good
sense and excellent management, made her home a delightful spot for all
who entered it.

Of all the visitors who came to Mount Vernon during that first year of
Washington's retirement, none was more cordially welcomed than
Lafayette, who landed in New York early in August, and reached Mount
Vernon on the seventeenth of the same month. He remained there twelve
days, during which time the mansion was crowded with guests who came to
meet the great friend of America; and when he departed for Baltimore,
quite a large cavalcade of gentlemen accompanied him far on his way.

In September, Washington made quite an extensive tour westward, over the
Alleghany mountains, to visit his lands on the Ohio and Great Kanawha
rivers. He was accompanied by Doctor Craik, his old companion-in-arms in
the French and Indian war, and who had accompanied him to the same
region in 1770. They travelled in true soldier style--tent, pack-horses,
and a few supplies, relying for their food chiefly upon their guns and
fishing-tackle.

Owing to accounts of discontents and irritation among the Indian tribes,
Washington did not think it prudent to descend the Ohio, and they
proceeded no farther West than the Monongahela, which river they
ascended, and then went southward through the wilderness, until they
reached the Shenandoah valley, near Staunton. They returned to Mount
Vernon on the fourth of October, having travelled on horseback, in the
course of forty-four days, six hundred and eighty miles.

It was during their first tour, according to the late Mr. Custis, that
Washington was visited by a venerable Indian sachem, who regarded him
with the utmost reverence, as a God-protected hero. He would neither
eat, drink, nor smoke with Washington; and finally, when a fire was
kindled, he arose and addressed him through Nicholson, an interpreter,
in the following terms:--

"I am a chief, and the ruler over many tribes; my influence extends
to the waters of the great lakes, and to the far, blue mountains. I
have travelled a long and weary path, that I might see the young
warrior of the great battle. It was on the day, when the white
man's blood, mixed with the streams of our forest, that I first
beheld this chief; I called to my young men, and said, mark yon
tall and daring warrior, he is not of the red-coat tribe--he hath
an Indian's wisdom, and his warriors fight as we do--himself is
alone exposed. Quic