1763, June.] PREPARATION AT FORT PITT. 1 1 



them at full gallop, routing them in an instant, and 

 driving them far through the woods. ^ 



x\t Fort Pitt every preparation was made for an 

 attack. The houses and cabins outside the rampart 

 were levelled to the ground, and every morning, at 

 an hour before dawn, the drum beat, and the troops 

 were ordered to their alarm posts.^ The garrison 

 consisted of three hundred and thirty soldiers, 

 traders, and backwoodsmen ; and there were also 

 in the fort about one hundred women, and a still 

 greater number of children, most of them belong- 

 ing to the families of settlers who were preparing 

 to build their cabins in the neighborhood.^ " We 

 are so crowded in the fort," writes Ecuyer to Colonel 

 Bouquet, " that I fear disease ; for, in spite of every 

 care, I cannot keep the place as clean as I should 

 like. Besides, the small-pox is among us ; and I 

 have therefore caused a hospital to be built under 

 the drawbridge, out of range of musket-shot. . . . 

 I am determined to hold my post, spare my men, 



1 Pennsylvania Gazette, No. 1799. I shall frequently refer to the col- 

 umns of this journal, which are filled with letters, and extracts from 

 letters, written at different parts of the frontier, and containing very mi- 

 nute and authentic details of the events which daily occurred. 



•^ Extract from a Letter — Fori Pitt, June 16, 17G3 [Penn. Gaz. No. 

 1801). 



"We have Alarms from, and Skirmishes with, the Indians every 

 Day ; but they have done us Uttle Harm as yet. Yesterday I was out 

 with a Party of Men, when we were fired upon, and one of the Serjeants 

 was killed ; but we beat off the Indians, and brought the Man in with his 

 Scalp on. Last Night the Bullock Guard was fired upon, when one Cow 

 was killed. We are obhged to be on Duty Night and Day. The Indians 

 have cut off above 100 of our Traders in the Woods, besides all our httle 

 Posts. We have Plenty of Provisions ; and the Fort is m such a good 

 Posture of Defence, that, with God's Assistance, we can defend it agamst 

 1000 Indians." 



3 MS. Letter — ^cu?/er to Bouquet, June 5. Ihid. June 26. 



