Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 13).djvu/39

 have given bounds to a new empire."

This clear cry of enthusiasm was from the heart, and within a year Washington carried out his plan of western exploration. Of this journey we had occasion to speak in our sketch of the Old Northwestern Turnpike. In that connection our attention was confined to the portage route between the Cheat and Potomac Rivers. Here his plan for a water avenue from East to West must be emphasized as the first chapter in the history of both the Potomac Company and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. This cannot be so well done as by quoting the summary of the Journal of this trip, which has never been published. It will be seen that it is the basis and, in part, the first draft of his famous Letter to Harrison written upon his return to Mount Vernon:

"And tho' I was disappointed in one of the objects which induced me to undertake this journey namely to examine into the situation quality and advantages of the Land which I hold upon the Ohio and Great