Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 8).djvu/86

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82
MILITARY ROADS

you may judge proper, not exceeding, however, one thousand from Virginia and five hundred from Pennsylvania."[1] With the prophetic foresight which so frequently marked Washington's estimate of the future he added: "As it may be of high importance to obtain a precise and accurate knowledge of the several waters which empty into the Ohio, on the northwest, and of those which discharge themselves in the lakes Erie and Michigan, the length of the portage between, and nature of the ground, an early and pointed attention thereto is earnestly recommended."[2] Anthony Gamelin, a trusty scout, was sent up the Wabash River to test the sentiments of the Wabash and Miami Indians in April 1790; the gist of his report was that the young men of the nations could not be restrained from war, that the majority of the savages had "a bad heart." The influence of McKee and Girty was in absolute authority.[3] "I now enclose the proceedings of Mr. Gamelin," wrote Major Hamtramck to Gov-

  1. Id.
  2. Id.
  3. Id., pp. 93, 94; St. Clair to Knox, Id., p. 87.