issitudes of their fortune, they kept him
carefully informed of their movements and projects. For two years after
their departure no word was received from him. At last, spurred by the
sharp reproaches of Serre, he broke silence. In a letter written in
March, 1783, informing Gallatin of the troubles in Switzerland, he
excused himself on the plea that their common friend, Dumont, retained
him at Geneva. In answer, Gallatin opened his plans of western
settlement, which included the employment of his fortune in the
establishment of a number of families upon his lands. He suggested to
Badollet to bring with him the little money he had, to which enough
would be added to establish him independently. Dumont was invited to
accompany him. But with a prudence which shows that his previous
experience had not been thrown away upon him, Gallatin recommends his
friend not to start at once, but to hold himself ready for the next, or,
at the latest, the year succeeding, at the same time suggesting the idea
of a general emigration of such Swiss malcontents as were small
capitalists and farmers; that of manufacturers and workmen he
discouraged. It was not, however, until the spring of 1785, on the eve
of leaving Richmond with some families which he had engaged to establish
on his lands, that he felt justified in asking his old friend to cross
the seas and share his lot. This invitation was accepted, and Badollet
joined him at George's Creek.

The settlement beginning to spread, Gallatin bought another farm higher
up the river, to which he gave the name of Friendship Hill. Here he
later made his home.

The western part of Pennsylvania, embracing the area which stretches
from the Alleghany Mountains to Lake Erie, is celebrated for the wild,
picturesque beauty of its scenery. Among its wooded hills the head
waters of the Ohio have their source. At Fort Duquesne, or Pittsburgh,
where the river takes a sudden northerly bend before finally settling in
swelling volume on its southwesterly course to the Mississippi, the
Monongahela adds its mountain current, which separates in its entire
course from the Virginia line the two counties of Fayette and
Washington. The Monongahela takes its rise in Monongalia County,
Virginia, and flows to the northward. Friendship Hill is one of the
bluffs on the right bank of the river, and faces the Laurel Ridge to the
eastward. Braddock's Road, now the National Road, crosses the mountains,
passing through Union