nor of Virginia, but then little
more than a stripling:

"MOUNT VERNON, Feb'y 20th, 1774.

"DEAR SIR: I have to thank you, for your obliging acc't of
your trip down the Mississippi, contained in a Letter of the
18th of Octob'r from Winchester--the other Letter, therein
refer'd to, I have never yet receiv'd, nor did this come
to hand till some time in November, as I was returning from
Williamsburg.

"The contradictory acc'ts given of the Lands upon the
Mississippi are really astonishing--some speak of the Country
as a terrestrial Paradise, whilst others represent it as
scarce fit for anything but Slaves and Brutes. I am well
satisfied, however, from your description of it, that I have
no cause to regret my disappointment:--The acc't of Lord
Hillsborough's sentiments of the Proclamation of 1763, I can
view in no other light than as one, among many other proofs,
of his Lordship's malignant disposition towards us poor
Americans, formed equally in malice, absurdity, and error; as
it would have puzzled this noble Peer, I am persuaded, to have
assigned any plausible reason in support of this opinion.

"As I do not know but I may shortly see you in Frederick, and
assuredly shall before the Assembly, I shall add no more than
that, it will always give me pleasure to see you at this place
whenever it is convenient to you, and that with compliments
to your good Mother I remain, D'r Sir, Y'r most Obed't H'ble
Serv't,

"G'o WASHINGTON."

[Illustration: THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON AND CARPENTERS' HALL, WHERE
THE FIRST COLONIAL CONGRESS MET.]

This private note, discussing casually and curtly the great river
of the West, and the minister who endeavored to make it a _flumen
clausum_ to the colonists, nearly equidistant in date between the
Boston Tea-party and the meeting of the Assembly which called the
first Continental Congress, has some public interest. The West
always possessed a peculiar attraction for Washington. He explored
it personally and through others, and lost no occasion of procuring
detailed information in regard to its capabilities. He acquired large
bodies of land along the Ohio at different points, from its affluents
at the foot of the Alleghany to the Great Kanawha and below. Now we
see him gazing farther, over the yet unreddened battle-grounds of
Boone and Lewis, to the magnificent province France and Spai