Evening star., 1901-05-18

ing his way through that wild country of
the Aleganies. that is watered by the river
Potownack, which Smith, in his history. so
quantity describes as being ''navigahle for
one hundred miles, and fed with many
sweet rivers and springs. which fall from
the bordering hills" making himself IA
miliar with the country westward from
tfdewater toward the water of Ohio. At
the same time was going on the scheme of
colonization, known as the Ohio Company,
which was chartered in 1749, and had for
it's object the settlement of 800, 900 acres
of land west of the Alleganies, between
the kanawha and Monongahela rivers,
granted free of quit rent for ten years by
the crown, provided the company selected
at once two-ffths of the lands and settled
100 families upon it, within seven years,
built fort at its own expense and main
tatned sufficient garrison for safe de-
fense against the Indians. 1t is unreaSOn-
able to suppose that this observing young
surveyor did not at once see some connec-
tion between the colonization of that inn
mense and fertile tract laying beyond the
AlleganieS and the waters along which he
was surveying Did not the eye of the
trained engineer see a possible and most
reasonable outlet for the trade to and from
that newly-settled region? He saw the
hand of man. skillful in it's ingenuity.
backing up by a series of dams the water
where 1t was too shallow to navigate. He
saw the Great Falls circumvented by
canals, and shallow channels deepened,
and the whole navigation of the river so
of the Potowmack. pouring in never-end-
ing procession of barges to the very door
OF MS beloved state, the commerce of that
new nation laying toward the setting sun.
The First Step.
WashingtOn's letters and diary show most
conclusively that while this scheme of con-
Meeting the eastern and western waters had
taken no exact or precise form in his mind,
it had suggested itself as feasible, and from
that time no doubt dates his interest, which
never tagging, continued to his death.
Once more We find him, grown to young
manhood, in the early DAYS of the year
100, going over the same route as part OF
the expedition of the brave but stubborn
BraddOck in his campaign against the
French and Indians on the Monongahela
river and even then, burdened with the
many responsibilities of his position, he
finds some little time to devote to investi-
eating this plan of opening the Potowmack
river. The first active steps, however, We
discover him taking toward the perfection
when We're yet the colonies of England
Between the years 114S and 1170 much of
his time had been spent in that wild coun-
try along the POtOWmaCk and MOnOnga-
hela. 1t was in fac-, the school in which
he was prepared for the great part he was
to take in the nations affairs. 1t was there
he gained his military knowledge, and that
knowledge of the red man, and, in fact, of
all men, that stood him in such good stead
in days 10 come. During these years he
unqueStionably looked most closely into the
plan of facilitating commerce between the
east and west, and realizing from his close
and accurate observations that the route of
the Potowmack river was the best and
shortest he procured, by earnest efforts,
from the legislature of Virginia the passage
of a bill empowering such individuals as
were disposed TO embark in the enter
| prise to open the Potowmack, so as to rem
der it navigable from tidewater to Wills