12 FRONTIER FORTS AND SETTLEMENTS. [1763, June. 



and never expose them without necessity. This, I 

 think, is what you require of me." ^ The desultory 

 outrages with which the war began, and which 

 only served to put the garrison on their guard, 

 prove that among the neighboring Indians there 

 was no chief of sufficient power to curb their way- 

 ward temper, and force them to conform to any 

 preconcerted plan. The authors of the mischief 

 were unruly young warriors, fevered with eagerness 

 to win the first scalp, and setting at defiance the 

 authority of their elders. These petty annoyances, 

 far from abating, continued for many successive 

 days, and kept the garrison in a state of restless 

 alarm. It was dangerous to venture outside the 

 walls, and a few who attempted it were shot and 

 scalped by lurking Indians. " They have the im- 

 pudence," writes an officer, " to fire all night at 

 our sentinels ; " nor were these attacks confined to 

 the night, for even during the day no man willingly 

 exposed his head above the rampart. The sur- 

 rounding woods were known to be full of prowling 

 Indians, whose number seemed daily increasing, 

 though as yet they had made no attempt at a gen- 

 eral attack. At length, on the afternoon of the 

 twenty-second of June, a party of them appeared 

 at the farthest extremity of the cleared lands be- 

 hind the fort, driving off the horses which were 

 grazing there, and killing the cattle. No sooner 

 was this accomplished than a general fire was 

 opened upon the fort from every side at once, 

 though at so great a distance that only two men 



1 MS. Letter — Ecuyerto Bouquet, June 16 (Translation). 



