of Picardy. It is an honorable testimony of the approbation of your Prince, and a just reward of your services and merit. Should fortune ever put it in my power to come to France, your being at Calais would be an irresistible inducement for me to make it a visit.

My letters from Philadelphia, public and private, would give you a full account of every matter and thing respecting the Society of the Cincinnati, and upon what footing all claims to the order were thereafter to be decided. To these referring, I shall save you the trouble of reading a repetition. Considering how recently the King of Sweden has changed the form of the government of that country, it is not so much to be wondered at, that his fears should get the better of his liberality, as to any thing which might have the semblance of republicanism; but when it is further considered, how few of his nation had, or could have, a right to the order, I think he might have suffered his complaisance to overcome them.*

I will not trouble you with a long letter at this time, because I have nothing worthy of communication. Mrs. Washington, always pleased with your recollection of her, and glad to hear of your health, prays you to accept her compliments and best wishes. Mine are always sincere and (though unknown) offered to Madame de Rochambeau, the Viscount your son, and any of the officers of the army you commanded in America, whom you may see, and with whom I have the honor of an acquaintance. With great esteem and regard, I am, dear Sir, &c.

* The King of Sweden had declined permitting the officers in the French army, who were his subjects, and who had been in America, to wear the order of the Cincinnati, on the ground that the institution had a republican tendency not suited to his government.

TO THE CHEVALIER DE LA LUZERNE.

SIR,

Mount Vernon, 20 August, 1784.

The letter your Excellency did me the honor to write, in the moment of your departure from this country, conferred the highest honor upon me; and it is not more flattering to my vanity, than it is deserving of my gratitude. I shall ever reflect with pleasure, Sir, on the readiness with which your communications to me have been made, and the despatch and ability with which you have conducted business in the line to which I was called; and what will render these reflections more precious is, that you have accompanied them with marks of friendship and confidence, as pleasing as they were honorable.

When I add, Sir, that you have impressed me with sentiments of sincere respect and attachment, I do not speak the language of my own heart only; it is the universal voice, and your departure will always be regretted. The only consolation left us is, that you are gone to receive the smiles and approbation of a prince, who knows full well how to distinguish and how to reward merit.

It would give me great pleasure to make you a visit in France; to pay my respectful homage to a sovereign, to whom America is so much indebted; and to renew the friendships, which I have had the honor to contract with so many respectable characters of your nation. But I despair; my fortune has been injured by the war, and my private concerns are much deranged, as to require more time to recover them, than comports with the years of a man, who is sliding down the stream of life as fast as I am. But whether I am in this or that country, or wheresoever 8

VOL. IX.

I may be, nothing will lessen the respect, or shake the attachment, with which I have the honor to be, dear Sir, yours, &c.*

TO BENJAMIN HARRISON, GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA.

Mount Vernon, 10 October, 1784.

DEAR SIR, Upon my return from the western country a few days ago, I had the pleasure to receive your favor of the 17th ultimo. It has always been my intention to pay my respects to you, before the chance of another early and hard winter should make a warm fireside

* General Washington left Mount Vernon on the 1st of September, on his tour to the western country, and was absent till the 4th of October, when he again reached home. The results of his observations during his tour will be found in his letter to Governor Harrison, which follows in the text.

It was his original purpose to go down the Ohio as far as the Great Kenhawa, but he changed his design after arriving at the Monongahela, where he was informed of the disquietude of the Indians.

66

"My tour to the westward," said he, in a letter to Mr. Jacob Read, "was less extensive than I intended. The Indians, from accounts, were in too dissatisfied a mood for me to expose myself to their insults, as I had no object in contemplation, which could warrant any risk. My property in that country having previously undergone every kind of attack and diminution, which the nature of it would admit, to see the condition of my lands, which were nearest and settled, and to dispose of those, which were more remote and unsettled, was all I had in view. The first I accomplished; the other I could not; and I returned three weeks sooner than I expected." — November 3d.

This tour was performed on horseback, and the whole distance travelled was six hundred and eighty miles. He crossed the mountains by the usual route of Braddock's Road, but returned through the wild and unsettled country, which is watered by the different branches of the Cheat River, and came into the Shenandoah Valley near Staunton. He kept a journal, in which were minutely recorded his conversations with every intelligent person, whom he met, respecting the facilities for internal navigation afforded by the rivers, which have their sources among the Allegany Mountains, and flow thence either to the east or the west.

too comfortable to be relinquished. And I shall feel an additional pleasure in offering this tribute of friendship and respect to you, by having the company of the Marquis de Lafayette, when he shall have revisited this place from his eastern tour, now every day to be expected.

I shall take the liberty now, my dear Sir, to sug gest a matter, which would (if I am not too shortsighted a politician) mark your administration as an important era in the annals of this country, if it should be recommended by you and adopted by the Assembly.

It has long been my decided opinion, that the shortest, easiest, and least expensive communication with the invaluable and extensive country back of us would be by one or both of the rivers of this State, which have their sources in the Apalachian mountains. Nor am I singular in this opinion. Evans, in his Map and Analysis of the Middle Colonies, which, considering the early period at which they were given to the public, are done with amazing exactness, and Hutchins since, in his Topographical Description of the western country, a good part of which is from actual surveys, are decidedly of the same sentiments; as indeed are all others, who have had opportunities, and have been at the pains, to investigate and consider the subject.

But that this may not now stand as mere matter of opinion and assertion, unsupported by facts (such at least as the best maps now extant, compared with the oral testimony, which my opportunities in the course of the war have enabled me to obtain), I shall give you the different routes and distances from Detroit, by which all the trade of the northwestern parts of the united territory must pass; unless the Spaniards, contrary to their present policy, should engage part of

it, or the British should attempt to force nature, by carrying the trade of the Upper Lakes by the River Utawas into Canada, which I scarcely think they will or could effect. Taking Detroit then (which is putting ourselves in as unfavorable a point of view as we can be well placed in, because it is upon the line of the British territory,) as a point by which, as I have already observed, all that part of the trade must come, it appears from the statement enclosed, that the tide waters. of this State are nearer to it by one hundred and sixty-eight miles, than those of the River St. Lawrence; or than those of the Hudson at Albany, by one hundred and seventy-six miles.

Maryland stands upon similar ground with Virginia. Pennsylvania, although the Susquehanna is an unfriendly water, much impeded, it is said, with rocks and rapids, and nowhere communicating with those, which lead to her capital, has it in contemplation to open a communication between Toby's Creek, which empties into the Allegany River ninety-five miles above Fort Pitt, and the west branch of the Susquehanna, and to cut a canal between the waters of the latter and the Schuylkill; the expense of which is easier to be conceived, than estimated or described by me. A people, however, who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages, may achieve almost any thing. In the mean time, under the uncertainty of these undertakings, they are smoothing the roads and paving the ways for the trade of that western world. That New York will do the same as soon as the British garrisons are removed, which are at present insurmountable obstacles in their way, no person, who knows the temper, genius, and policy of those people as well as I do, can harbour the smallest doubt.