1764, Mat.] CHANGED DISPOSITIONS. 205 



rel with the governor and the proprietaries, their 

 scruples about war, and their affection for Indians, 

 were all postponed to the necessity of the hour. 

 The Assembly voted to raise three hundred men 

 to guard the frontiers, and a thousand to join Bou- 

 quet. Their commissioners went farther ; for they 

 promised to send to England for -fifty couples of 

 bloodhounds, to hunt Indian scalping-parties.^ 



In the preceding summer, half as many men 

 would have sufficed ; for, after the battle of Bushy 

 Run, Bouquet wrote to Amherst from Fort Pitt, 

 that, with a reinforcement of three hundred provin- 

 cial rangers, he could destroy all the Delaware 

 towns, " and clear the country of that vermin 

 between this fort and Lake Erie ; " ^ but he added, 

 with some bitterness, that the provinces would not 

 even furnish escorts to convoys, so that his hands 

 were completely tied.' 



It was past midsummer before the thousand 

 Pennsylvanians were ready to move ; so that the 



1 " They have at my recommendation agreed to send to Great Britain 

 Ibr 50 Couples of Blood Hounds to be employed with Rangers on horse 

 back against Indian scalping parties, which will I hope deter more effect- 

 ually the Savages from that sort of war than our troops can possibly do." 

 — Bouquet to Amherst, 7 June, 1764. 



2 MS. Letter — Bouquet to Amherst, 27 Aug. 1763. 



3 MS. IaqUqv — Bouquet to Amherst, 24 Oct. 1763. In this letter, Bou- 

 quet enlarges, after a fashion which must have been singularly unpalatable 

 to his commander, on the danger of employing regulars alone in forest 

 warfare : " Without a certain number of woodsmen, I cannot think it 

 advisable to employ regulars in the Woods against Savages, as they can- 

 not procure any intelligence and are open to continual surprises, nor can 

 they pursue to any distance their enemy when they have routed them ; 

 and should they have the misfortune to be defeated, the whole would be 

 destroyed if above one day's march from a Fort. That is my opinion in 

 wh. 1 hope to be deceived." 



