208 BOUQUET IN THE INDIAN COUNTRY. [1764, Sept. 



who had been promised by Sir William Johnson, 

 but who never arrived. On reaching Fort Ligo- 

 nier, he had the satisfaction of forwarding two 

 letters, which the commander-in-chief had signifi- 

 cantly sent through his hands, to Bradstreet, con- 

 taining a peremptory disavowal of the treaty.^ 

 Continuing to advance, he passed in safety the 

 scene of his desperate fight of the last summer, 

 and on the seventeenth of September arrived at 

 Fort Pitt, with no other loss than that of a few 

 men picked off from the flanks and rear by lurking 

 Indian marksmen.^ 



The day before his arrival, ten Delaware chiefs 

 and warriors appeared on the farther bank of the 

 river, pretending to be deputies sent by their nation 



1 See p. 178, note. 



2 Captain Grant, who had commanded during the spring at Fort Pitt, 

 had sent bad accounts of the disposition of the neighboring Indians ; but 

 added, " At this Post we defy all the Savages in the Woods. I wish they 

 would dare appear before us. . . . Repairing Batteaux, ploughing, gar- 

 dening, making Fences, and fetching home fire Wood goes on constantly 

 every day, from sun rise to the setting of the same." — Grant to Bouquet, 

 2 April, 1764. A small boy, captured with his mother the summer before, 

 escaped to the fort about this time, and reported that the Indians meant to 

 plant their corn and provide for their families, after which they would 

 come to the fort and burn it. The youthful informant also declared that 

 none of them had more than a pound of powder left. Soon after, a man 

 named Hicks appeared, professing to have escaped from the Indians, 

 though he was strongly suspected of being a renegade and a spy, and was 

 therefore cross-questioned severely. He confirmed what the boy had 

 said as to the want of ammunition among the Indians, and added that 

 they had sent for a supply to the French at the lUinois, but that the 

 reception they received from the commandant had not satisfied them. 

 General Gage sent the following not very judicial instructions with regard 

 to Hicks : " He is a great villain. I am glad he is secured. I must 

 desire you will have him tried by a general Court-Martial for a Spy. Let 

 the proceedings of the Court prove him a Spy as strong as they can, and 

 if he does turn out a spy, he must be hanged." — Gage to Bouquet, 14 May, 

 1764. The court, however, could find no proof. 



