things. What writings it contained were illegible to any body but myself.
6th.—We passed all the mountains, and the big river, Weshawaucks, and crossed a fine meadow two miles in length, where we slept that night, having nothing to eat.[1]
7th.—We came in sight of fort Venango, belonging to the French, situate between two mountains, in a fork of the Ohio river. I prayed the Lord to blind them, as he did the enemies of Lot and Elisha, that I might pass unknown. When we arrived, the fort being on the other side of the river, we hallooed, and desired them to fetch us over; which they were afraid to do; but shewed us a place where we might ford. We slept that night within half gun shot of the fort.
8th.—This morning I hunted for my horse, round the fort, within ten yards of it. The Lord heard my prayer, and I passed unknown till we had mounted our horses to go off, when two Frenchmen came to take leave of the Indians, and were much surprised at seeing me, but said nothing.
By what I could learn of Pisquetumen, and the Indians, who went into the fort, the garrison consisted of only six men, and an officer blind of one eye.[2] They enquired
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- ↑ From Chinklacamoos the Indian trail crossed Clearfield, Jefferson, and Clarion counties, over Little Toby's Creek (Tobeco), the Clarion River (big river Tobeco), and east Sandy Creek (Weshawaucks). That no Indians were met through all this region is proof of its deserted condition, its former frequenters having withdrawn to the French sphere of influence.—Ed.
- ↑ The officer commanding Venango at this time was Jean Baptiste Boucher Sieur de Niverville, a noted border ranger and Indian raider. Born in Montreal in 1716, he early acquired an ascendency over the Abenaki Indians, which was utilized in leading their parties against the English settlements of New England. In King George's War, bands under his command ravaged New Hampshire and Vermont, and penetrated as far as Fort Massachusetts in the Berkshire Hills (1748). During the French and Indian War, he was similarly employed, and after Braddock's defeat, conducted a winter campaign of thirty-
