1763, June.] EXPRESS-RIDERS. 47 



though two expresses have gone from Bedford by 

 this post." 



On the twenty-eighth, he explains that he has 

 not been able to report for some time, the road 

 having been completely closed by the enemy. " On 

 the twenty-iirst," he continues, '- the Indians made 

 a second attempt in a very serious manner, for near 

 two hours, but with the like success as the first. 

 They began with attempting to cut off the retreat 

 of a small party of fifteen men, who, from their 

 impatience to come at four Indians who showed 

 themselves, in a great measure forced me to let 

 them out. In the evening, I think above a hun- 

 dred lay in ambush by the side of the creek, about 

 four hundred yards from the fort ; and, just as the 

 party was returning pretty near where they lay, 

 they rushed out, when they undoubtedly must have 

 succeeded, had it not been for a deep morass which 

 intervened. Immediately after, they began their 

 attack ; and I dare say they fired upwards of one 

 thousand shot. Nobody received any damage. So 

 far, my good fortune in dangers still attends me." 



And here one cannot but give a moment's thought 

 to those whose desperate duty it was to be the bear- 

 ers of this correspondence of the officers of the forest 

 outposts with their commander. They were usually 

 soldiers, sometimes backwoodsmen, and occasionally 

 a friendly Indian, who, disguising his attachment to 

 the whites, could pass when others would infallibly 

 have perished. If white men, they were always 

 mounted ; and it may well be supposed that their 

 horses did not lag by the way. The profound soli- 



