Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 On September 15, 1779, the French minister to the United States, Chevalier de la Luzerne, arrived at Fishkill, New York, to meet with George Washington. Washington was the one steering the boat. #2 When Washington was 11 years old, his brother offered him a way out. He could be appointed to a British naval vessel and escape the possessive clutches of his widowed mother. #3 When he was sixteen, Washington began a career as a surveyor. He began buying tracts of land, and by the time he was eighteen, he had amassed close to two thousand acres. He never went to sea, though, because his half brother was dying of tuberculosis and he wanted to cure him. #4 Washington's experience with the sea left him permanently biased against it. He never trusted the sea, and he preferred the saddle of a horse to the deck of a ship.