sistence was procured
exclusively by hunting.

The army then resumed their march; and in a few days after, it was
overtaken by a runner with the intelligence that Capt. Hogg and his
company were only a day's march in the rear. Col. Lewis again halted;
and the day after he was overtaken by Hogg, he was likewise overtaken
by an express from Francis Fauquier[5] with orders for the army to
return home; and for the disbanding of all the troops except Capt.
Paul's regulars,[6] who were to return to Fort Dinwiddie.

This was one of the first of Gov. Fauquier's official acts; and it was
far from endearing him to the inhabitants west of the Blue ridge. They
had the utmost confidence in the courage and good conduct of Col.
Lewis, and of the officers and men under his command--they did not for
an instant doubt the success of the expedition, and looked forward
with much satisfaction, to their consequent exemption in a great
degree, from future attacks from the Indians. It was not therefore
without considerable regret, that they heard of their countermanding
orders.

Nor were they received by Lewis and his men with very different
feelings. They had endured much during their march, from the
inclemency of the weather; more from the want of provisions--They had
borne these hardships without repining; anticipating a chastisement of
the Indians, and the deriving of an abundant supply of provisions from
their conquered towns--They had arrived within ten miles of the Ohio
river, and could not witness the blasting of their expectations,
without murmuring. A council of war was held--disappointment and
indignation were expressed in every feature. A majority of the
officers were in favor of proceeding to the Ohio river, under the
expectation that they might fall in with some of the enemy--they
marched to the river and encamped two nights on its banks. Discovering
nothing of an enemy, they then turned to retrace their steps through
pathless mountains, a distance of three hundred miles, in the midst of
winter and without provisions.

The reasons assigned by the friends of Gov. Fauquier, for the issuing
of those orders were, that the force detailed by Gov. Dinwiddie, was
not sufficient to render secure an establishment at the contemplated
point--near the Indian towns on the Scioto--within a few days journey
of several thousand warriors on the Miami--in the vicinity of the
hostile post at Galliopolis and so remote from the settled part of
Vi