Young Washington was tall and of athletic build, which, together with his manner, made him seem older than he was. It did not occur to any one to treat the sixteen-year-old youth like a boy. His principal qualities were earnestness, decision, candor, and modesty. In the Spring of 1748 he set out on his surveying expedition, accompanied by the twenty-two-year-old George, son of William Fairfax, and a negro, all three on horseback. At that time the beautiful chain of the Blue Ridge Mountains formed the western boundary of inhabited Virginia. The little party was obliged to traverse these in order to reach the territory which they were to survey. The tops of the mountains were still covered with snow and ice, while Spring had already sown the valleys with flowers. They had to ride over rocky passes and through thickets to reach their destination. The greatest difficulty they encountered was in crossing the mountain torrents, swollen by the melting snows, but courage and resourcefulness helped them to surmount all obstacles. Crossing a pass, they at last reached the chief valley of Virginia, which is nearly twenty-five miles broad and very beautiful. The clear river which flows through it was called “The Daughter of the Stars” by the Indians, because of its loveliness. George outdid himself in glowing descriptions of the region in his diary, but from the moment when real work began there is not a trace of such descriptions to be found in the book. From that time he lived only for his work. As it was seldom that the little company chanced upon the hut of a squatter, George and his companions spent most of their nights around a campfire in the forest. Their food consisted, for the most part, of wild turkeys. A fork-shaped stick was the spit and a chip of wood the plate. Of course George had to expect and be prepared to meet with Indians, so that he and his companions had armed themselves. It was natural that the Indians should not be very friendly to the settlers. They looked upon the country as their property and upon the white squatters as interlopers and robbers. There was much cruelty practised on both sides. Fairly considered, one must admit that the Indians had shown themselves incapable of any kind of communal development, and it would have been a pity for such an enormous territory, immensely rich in some portions, to have remained in the sole possession of a race which was incapable of civilization and which probably never numbered over one hundred thousand people. In contrast to the Indians, the increase of the Europeans was extraordinary. In his own peculiar but essentially just manner, this was once commented upon by an Indian chief, called by the Americans “Little Turtle,” in a speech to the whites. It is a strange and incomprehensible thing about the white people. Scarcely two generations have passed since you set foot on our soil, and already you cover it like a swarm of insects, while we aborigines, who have lived