The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

446 WASHINGTON'S WRITINGS. [APPENDIX.
our raft to sink, and ourselves to perish. I put out my settingpole to
try to stop the raft, that the ice might pass by, when the rapidity of
the stream threw it with so much violence against the pole, that it
jerked me out into ten feet water; but I fortunately saved myself by
catching hold of one of the raft-logs. Notwithstanding all our efforts, we could not get to either shore, but were obliged, as we were
near an island, to quit our raft and make to it.
"The cold was so extremely severe, that Mr. Gist had all his fingers and some.of his toes frozen, and the water was shut up so hard,
that we found no difficulty in getting off the island on the ice in the
morning, and went to Mr. Frazier's. We met here with twenty
warriors, who were going to the southward to war; but coming to a
place on the head of the Great Kenhawa, where they found seven
people killed and scalped (all but one woman with very light hair),
they turned about and ran back, for fear the inhabitants should rise
and take them as the authors of the murder. They report that the
bodies were lying about the house, and some of them much torn and
eaten by the hogs. By the marks which were left, they say they
were French Indians of the Ottoway nation, who did it.
"As we intended to take horses here, and it required some time to
find them, I went up about three miles to the mouth of Youghi6gany,
to visit Queen Aliquippa, who had expressed great concern that we
passed her in going to the fort. I made her a present of a watchcoat and a bottle of rum, which latter was thought much the better
present of the two.
" Tuesday, the 1st of January, we left Mr. Frazier's house, and arrived at Mr. Gist's, at Monongahela, the 2d, where I bought a horse
and saddle. The 6th, we met seventeen horses loaded with materials and stores for a fort at the Fork of the Ohio, and the day after,
some families going out to settle. This day, we arrived at Will's
Creek, after as fatiguing a journey as it is possible to conceive, rendered so by excessive bad weather. From the 1st day of December
to the 15th, there was but one day on which it did not rain or snow
incessantly; and throughout the whole journey, we met with nothing
but one continued series of cold, wet weather, which occasioned very
uncomfortable lodgings, especially after we had quitted our tent,
which was some screen from the inclemency of it.
"On the 11th, I got to Belvoir, where I stopped one day to take
necessary rest; and then set out and arrived in Williamsburg the
16th, when I waited upon his Honor the Governor, with the letter I
had brought from the French commandant, and to give an account
of the success of my proceedings. This I beg leave to do by offering