834 



WASHINGTON WASSANAH. 



all presumption, this truly great man felt diffident 

 of his capacity to administer, in peace, the affairs 

 of a country which, in war, he had saved from ruin. 

 " I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, 

 and domestic felicity," says, he, in an entry in his 

 diary; "and, with a mind oppressed with more 

 anxious and painful sensations than I hare words 

 to express, set out for New York, with the best 

 dispositions to render service to my country, but 

 with less hope of answering its expectations." 



The duties of Washington's civil administration, 

 though far less arduous than those of his military 

 command, yet required much of that fortitude and 

 sagacity which that command so conspicuously dis- 

 played. To re-establish credit, and provide for 

 the debts of the Union, when there was every de- 

 sire to profit by injustice, and where taxation was 

 both difficult and odious to give stability and 

 energy to a new government, encountered in its 

 first operations by the contending interests of 

 thirteen separate States and to preserve the bless- 

 ings of peace to a rising community, when the mis- 

 guided feelings of the people would have precipi- 

 tated a war, were efforts which statesmen are 

 seldom called to make, and which but few would 

 have been equal to perform. In his public conduct, 

 we look in vain for any of those vices which oppose 

 the prosperity of nations, and the peace of the 

 world. In choosing the officers of his government, 

 in virtue of the powers committed to him by the 

 constitution, he is universally allowed to have dis- 

 played the utmost disinterestedness. No preju- 

 dices, no affections, no interests, were seen to in- 

 terfere with his great duty, to call to the manage- 

 ment of a nation's concerns the talents from which 

 a nation has most to hope. His addresses to the 

 people and to congress afford indubitable proofs of 

 the purity, as well as the solidity of his principles; 

 and it is impossible to read them, and to trace 

 them, as exemplified in the whole course of his 

 public career, without admitting " that he performed 

 justly, skilfully, and magnanimously, all the offices, 

 both public and private, of peace and war." Gen- 

 eral Washington survived his retirement from the 

 Presidency, which he twice enjoyed, only two 

 years. He died on the 14th of December, 1799, of 

 an inflammation in the throat, occasioned by a slight 

 rain to which he had been exposed the preceding 

 day. Soon after the disease commenced, he foresaw 

 he would die ; and he met his fate with his accus- 

 tomed fortitude. 



The personal appearance of this statesman was 

 noble and commanding ; and it has been frequently 

 remarked, that the impression of awe which it was 

 calculated to produce, was never effaced by fre- 

 quency of intercourse. He was reserved in his 

 manners, and unaffectedly modest. He was hos- 

 pitable, and his establishment expensive, but under 

 exact regulation. He spoke with, diffidence; but 

 his letters to congress, and his written addresses, 

 are admirable for clearness and solidity. His per- 

 sonal habits were exceedingly temperate, and the 

 purity of his morals was never questioned. In 

 short, to use the words of Mr Fox, " a character, of 

 virtues so happily tempered by one another, and so 

 wholly unalloyed with any vices, is hardly to be 

 found in the pages of history." By all classes of 

 citizens in the United States, the memory of George 

 Washington is cherished above that of all other 

 patriots, while his name serves as a lasting incite- 

 ment to the nation to preserve its institutions un- 

 impaired to a distant posterity. 



WASHINGTON ISLANDS, OR INGRAHAM 

 ISLANDS ; a group of three islands in the South 

 Pacific ocean, to the north-west of the Marquesas 

 islands, Ion. 139 5' 140 13' W. ; lat. 7 50' 

 9 30' S. They were discovered by captain In- 

 graham, of Boston, in 1791, and visited by captain 

 Roberts, of the same place, in 1792. The latter 

 gave them the name of Washington. They are 

 fully described in captain Porter's Journal of a 

 Cruise made to the Pacific Ocean in 1812 14 

 (New York, 1825, 2 vols.). The principal island 

 of the group is Nooahiva, or Nukahiva. Stewart 

 also gives an account of these islands, in the first 

 volume of his Visit to the South Seas. 



WASHINGTON, MOUNT. See White Moun- 

 tains. 



WASHITA (formerly spelled OwuhiUa) is a 

 river of Arkansas and Louisiana, which rises about 

 intermediate between the river Arkansas and the 

 Red river, in lat. 34 N. The Fourche Caddo, 

 Little Missouri, and Saline, rise at no great distance 

 from the Washita. It runs through a country, in 

 Arkansas, that is generally sterile and mountainous. 

 Pine, and that species of oak called pin oak, are the 

 common kinds of timber in that region, and they 

 denote an inferior soil. In the richer and alluvial 

 tracts are found the trees common to that latitude. 

 That beautiful kind called bois (fare is here found 

 in great abundance. In high stages of water, the 

 Washita is navigable for steam-boats 600 miles, to 

 the Hot springs. A hundred salines, some of which 

 are highly impregnated with salt, are found near 

 the river. Its bottoms are very fertile after it 

 enters Louisiana. Where it unites itself with Red 

 river, it strikes the eye as the larger of the two. 

 It has a course of nearly 800 miles. 



WASP (vespa). The wasps may be readily 

 distinguished by having the upper wings longitudi- 

 nally folded while at rest. They belong to the 

 order hymenoptera of Linnsus, and have a pedun- 

 culated abdomen, terminated by a concealed sting. 

 Their larvae resemble those of the bee, and their 

 history is also similar in most respects. They live 

 altogether in societies, the individuals of which 

 share in common their labours and danger. In 

 general, they construct their habitations with a 

 sort of paper, formed of vegetable fibres, aggluti- 

 nated by a sort of gum. The. cells resemble in 

 form those of honeycomb, and are often disposed 

 in several stories. They feed on animal substances, 

 on meats exposed to the air, dead insects, over-ripe 

 and sugary fruits, fragments of which they cut off 

 with their mandibles, and carry away, for the pur- 

 pose of feeding their young. 



WASSANAH; a city of Africa, on a river 

 called Zadi, sixty days' journey south-east of Tim- 

 buctoo. According to an account given by Sidi 

 Hamet to Riley, this city appears to contain twice 

 as many inhabitants as Timbuctoo. It is surrounded 

 by a very large wall, built of great stones loosely 

 piled up. A whole day is required to walk around 

 it. The houses are built of stones, without cement, 

 and roofed with reeds and palm leaves. The 

 country around is highly cultivated. The inhabi- 

 tants are Mohammedans. The account of Sidi 

 Hamet, above quoted, that, after embarking on the 

 Joliba, at Timbuctoo, he found that river to flow 

 six days nearly east, and then to take a south- 

 easterly direction, seems to agree with the state- 

 ments of the Landers (see Niger}; but it is not 

 easy to conjecture what was the city described 

 under the name of Wassanah by Sidi Hamet. The 



