98 DESOLATION OF THE FRONTIERS. [1763. 



warriors were encamped near Jackson's Eiver, 

 preparing to attack the settlements, they advanced 

 secretly to the spot, and set upon them with such 

 fury that the whole party broke away and fled ; 

 leaving weapons, provisions, articles of dress, and 

 implements of magic, in the hands of the victors. 

 Meanwhile the frontier people of Pennsylvania, 

 finding that they could hope for little aid from 

 government, bestirred themselves with admirable 

 spirit in their own defence. The march of Bou- 

 quet, and the victory of Bushy Run, caused a 

 temporary lull in the storm, thus enabling some of 

 the bolder, inhabitants, who had fled to Shippens- 

 burg, Carlisle, and other places of refuge, to return 

 to their farms, where they determined, if possible, 

 to remain. With this resolution, the people of the 

 Great Cove, and the adjacent valleys beyond Ship- 

 pensburg, raised among themselves a small body 

 of riflemen, which they placed under the com- 

 mand of James Smith ; a man whose resolute and 

 daring character, no less than the native vigor of 

 his intellect, gave him great popularity and influ- 

 ence with the borderers. Having been, for several 

 years, a prisoner among the Indians, he was 

 thoroughly acquainted with their mode of fight- 

 ing. He trained his men in the Indian tactics and 

 discipline, and directed them to assume the dress 

 of warriors, and paint their faces red and black, 

 so that, in appearance, they were hardly distin- 

 guishable from the enemy.^ Thus equipped, they 



1 Petition of the Inhabitants of the Great Cove. Smith, Narrative. This 

 is a highly interesting account of the writer's captivity among the Indians, 



