s in America.' He despised the Ottawas, he
said, and was 'very much surprised at our brothers the
Delawares for proposing to us to leave this place and go
home. This is our home.' His humour was once more in evidence
in the warning he gave the Indians against repeating their
attack on the fort: 'I will throw bomb-shells, which will
burst and blow you to atoms, and fire cannon among you,
loaded with a whole bagful of bullets. Therefore take care,
for I don't want to hurt you.'

The Indians now gave up all hope of capturing Fort Pitt
by deception, and prepared to take it by assault. That
very night they stole within range, dug shelter-pits in
the banks of the Alleghany and Monongahela, and at daybreak
began a vigorous attack on the garrison. Musket-balls
came whistling over the ramparts and smote every point
where a soldier showed himself. The shrieking balls and
the wild war-whoops of the assailants greatly alarmed
the women and children; but never for a moment was the
fort in real danger or did Ecuyer or his men fear disaster.
So carefully had the commandant seen to his defences,
that, although hundreds of missiles fell within the
confines of the fort, only one man was killed and only
seven were wounded. Ecuyer himself was among the wounded:
one of two arrows that fell within the fort had, to use
his own words, 'the insolence to make free' with his
'left leg.' From July 27 to August 1 this horde of
Delawares, Shawnees, Wyandots, and Mingoes kept up the
attack. Then, without apparent cause, as suddenly as they
had arrived, they all disappeared. To the garrison the
relief from constant vigil, anxious days, and sleepless
nights was most welcome.

The reason for this sudden relief was that the red men
had learned of a rich prize for them, now approaching
Fort Pitt. Bouquet, with a party of soldiers, was among
the defiles of the Alleghanies. The fort could wait; the
Indians would endeavour to annihilate Bouquet's force as
they had annihilated Braddock's army in the same region
eight years before; and if successful, they could then
at their leisure return to Fort Pitt and starve it out
or take it by assault.

In June, when Amherst had finally come to the conclusion
that he had a real war on his hands--and had, as we have
seen, dispatched Dalyell to Detroit--he had, at the same
time, sent orders to Colonel Bouquet to get ready a force
for the relief of Fort Pitt. Bouquet, like Ecuyer, was
a Swiss soldier, and the be