JOURNAL OF MY Journey Over the Mountains GEORGE WASHINGTON, WHILE SURVEYING FOR LORD THOMAS FAIRFAX, BARON OF CAMERON, IN THE NORTHERN NECK OF VIRGINIA, BEYOND THE BLUE RIDGE, pied from fhr Original with Literal Exactness and Edited with Notes BY J. M. TONER, M. D. ALBANY, - 1892 - TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS. I. Mount Vernon farms, to face page.. ....... 2. Mount Vernon hills - made as early as I 747, traced from original, to face page.. ..... 3. Plan of Major Lawrence Washingtons tur- nip field, traced from original, to face page ................................ 4. Plan of survey of land known as Hell Hole, traced from original, to face page. ...... 5. Mount Vernon river front at mouth of Hunt- ing creek, traced from original, to face page .............................. 6. Surveyiilg or measuring land, a study traced from original, to face page. ............ 7. Lost river, traced from the original, to face page ......... .................. 8. Plat of Francis Jetts land, traced from the original, to face page ................. g. Plat of Elizabeth Washingtons land, traced from the original, to face page.. ....... 10. Plat of survey for Richard Barnes, Gent., copied from Sparks, to face page.. ...... PREFACE. Washingtons Journal here given to the public, if we except his version of the Rules of Civility and Decent .Behaviour in Company and Conversation, is the earliest literary effort of this, the most admira- ble character in all history. The editor has long been engaged in collecting accurate copies of all the obtainable writings of this great man. Wherever it has been found practicable to examine and critically compare even his generally accepted writings with the originals, it has been, or will be done to secure a copy of exact and verified conformity, in every par- ticular, with the text as it left the hand of the writer. It is a well-known fact that editors have taken great liberties with Washingtons writings, not for the purpose of falsifying history, or aspersing his character, but from a variety of reasons, often to sup- press caustic expressions, or to substitute a more euphonious word to give to his sentences a fine, rhe- torical finish. Such editorial dressing, even where the motive is well intended, is vicious in principle and liable to abuse and, in the case of Washingtons writings, is neither justifiable nor desirable. The time has come when the people want to know inti- mately and without glamour or false coloring, the father of his country as he actually lived and labored, 6 Preface, and to possess his vritings, just as he left them, on every subject which engaged his attention. It is the purpose of the editor to prepare a complete collection of all the writings of George Vashington, from his youth to the close of his eventful life, with that literal exactness as to test ivlich can only be assured by the careful efforts of an esperienced copyist and espert proof reader having access to and comparing in every possible case the co1ies with the originals. This initial Diary of IVashington opens nit11 his six- teenth year, and plainly shows the energy and the maturity of his judgment, and his capability to dis- charge even then important trusts with efficiency. Forthcoming volumes will give, in clronological order, his co-operation in the march of events on this continent, and his life and opinions as seen through the writings he left. This volume must be viewed as the work of a youth, making a few, brief and hurried memoranda while in the depths of the forest and in- tended for 110 eye but his own. The time is not far distant when an edition of Vashingtons more im- portant papers will be called for in facsimile by some one of the photogravure processes now available for such purposes, because of the unquestionable ficlclity to the original it secures and which is approximately arrived at in this publication...