1763, Mat.] SLAUGHTER OF TRADERS. 7 



all the forts of the interior. The Delawares and 

 Shawanoes of the Ohio were following their exam- 

 ple, and were murdering all the traders among 

 them. Calhoun and the thirteen men in his em- 

 ploy lost no time in taking their departure. The 

 Indians forced them to leave their guns behind, 

 promising that they would give them three war- 

 riors to guide them in safety to Fort Pitt ; but 

 the whole proved a piece of characteristic dissimu- 

 lation and treachery. The three guides led them 

 into an ambuscade at the mouth of Beaver Creek. 

 A volley of balls showered upon them ; eleven 

 were killed on the spot, and Calhoun and two 

 others alone made their escape.^ " I see," writes 

 Ecuyer to his colonel, " that the affair is general. 

 I tremble for our outposts. I believe, from what I 

 hear, that I am surrounded by Indians. I neglect 

 nothing to give them a good reception ; and I 

 expect to be attacked to-morrow morning. Please 

 God I may be. I am passably well prepared. 

 Everybody is at work, and I do not sleep ; but I 

 tremble lest my messenger should be cut off." 



The intelligence concerning the fate of the 

 traders in the Indian villages proved but too 

 true. They were slaughtered everywhere, without 

 mercy, and often under circumstances of the foulest 

 barbarity. A boy named M'Cullough, captured 

 during the French war, and at this time a prisoner 

 among the Indians, relates, in his published narra- 

 tive, that he, with a party of Indian children, went 

 out, one evening, to gaze with awe and wonder at 



1 Copy of intelligence brought to Fort Pitt by Mr. Calhoun, MS. 



