I certainly embark for Europe the soonest a passage can be had, perhaps three or four weeks hence, though I believe I shall be forced to take the West Indies in the way, and probably may winter there. My love to my good sisters and families. My best respects to Mr. Armistead and all my relations and friends in your country. Farewell! farewell! The good Doctor, Parson Cole and all. I have commissioned a gentleman to get Mr. Holmes a hat from York. Mrs. Walker has recovered her two negroes, and my mother her one. The French fleet and all our troops are under sailing and marching orders. If Major Hulston is with you, let him know Mr. Burrows from his State has his servant that he wrote about. I enclose two yards of ribbon for my sister Sarah, and two for sister Mary, or in her absence little Bess,-trophies from York. Had the stores been opened I would have dealt more largely, though they are strictly guarded and general orders against any thing being sold till the army is supplied. All health and happiness to you and yours and all with you. Your affectionate friend and servant, W. FONTAINE. MRS. MARY WASHINGTON. We have extracted the following notices of this eminent lady, the mother of Washington, from a sketch of her by Mrs. Ellet in her recent and interesting work, entitled "The Women of the American Revolution." "The only memoir of the mother of Washington extant, is the one written by Geo. W. P. Custis, the grandson of Martha Washington, and published more than 20 years ago in his "Recollections" in the National Gazette. These reminiscences were collected by him in the course of many years; and to them we are indebted for all that is known of the life and actions of this matron. According to these, she was descended from the re spectable family of Ball, who came to this country and settled on the banks of the Potomac. In the old days of Virginia, women were taught habits of industry and self reliance, and in these Mrs. Washington was nurtured. The early death of her husband involved her in the cares of a young family with limited resources, which rendered prudence and economy necessary to provide for and educate her children. Thus circumstanced, it was left to her unassisted efforts to form in her son's mind, those essential qualities which gave tone and character to his subsequent life. George was only twelve years old at his father's death, and retained merely the remembrance of his person, and his parental fondness. Two years after this event, he obtained a midshipman's warrant, but his mother opposed the plan, and the idea of entering the naval service was relinquished. The home in which Mrs. Washington presided, was a sanctuary of the domestic virtues. The levity of youth was there tempered by a well-regulated restraint, and the enjoyments rational and proper for that age were indulged in with moderation. The future chief was taught the duty of obedience, and was thus prepared to command. The mother's authority never departed from her, even when her son had attained the height of his renown; for she still ruled by the affection which controlled his spirit when he needed a guardian; and she claimed a reverence next to that due to his Creator. This claim he admitted, mingling the deepest respect with enthusiastic attachment, and yielding to her will the most implicit obedience, even to the latest hours of her life. One of the associates of his juvenile years, Lawrence Washington, of Chotank, thus speaks of his home: "I was often there with George, his playmate, schoolmate, and young man's companion. Of the mother I was ten times more afraid than I ever was of my own parents: she awed me in the midst of her kindness, for she was truly kind. And even now, when time has whitened my locks, and I am the grand parent of a second generation; I could not behold the majestic woman without feelings it is impossible to describe. Whoever has seen that awe-inspiring air and manner so characteristic of the Father of his Country, will remember the matron as she appeared, the presiding genius of her well-ordered household, commanding and being obeyed." Educated under such influences, it is not to be wondered at, that Washington's deportment towards his mother at all times, testified his appreciation of her elevated character, and the excellence of her lessons. "On his appointment to the command-in-chief of the American armies," says Mr. Custis, "previously to his joining the forces at Cambridge, he removed his mother from her residence, to the village of Fredericksburg, a situation remote from all danger and contiguous to her friends and relatives. There she remained during nearly the whole of the trying period of the Revolution. When news arrived of the passage of the Delaware in December 1776, the mother received calmly the patriots who came with congratulations; and while expressing pleasure at the intelligence, disclaimed for her son the praises in the letters from which extracts were read. When informed by express of the surrender of Cornwallis, she lifted her hands in gratitude towards heaven, and exclaimed, "Thank God! war will now be ended, and peace, independence and happiness bless our country!" "She Her housewifery, industry, and care in the management of her domestic concerns, were not intermitted during the war. looketh well to the ways of her household," and "worketh willingly with her hands," said the wise man, in describing a virtuous woman; and it was the pride of the exemplary women of that day, to fill the station of mistress with usefulness as well as dignity. Mrs. Washington was remarkable for a simplicity which modern refinement might call severe, but which became her not less when her fortunes were clouded, than when the sun of glory arose upon her house. Some of the aged inhabitants of Fredericksburg long remembered the matron, "as seated in an oldfashioned open chaise she was in the habit of visiting, almost daily, her little farm in the vicinity of the town. When there, she would ride about her fields, giving her orders and seeing that they were obeyed." When on one occasion an agent departed from his instructions-she reproved him for exercising his own judgment in the matter; "I command you," she said, "there is nothing left for you but to obey." Her charity to the poor was well known; and having not wealth to distribute, it was necessary that what her benevolence dispensed should be supplied by domestic economy and industry. Mr. Custis states that she was continually visited and solaced, in the retirement of her declining years, by her children, and numerous grandchildren. Her daughter, Mrs. Lewis, repeatedly and earnestly solicited her to remove to her house, and there pass the remainder of her days. Her son pressingly entreated her that she would make Mount Vernon the home of her age. But the matron's answer was: "I thank you for your affectionate and dutiful offers, but my wants are few in this world, and I feel perfectly competent to take care of myself." To the proposition of her son-in-law, Col. Lewis, to relieve her by taking the direction of her concerns, she replied: "Do you, Fielding, keep my books in order; for your eyesight is better than mine; but leave the executive management to me." Such were the energy and independence she preserved to an age beyond that usually allotted to mortals, and until within three years of her death, when the disease under which she suffered (cancer of the breast) prevented exertion. Her meeting with Washington, after the victory which decided the fortune of America, illustrates her character too strikingly to be omitted. "After an absence of nearly seven years, it was, at length, on the return of the combined armies from Yorktown, permitted to the mother again to see and embrace her illustrious son. "The Lady was alone-her aged hands employed in the works of domestic industry, when the good news was announced; and it was further told, that the victor-chief was in waiting at the threshold. She welcomed him with a warm embrace, and by the well-remembered and endearing names of his childhood. Inquiring as to his health, she remarked the lines which mighty cares, and many trials, had made on his manly countenance; spoke much of old times, and old friends; but of his glory, not one word!" "The Marquis de La Fayette repaired to Fredericksburg, previous to his departure for Europe, in the fall of 1784, to pay his parting respects to the mother, and to ask her blessing. Conducted by one of her grandsons, he approached the house, when the young gentleman observed: "There, sir, is my grandmother." La Fayette beheld-working in the garden, clad in domesticmade clothes, and her gray head covered with a plain straw hatthe mother of "his hero, his friend, and a country's preserver!" The lady saluted him kindly, observing, 'Ah, marquis! you see an old woman; but come, I can make you welcome to my poor dwelling, without the parade of changing my dress.'" To the encomiums lavished by the marquis on his chief, the mother replied: "I am not surprised at what George has done, for he was always a very good boy." The person of Mrs. Washington is described as being of the medium height, and well proportioned-her features pleasing, though strongly marked. There were few painters in the colonies in those days, and no portrait of her is in existence. Mrs. Washington died at the age of eighty-five, rejoicing in the consciousness of a life well spent, and the hope of a blessed immortality. Her ashes repose at Fredericksburg, where a splen did monument has been erected to her memory! From the National Era. EL DORADO.-THE GOLD MINES OF CALIFORNIA. "What is here? Gold?-Yellow, glittering, precious Gold? Thus much of this, will make black, white; foul, fair; This yellow slave Will knit and break religions; bless the accursed; After making all due allowance for the exaggeration of traders and speculators, in California, and of their credulous customers, we cannot doubt that gold has been found in the valley of the Sacramento river, and in the spurs of the Sierra Nevada; at all events, some thousands of Yankees, Sandwich Islanders, Mexicans, and Indians, are hard at work, in the intervals of fever and ague, sifting sand and washing gravel; and if the documents in the possession of our Government, and the late letters from Col. Mason and "Don Walter Colton" are to be credited, they are actually acquiring gold at the rate of from $15 to $40 per day for each laborer. As a matter of course, there is getting to be a very general rush towards the Paradise of Gold. We hear of some sixty or seventy vessels advertised in our principal ports for California and Chagres. A mere boat of only 30 tons, manned by adventurers, has just sailed from New Bedford (Mass.) for San Francisco, to encounter the icebergs of Cape Horn, and the dangerous billows of that mighty ocean "Which fluctuates where the storms of El Dorado sound." Ere this, we doubt not, the dwellers of the great valley of the Southwest are moving on their inland route towards the favored region. The feverish excitement of the gold hunters of the 16th century of the days of Cortez and Pizarro--of Raleigh, and |