In 1753, twenty-one-year-old Major George Washington, then a loyal British subject, traveled from Williamsburg, Virginia, into western Pennsylvania on a dangerous diplomatic mission for Governor Robert Dinwiddie to verify reports of French forts in land claimed by England and Virginia, deliver a letter demanding that the French leave the Ohio Country, and persuade Native Americans to favor trade with England over France. At Logstown on the Ohio River, Washington met Shawnee, Delaware, and Iroquois Indians, some of whom joined his party, while the experienced guide Christopher Gist accompanied him through the wilderness. Gist recorded that on December 7, 1753, they camped at Sugar Creek, five miles above Venango, present-day Franklin, Pennsylvania, and the next day followed what is now called French Creek to Cussewago, present-day Meadville, where they spent the night. Washington wrote of several extensive and rich meadows between Venango and Cussewago, a description that later attracted settlers to the region. Reaching Fort LeBoeuf, now Waterford, Pennsylvania, they met the French commander on December 12 and presented Dinwiddie’s letter. On the return trip, following French Creek and Indian paths, Gist wrote that on December 21, 1753, they camped along the creek about twenty miles above Venango, placing them somewhere in this vicinity. Washington returned to Williamsburg on January 16, 1754, carrying the French reply, which asserted that France was the rightful owner of the Ohio River Valley and ordered the British to stay out of New France. Within seven months, Washington was back in western Pennsylvania fighting the French and their Indian allies at Fort Necessity, and his 1753 mission had led to the Seven Years War, also known as the French and Indian War.