and snapped the
attenuated thread of his existence.

On the 17th of August, Washington was gladdened by having the Marquis
de Lafayette under his roof, who had recently arrived from France. The
marquis passed a fortnight with him, a loved and cherished guest, at
the end of which he departed for a time, to be present at the ceremony
of a treaty with the Indians.

Washington now prepared for a tour to the west of the Appalachian
Mountains, to visit his lands on the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers. Dr.
Craik, the companion of his various campaigns, and who had accompanied
him in 1770 on a similar tour, was to be his fellow-traveller. His
original intention had been to survey and inspect his lands on the
Monongahela River; then to descend the Ohio to the great Kanawha,
where also he had large tracts of wild land. On arriving on the
Monongahela, however, he heard such accounts of discontent and
irritation among the Indian tribes, that he did not consider it
prudent to venture among them. Some of his land on the Monongahela was
settled; the rest was in the wilderness, and of little value in the
present unquiet state of the country. He abridged his tour, therefore;
proceeded no further west than the Monongahela; ascended that river,
and then struck southward through the wild, unsettled regions of the
Alleghanies, until he came out into the Shenandoah Valley near
Staunton. He returned to Mount Vernon on the 4th of October.

During all this tour he had carefully observed the course and
character of the streams flowing from the west into the Ohio, and the
distance of their navigable parts from the head navigation of the
rivers east of the mountains, with the nearest and best portage
between them. For many years he had been convinced of the
practicability of an easy and short communication between the Potomac
and James Rivers, and the waters of the Ohio, and thence on to the
great chain of lakes; and of the vast advantages that would result
therefrom to the States of Virginia and Maryland. He had even
attempted to set a company on foot to undertake at their own expense
the opening of such a communication, but the breaking out of the
Revolution had put a stop to the enterprise. One object of his recent
tour was to make observations and collect information on the subject;
and all that he had seen and heard quickened his solicitude to carry
the scheme into effect. [He set forth his views upon the subject to
Benjamin Harrison, governor of