REMINISCENCES OF SARATOGA AND BALLSTON.

WILLIAM L. STONE.

1880.

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CHAPTER II.

Visit of General Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Governor George Clinton to the High Rock in 1783.

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"CAN Freedom find no champion and no child

Such as Columbia saw arise, when she

Sprang forth a Pallas, arm’d and undefil’d?

Or must such minds be nourish’d in the wild,

Deep in the unprun’d forest, ’midst the roar

Of cataracts, where nursing Nature smil’d

On infant Washington? Has Earth no more

Such seeds within her breast, or Europe no such shore?"

BYRON.

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THE year 1783 was a memorable one in the history of Saratoga Springs. In that year, General Philip Schuyler, as mentioned in the preceding chapter, cut a road through the woods to the "High Rock"; and in the same summer, no less a personage than General Washington, accompanied by his aides, Alexander Hamilton and Governor George Clinton, honored it with his presence. The circumstances which led to this visit are casually hinted at in the following passage from Irving’s Washington . Mr. Irving says:

"Washington now (1783) found his position at Headquarters (Newburg) irksome; there was little to do, and he was likely to be incessantly teased with applications and demands, which he had neither the means nor power to satisfy. He resolved, therefore, to while away part of the time that must intervene before the arrival of the definitive treaty by making a tour to the northern and western parts of the State, and visiting the places which had been the theatre of important military transactions. He had another object in view: he desired to facilitate, as far as in his power, the operations which would be necessary for occupying, as soon as evacuated by British troops, the posts ceded by the Treaty of Peace.

The party, following "Tom’s" instructions, found the Spring, then flowing through a barrel, and in the middle of a dense forest. From the Spring, Washington and his companions proceeded to General Gordon’s where they dined. Toward nightfall, they parted from that General with many expressions of regret, and left for Schenectady, General Gordon, attired in full regimentals, escorting them and riding upon General Washington’s right. As the party moved off, James Scott, the father of the Hon. G.G. Scott of Ballston, then in his tenth year, boy-like, secreted himself behind a rail-fence by the roadside, and peeped through the rails. He ever afterwards retained a vivid recollection of Washington’s physiognomy and appearance on horseback.

The next year, 1784, another distinguished visitor came to the High Rock, brought there, undoubtedly, by the advice of Washington. This was Colonel Otho H. Williams, who, in a letter to the latter, thus gives an account of his visit, as well as a description of the "High Rock Spring" itself:

LETTER FROM COLONEL OTHO H. WILLIAMS TO GENERAL WASHINGTON

{ Washington’s Correspondence , vol. iv. p. 73.}

BALTIMORE, July 12, 1784

DEAR SIR: After I had the pleasure of seeing you in Philadelphia, I made an excursion to New York, and from there up the North River as far as Saratoga. One motive for extending my tour so far that course, was to visit the Springs in the vicinity of Saratoga, which I recollected you once recommended to me as a remedy for the rheumatism. They are now frequented by the uncivilized people of the back country; but very few others resort to them, as there is but one small hut within several miles of the place. Corporal Armstrong and myself spent one week there which was equal to a little campaign; for the accommodations were very wretched, and provisions exceedingly scarce. The country about the Springs being uncultivated, we were forced to send to the borders of the Hudson for what was necessary for our subsistence.

During our stay we made a few little experiments on the waters. Bark of a restringent ( sic ) quality turned them to a purple color very suddenly, and we thought that iron was discernible even to the taste. They have certainly a very great quantity of salts. A quart of the water boiled down produced a spoonful, which, being diluted in common water, there remained on the surface a quantity of insipid, tasteless matter, like chalk, which we collected; then, pouring off the water into a clear vessel, we found remaining at the bottom something like slacked lime. The water in which the first production was diluted, being boiled down, produced half a spoonful of very acute salt. But that which distinguishes these waters in a very conspicuous degree from all others, is the great quantity of fixed air which they contain. They are exceedingly pungent to the taste, and after being drunk a short time will often affect the nose like brisk bottled ale. The water will raise flour sooner than any other thing, and cannot be confined so that the air will not, somehow or other, escape. Several persons told us that they had corked it tight in bottles, and that the bottles broke. We tried it with the only bottle we had, which did not break, but the air found its way through a wooden stopper and the wax with which it was sealed. A trout died in the water in less than a minute, or seemed dead, but moved in common water. This experiment was repeated with the same effect. We observed in digging that the rocks which are about the Springs, and which, in one or two places, project themselves above the earth in a conic form, go not deep into the ground, but are formed by the waters, which (the man who lives at the place informed us) overflow once per month, when not disturbed, and the earthy parts, being exposed to the air and sun, petrify and increase. This opinion is strengthened by the shells and bodies of insects which we found in broken parts of the rock.

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At Clermont, Mrs. Livingston charged me with a letter for Mrs. Washington, and with her most respectful compliments to you, Sir. All that amiable family joined in affectionate compliments to you and to Mrs. Washington; and I beg you will permit me to add my own.

I am, etc.,

OTHO H. WILLIAMS.

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Transcribed from the original text and html prepared by Bill Carr, last updated 2/8/00.