. Soon the supply of water
began to fail. There was a well near by on the
parade-ground, but this open space was subject to such
a hot fire that no man would venture to cross it. A well
was dug in the blockhouse, and the resistance continued.
All day the attack was kept up, and during the night
there was intermittent firing from the ridges. Another
day passed, and at night came a lull in the siege. A
demand was made to surrender. An English soldier who had
been adopted by the savages, and was aiding them in the
attack, cried out that the destruction of the fort was
inevitable, that in the morning it would be fired at the
top and bottom, and that unless the garrison yielded they
would all be burnt to death. Christie asked till morning
to consider; and, when morning came, he agreed to yield
up the fort on condition that the garrison should be
allowed to march to the next post. But as his men filed
out they were seized and bound, then cast into canoes
and taken to Detroit. Their lives, however, were spared;
and early in July, when the Wyandots made with Gladwyn
the peace which they afterwards broke, Christie and a
number of his men were the first prisoners given up.

A few miles inland, south of Presqu'isle, on the trade-route
leading to Fort Pitt, was a rude blockhouse known as Le
Boeuf. This post was at the end of the portage from Lake
Erie, on Alleghany Creek, where the canoe navigation of
the Ohio valley began. Here were stationed Ensign George
Price and thirteen men. On June 18 a band of Indians
arrived before Le Boeuf and attacked it with muskets and
fire-arrows. The building was soon in flames. As the
walls smoked and crackled the savages danced in wild glee
before the gate, intending to shoot down the defenders
as they came out. But there was a window at the rear of
the blockhouse, through which the garrison escaped to
the neighbouring forest. When night fell the party became
separated. Some of them reached Fort Venango two days
later, only to find it in ruins. Price and seven men
laboriously toiled through the forest to Fort Pitt, where
they arrived on June 26. Ultimately, all save two of the
garrison of Fort Le Boeuf reached safety.

The circumstances attending the destruction of Fort
Venango on June 20 are but vaguely known. This fort,
situated near the site of the present city of Franklin,
had long been a centre of Indian trade. In the days o
the French occupation it was known as Fort Machault.
After