339 In his writings, he had this to say of Washington and of the "mysterious" occurrences of the time:   . . . After breakfast . . . we made an agreeable excursion in the neighborhood, calling for a short time at the little insignificant wooden village of Washington, where the government land-sales were holding.   I was not desirous of remaining long at this place. General Houston was here, leading a mysterious sort of life, shut up in a small tavern, seeing nobody by day and sitting up all night. The world gave him credit for passing his waking hours, in the study of trente et quarante and sept a lever; but I had been in communication with too many persons of late, and had seen to much passing before my eyes to be ignorant that this little place was the rendezvous where a much deeper game than faro or rouge-et-noir was playing. There were many persons at this time in the village from the States lying adjacent to the Mississippi, under the pretence of purchasing government lands, but whose real object was to encourage the settlers of Texas to throw off their allegiance to the Mexican government. Many of these individuals were personally acquainted with me; they knew I was not with them and would naturally conclude that I was against them. Having nothing whatever in common with their plans, and no inclination to forward or oppose them. . .   Mister Featherstonhaugh left Washington for other parts (9).   Featherstonhaugh was a typical Englishman of his day, haughty, fond of "the Empire," and was likely to cast a rather stern frown upon any group which was desirous of riding itself of a government, no matter how unpopular it was. His sensitivity was, too, that of an Englishman. He felt that his presence was not appreciated, so, after having called Washington "insignificant, he then quite explicitly explained just how significant it really was. ____________________ 9. G. W. Featherstonhaugh, Excursion through thee Slave States of North America, (New York: Harper Brothers, 1844) 160.           Contents  Words  Study Questions  Related Sites Next Page