Er. 18.]

SURVEYING EXPERIENCES.

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was luckily preserved," he says, "by one of our men awaking when it was in a flame." On the fourth Mr. Fairfax left him to go down to the mouth of the river. He himself with his assistants went on surveying, and was attended by a large company of people, men, women, and children, who followed him through the woods," showing their antic tricks." They seemed to him as ignorant as the Indians. They would never speak English, he says, but when addressed always answered in Dutch. The night of the fifth "was so intolerably smoky" that they were obliged to leave their tent to the mercy of the wind and fire. On the seventh one of the men killed a wild turkey weighing twenty pounds, and they surveyed fifteen hundred Mr. Fairfax had now rejoined him, and in his journal, for the eighth of the month, he says, "we camped in the woods, and after we had pitched our tent and made a large fire, pulled out our knapsacks to recruit ourselves. Every one was his own cook. Our spits were forked sticks; our plates were large chips."

acres.

Having completed the tasks which they had undertaken they set forth from the south branch of the Potomac on their way homeward, and, on the twelfth, Mr. Fairfax was at Belvoir and Washington at Mount Vernon.

There is preserved among his papers a letter written to a friend, while he was engaged on one of his surveying tours, which, though its details are of a homely kind, brings him before us in all the truth of real life. "Yours," he says, "gave me the more pleasure, as I received it among barbarians, and an uncouth set of people. Since you received my letter of October last I have not slept above three or four nights in a bed; but after walking a good deal all day I have lain down before the fire, upon a little hay, straw, fodder, or a bear skin, whichever was to be had, with man, wife, and children, like dogs and cats, and happy is he who gets the berth nearest the fire. Nothing would make it pass off tolerably but a good reward. A doubloon is my constant gain every day that the weather will permit my going out, and sometimes six pistoles.* The coldness of the weather will not allow of my making a long stay, as the

* A pistole is three dollars and sixty cents; a doubloon is twice that sum.

lodging is rather too cold for the time of year. I have never had my clothes off, but have lain and slept in them, except the few nights I have been at Fredericksburgh."

Washington continued in the business of surveying about three years, with few or no interruptions except during the severe weather of the winters. He was exposed while in the field to continual hardships, privations, and dangers, and was without any of the comforts or necessaries of civilized life, but he endured every thing with a brave cheerfulness for the sake of acquiring pecuniary independence, without which he probably perceived that it is generally difficult for even men of the finest and highest qualities to maintain either self respect or good reputation. But few authorized and competent surveyors were at that time in the colony, there was a large demand for their services, and the pay they received was consequently liberal. Washington's perseverance, industry, and habits of despatch, rendered the occupation very profitable to him. The satisfaction of his professional charges however constituted but a small proportion of the benefits he derived from this employment. The knowledge which it gave him of the excellence of the soil in various places, and of the value of particular localities, guided him afterwards in the purchase of extensive tracts of land which became the most productive portions of his fortune.

The manner in which he executed his duties was entirely satisfactory to Lord Fairfax, who would doubtless have retained him in the same service for many subsequent years had not circumstances led to his abandonment of such pursuits. His surveys extended along the tributaries of the Potomac river among the farthest ridges and spurs of the Alleghany mountains, and embraced much of the richest valley country of Virginia. The curious fact has frequently been pointed out in proof and illustration of the skill and integrity with which they were made, that they are almost the only ones recorded previous to the revolution in their respective counties which have not since been disturbed by decisions of the courts.

At the Natural Bridge, in Rockbridge county, carved at a great