Washington told his purposes to his dusky auditors.  He had come to warn the French intruders off the Indian lands.  He desired a guide to conduct him to the French fort, one hundred and twenty miles distant.  His statement pleased the Indians.  Their English “brothers” were in sympathy with them.  They would help them to recover their lands.  The generosity of their white brothers must have seemed highly meritorious to the simple savages.  They had yet to learn that the French and the English were the two millstones, and they and their lands the corn to be ground between.

The Half-King, with two other chiefs (Jeskakake and White Thunder by name), volunteered to guide the whites.  A hunter of noted skill also joined them.  Once more the expedition set out.  The journey was a terrible one.  Winter had set in; rain and snow fell almost unceasingly; the forest was next to impassable; great were their toils, severe their hardships.  On December 5 they reached the French outpost at Venango (now Franklin), where French Creek joins the Alleghany.  Here they were met by Captain Joncaire, the French commandant, with a promising show of civility.  Secretly, however, the astute Frenchman sought to rob Washington of his Indians.  Fortunately, the aborigines knew the French too well to be cajoled, and were ready to accompany Washington when he set out on his remaining journey.  Their route now led up French Creek to Fort Le Boeuf, on the head-waters of that stream.  This they reached on the 12th, after a wearisome experience of frontier travel.  Forty-one days had passed since Washington left Williamsburg.

The commandant here was M. de St. Pierre, an elderly man, of courteous manners, a knight of the order of St. Louis.  He received Washington cordially, treated him with every hospitality while in the fort, did everything except to comply with Governor Dinwiddie’s order to leave the works.

Washington’s instruction were conveyed in a letter from the governor of Virginia, which asserted that the lands of the Ohio and its tributaries belonged to England, declared that the French movements were encroachments, asked by whose authority an armed force had crossed the lakes, and demanded their speedy departure from English territory.

St. Pierre’s reply was given in a sealed letter.  It declared that he was a soldier, his duty being to obey orders, not to discuss treaties.  He was there under instructions from the governor of Canada, here he meant to stay.  Such was the purport of the communication.  The tone was courteous, but in it was no shadow of turning.

While the Frenchman was using the pen, Washington was using his eyes.  He went away with an accurate mental picture of the fort, its form, size, construction, location, and the details of its armament.  His men counted the canoes in the river.  The fort lay about fifteen miles south of Lake Erie.  A plan of it, drawn by Washington, was sent to England.