The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, and that of Aix la Chapelle in 1748, were supposed to settle the disputed boundaries of the French and English possessions in America; France, however, repented of her enforced concessions, and claimed the whole American continent as hers, except a narrow strip of sea-coast. To establish this boundary, it was resolved to build a line of forts from Canada to the Mississippi, following the Ohio, for they perceived that the "Forks of the Ohio," so strangely neglected by the English, formed together with Niagara the key of the great West. This chain of forts began at Niagara; then another was built of squared logs at Presque Isle (now Erie), and a third called Fort Le Boeuf, on what is now called French Creek. Here the work stopped for a time, and Lagardeur de St. Pierre went into winter quarters with a small garrison at Fort Le Boeuf. On the 11th of December, 1753, Major George Washington, with Christopher Gist as guide, Abraham Van Braam as interpreter, and several woodsmen,[A] presented himself as a bearer of a letter from Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia to the commander of Fort Le Boeuf. He was kindly received. In fact, no form of courtesy was omitted during the three days occupied by St. Pierre in framing his reply to Governor Dinwiddie's letter. This letter expressed astonishment that his (St. Pierre's) troops should build forts upon lands so notoriously known to be the property of Great Britain, and demanded their immediate and peaceable departure. In his answer, St. Pierre said he acted in accordance with the commands of his general, that he would forward Governor Dinwiddie's letter to the Marquis Duquesne and await his orders. It was on his return journey that Washington twice escaped death. First from the gun of a French Indian; then in attempting to cross the Allegheny, which was filled with ice, on a raft that he and his companions had hastily constructed with the help of one hatchet between them. He was thrown into the river and narrowly escaped drowning; but Gist succeeded in dragging him out of the water, and the party landed on Wainwright's Island, about opposite the foot of Thirty-third Street. On making his report Washington recommended that a fort be built at the "Forks of the Ohio." Men and money were necessary to make good Governor Dinwiddie's demand that the French evacuate the territory they had appropriated; these he found it difficult to get. He dispatched letters, orders, couriers from New Jersey to South Carolina, asking aid. Massachusetts and New York were urged to make a feint against Canada, but as the land belonged either to Pennsylvania or Virginia, the other colonies did not care to vote money to defend them.