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.

ET. 2.] LIFE OF WASHINGTON. 43
enlistments went on with considerable success. Colonel Washington continued his head-quarters at Alexandria till the beginning of April. Two companies
had been collected at that place, with which he marched to Will's Creek, where he arrived on the 20th,
having been joined on the way by another company
under Captain Stephen. The march was slow and
fatiguing, on account of the roughness of the roads,
and the difficulty of procuring wagons to convey the
baggage. It was necessary to put the militia law in
execution, which authorized impressments; but measures of this sort are always disliked by the people,
and orders are tardily obeyed or evaded. The artillery and some of the heavier articles went by water
up the Potomac.
A party of Captain Trent's men had already gone
to the Ohio, and begun to build a fort. Just before
Colonel Washington reached Will's Creek, a rumor
came from the interior, that these men were taken by
the French; and two days afterwards the alarming
intelligence was confirmed by the ensign of Captain
Trent's company. He reported, that, while they were
at work, forty-one in number, a body of French troops
descended the river from Venango, consisting of one
thousand men, with eighteen pieces of cannon, sixty
batteaux, and three hundred canoes, under the command of Captain Contrecceur, and summoned them
to surrender, threatening to take forcible possession of
the fort if this summons were not immediately obeyed.
No alternative remained, and, the captain and lieutenant being absent, Ensign Ward acceded to articles of
capitulation, and gave up the fort, but was permitted
to retire with his men. He came to Will's Creek,
and brought the news of the disaster. His statement,
however, as to the numbers of the French, their can