Washington's efficiency and enthusiasm as a surveyor were observed and admired not only by his friend and companion, George William Fairfax, but also by the Hon. Wm. Fairfax and by Lord Fairfax, who were constantly employing surveyors to lay off lands for sale in the latter's large domain known as "The Northern Neck" of Virginia. During the early spring of 1748 the demands for surveys were more than usually pressing by actual settlers in the Shenandoah valley. Lord Fairfax engaged the youth, George Washington, to proceed with George William Fairfax, his agent, as recorded in this journal, to execute certain commissions and meet a pressing demand. His surveys and reports gave entire satisfaction and led to his steady employment by his titled patron, principally as a director of his lordship's land office and of the surveys, preparatory to sale. Washington filled this position for about three years, when he was called upon to accompany his brother Lawrence, who, from failing health, was constrained, in the fall of 1751, to visit the West Indies in the hope of finding relief. The journal kept by George Washington during his visit to Barbadoes in company with his brother, will be given in a separate work soon to be issued in its chronological order by the editor. The journal here presented to the public is, in the main, confined to Washington's daily entries, memoranda and field notes of surveys of land situated between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany mountains. Unfortunately the records of his surveys are not consecutive, and it is quite evident that they represent but a part, and probably but a small part, of the land surveyed by Washington for Lord Fairfax and others. The notes of surveys here published are all that can be found or that are now known to exist. It is to be hoped, however, that if other books of his field notes of surveys have escaped destruction, they may yet be discovered. This hope is encouraged from the fact that the laws of the colony required surveyors, upon retiring from their official stations as county surveyors, to deposit their field books of notes of surveys with the records of the county. How far this law was complied with, the editor is unable to say. It is a mistake, however, to infer that Washington was constantly employed in actually running lines and taking field notes. He was largely charged with the supervision of Lord Fairfax's land office, and the records thereto belonging, and was his principal adviser in his land surveys, directing the men employed in the field work. This journal, with its memoranda and surveys, makes a valuable addition to our knowledge of the life and employments of Washington in his youth. Here are also preserved the names of nearly three hundred of the early settlers and first land owners in the great valley of Virginia, for whom Washington made surveys, or who assisted him in this business.