Early in April, having completed our work, I crossed the mountains
afoot to the Great Cacapehon, and, passing over the Blue Ridge, on
April 12 found myself again at Mount Vernon. But before that I first
rode on to Belvoir, that I might be prompt to answer his lordship’s
questions. All he would talk about was how to get horse and man over
rivers, and of a way I learned of an Indian to wade across a strong
swift stream safely, even breast-high, by carrying a heavy stone to
keep me on my feet. He advised me to learn the sign-language of the
savages.
He was soon to set out for the valley, where he meant to lay out the
manor of Greenway Court and there reside. He desired me to come and
help to survey his great domain.
There must be some natural taste in man for the life in the woods, and,
for my part, I longed ever to return to them, of which, sooner or
later, I had many opportunities. Nor did the free life make me less,
but rather more, practical, and I learned to observe the trees, and how
the land lay, and the meadows, whether liable to flood or not, all of
which enabled me not only to serve my employers well, but was of use to
me when I became able to purchase land myself.
About this time the influence of Lord Fairfax and my brothers obtained
for me the place of surveyor of the county of Culpeper. I saw, a few
years ago, in the records of Culpeper Court House, under date of July
20, 1749, that George Washington, gentleman, produced a commission
from the president and masters of William and Mary College appointing
him to be a surveyor of the county, whereupon he took the oath to his
Majesty’s person and government, and subscribed the abjuration oath,
the test, etc.
I recall now the pleasure this formal appointment gave me. Although
I was then but seventeen years old, I was much trusted and was soon
busily employed, because of my exactness, and because it was known
that I could not be bribed; and thus for over two years I pursued this
occupation. His lordship had long since this time left his cousin’s
house of Belvoir and gone to live in the valley, in his steward’s
house, which now he bettered and enlarged for his own use, meaning soon
to build a great mansion-house, which he never did.
His home was a long, low stone dwelling, with a sloped roof, and many
coops where swallows came, and bird-cotes under the eaves, and around
it on all sides a wide porch, with, in every direction, the great
forest of gum and hickory and oaks, and the tulip-trees. I found the
roads much improved on my first visit, and many outbuildings for slaves
and others, with kennels for the hounds his lordship loved to follow.
My own room was ever after kept for me. It had a wide dormer-window,
and next to it a room with more books than I had ever seen before,
except at Westover, Colonel Byrd’s great mansion.
I never passed the time more agreeably. When not absent laying out
land, we hunted and shot game, especially wild turkeys, which abounded;
and when the weather served us ill I read the history of England, and
tried to please his lordship by reading Shakspere and other books of
verse. But although I had by hard labor managed to lay out and plot
verses to certain young women, I never found much pleasure in the use
of the imagination, nor in what others made of it. It seemed to me
tedious and without practical value, nor did it amuse me except when it
was in a play.
For days at a time I sometimes saw nothing of this kind but eccentric
nobleman. A woman in England was said to have wounded his life, and it
was rare that we had any female guests at Greenway Court, except Anne
Cary, the sister of George William Fairfax’s wife. I found it not good
for me to be in her company, for in some way she brought to my mind a
boy love, which I had resolved no more to entertain, but which I found
it difficult to master.
Miss Cary stayed no long time, and others came and went, but for the
most part I had his lordship to myself. There were days when he was
absent in the woods with a servant, or alone. At others he would remain
all day shut up in a small log house, not over fifteen feet square,
where he slept, and, as he said, very ill. It was his custom, however,
to join me at supper, and then to remain smoking, which I never
learned, and taking his punch. He was either full of talk or so silent
that we would not exchange a word while he sat staring into the fire.
Sometimes, when tired, I fell asleep, and, on waking, found him gone to
bed. When disposed for conversation, he was apt to be bitter about his
native land, and once said that the best part of it had come away.
My brother Lawrence and he were the only persons of our own class
I ever knew in those days who, to my surprise, foresaw serious
trouble from the selfish policy of the crown and the greed of English
merchants, who desired to keep us shut out of the natural way of sea
trade. I should have been most ungrateful, which I never was, had I not
felt my obligations to Lord Fairfax. His great wealth and high position
kept even my mother satisfied that what pleased my patron could never
be complained of, and so, for a season, I was let to go my own way.
He led me to feel sure that, soon or late, we must be at war with both
France and the Indians, or else submit to be shut out of the fertile
lands to the westward. He was almost the only Englishman of high rank
whom we saw in Virginia. There were governors with their secretaries,
and officers of the army, but, except my lord, all of them regarded
the gentlemen of the colonies as inferior persons. This feeling was, I
apprehend, due to the fact that we looked to England for everything,
and were in many ways kept as dependent as children. He once said to
me that we were like slow bullocks that did not know their power to
resist. This was all strange to a young Virginian in those days. I have
lived to see its wisdom, and now, as I think of it, am reminded that
Mr. Hamilton once wrote to me, “a colony was always a colony, and never
could be a country until it had altogether to stand on its own legs.”
This was spoken of Canada, which unwisely refused to make common cause
with us, and will now be for us at least a troublesome, if not a
dangerous neighbour.
But to see her in the hands of France was not, as the matter presented
itself, to be desired, for which reason I did not at a later time
encourage Marquis Lafayette in his design upon Canada, knowing that
if we succeeded in the war, and with French troops were able to take
Canada, France would claim it as her share of the spoils, and thus hem
us in from Louisiana to the Great Lakes. Indeed, this was very early
a constant fear throughout all the colonies, and especially in New
England, where the notion of being shut in by a popish nation added to
their uneasiness.
When considering this matter, I recall the effect of the capitulations
of 1759, for at that time, in order to quiet the French after England
had taken Canada, and to get the Canadians to accept willingly English
rule, vast and unwise privileges were granted to the Church of Rome.
Still later the Quebec Act of 1774 decreed that Quebec should be held
to extend over all the country west of the Ohio and up to the lakes,
and thus that the privileges enjoyed by the Romish Church should
prevail over all this great dominion.
While the Stamp Act and the laws restrictive of trade did variously
annoy the separate colonies, the Quebec Act produced a still more
general dissatisfaction.