came centers of a great
migration which was halted only for a season by Pontiac's Rebellion,
the aftermath of the French War, and was resumed immediately on the
suppression of that Indian rising. The pack-horse trade now entered its
final and most important era. The earlier period was one in which the
trade was confined chiefly to the Indians; the later phase was concerned
with supplying the needs of the white man in his rapidly developing
frontier settlements. Formerly the principal articles of merchandise for
the western trade were guns, ammunition, knives, kettles, and tools for
their repair, blankets, tobacco, hatchets, and liquor. In the new
era every known product of the East found a market in the thriving
communities of the upper Ohio. As time went on the West began to send to
the East, in addition to skins and pelts, whiskey that brought a dollar
a gallon. Each pony could carry sixteen gallons and every drop could
be sold for real money. On the return trip the pack-horses carried back
chiefly salt and iron.

Doddridge's "Notes", one of the chief sources of our information, gives
this lively picture:

"In the fall of the year, after seeding time, every family formed
an association with some of their neighbors, for starting the little
caravan. A master driver was to be selected from among them, who was
to be assisted by one or more young men and sometimes a boy or two. The
horses were fitted out with packsaddles, to the latter part of which was
fastened a pair of hobbles made of hickory withes,--a bell and collar
ornamented their necks. The bags provided for the conveyance of the
salt were filled with bread, jerk, boiled ham, and cheese furnished a
provision for the drivers. At night, after feeding, the horses, whether
put in pasture or turned out into the woods, were hobbled and the bells
were opened. The barter for salt and iron was made first at Baltimore;
Frederick, Hagerstown, Oldtown, and Fort Cumberland, in succession,
became the places of exchange. Each horse carried two bushels of alum
salt, weighing eighty-four pounds to the bushel. This, to be sure, was
not a heavy load for the horses, but it was enough, considering the
scanty subsistence allowed them on the journey. The common price of a
bushel of alum salt, at an early period, was a good cow and a calf."

Thus, with the English flag afloat at Fort Pitt, as Duquesne was renamed
after its capture, a new day dawned for the great region to the West.
Be