Preface. In presenting this narrative of the expeditions of Lieutenant Colonel George Washington and Major General Edward Braddock to the public it is with the belief that a short and comprehensive relation of these two important events in the history of our country will prove both interesting and instructive. These expeditions were the initiatives. of a great struggle between two great powers to decide whether America was to be an appendage of France or to become the land of an English-speaking race. The great Mississippi valley, a region vast enough and fertile enough to feed the inhabitants of the world, was a goal far more to be desired than for which the armies of the nations had ever before contended. Not only this, but these expeditions schooled the colonists in the arts of war and gave them that confidence in their prowess that enabled them later successfully to throw off the yoke of oppression and establish a new nation which is now attracting the wonder and admiration of the civilized world. WASHINGTON'S EXPEDITIONS 1753-1754. Washington's Mission to the French Posts at the Head of the Allegheny River, 1753. More than a century had elapsed after the discovery of this continent by the Cabots before the first English settlement was established in America, and one hundred and forty years more had rolled away before settlements were attempted west of the Allegheny mountains. Thus for two hundred and fifty years after having gained possession by discovery had England been content to colonize only the American seaboard. The French had made settlements on the St. Lawrence, and by the last half of the seventeenth century had pushed their way along the shore of the great lakes, and by the middle of the eighteenth century had explored the country from the lakes on the north to the gulf on the south and from the Alleghenies on the east to the Mississippi on the WASHINGTON'S EXPEDITIONS 1753-1754. Washington's Mission to the French Posts at the Head of the Alle gheny River, 1753. More than a century had elapsed after the discovery of this continent by the Cabots before the first English settlement was established in America, and one hundred and forty years more had rolled away before settlements were attempted west of the Allegheny mountains. Thus for two hundred and fifty years after having gained possession by discovery had England been content to colonize only the American seaboard. The French had made settlements on the St. Lawrence, and by the last half of the seventeenth century had pushed their way along the shore of the great lakes, and by the middle of the eighteenth century had explored the country from the lakes on the north to the gulf on the south and from the Alleghenies on the east to the Mississippi on the |