling. All his amusements took a military turn. He made soldiers of his schoolmates; they had their mimic parades, reviews, and sham fights; a boy named William Bustle was sometimes his competitor, but George was commanderin-chief of Hobby's school.

Lawrence Washington returned home in the autumn of 1742, the campaigns in the West Indies being ended, and Admiral Vernon and General Wentworth having been recalled to England. It was the intention of Lawrence to rejoin his regiment in that country, and seek promotion in the army, but circumstances completely altered his plans. He formed an attachment to Anne, the eldest daughter of the Honorable William Fairfax, of Fairfax County; his addresses were well received, and they became engaged. Their nuptials were delayed by the sudden and untimely death of his father, which took place on the 12th of April, 1743, after a short but severe attack of gout in the stomach, and when but forty-nine years of age. George had been absent from home on a visit during his father's illness, and just returned in time to receive a parting look of affection.

Augustine Washington left large possessions, distributed by will among his children. To Lawrence fell the estate on the banks of the Potomac, with other real property, and several shares in iron