named Muse, who had served with Lawrence before Carthagena, and who fanned the rising flame in the breast of the future soldier, by lending him books on military tactics, and encouraging him to study them, by recitals of adventures and descriptions of battles that the veteran had shared in. When we add to this that young Washington had also lessons in fencing, from Mr. Van Braam, who afterwards served as his interpreter, we have before us what seems almost a whole chapter of express preparation for the remarkable career he was destined for. In daily communication with gallant gentlemen who had served, and who retained a good deal of martial ardor, how could a boy of sixteen but feel the blood stirring in his veins with the desire to imitate at once their accomplishments and their past doings? When he caught sight of a handsome, tall, athletic figure as he passed the mirrors of Mount Vernon or Belvoir, did not his heart beat quick at thought of dashing uniforms and waving plumes?

Yet Washington went quietly to work as a surveyor, and was delighted when Lord Fairfax sent him, with his nephew, to make a complete account and description of the immense tracts of mountain land which the nobleman owned in the back part of Virginia. He had, before this time, shown a decided liking for geometry, trigonometry and surveying, which, as the profession of a surveyor was, at that time, particularly profitable, his friends had encouraged; and he pursued these studies with characteristic earnestness. The last two

1746.]

EDUCATION AS A SURVEYOR.

81

years of his school life were given principally to the theory and practice of the art which laid the foundation of his large fortune, not only by the opportunity it gave him of purchasing new lands advantageously, but by the habits he then acquired of calculation, accuracy and neatness, so useful to him through all the important affairs which devolved upon him in after life. When, by way of practice, he surveyed the little domain around the school-house, the plots and measurements were entered in his book with all the care and precision required for important business; and if an erasure was necessary, it was done with a penknife, and so neatly that the error can scarcely be perceived.

"Nor was his skill," says Mr. Sparks, "confined to the more simple processes of the art. He used logarithms, and proved the accuracy of his work by different methods. The manuscripts fill several quires of paper, and are remarkable for the care with which they were kept, the neatness and uniformity of the handwriting, the beauty of the diagrams, and a precise method and arrangement in copying out tables and columns of figures. These particulars will not be thought too trivial to be mentioned, when it is known that he retained similar habits through life. His business papers, day-books, ledgers and letter-books, in which, before the Revolution, no one wrote but himself, exhibit specimens of the same studious care and exactness. Every fact occupies a clear and distinct place. The constructing of tables, diagrams, and other figures

* * * *

relating to numbers or classification, was an exercise in which he seems at all times to have taken much delight."*

We may mention as one of many proofs of the lifelong simplicity of Washington's habits, the writing-desk which he commonly used when at home-an unpainted one, evidently the work of a common carpenter, who made the inside divisions, under the direction of the owner, to fit his various papers. This is in the possession of Mr. Custis.

Of the homeliness of his early life we gather a hint in the memorandum, written in his boyish hand of 1747, of articles intrusted to his washer-woman:

"Delivered to Mrs. Humphrey, this 30th day of October, 2 Shirts, the one marked G. W., the other not marked; 1 pr. of Hose and one Band, to be washed against the November Court in Frederick."

*Sparks' Life-p. 8.

CHAPTER IX.

First surveying tour-Groves of sugar trees-Indian dance-People that wouldn't speak English-Rough living-Good pay-Tender passion-Poetic taste not very prominent-Lord Fairfax-Planter life-High-bred manners-Letters to ladies.

Ir was in March, 1748, that Washington set out, in company with Mr. George Fairfax and a small party, to explore immense tracts of wild wood-lands, in the Allegany mountains. These forests were almost totally destitute of white settlers, and, we may say, of human succor; for the Indians that were sometimes met there were of ferocious habits, and looked upon the whites as objects of plunder, if not of cruelty. This was no pleasure trip, we may be sure, such as a week's hunting in the woods may afford to the weary townsman, who finds rest in exchanging his mattress for cedar boughs, and a luxurious table for bacon roasted on a skewer. It was very serious earnest, involving both fatigue and danger, and there must have been something very remarkable about a boy of sixteen, whom Lord Fairfax, shrewd and keen-eyed as he was,

intrusted with it. The young surveyor was accompanied by William Fairfax, brother of Mrs. Lawrence Washington, but Washington himself was the practical and responsible person. He had just been licensed as a public surveyor, which entitled him to enter his surveys in the county offices. The business proved very arduous, the weather being unfavorable, and provisions and accommodations very poor. The diary kept by Washington on this occasion has no particular interest, except the fact of its having been kept at all by a boy of sixteen, and the evidence it gives of his manly feeling at that age. No one who did not know his age, would take the writer to be less than of full man's estate, unless by the notice taken of small matters, which an older surveyor of wild Indian lands would be too much accustomed to, to think of mentioning. When they reached Lord Fairfax's land on the Shenandoah river, they "went through most beautiful groves of sugar trees, and spent the best part of the day in admiring the trees and the richness of the land."

This was the very first outset, and the boy was still a boy. A year later he would not have spent "the best part of the day" so. He too soon gave up such pleasures, and became duty's bondsman, to an extent which made him old and grave before his time, though he never lost his relish for fine woodland scenery.

A few days after this touch of natural enthusiasm, we find him describing an Indian dance :

"23d.-Rained till about two o'clock, and then