One day they met a party of Indians, the first red men they had seen.
There were thirty of them, with their bodies painted in true savage
style; for they were just going home from a war with some other tribe.

The Indians were very friendly to the young surveyors. It was evening,
and they built a huge fire under the trees. Then they danced their
war-dance around it, and sang and yelled and made hideous sport until
far in the night.

To George and his friend it was a strange sight; but they were brave
young men, and not likely to be afraid even though the danger had been
greater.

They had many other adventures in the woods of which I cannot tell you
in this little book--shooting wild game, swimming rivers, climbing
mountains. But about the middle of April they returned in safety to
Mount Vernon.

It would seem that the object of this first trip was to get a general
knowledge of the extent of Sir Thomas Fairfax's great woodland
estate--to learn where the richest bottom lands lay, and where were the
best hunting-grounds.

The young men had not done much if any real surveying; they had been
exploring.

George Washington had written an account of everything in a little
note-book which he carried with him.

Sir Thomas was so highly pleased with the report which the young men