1760-1763.] THE FUR TRADERS. 153 



be open before him, interrupted only by the difficult 

 portage at the Cataract of Niagara. 



The chief thoroughfare from the middle colonies 

 to the Indian country was from Philadelphia west- 

 ward, across the Alleghanies, to the valley of the 

 Ohio. Peace was no sooner concluded with the 

 hostile tribes, than the adventurous fur-traders, 

 careless of risk to life and property, hastened 

 over the mountains, each eager to be foremost in 

 the wilderness market. Their merchandise was 

 sometimes carried in wagons as far as the site of 

 Fort du Quesne, which the English rebuilt after its 

 capture, changing its name to Fort Pitt. From 

 this point the goods were packed on the backs 

 of horses, and thus distributed among the various 

 Indian villages. More commonly, however, the 

 whole journey was performed by means of trains, 

 or, as they were called, brigades of packhorses, 

 which, leaving the frontier settlements, climbed the 

 shadowy heights of the Alleghanies, and threaded 

 the forests of the Ohio, diving through thickets, 

 and wading over streams. The men employed in 

 this perilous calling were a rough, bold, and 

 intractable class, often as fierce and truculent as 

 the Indians themselves. A blanket coat, or a 

 frock of smoked deer-skin, a rifle on the shoulder, 

 and a knife and tomahawk in the belt, formed 

 their ordinary equipment. The principal trader, 

 the owner of the merchandise, would fix his head- 

 quarters at some large Indian town, whence he 

 would despatch his subordinates to the surrounding 

 villages, with a suitable supply of blankets and 



