Mount Vernon, November 20, 1786.
Dear Sir: I have received your letter of the 25th. of October. 87 I only write now to acknowledge the receipt of it, and to inform you that I shall be happy to do anything in my power to forward the settlement which you mention, or to oblige, in any way, any of my Compatriots in the field.
[Note:In the Washington Papers. In it Hull informed of an association of parties in Massachusetts to emigrate to the Northwest Territory. ]
As soon as I have collected all the necessary and useful information I can respecting the matter, (which I will endeavour to do) I will with pleasure communicate it to you; for at present my knowledge of the Western Country is more general, than particular, especially in the parts of it to which I presume you have turned your eyes. From Fort Pitt, downwards as low as the Great Kanhawa I have a pretty accurate knowledge of the climate, Soil &c.; but below this river, and west of the Ohio my ideas are borrowed. I am, etc. 88
[Note:From the "Letter Book" copy in the Washington Papers.On November 21 Gilbert Simpson, of Truro Parish, Fairfax County, Va., signed a bond to Washington, to surrender the tenement he held on lease from William Clifton on or before Dec. 25, 1786. This bond, in the writing of Washington, is in the Washington Papers. ]