Resurveying the highest and hardest to reach Initial Point in the country.

Washington’s letter also contained a wordy paragraph in which he hoped to persuade the government for more money since he had underbid the job. He was probably the first surveyor in California to make this mistake, but certainly not the last. Washington wrote:
"The amount of my account for expenses incurred in erecting the monument being $511 was forwarded to you on the 5th [instruction], but [although] this account closes the transaction with the Government it is nevertheless proper to state that it does not cover all the necessary expenses... and the opinion expressed by you that Four hundred dollars was enough to cover all my necessary expenditures upon this work, believing, as I do, that the account, for the above reasons, would not be allowed, or, if allowed, great delayed to the prejudice of the public service."