_Washington's Prescience of the Increased Value of Land in the West.--Diary of his Tour in the Basin of the Ohio.--His Plans for the Commercial Development of the West.--His Character as manifested in his Letters, Diaries, and Memoranda.--His Military Advancement by the Influence of Lord Fairfax.--He serves at Fort Necessity, "The Bloody Ford," and Fort Duquesne.--Marriage and Settlement at Mount Vernon.--His Device for taking up more Land than the Law allowed to one Man.--Washington not connected with any of the great Land Companies.--His Efforts to secure for his Soldiers the Bounty-land promised them.--His sixth Journey to view his own Purchases.--The Amount of his Landed Property.--His Leniency toward Poor Tenants.--The Intensity of his Business Energy.--The Present Value of his Lands.--His Dissatisfaction with the Results of his Land Speculations.--His Plan of American Internal Improvements.--The Treaty that secured to Virginia the Territory South of the Ohio.--Washington's Personal Inspection of the Basins of the Ohio and Potomac.--He becomes President of the Potomac Company.--A Waterway secured from the Ohio to the Potomac.--The National Road from Cumberland, Md., to Wheeling on the Ohio._ WASHINGTON: THE PROMOTER OF WESTERN INVESTMENTS [Illustration] WHAT story of personal endeavor that had a part in building up a new nation on this continent can appeal more strongly to us of the Middle West than that of George Washington's shrewd faith which led him first to invest heavily in Western lands and signally champion that region as a field for exploitation? Indeed the record of that man's prescience in realizing what the West would become, how it would be quickly populated, and how rapidly its acres would increase in value, is one of the most remarkable single facts in his history.