to reconnoitre Fort Duquesne. On reaching the neighborhood of the fort, this officer sent out an engineer, accompanied by a covering party, to take a plan of the works; and as if fearful he might take some underhand advantage, he ordered the reveillee to be beat in full view of the garrison. The salute was not disregarded, and Major Grant was soon attacked by the Indians, who passed his rear under covert of the banks of the Monongahela and the Allegany; he was defeated and taken prisoner.

The only adventure connected with this disgraceful gasconade, is the gallant defence maintained by Major Lewis and Captain Bullitt, at the head of the Virginia rear guard. Major Lewis, though sent back two miles into the rear, hearing the fire in front, hastened to the assistance of his commander, leaving Captain Bullitt with fifty men to defend the baggage. The reinforcement was however ineffectual; both Grant and Lewis were taken prisoners, the whole detachment defeated, and the enemy rushed forward to consummate their vengeance upon the rear guard: Captain Bullitt now made the most effectual preparations to meet the enemy; so fierce was this reception, that out of one hundred and sixty-two men, sixty were killed, and two taken prisoners. Of the officers, eight in number, five were killed, one wounded, one taken prisoner, and Bullitt was the only officer who escaped with the residue of his guard, unhurt, to the main army. So proud and honorable a specimen of Colonel Washington's training to arms, reflected high credit on him, his officers and men; he was accordingly complimented on account of it, in public, by General Forbes.

The conduct of Bullitt deserves a little more detail than the paucity of information furnishes, in regard to the general affair. When Cap. Bullitt perceived that the main detachment was defeated, he sent off the most valuable parts of the baggage, on the strongest horses, and placed another part at an advantageous angle of the road, as a covert for his troops. Here the Indians were received by a destructive fire as they pushed on with their usual avidity for plunder. But apprehensive of

the enemy's getting into his rear, Bullitt ordered his men to lower their arms, and when the Indians should approach to receive their imagined surrender, they were, at a concerted signal, to deliver their fire, and charge with the bayonet. Just as this sagacious and resolute officer had foreseen, the enemy, who, on approaching and seeing the Virginians with trailed arms, rushed forward, eager to enjoy their anticipated triumph, received a heavy fire, followed by a severe charge of the bayonet, which routed them effectually.* Well might Colonel Washington say, in his letter to Governor Fauquier, that “Bullitt's behavior is matter of great admiration."

At the camp at Loyal Hanna, a council was held on the 9th of November, when it was determined, as Virginia and Washington had too well foreboded, to suspend further operations until next season, after having consumed another five months in approaching the Ohio. Nothing but the accidental capture of three prisoners, who communicated the weakness of the garrison, prevented the fulfilment of this prediction.The intelligence thus received, changed the determination of the General, and the troops were ordered "to march on without their tents or baggage, and with only a light train of artillery." On the 25th of November, 1758, the army reached Fort Duquesne, the source which had for four years supplied such overflowing streams of Indian massacre on the frontiers. It was found deserted by the French troops, who had suffered the British army to advance within a day's march of the place, "burned the fort, and ran away by the light of it at night, going down the Ohio by water, to the number of about five hundred men." Thus was one more advance post established in the sweeping march of American population into the wilderness of North America. The name of the fort was most justly changed to Fort Pitt, in honor of the illustrious minister of that name, the father of the scarcely less eminent son of the same name in more recent times. The maintenance of this important out post

The public are indebted to Mr. H. Marshall, Sen. for preserving the particulars of this gallant adventure of a gentleman subsequently connected with Kentucky, in the first edition of his history of the State, but which he has omitted in his second

edition.

† Sparks, vol. ii.-320.

was imposed on the Virginia troops, when they had "hardly rags to cover their nakedness, and exposed to the inclemencies of the weather."* In vain Colonel Washington remonstrated against this addition to the burdens of the zealous colony to which he belonged; the General told him, that as he had no orders from the ministry, he could not station the royal troops at this fort. So great was the scarcity of provisions, that enough could not be collected for a garrison of two hundred men alone, and these, Colonel Washington wrote, "must, without great exertions, I fear, abandon the place or perish."

CHAPTER II.

Resignation of Washington-Peace of Paris in 1763-British Appropriations to the Colonies-Exertions of Virginia in men and money-Rise of Towns in Western Virginia-Colonel Bouquet's Expeditions-Settlements on the Monongahela and the Ohio-Brownsville and Wheeling-First Anglo-American Expedition to Kentucky -Descent of the Ohio by George Croghan, in 1765-Visit of John Finley, in 1767Daniel Boon in 1769-Treaty of Hard Labor in October 1768-Of Fort Stanwix, Nov. 1768-Treaty of Lochaber in 1770-Thomas Bullitt and the McAfees visit Kentuc ky-Murder of the Chief, Bald Eagle-Destruction of Bulltown-Expedition of Colonel Angus McDonald-Battle of Kenhawa-Lord Dunmore's Campaign against the Shawnees at Chillicothe-Indian Peace of 1774-Treaty of Wataga in 1775-Colony and Convention of Transylvania-Conventions of Virginia-Virginia Declaration of Rights, June 12th, 1776-Independence of Virginia.

At the close of this campaign, Colonel Washington, as he had predetermined, returned from the army, and took his seat in the House of Burgesses of Virginia, to which he had, most hon orably to his character, after the trying and exasperating services on the frontier, been elected by the county of Frederick; and by a triumphant majority, while he was battling for his countrymen against the savages of the wilderness.

It was while a member of this body, that Washington received the honest and expressive compliment of Speaker Robinson. When his modesty and embarrassment prevented him from replying to the thanks of the House, which had been voted him for his distinguished services to his country, and delivered by the Speaker to Colonel Washington, on taking his place in that body; this officer said, "Sit down, Mr. Washington, your mod*Sparks, vol. ii.-325

esty is equal to your valor, and that surpasses the power of any language that I possess."*

A succession of brilliant victories, from Ticonderoga to Quebec, finally compelled the French, after nine years' most active and military management of their enormous disparity of popu lation, and of domestic means of warfare, to surrender all the fruits of national enterprize in America for nearly a century and a half, to the British arms and those of our own country. The participation of the British colonists, and particularly those of them who lived on the norhtern frontier, in the memorable expulsion of the French from Canada, was most material. Not only their blood flowed freely for the capture of Fort Duquesne, before Quebec and at Havanna, but their local knowledge, the domestic resources of men and provisions, and above all, their knowledge of Indian fighting, rendered incalculable service to the British arms. The colony of Virginia alone, raised in the course of this war, from February, 1754, to May, 1760, the sum of £233,000, currency it is supposed, and from the same time to November, 1762, she maintained thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy men. Her force in the field varied from one to two thousand. Nor was the British Parliament unmindful of these zealous advances of "the ancient colony and dominion of Virginia," as well as of her sister colonies. In the energetic and patriotic efforts which resulted so honorably to the British name, the colonies of New England moved proudly in the van; the spirit of their Puritan ancestors then, as ever since, animated them to be foremost in the noblest race of life. The British Parliament, in testimony of their sense of the colonial efforts, in 1757, appropriated £50,000 sterling "for the use of his Majesty's subjects in the several provinces of North and South Carolina and Virginia;" and in 1758, the same body granted £200,000" to recompense the respective provinces in North America, for the expenses incurred by them in levying, clothing, and pay of the troops raised by the same; according as the active vigor and strenuous efforts of the respective provinces shall be thought, by his Majesty, to merit." Of these two sums, the Henning. at the above years.

* Wirt's Henry-45.

King assigned £52,814 to Virginia, as her proportion; still leaving her own expenditure during the war, without relief, at $537,213.*

Amidst the din of arms, and the devastations of a most cruel enemy, it is gratifying to record the establishment of the towns of Staunton in Augusta, New London in Bedford, and Strasburg in Frederick county, all in 1761.

Yet notwithstanding these cheering evidences of the progress of the country, still the influence of the peace (which had been concluded at Paris, on the 10th of February, 1763,) on the hostilities of the Indians was, by no means, immediate. An extensive combination of the northwestern tribes attacked the British posts from Michillimackinac to Fort Pitt. Under the guiding genius of Pontiac, these posts fell into the hands of the Indians, except Detroit, Niagara and Fort Pitt. The successes of the Indians were counteracted by a vigorous expedition of Colonel Bouquet, who succeeded in relieving the latter of the forts just mentioned. The next year this officer followed up his success, by a strong incursion into the Indian territory, as far as the Muskingum. This brought about a peace, and delivery of prisoners and hostages. During this respite from Indian hostilities, the frontiers, as usual, began to fill and stretch farther into the wilderness, occupying the waters of the Monongahela and the Ohio.

The most important of these new occupations of the west was Fort Redstone, in 1767, the site of the present town of Brownsville, in Pennsylvania. In 1769, the Zanes, Ebenezer, Silas and Jonathan, all brothers, and of a memorable family, visited the Ohio. The first of the party, all of whom were most efficient supporters of the settlement on Wheeling creek, selected an eminence, still existing in the present town of that name, for his own residence.

In 1772, the country on Simpson's creek, West Fork river and Elk creek, in the neighborhood of the present town of Clarksburg, was frequented by settlers. So rapid was the current of redundant, or restless population, that the crops of the preceding season proved to be two thirds short of the demand for consump*Henning, vii.—372. ↑ Bouquet's Historical Account, Philadelphia, 1765.