Washington found the Governor's council was to meet the day following and that his report was desired. Accordingly he rewrote his _Journal_ from the "rough minutes" he had made. From any point of view this document of ten thousand words, hastily written by this lad of twenty-one, who had long since left his school desk, is far more creditable and remarkable than any of the feats of physical endurance for which the lad is idolized by the youthful readers of our school histories. It is safe to say that many a college bred man today could not prepare from rough notes such a succinct and polite document as did this young surveyor, who had read few books, and, it can almost be said, had studied neither his own nor any foreign language. The author did not "in the least conceive ... that it would ever be published." Speaking afterward of its "numberless imperfections," he said all that could recommend it to the public was its truthfulness of fact. Certain features of this first public service of Washington's are worthy of remark: his frankness, as in criticizing Shingiss's village as a site for a fort, as proposed by the Ohio Company; his exactness in giving details (where he could obtain them) of forts, men, and guns; his estimates of distances; his wise conforming to Indian custom; his careful note of the time of day of important events; his frequent observations of the character of the lands through which he passed; his knowledge of Indian character. This mission prosecuted with such rare tact and skill was an utter failure, considered from the standpoint of its nominal purpose. St. Pierre's letter was firm, if not defiant. Yet Dinwiddie, despairing of French withdrawal, had secured the information he desired. Already Trent had reached the Forks of the Ohio where an English fort was being erected. Peaceful measures were exhausted with the failure of Washington's embassy. England's one hope was--war! CHAPTER V THE VIRGINIA REGIMENT No literary production of a youth of twenty-one ever electrified the world as did the publication of the _Journal_ of this dauntless envoy of the Virginian governor. No young man more instantly sprang into the notice of the world than George Washington. The journal was copied far and wide in the newspapers of the other colonies. It sped across the sea, and was printed in London by the British government. In a manly, artless way it told the exact situation on the Ohio frontier and announced the first positive proof the world had had of hostile French aggression into the great river valley of the West. Despite certain youthful expressions, the prudence, tact, capacity, and modesty of the author were recognized by a nation and by a world.