20 FRONTIER FORTS AND SETTLEMENTS. [1763, June. 



They pushed on all day, and reached Venango 

 at one o'clock of the following night. Nothing 

 remained but piles of smouldering embers, among 

 which lay the half-burned bodies of its hapless 

 garrison. They now continued their journey down 

 the Alleghany. On the third night their last bis- 

 cuit was consumed, and they were half dead with 

 hunger and exhaustion before their eyes were glad- 

 dened at length by the friendly walls of Fort Pitt. 

 Of those who had straggled from the party, all 

 eventually appeared but two, who, spent with 

 starvation, had been left behind, and no doubt 

 perished.^ 



Not a man remained alive to tell the fate of 

 Venango. An Indian, who was present at its de- 

 struction, long afterwards described the scene to 

 Sir William Johnson. A large body of Senecas 

 gained entrance under pretence of friendship, then 

 closed the gates, fell upon the garrison, and butch- 

 ered them all except the commanding officer. Lieu- 

 tenant Gordon, whom they forced to write, from 

 their dictation, a statement of the grievances which 

 had driven them to arms, and then tortured over a 

 slow fire for several successive nights, till he expired. 



1 On the 27th of June, Price wrote to Colonel Bouquet from Fort Pitt, 

 announcing his escape ; and again on the 28th, giving an account of the 

 affair. Both letters are before me ; but the most satisfactory evidence is 

 furnished by the record of the court of inquiry held at Fort Pitt on the 

 12th of September, to ascertain the circumstances of the loss of Presqu' 

 Isle and Le Boeuf. This embraces the testimony of most of the survivors ; 

 namely. Ensign George Price, Corporals Jacob Fisher and John Nash, 

 and privates John Dogood, John Nigley, John Dortinger, and Uriah 

 Trunk. All the men bear witness to the resolution of their officer. One 

 of them declared that it was with the utmost difficulty that they could 

 persuade him to leave the blockhouse with them. 



