The escape was almost like the proverbial one “from the frying-pan to the fire.”  The island was destitute of shelter.  As the night advanced the air grew colder, and the adventurers suffered severely.  Mr. Gist had his hands and feet frozen,—­a disaster which Washington, despite his wetting, fortunately escaped.  The morning dawned at length.  Hope returned to their hearts.  The cold of the night had done one service, it had frozen the water between the island and the eastern bank of the stream.  The ice bore their weight.  They crossed in safety, and the same day reached a trading-post, recently formed, near the ground subsequently to be celebrated as that of Braddock’s defeat.

Here they rested two or three days, Gist recovering from the effects of his freezing, Washington improving the opportunity to pay a visit to Queen Aliquippa, an Indian princess, whose palace—­if we may venture to call it so—­was near by.  The royal lady had been angry that he had neglected her on his way out.  This visit, an apology, and a present healed her wounded feelings, and disposed her to a gracious reception.

Nothing could be learned of Vanbraam and the remainder of the party.  Washington could not wait for them.  He hurried forward with Gist, crossed the Alleghanies to Will’s Creek, and, leaving his companion there, hastened onward to Williamsburg, anxious to put his despatches in Governor Dinwiddie’s hands.  He reached there on January 16, having been absent eleven weeks, during which he had traversed a distance of eleven hundred miles.

What followed is matter of common history.  Dinwiddie was incensed at St. Pierre’s letter.  The French had come to stay; that was plain.  If the English wanted a footing in the land they must be on the alert.  A party was quickly sent to the Ohio forks to build a fort, Washington having suggested this as a suitable plan.  But hardly was this fort begun before it was captured by the French, who hastened to erect one for themselves on the spot.

Washington, advancing with a supporting force, met a French detachment in the woods, which he attacked and defeated.  It was the opening contest of the French and Indian War.

As for Fort Duquesne, which the French had built, it gave rise to the most disastrous event of the war, the defeat of General Braddock and his army, on their march to capture it.  It continued in French hands till near the end of the war, its final capture by Washington being nearly the closing event in the contest which wrested from the hands of the French all their possessions on the American continent.

SOME ADVENTURES OF MAJOR PUTNAM.