"I hear he's one of the shrewdest men in all the colonies, and I don't doubt the report." It was Robert's first sight of Franklin, certainly not the least in that amazing group of men who founded the American Union.
"They say," continued Willet, "that he's already achieved the impossible, that he's drawing General Braddock and the Pennsylvanians together, and that we'll soon get weapons, horses and all the other supplies we need." It was no false news.

Franklin had done what he alone could do.

One of the greatest masters of diplomacy the world has ever known, he brought Braddock and Pennsylvania together, and smoothed out the difficulties.

All the needed supplies began to flow in, and on the tenth of an eventful May the whole army started from Wills Creek to which point it had advanced, while Franklin was removing the difficulties.

A new fort named Cumberland had been established there, and stalwart Virginians had been cutting a road ahead through the wilderness.
The place was on the edge of the unending forest.