Whatever hesitation Gallatin may have entertained as to his definitive expatriation was entirely set at rest by the news of strife between the rival factions in Geneva and the interposition of armed force by the neighboring governments. This interference turned the scale against the liberal party. Mademoiselle Pictet was the only link which bound him to his family. For his ingratitude to her he constantly reproached himself. He still styled himself a citizen of Geneva, but this was only as a matter of convenience and security to his correspondence. His determination to make America his home was now fixed. The lands on the banks of the Ohio were then considered the most fertile in America,--the best for farming purposes, the cultivation of grain, and the raising of cattle. The first settlement in this region was made by the Ohio Company, an association formed in Virginia and London, about the middle of the century, by Thomas Lee, together with Lawrence and Augustine, brothers of George Washington. The lands lay on the south side of the Ohio, between the Monongahela and Kanawha rivers. These lands were known as "Washington's bottom lands." In this neighborhood Gallatin determined to purchase two or three thousand acres, and prepare for that ideal country home which had been the dream of his college days. Land here was worth from thirty cents to four dollars an acre. His first purchase was about one thousand acres, for which he paid one hundred pounds, Virginia currency. Land speculation was the fever of the time. Savary was early affected by it, and before the new friends left Philadelphia for Richmond he bought warrants for one hundred and twenty thousand acres in Virginia, in Monongalia County, between the Great and Little Kanawha rivers, and interested Gallatin to the extent of one quarter in the purchase. Soon after the completion of this transaction the sale of some small portions reimbursed them for three fourths of the original cost. This was the first time when, and Savary was the first person to whom, Gallatin was willing to incur a pecuniary obligation. Throughout his life he had an aversion to debt; small or large, private or public. It was arranged that Gallatin's part of the purchase money was not to be paid until his majority,--January 29, 1786,--but in the meanwhile he was, in lieu of interest money, to give his services in personal superintendence. Later Savary increased Gallatin's interest to one half. Soon after these plans were completed, Savary and Gallatin moved to Richmond, where they made their residence.