In all the ornamented versions we are informed that the boy was to enter the royal navy, and that a midshipman's warrant was procured for him.

There does not appear to be any valid authority for the royal navy, the warrant, or the midshipman.

The contemporary Virginian letters speak simply of "going to sea," while Mr.Ball says distinctly that the plan was to enter the boy on a tobacco-ship, with an excellent chance of being pressed on a man-of-war, and a very faint prospect of either getting into the navy, or even rising to be the captain of one of the petty trading-vessels familiar to Virginian planters.

Some recent writers have put Mr.Ball aside as not knowing what was intended in regard to his nephew, but in view of the difficulty at that time of obtaining commissions in the navy without great political influence, it seems probable that Mrs.Washington's brother knew very well what he was talking about, and he certainly wrote a very sensible letter.

A bold, adventurous boy, eager to earn his living and make his way in the world, would, like many others before him, look longingly to the sea as the highway to fortune and success.