the French abandoned the place in the summer of
1760 a new fort had been erected and named Venango. In
1763 there was a small garrison here under Lieutenant
Gordon. For a time all that was known of its fate was
reported by the fugitives from Le Boeuf and a soldier
named Gray, who had escaped from Presqu'isle. These
fugitives had found Venango completely destroyed, and,
in the ruins, the blackened bones of the garrison. It
was afterwards learned that the attacking Indians were
Senecas, and that they had tortured the commandant to
death over a slow fire, after compelling him to write
down the reason for the attack. It was threefold: (1)
the British charged exorbitant prices for powder, shot,
and clothing; (2) when Indians were ill-treated by British
soldiers they could obtain no redress; (3) contrary to
the wishes of the Indians, forts were being built in
their country, and these could mean but one thing--the
determination of the invaders to deprive them of their
hunting-grounds.

With the fall of Presqu'isle, Le Boeuf, and Venango, the
trade-route between Lake Erie and Fort Pitt was closed.
Save for Detroit, Niagara, and Pitt, not a British fort
remained in the great hinterland; and the soldiers at
these three strong positions could leave the shelter of
the palisades only at the risk of their lives. Meanwhile,
the frontiers of the British settlements, as well as the
forts, were being raided. Homes were burnt and the inmates
massacred. Traders were plundered and slain. From the
eastern slopes of the Alleghanies to the Mississippi no
British life was safe.

CHAPTER VI

THE RELIEF OF FORT PITT

On the tongue of land at the confluence of the Monongahela
and Aheghany rivers stood Fort Pitt, on the site of the
old French fort Duquesne. It was remote from any centre
of population, but was favourably situated for defence,
and so strongly garrisoned that those in charge of it
had little to fear from any attempts of the Indians to
capture it. Floods had recently destroyed part of the
ramparts, but these had been repaired and a parapet of
logs raised above them.

Captain Simeon Ecuyer, a Swiss soldier in the service of
Great Britain and an officer of keen intelligence and
tried courage, was in charge of Fort Pitt. He knew the
Indians. He had quickly realized that danger threatened
his wilderness post, and had left nothing undone to make
it secure. On the fourth day of May, Ecuyer had written
to Colonel Henry Bo