We can
imagine the following conversation on one of their helter-skelter rides
together:
"What are you studying now, George?"
"Mathematics, sir."
"Humph! Like it?"
"In part--but some of it is stiff."
"What are you going to do with it?"
"Well, sir," hesitated George, "since my mother objects to my going
into the navy, I thought I would turn my hand at surveying. There's
lots to be done around here."
"The very thing! I think I could use you, myself. When you are ready
let me know, and I'll send you over the hill yonder to mark out where
Fairfax starts, and where he ends. My cousin George will go with you."
So, in some such fashion it was arranged, and in the spring of 1748,
George Fairfax and George Washington set forth on their adventures.
The Virginia mountains were just budding forth in the freshness of
spring when they started out by way of Ashby's Gap, in the Blue Ridge,
entering the valley of Virginia. Thence they worked through the
Shenandoah region, crossing the swollen Potomac and surveying the hilly
country of what is now Frederick County.
It was a rough and hazardous trip lasting over a month, but one that
left them fit and seasoned woodsmen. They had learned what it was to
shift for themselves; to defend themselves against prowling beasts in
an untrodden wilderness; to swim swollen currents; to be wet and cold
and hungry; to come suddenly upon a war party of Indians, who would not
have scrupled to kill them, had the savages known that these two youths
were plotting and dividing up the hunting grounds which they claimed as
their own.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25