"To continue the narrative: the general stayed here all night, occupying
the bed alluded to, while his nephew, the land agent, and Mr. Gallatin
rolled themselves in blankets and buffalo-skins and lay upon the bare
floor. After the examination mentioned, and when the party went out,
General Washington inquired who the young man was who had interrupted
him, made his acquaintance, and learned all the particulars of his
history. They occasionally met afterwards, and the general urged Mr.
Gallatin to become his land agent; but as Mr. Gallatin was then, or
intended soon to become, the owner of a large tract of land, he was
compelled to decline the favorable offer made him by General
Washington."
This is the story as told by Mr. Bartlett, and there can be no doubt of
its essential correctness. But General Washington made only one journey
to the West during which he could possibly have met Mr. Gallatin. This
journey was in the month of September, 1784, and was not to the Kanawha,
though originally meant to be so. He went no farther than to George's
Creek, and it so happens that he kept a diary of every day's work during
this expedition. The diary has never been published; but it is among the
archives in the State Department at Washington. In it are the following
entries:
[Sidenote: 1785.]
"September 23. Arrived at Colonel Phillips' about five o'clock in the
afternoon, sixteen miles from Beason Town and near the mouth of Cheat
River; ... crossed no water of consequence except George's Creek. An
apology made me from the court of Fayette (through Mr. Smith) for not
addressing me, as they found my horses saddled and myself on the move.
Finding by inquiries that the Cheat River had been passed with canoes
through those parts which had been represented as impassable, and that a
Captain Hanway, the surveyor of Monongahela, lived within two or three
miles of it, south side thereof, I resolved to pass it to obtain further
information, and accordingly, accompanied by Colonel Phillips, set off
in the morning of the
"24th, and crossed it at the mouth.... From the fork to the surveyor's
office, which is at the house of one Pierpont, is about eight miles
along the dividing ridge.... Pursuing my inquiries respecting the
navigation of the Western waters, Captain Hanway proposed, if I would
stay all night, to send to Monongahela [Monongalia] court-house at
Morgantown for Colonel Zach. Morgan and others who would have it in
their power to give the best accounts that were to be obtained, which
assenting to, they were sent for and came, and from them I received the
following intelligence, viz.," &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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