1763, Sept.] FALSE ALARM AT GOSHEN. 75 



a stockade, and garrisoned it with a party of sol- 

 diers, which Sir Jeffrey Amherst had ordered 

 thither for his protection. 



About this time, a singuhxr incident occurred 

 near the town of Goshen. Four or five men went 

 out among the hills to shoot partridges, and, chanc- 

 ing to raise a large covey, they all fired their guns 

 at nearly the same moment. The timorous inhabi- 

 tants, hearing the reports, supposed that they came 

 from an Indian war-party, and instantly fled in 

 dismay, spreading the alarm as they went. The 

 neighboring country was soon in a panic. The 

 farmers cut the harness of their horses, and, leaving 

 their carts and ploughs behind, galloped for their 

 lives. Others, snatching up their children and 

 their most valuable property, made with all speed 

 for New England, not daring to pause until they 

 had crossed the Hudson. For several days the 

 neighborhood was abandoned, five hundred families 

 having left their habitations and fled.^ Not long 

 after this absurd affair, an event occurred of a widely 

 different character. Allusion has before been made 

 to the carrying-place of Niagara, which formed an 

 essential link in the chain of communication be- 

 tween the province of New York and the interior 

 country. Men and military stores were conveyed 

 in boats up the River Niagara, as far as the present 

 site of Lewiston. Thence a portage road, several 

 miles in length, passed along the banks of the 

 stream, and terminated at Fort Schlosser, above the 

 cataract. This road traversed a region whose sub- 



1 Penn. Gaz. No. 1809. 



