The
French continued to build forts, and Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia,
sent George Washington to protest, in his name, against their building
forts on land notoriously belonging to the English crown.
Washington performed the long and toilsome journey through the forests
at no slight risks, and delivered his message at the forts, but nothing
came of it. The governor of Virginia, seeing the approaching danger,
made the greatest efforts to induce the other colonies to join in
common action; but North Carolina, alone, answered the appeal, and gave
money enough to raise three or four hundred men. Two independent
companies maintained by England in New York, and one in South Carolina,
received orders to march to Virginia. The governor had raised, with
great difficulty, three hundred men. They were called the Virginia
Regiment. An English gentleman named Joshua Fry was appointed the
colonel, and Washington their major.
Fry was at Alexandria, on the Potomac, with half the regiment.
Washington, with the other half, had pushed forward to the storehouse
at Wills Creek, which was to form the base of operations. Besides
these, Captain Trent, with a band of backwoodsmen, had crossed the
mountain to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio, where Pittsburgh now
stands.
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