The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

IET. 52.] LIFE OF WASHINGTON. 409
sary baggage, and such supplies as could not be procured in the wild and unsettled regions through which he
was to pass. He crossed the mountains by the usual
route of Braddock's Road, and spent several days'in
surveying and inspecting his lands on the Monongahela River, a part of which was occupied by settlers.
His first intention was to descend the Ohio, as he
had done in the year 1770, to the Great Kenhawa,
where he owned a large tract of wild land; but the
hostile temper of the Indians rendering this expedition
hazardous, and the motive not being strong enough
to induce him to run risks, he advanced westward no
farther than the Monongahela. Returning by a circuitous route, he passed through the heart of the wilderness, first ascending the Monongahela River, and
thence traversing the country far to the south between
the ridges of the Allegany Mountains, with the special
view of deciding the question in his own mind, whether
the Potomac and James Rivers could be connected
by internal navigation with the western waters. He
conversed on the subject with every intelligent person he met, and kept a journal in which he recorded
the results of his observations and inquiries.
His'thoughts had been turned to this enterprise
before the revolution; and, since the peace, he had
used unwearied diligence by an extensive correspondence to procure facts respecting the rivers falling into
the Ohio from the west, and into the great Lakes,
and also the distances from various navigable points
in those rivers and lakes to the head waters of the
streams flowing towards the Atlantic. Soon after returning from his western tour, he communicated to
the governor of Virginia the fruits of his investigations
in a letter, one of the ablest, most sagacious, and most
important productions of his pen. Presenting first a
VOL. I. 52 II