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.

360 WASHINGTON'S WRITINGS. r[ET. 39.
situation of that country, and the rapid progress now
making in the settlement of it, that delay at this time in
the prosecution of our plan would amount to the loss of
the land, inasmuch as emigrants are daily and hourly
settling on the choice spots, and waiting a favorable
opportunity to solicit legal titles, on the ground of preoccupancy, when the office shall be opened. I therefore
hoped, and the officers and soldiers, who have suffered
in the cause of their country, still hope, that, although
your Lordship was of opinion you could not at that time
vest them with an absolute and bona fide grant of the
land, yet that you will permit them to take such steps,
at their own expense and risk, as others do, to secure
their lands agreeably to proclamation, especially as their
claim is prior to any other, and better founded, they
having a solemn act of government and the general
voice of the country in their favor.
This is the light, my Lord, in which the matter appeared to me, and in this light it is also considered by
the officers with whom I have lately had a meeting.
The report gains ground, that a large tract of country
on the Ohio, including every foot of land to the westward of the Allegany Mountains, is granted to a company of gentlemen in England, to be formed into a
separate government. If this report is really well founded, there can be no doubt of your Lordship's having
the earliest and most authentic accounts of it, since it
so essentially interferes with the interests and expectations of this country.
To request the favor of your Lordship to inform me
whether this report be true, and, if true, whether any
attention has been or probably will be paid to the order
of Council and proclamation of 1754, may be presump'
tuous; but, as the officers and soldiers confide in me to
transact this business for them, and as it would be a real