George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 5, 13th edition.

[126] attempt could have been heard, other savages ap-

chap. VII.} 1763. June.

peared on the clear ground before Fort Pitt, and attacked it on every side, killing one man and wounding another. The night of the twenty-third, they strolled round the fort to reconnoitre it, and after midnight sought a conference.¹

‘Brother, the commanding officer,’ said Turtle's Heart, a principal warrior of the Delawares, ‘all your posts and strong places, from this backwards, are burnt and cut off. Your fort, fifty miles down (meaning Ligonier), is likewise destroyed before now. This is the only one you have left in our country. We have prevailed with six different nations of Indians, that are ready to attack you, to forbear till we came and warned you to go home. They have further agreed to permit you and your people to pass safe to the inhabitants. Therefore, brother, we desire that you may set off to-morrow, as great numbers of Indians are coming here, and after two days we shall not be able to do any thing with them for you.’² The brave commander, in his reply to this second summons, warned the Indians of their danger from three English armies, on their march to the frontier of Virginia, to Fort Pitt and to the north-west.³

A schooner, with a reinforcement of sixty men,

July.

had reached the Detroit in June; at daybreak of the twenty-ninth of July the garrison was surprised⁴ by the appearance of Dalyell, an aide-de-camp to Amherst,