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.

478 WVASHINGTON'S WRITINGS. [APPENDIX.
of the enemy we have to deal with? Who so well acquainted with
their situation and strength? Who so much respected by the soldiery? Who, in short, so ablt to support the military character of
Virginia?
Your approved love to your King and country, and your uncommon perseverance in promoting the honor and true interest of the
service, convince us that the most cogent reasons only could induce
you to quit it; yet we, with the greatest deference, presume to entreat you to suspend those thoughts for another year, and to lead us
on to assist in the glorious work of extirpating our enemies, towards
which so considerable advances have been already made. In you
we place the most implicit confidence. Your presence only will
cause a steady firmness and vigor to actuate every breast, despising the greatest dangers, and thinking light of toils and hardships,
while led on by the man we know and love.
But if we must be so unhappy as to part, if the exigencies of your
affairs force you to abandon us, we beg it as our last request, that you
will recommend some person most capable to command, whose military knowledge, whose honor, whose conduct, and whose disinterested principles, we may depend on.
Frankness, sincerity, and a certain openness of soul, are the true
characteristics of an fofficer, and we flatter ourselves that you do not
think us capable of saying any thing contrary to the purest dictates
of our minds. Fully persuaded of this, we beg leave to assure you,
that, as you have hitherto been the actuating soul of our whole corps,
we shall at all times pay the most invariable regard to your will and
pleasure, and will always be happy to demonstrate by our actions
with how much respect and esteem we are, &c.
No. VI. p. 349.
THE OHIO COMPANY.
As the Ohio Company is often mentioned in this volume, and as
two of Washington's brothers were much concerned in it, a brief
sketch of its history may not be unsuitable in this place.
In the year 1748, Thomas Lee, one of his Majesty's Council in
Virginia, formed the design of effecting settlements on the wild lands
west of the Allegany mountains, through the agency of an associa