"Royal Gift" recovered his strength and ambition and proved a
valuable piece of property. He was presently sent on a lour of the
South, and while in South Carolina was in the charge of Colonel William
Washington, a hero of the Cowpens and many other battles. The profits
from the tour amounted to $678.64, yet poor "Royal Gift" seems to have
experienced some rough usage on the way thither, arriving lame and thin
and in a generally debilitated condition. The General wrote to the
Colonel about it thus:

"From accounts which I have received from some gentlemen in Virginia he
was most abominably treated on the journey by the man to whom he was
entrusted;--for, instead of moving him slowly and steadily along as he
ought, he was prancing (with the Jack) from one public meeting or place
to another in a gate which could not but prove injurious to an animal
who had hardly ever been out of a walk before--and afterward, I presume,
(in order to recover lost time) rushed him beyond what he was able to
bear the remainder of the journey."

No doubt the beast aroused great curiosity along the way among people
who had never before set eyes upon such a creature. We can well believe
that the cry, "General Washington's jackass is coming!" was always
sufficient to attract a gaping crowd. And many would be the sage
comments upon the animal's voice and appearance.

In 1786 Lafayette sent Washington from the island of Malta another jack
and two jennets, besides some Chinese pheasants and partridges. The
animals landed at Baltimore in November and reached Mount Vernon in good
condition later in the month. To Campion, the man who accompanied them,
Washington gave "30 Louis dores for his trouble." The new jack, the
"Knight of Malta," as he was called, was a smaller beast than "Royal
Gift," and his ears measured only twelve inches, but he was well formed
and had the ferocity of a tiger.

By crossing the two strains Washington ultimately obtained a jack called
"Compound," who united in his person the size and strength of the "Gift"
with the courage and activity of the "Knight." The General also raised
many mules, which he found to be good workers and more cheaply kept in
condition than horses.

Henceforward the peaceful quiet of Mount Vernon was broken many times a
day by sounds which, if not musical or mellifluous, were at least
jubilant and joyous.

Evidently the sounds in no way disturbed the General, for in 1788 we
find him describing the