CHAPTER XX. 



1763. 

 THE BATTLE OF BUSHY KUN. 



The miserable multitude were soon threatened 

 with famine, and gathered in crowds around the 

 tents of Bouquet, begging relief, which he had not 

 the heart to refuse. After a delay of eighteen 

 days, the chief obstacles were overcome. Wagons 

 and draught animals had, little by little, been col- 

 lected, and provisions gathered among the settle- 

 ments to the eastward. At length all was ready, and 

 Bouquet broke up his camp, and began his march. 

 The force under his command did not exceed five 

 hundred men, of whom the most effective were the 

 Highlanders of the 42d regiment. The remnant 

 of the 77th, which was also with him, w^as so 

 enfeebled by West Indian exposures, that Amherst 

 had at first pronounced it fit only for garrison duty, 

 and nothing but necessity had induced him to 

 employ it on this arduous service. As the heavy 

 wagons of the convoy lumbered along the street of 

 Carlisle, guarded by the bare-legged Highlanders, 

 in kilts and plaids, the crowd gazed in anxious 

 silence ; for they knew that their all was at stake 

 on the issue of this dubious enterprise. There 



