THE ASS AND MULE. 677 



The Southern planters found the mules a great blessing, be- 

 cause they are longer lived, less liable to disease or injury than 

 the horse in the hands of careless and ignorant drivers. They 

 also live on rougher feed, and endure heat better. They frighten 

 less, and when they run away they seldom do themselves in- 

 jury. North of forty degrees they are much less used, and in 

 the New England States and North-west they are rarely found 

 among the farmers. The jack is impatient of cold, and his off- 

 spring can not endure the cold as well as the horse. 



Mr. Custis says that the king of Spain presented Washing- 

 ton with a jack from his royal stud in 1787. The animal was 

 large, ill-shapen, near sixteen hands high, with a very large head 

 and clumsy limbs, and to all appearance little calculated for active 

 service. He was of a gray color, probably not young when im- 

 ported, and died at Mount Vernon, but little valued for his 

 mules, which were unwieldy and dull. He was named Royal 

 Gift. With him came a jennet, which was bred to a jack called 

 Knight of Malta, a present from General Lafayette. He was 

 of moderate size, clean limbed, of great activity, with the fire 

 and ferocity of a tiger. He was a dark brown, very nearly 

 black, with belly and muzzle white. He lived to a great age, 

 and died about 1802 or 1803, at New Kent. His mules were 

 active, spirited, and serviceable, and from stout mares attained 

 considerable size. 



He got from the Spanish jennet Washington's favorite jack, 

 named Compound. This cross of the Spanish and Maltese blood 

 was the beginning of success in mule breeding at Mount Vernon. 

 Compound was a very superior animal, very long bodied, well set, 

 with all the qualities of the Knight, and the weight of the Spanish. 



His mules were active and well-formed. Bred to the best coach- 







mares, his get brought extraordinary prices. The experience of 

 Washington has been that of all his successors in breeding 

 mules, that the value of the mule bears a just proportion to that 

 of the mare. In accordance with this view. Washington bred 

 his best pair of coach-mares to the Knight of Malta and to Com- 

 pound, and produced such superb mules that the country was 

 aroused to breed some of the same sort. 



