In February, 1784, Gallatin returned to Philadelphia, perfected the arrangements for his expedition, and in March crossed the mountains, and, with his exploring party, passed down the Ohio River to Monongalia County in Virginia. The superior advantages of the country north of the Virginia line determined him to establish his headquarters there. He selected the farm of Thomas Clare, at the junction of the Monongahela River and George's Creek. This was in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, about four miles north of the Virginia line. Here he built a log hut, opened a country store, and remained till the close of the year. It was while thus engaged at George's Creek, in September of the year 1784, that Gallatin first met General Washington, who was examining the country, in which he had large landed interests, to select a route for a road across the Alleghanies. The story of the interview was first made public by Mr. John Russell Bartlett, who had it from the lips of Mr. Gallatin. The version of the late Hon. William Beach Lawrence, in a paper prepared for the New York Historical Society, differs slightly in immaterial points. Mr. Lawrence says:--

"Among the incidents connected with his (Mr. Gallatin's) earliest explorations was an interview with General Washington, which he repeatedly recounted to me. He had previously observed that of all the inaccessible men he had ever seen, General Washington was the most so. And this remark he made late in life, after having been conversant with most of the sovereigns of Europe and their prime ministers. He said, in connection with his office, he had a cot-bed in the office of the surveyor of the district when Washington, who had lands in the neighborhood, and was desirous of effecting communication between the rivers, came there. Mr. Gallatin's bed was given up to him,--Gallatin lying on the floor, immediately below the table at which Washington was writing. Washington was endeavoring to reduce to paper the calculations of the day. Gallatin, hearing the statement, came at once to the conclusion, and, after waiting some time, he himself gave the answer, which drew from Washington such a look as he never experienced before or since. On arriving by a slow process at his conclusion, Washington turned to Gallatin and said, 'You are right, young man.'"

The points of difference between the two accounts of this interview are of little importance. The look which Washington is said to have given Mr. Gallatin has its counterpart in that with which he is also said to have turned upon Gouverneur Morris, when accosted by him familiarly with a touch on the shoulder. Bartlett, in his recollection of the anecdote, adds that Washington, about this period, inquired after the forward young man, and urged him to become his land agent,--an offer which Gallatin declined.

The winter of 1784-85 was passed in Richmond, in the society of which town Mr. Gallatin began to find a relief and pleasure he had not yet experienced in America. At this period the Virginia capital was the gayest city in the Union, and famous for its abundant hospitality, rather facile manners, and the liberal tendency of its religious thought. Gallatin brought no prudishness and no orthodoxy in his Genevese baggage. One of the last acts of his life was to recognize in graceful and touching words the kindness he then met with:--

"I was received with that old proverbial Virginia hospitality to which I know no parallel anywhere within the circle of my travels. It was not hospitality only that was shown to me. I do not know how it came to pass, but every one with whom I became acquainted appeared to take an interest in the young stranger. I was only the interpreter of a gentleman, the agent of a foreign house, that had a large claim for advances to the State, and this made me known to all the officers of government, and some of the most prominent members of the Legislature. It gave me the first opportunity of showing some symptoms of talent, even as a speaker, of which I was not myself aware. Every one encouraged me, and was disposed to promote my success in life. To name all those from whom I received offers of service would be to name all the most distinguished residents at that time in Richmond."

In the spring of 1785, fortified with a certificate from Governor Patrick Henry, commending him to the county surveyor, and intrusted by Henry with the duty of locating two thousand acres of lands in the western country for a third party, he set out from Richmond, on March 31, alone, on horseback. Following the course of the James River he crossed the Blue Ridge at the Peaks of Otter, and reached Greenbrier Court House on April 18. On the 29th he arrived at Clare's, on George's Creek, where he was joined by Savary. Their surveying operations were soon begun, each taking a separate course. An Indian rising broke up the operations of Savary, and both parties returned to Clare's. Gallatin appeared before the court of Monongalia County, at its October term, and took the "oath of allegiance and fidelity to the Commonwealth of Virginia." Clare's, his actual residence, was north of the Virginia line, but his affections were with the old Dominion. In November the partners hired from Clare a house at George's Creek, in Springfield township, and established their residence, after which they returned to Richmond by way of Cumberland and the Potomac. In February, 1786, Gallatin made his permanent abode at his new home.

Mention has been made of the intimacy of the young emigrants with Jean Badollet, a college companion. When they left Geneva he was engaged in the study of theology, and was now a teacher. He was included in the original plan of emigration, and the first letters of both Gallatin and Serre, who had for him an equal attachment, were to him, and year by year, through all the vicissitudes 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 Uniontown and Red Stone Old Fort (Brownsville), on its course to Pittsburgh. The county seat of Fayette is the borough of Union or Uniontown. Gallatin's log cabin, the beginning of New Geneva, was on the right bank of the Monongahela, about twelve miles to the westward of the county seat. Opposite, on the other side of the river, in Washington County, was Greensburg, where his friend Badollet was later established.

Again for a long period Gallatin left his family without any word whatever. His most indulgent friend, Mademoiselle Pictet, could hardly excuse his silence, and did not hesitate to charge that it was due to misfortunes which his pride prompted him to conceal. In the early days of 1786 a rumor of his death reached Geneva, and greatly alarmed his family. Mr. Jefferson, then minister at Paris, wrote to Mr. Jay for information. This was Jefferson's first knowledge of the existence of the young man who was to become his political associate, his philosophic companion, and his truest friend. Meanwhile Gallatin had attained his twenty-fifth year and his majority. His family were no longer left in doubt as to his existence, and in response to his letters drafts were at once remitted to him for the sum of five thousand dollars, through the banking-house of Robert Morris. This was, of course, immediately applied to his western experiment. The business of the partnership now called for his constant attention. It required the exercise of a great variety of mental powers, a cool and discriminating judgment, combined with an incessant attention to details. Nature, under such circumstances, is not so attractive as she appears in youthful dreams; admirable in her original garb, she is annoying and obstinate when disturbed. The view of country which Friendship Hill commands is said to rival Switzerland in its picturesque beauty, but years later, when the romance of the Monongahela hills had faded in the actualities of life, Gallatin wrote of it that "he did not know in the United States any spot which afforded less means to earn a bare subsistence for those who could not live by manual labor."