deal with the French.

* * * * *

IX.--HIS FIRST BATTLE.


It was now very plain that if the English were going to hold the Ohio
Country and the vast western region which they claimed as their own,
they must fight for it.

The people of Virginia were not very anxious to go to war. But their
governor was not willing to be beaten by the French.

He made George Washington a lieutenant-colonel of Virginia troops, and
set about raising an army to send into the Ohio Country.

Early in the spring Colonel Washington, with a hundred and fifty men,
was marching across the country toward the head waters of the Ohio. It
was a small army to advance against the thousands of French and Indians
who now held that region.

But other officers, with stronger forces, were expected to follow close
behind.

Late in May the little army reached the valley of the Monongahela, and
began to build a fort at a place called Great Meadows.

By this time the French and Indians were aroused, and hundreds of them
were hurrying forward to defend the Ohio Country from the English. One