Their colonel, Joshua Fry, had died in the interval, and Washington was left in command of the English resistance.

But Captain Mackaye, who came with a company from South Carolina, refused to serve under Washington, who was merely a Colonial officer. Young Washington, with characteristic tact and courtesy, avoided a serious conflict of authority by advancing with his men thirteen miles to a place at which Christopher Gist, the scout and his companion of the year before, had made a small settlement, thus leaving Captain Mackaye in command at Fort Necessity.

The Indian spies came back with reports of more than a thousand French and Indians swarming southward. He ordered a retreat to Fort Necessity, which flimsy stockade they now hastened to strengthen, though Mackaye's "regulars" from South Carolina refused even then to do any real work. Washington sent a company back to Wills's Creek for supplies and reinforcements, but within two days the little palisade at Great Meadows was surrounded by nine hundred French, and many Indian allies.

Even then Washington went outside and fought the enemy stubbornly, but the handful of

Virginians were finally driven back inside their intrenchments.

Without a roof they were at the mercy of the elements. The rain fell in torrents. De Villiers, a brother-in-law of the dead Jumonville, in command of the French, summoned Washington to surrender.

The young commander, who had been forced to rid himself of many of his too "independent" white soldiers, was now deserted by his Indian allies; also, being without provisions and short of ammunition he decided that "the better part of valor is discretion." Accordingly he sent Jacob Van Braam, his so-called interpreter of the year before, to arrange terms of capitulation with the French.

Here already was an occasion for the commander to regret that he had not learned French in Rector Marye's school; for the terms of surrender were written in that language.

It suited the ghastly humor of de Villiers to refer in the articles of agreement to the death of his brother-in-law at the skirmish in Great Meadows, as if he had been assassinated in a cowardly manner. So, when Washington signed the terms of capitulation, he unwittingly affixed

his name to what appeared to be a confession of murder!

Afterward, when the character of the document became known, Van Braam explained that he was not aware of anything offensive in the following paragraph which closed the articles of capitulation, of which the following is a translation:

"Art. 7th. Since the English have in their power an officer and two cadets, and in general all the prisoners whom they took when they assassinated Sieur de Jumonville, they now promise to send them with an escort to Fort Duquesne.

"And to secure the safe performance of this article, as well as of this treaty, Messrs. Jacob Van Braam and Robert Stobo, both captains, shall be delivered to us as hostages until the arrival of our French and Canadians mentioned

It will be observed that while Washington was in actual command, he allowed Mackaye to sign

as general commander, while he was content with his accustomed "Go Washington," without any rank or title. In this way he began early to manifest his true greatness. He had already learned to command the highest respect by not demanding it.

According to the articles of agreement Washington was allowed to march away with his men, without being scalped or molested, but with "the honors of war."

So, on July 4, 1754, he and his little company, "snatching victory from the jaws of defeat," marched out of Fort Necessity, without ammunition or provisions, but with drums beating and colors flying!

Tanacharisson, the Half King, who led their Indian allies, tried to excuse their treachery in deserting the English in their time of need and peril by explaining that in the struggle between the contending white forces "the French acted like cowards, and the English like fools."

CHAPTER XIII

WASHINGTON'S TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES WITH AN ENGLISH GENERAL

ACCORDING to an agreement he signed with the French commander, Washington promised to abstain from building forts for at least one year. He must have had bitterness in his heart as he rode away from the scene of his first victory and his first defeat.

It was an injustice that he was forced to retreat at all. Those who should have worked side by side with him had refused, under the silliest of pretexts, to help in the defense of the country. They should have been summarily dealt with for their foolish treachery, but Governor Dinwiddie upheld them in their absurd stickling for official precedence.

Then the Indians were hardly to blame for deserting him when they saw how his white brothers failed to help him in the time of his