[336] Votes of Assembly, V. 259.
[337] Extract from a MS. Letter—John Elder to Governor Penn:—
“Paxton, 4th August, 1763.
“Sir:
“The service your Honr was pleased to appoint me to, I have performed to the best of my power; tho’ not with success equal to my desires. However, both companies will, I imagine, be complete in a few days: there are now upwards of 30 men in each, exclusive of officers, who are now and have been employed since their enlistment in such service as is thought most safe and encouraging to the Frontier inhabitants, who are here and everywhere else in the back countries quite sunk and dispirited, so that it’s to be feared that on any attack of the enemy, a considerable part of the country will be evacuated, as all seem inclinable to seek safety rather in flight than in opposing the Savage Foe.”
[338] Sparks, Writings of Washington, II. 340.
[339] Petition of the Inhabitants of the Great Cove. Smith, Narrative. This is a highly interesting account of the writer’s captivity among the Indians, and his adventures during several succeeding years. In the war of the Revolution, he acted the part of a zealous patriot. He lived until the year 1812, about which time, the western Indians having broken out into hostility, he gave his country the benefit of his ample experience, by publishing a treatise on the Indian mode of warfare. In Kentucky, where he spent the latter part of his life, he was much respected, and several times elected to the legislature. This narrative may be found in Drake’s Tragedies of the Wilderness, and in several other similar collections.
[340] Penn. Gaz. No. 1811.
[341] Penn. Gaz. Nos. 1816-1818. MS. Letter—Graydon to Bird, October 12.
[342] Extract from a MS. Letter—Paxton, October 23:—