region--the future course of the Erie Canal. Soon after he wrote to his
friend the Chevalier de Chastellux: "I could not help taking a more
extensive view of the vast inland navigation of these United States and
could not but be struck by the immense extent and importance of it, and
of the goodness of that Providence which has dealt its favors to us with
so profuse a hand. Would to God we may have wisdom enough to improve
them. I shall not rest contented till I have explored the Western
Country, and traversed those lines or great part of them, which have
given bounds to a new empire."

In partnership with George Clinton he bought, in 1784, a tract of six
thousand acres on the Mohawk, paying for his share, including interest,
one thousand eight hundred seventy-five pounds. In 1793 he sold
two-thirds of his half for three thousand four hundred pounds and in his
will valued the thousand acres that remained at six thousand dollars.
This was a speculation pure and simple, as he was never in the region in
which the land lay but once.

On December 23, 1783, in an ever memorable scene, Washington resigned
his commission as Commander of the Continental Army and rode off from
Annapolis to Mount Vernon to keep Christmas there for the first time
since 1774. The next eight months he was busily engaged in making
repairs and improvements about his home estate, but on September first,
having two days before said good-by to Lafayette, who had been visiting
him, he set off on horseback to inspect his western lands and to obtain
information requisite to a scheme he had for improving the "Inland
Navigation of the Potomac" and connecting its head waters by canal with
those of the Ohio. The first object was rendered imperative by the
settlement of squatters on part of his richest land, some of which was
even being offered for sale by unscrupulous land agents.