Travels Through North America 



manner: — "Colonel Martin, the danger we are exposed to, 

 which is undoubtedly great, may possibly excite in your 

 mind apprehension and anxiety. If so, I am ready to 

 take any step that you may judge expedient for our com- 

 mon safety. I myself am an old man, and it is of little 

 importance whether I fall by the tomahawk of an Indian 

 or by disease and old age: but you are young, and, it is to 

 be hoped, may have many years before you. I will there- 

 fore submit it to your decision, whether we shall remain 

 where we are, taking every precaution to secure ourselves 

 against the outrages of the epemy; or abandon our habi- 

 tation and retire within the mountains, that we may be 

 sheltered from the danger to which we are at present 

 exposed. If we determine to remain, it is possible, not- 

 withstanding our utmost care and vigilance, that we may 

 both fall victims; if we retire, the whole district will im- 

 mediately break up; and all the trouble and solicitude 

 which I have undergone to settle this fine country will be 

 frustrated; and the occasion perhaps irrecoverably lost." 

 Colonel Martin, after a short deliberation, determined to 

 remain, and as our affairs in that quarter soon took a more 

 favourable turn, and measures were adopted by govern- 

 ment for securing our settlements against the carnage and 

 depredation of the Indians, the danger gradually diminished, 

 and at length entirely disappeared. From that time to the 

 present little or no molestation has been given to the back 

 settlements of the Northern Neck, extending from the 

 Appalachian to the Allegheny mountains. 



Lord Fairfax, though possessed of innumerable good 

 qualities, had some few singularities in his character, that 

 occasionally exposed him to the smiles of the ignorant: but 



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