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

[130] flour, and provisions on pack-horses and in wagons

chap. VII.} 1763. July.

drawn by oxen. Between Carlisle and Bedford they passed the ruins of mills, deserted cabins, fields waving with the harvest, but without a reaper, and all the signs of a savage and ruthless enemy. On the twenty-eighth of July the party left Bedford, to wind its way, under the parching suns of midsummer, over the Alleghanies, along the narrow road, which was walled in by the dense forest on either side.

On the second day of August the troops and con-

Aug.

voy arrived at Ligonier, but the commander could give no intelligence of the enemy. All the expresses for the previous month had been killed or forced to return.

Leaving the wagons at Ligonier, Bouquet, on the fourth of August, proceeded with the troops and about three hundred and fifty pack-horses. At one o'clock on the fifth, the savages, who had been besieging Fort Pitt, suddenly attacked the advanced guard; but two companies of Highlanders drove them from their ambuscade. When the pursuit ceased, the savages returned. The Western Nations, as if at the crisis of their destiny, fought like men contending, for their homes, and forests, and hunting grounds, and all that they loved most. Again the Highlanders charged with fixed bayonets; but as soon as the savages were driven from one post they appeared in another, and at last were in such numbers as to surround the English, who would have been utterly routed and cut to pieces but for the cool behavior of the troops and the excellent conduct of the officers.¹