Twenty-one-year-old Major George Washington must deliver a message from the Kind of England to the French commander in the Ohio wilderness. It will be a dangerous journey. Hostile Indians and French soldiers lurk in the frontier lands through which he must travel. The message George carries will anger the French. They may arrest him. They may decide he is a spy—and kill him. Young George is determined to carry out his mission. If he fails, England and France will probably go to war. And his own dreams of becoming an important man in the Virginia colony will never come true. Based on Washington's own journal, Duel in the Wilderness tells the true story of his journey in 1753–1754 into the Ohio country and shows how Washington met and mastered the challenges he faced during his perilous and exciting mission.