WASHINGTON'S LITTLE STEP-DAUGHTER.

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went on into the Indian region. It was not altogether a safe expedition, for Washington had had good experience of the treachery of some of the Indians; and they were very much at their mercy in open canoes, and dependent upon their guns for what game they could bring down for food.

However, the journey was accomplished in safety, and Washington returned to his home about the time that Lord Dunmore was appointed to take the place of Lord Botetourt. Shortly afterwards a trouble came upon him, which he seems to have felt most keenly. His step-daughter, Martha Custis, whom he loved deeply, went into a rapid decline when she was nearly seventeen. She had never been very strong; but her symptoms became so urgent that Washington was hastily summoned from the House of Burgesses. He was not prepared for the change which he found in her upon his return. She was dying; and he threw himself down by her bedside in an agony of grief, praying that she might not be taken from them; but while he prayed she died. For a time he gave up all his public occupations, and remained at Mount Vernon, trying to comfort her mother.

"Jacky Custis" was by this time fast becoming a young man, and his step-father was very anxious about him. A letter written at this date to his tutor shows how carefully Washington thought of what was best for the boy. He is stating his reasons for not liking John Custis to travel while he is so young, and writes thus :-"Not that I think his becoming a mere scholar is a desirable education for a gentleman; but I conceive a knowledge of books is the basis upon which all other knowledge is to be built, and in travelling he is to become acquainted with men and things, rather than books. He is ignorant of Greek, the advantages of learning which, I do not pretend to judge

of; and he knows nothing of French, which is absolutely necessary to him as a traveller. He has little or no acquaintance with arithmetic, and is totally ignorant of mathematics—than which, at least so much of them as relates to surveying, nothing can be more essentially necessary to a man possessed of a large landed estate, the bounds of some part or other of which are always in controversy."

So Mr. John Custis stayed at home for the purpose of completing his education; and by the time he was seventeen he had fallen desperately in love with Miss Nelly Calvert.

We have another letter from Washington on this subject, written to Mr. Calvert:-" How far a union of this sort may be agreeable to you, you best can tell; but I should think myself wanting in candour were I not to confess that Miss Nelly's amiable qualities are acknowledged on all hands, and that an alliance with your family will be pleasing to his. This acknowledgment being made, you must permit me to add, sir, that at this, or in any short time, his youth, inexperience, and unfinished education, are, and will be, insuperable obstacles, in my opinion, to the completion of the marriage. If the affection which they have avowed for each other is fixed upon a solid basis, it will receive no diminution in the course of two or three years; in which time he may prosecute his studies, and thereby render himself more deserving of the lady, and useful to society. If, unfortunately, as they are both young, there should be an abatement of affection on either side, or both, it had better precede than follow marriage."

But the delay was not a very long one. Whether John Parke Custis had completed his education or not, he was married when he was nineteen; and his step-father was

LORD NORTH'S TEA-TAX.

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always a warm friend to his wife and children, as well as to himself.

Such were the events which were taking place in Washington's private life; but he was anxiously watching all the time the great tide of revolution which was rising in America. He wrote thus to his brother Augustine :-" I had like to have forgotten to express my entire approval of the laudable pursuit you are engaged in, of training an independent company. I have promised to review the Independent Company of Richmond some time this summer, they having made me a tender of the command of it. At the same time I could review yours, and shall very cheerfully accept the honour of commanding it, if occasion require it to be drawn out; as it is my full intention to devote my life and fortune in the cause we are engaged in, if needful." This devotion was soon to be proved, for colonial matters began to reach a crisis.

The firm stand which the Americans made against the importation of tea for which they were to be taxed had affected the trade of the East India Company. It appealed to Lord North, who thought to accomplish two objects at once-to redress the grievance of the Company, and to enforce his American tax. He therefore took off the duties from the tea exported by the East India Company, and enabled them to offer it to the Americans at a much cheaper rate, hoping by this means to induce them to purchase. But it was not for a mere foible, or for a paltry sum of money, that they were contending; it was for a principle-the principle of freedom; for which their fathers had given up their English homes so many years before. Therefore they were not to be cajoled or threatened into submission to the arbitrary measures of England's Prime Minister.

The ships of tea which came out were sent back from some of the ports untouched; and at Boston stronger measures were taken. When the ships came into port, a number of men, disguised as Indians, boarded them, broke open the tea-chests, and threw the tea into the sea.

To punish Boston for this act of opposition, England decreed that its port was to be closed; all its public appointments were to be made by the Crown; and trials for capital offences to be conducted either in some other province of the States, or in England.

The Virginia House of Burgesses was assembled on the 24th of May, in Williamsburg. They had been giving a cordial reception to Lord Dunmore, the new governor, and to his wife, who had just joined him from England. They had voted a ball to be given in honour of the latter, and had made a congratulatory address to the governor, when the news of the measures England had taken with regard to Boston suddenly reached them. Their indignation was great. Speeches of resentment were made, and a resolution was passed setting apart the 1st of June-the day on which the Boston Port Bill was to come into effect for a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer.

The next morning Lord Dunmore summoned the House to attend him in the council chamber, and said :— "Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Burgesses, I have in my hand a paper, published by order of your House, conceived in such terms as reflect highly upon His Majesty and the Parliament of Great Britain, which makes it necessary for me to dissolve you; and you are dissolved accordingly."

So Washington and his friends adjourned to the Raleigh Tavern, and signed articles of association, in which they

pledged themselves against the use of British merchandise, and formed a scheme of proposing to other provinces to send deputies to one general Congress, where plans for the common welfare of the States could be made. This recommendation was eagerly adopted, and the 5th of September was fixed for the first meeting of Congress, which was to be held at Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, the ball for Lady Dunmore took place on the 27th, and Washington attended it. "But on the 1st of June the day of fasting was observed almost universally. Washington mentions in his diary that he went to church twice, and fasted rigidly, and that the bells of Williamsburg were tolled."

Shortly afterwards, in writing to his friend, Bryan Fairfax, who urged the peaceful method of an appeal to Parliament, he says: "I would heartily join you

provided there was the most distant hope of success. But have we not tried this already? Have we not addressed the Lords, and remonstrated to the Commons? And to what end? Does it not appear as clear as the sun in its meridian brightness that there is a regular systematic plan to fix the right and practice of taxation upon us?

Ought we not, then, to put our virtue and fortitude to the severest tests ?"

Meanwhile, in Richmond, the fiery Patrick Henry had used even stronger words. "We must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us."

Washington still seemed to have a lingering hope that war might be averted; but he would not have the resistance abated. He hoped, by steady rejection of all imports, to show the bad policy of the schemes adopted by England.