112 HtSTORY OF OHIO. 



This was the original plan of operations, and, in accordance' 

 with it, General Lewis raised troops in Boletourte and Augus' 

 ta counties, on the high grounds, near the head waters of the 

 Shenandoah, James river, and Great Kenhawa. These coun- 

 ties were then, on the very frontiers of the colonial govern- 

 ment of Virginia in which so many celebrated springs exist, 

 such as "The White Sulphur," "The Warm," "The Sweet 

 Spring," <k;c., and in a country too, then occupied by sharpshoot- 

 ers, hunters, and riflemen. Collecting from all parts of this 

 country, two regiments of volunteers, at camp Union, now in 

 Greenbriar county. General Lewis, on the 11 th day of Septem- 

 ber, 1774, marched forward, towards the point of his destination. 

 His route lay wholly through a trackless forest. All his bag- 

 gage, his provisions, and even his ammunition, had to be trans- 

 ported on packhorses, that were clambering about among 

 the tall cliffs, or winding their way through the danger- 

 ous defiles, ascending or descending the lofty summits of 

 the AUeghanies. The country at this time, in its aspect is 

 one of the most romantic and wild in the whole Union. Its 

 natural features are majestic and grand. Among these lofty 

 summits and deep ravines, nature operates on a scale of gran- 

 deur, simplicity and sublimity, scarcely ever equalled in any 

 other region, and never surpassed in the world. At the time 

 of this expedition, only one white man had ever passed along 

 the dangerous defiles of this route. That man was Cap- 

 tain Matthew Arbuckle, who was their pilot on this painful 

 and slow march. During nineteen entire days, this gallant 

 band pressed forward descending from the heights of the Alle- 

 ghany mountains, to the mouth of the Kenhawa, a distance of 

 one hundred and sixty miles. This march was more painful 

 and difficult than Hannibal's, over the Alps. On the first day 

 of October, 1774, Lewis reached the place of his destination, 

 but no Earl Dunmore was there. Despatching two messen- 

 gers in quest of Governor Dunmore, Lewis and his Virginians 

 continued at Point Pleasant. On the 9th of October, three 

 messengers from the Earl arrived at Lewis's camp, and inform- 

 ed him that the Governor had changed his whole plan — that 

 the Earl would not meet Lewis at Point Pleasant, but would 



