and those large sheets of
flame it's last blaze!"

I have often traversed the woods by myself at night, and sometimes during
_such scenes_; and though I was conscious that all round me proceeded from
natural causes, I could not at these times entirely forget,

"All that the _priest_ and all the nurse had taught."

Farewell.--Believe me

Yours very sincerely, &c.,

* * * * *

_Philadelphia, August 10th, 1794._

DEAR SIR,

Having a few weeks vacation at the theatre, we agreed upon a scheme to
give three concerts at Lancaster, a town in Pennsylvania, about seventy
miles west of this city. Our band was small, but select; and our singers
Darley, and miss Broadhurst. We crossed the Scuylkill about two miles
below the Falls.

The country, which, from the Atlantic to this spot, is nearly a level, now
abruptly swells into hills, and rises as you advance westerly, till you
reach the Allegany mountains, the great _back bone_ of America, as
the Indians call that chain of mountains. There is then a considerable
descent; but that the country rises afterward for many hundred miles is
certain from the course of the rivers. No traveller has penetrated so far
west, in these latitudes, as to find a river which did not ultimately run
into the Atlantic Ocean,

We slept about a mile from the _Pioli_. I took a walk to reconnoitre
the field of battle, with one who was present at that horrid affair.

General Wayne was here completely surprised, but had his revenge at Stoney
Point.

After St. Claire's defeat, he was appointed by Congress to the command of
the continental army in the present indian war. The fatal surprise at the
Pioli has been an excellent lesson for him; since his present appointment
he has established the most rigid discipline: this is of the utmost
consequence in any army; but particularly so in _that_ he commands,
as they have to contend with the most subtle and desperate foe on earth,
flushed with their late victory over St. Claire.--In a former indian war,
an army lay with it's rear and flanks well secured; a river three quarters
of a mile broad in its front, and no enemy within fifty miles. A body of
Indians, being informed by their scouts of the situation of this army,
made a forced march, crossed the river in the night, on rafts hastily
constructed, completely surprised the camp before sun-rise in the morning,
butchered all before them, and made their retreat good with their