When I came there I found all my family gone, for the Indians had killed five people in the winter near that place, which frightened my wife and family away to Roanoke about 35 miles nearer in among the inhabitants, which I was informed of by an old man I met near the place.

In 1753 Gist again returned to the Ohio Country this time accompanying George Washington. Christopher Gist (1706–1759) was an accompliChristopher Gistd colonial British explorer surveyor and frontiersman. During that same year the Ohio Company chose Gist to explore the country of the Ohio River as far as the present-day Louisville Kentucky area and endear himself to the Native Americans along the way.

At the outset of the French and Indian War (1754) Gist accompanied Colonel George Washington on missions into this wilderness and saved Washington's life on two separate occasions. He is credited with providing the first detailed description of the Ohio Country to Great Britain and her colonists.