a bed," writes pu ater waking a deal leo Le tre upon er san.. viichever mit miren, like friends at home: all the day I have an a little straw or fodder, ara was to be had, with man, v dogs and cats; and happy is he wie res the berth wrest the fire." Having completed his surveys, he set forth De south branch of the Potomac on his retut homeward, crossed the mountains to the ena Caogacon, traversed the Shenandoah Valby kosa kuga the Blue Ridge, and on the Stand Emself once more.at Mount Se us sevices he received, according * proves, 3 inaaloon per day when ac**g*, O, UNG SARRCmes six pistoles.1 The manner in which he had acquitted himself in this arduous expedition, and his accounts of the country surveyed, gave great satisfaction to Lord Fairfax, who shortly afterwards moved across the Blue Ridge, and took up his residence at the place heretofore noted as his "quarters." Here he laid out a manor, containing ten thousand acres of arable grazing lands, vast meadows, and noble forests, and projected a spacious manor house, giving to the place the name of Greenway Court. It was probably through the influence of Lord Fairfax that Washington received the appointment of public surveyor. This conferred authority on his surveys, and entitled them to be recorded in the county offices; and so invariably correct have these surveys been found that, to this day, wherever any of them stand on record, they receive implicit credit. For three years he continued in this occupation, which proved extremely profitable, from the vast extent of country to be surveyed and the very limited number of public surveyors. It made him acquainted, also, with the country, the nature of the soil in various parts, and the value of localities; all which proved advantageous to him in his purchases in after years. Many of the finest parts of the Shenandoah Valley are yet owned by members of the Washington family. While thus employed for months at a time surveying the lands beyond the Blue Ridge, he was often an inmate of Greenway Court. The projected manor house was never even commenced. On a green knoll overshadowed by trees was a ter monstains, keren na beer sel LA 1 DERİ enter 11, whil. He stabd Agree to shape the course of bours furtun, Huc Healy of peace concluded at Aix-la-Chaoth which had put an end to the general war Fucsac had het sndefined the boundaries besp Barsh and French possessions iu Amchlar remissness, considering that CLAIMS TO THE OHIO VALLEY. 51 Im cause of frequent conflicts in the colonies. mense regions were still claimed by both nations, and each was now eager to forestall the other by getting possession of them, and strengthening its claim by occupancy. The most desirable of these regions lay west of the Alleghany Mountains, extending from the lakes to the Ohio, and embracing the valley of that river and its tributary streams. An immense territory, possessing a salubrious climate, fertile soil, fine hunting and fishing grounds, and facilities by lakes and rivers for a vast internal commerce. The French claimed all this country quite to the Alleghany Mountains by the right of discovery. In 1673, Padre Marquette, with his companion, Joliet, of Quebec, both subjects of the crown of France, had passed down the Mississippi in a canoe quite to the Arkansas, thereby, according to an alleged maxim in the law of nations, establishing the right of their sovereign, not merely to the river so discovered and its adjacent lands, but to all the country drained by its tributary streams, of which the Ohio was one; a claim, the ramifications of which might be spread, like the meshes of a web, over half the continent. To this illimitable claim the English opposed a right derived, at second hand, from a traditionary Indian conquest. A treaty, they said, had been made at Lancaster, in 1741, between commissioners from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, and the Iroquois, or Six Nations, whereby the latter, for four hundred pounds, gave up |