cceeded; the
remainder died of hunger and privation by the way.

Fort Venango, still farther south, on the Allegheny River, was captured
by a band of Senecas, who gained entrance by resorting to the
oft-employed treachery of pretending friendliness. The entire garrison
was butchered, Lieutenant Gordon, the commander, being slowly tortured
to death, and the fort was burned to the ground. Not a soul escaped to
tell the horrible tale.

Fort Ligonier, another small post, commanded by Lieutenant Archibald
Blane, forty miles southeast of Fort Pitt, was attacked but successfully
held out till relieved by Bouquet's expedition.

Thus within a period of about a month from the time the first blow was
struck at Detroit, Pontiac was in full possession of nine out of the
twelve posts, so recently belonging to and, it was thought, securely
occupied by the British. The fearful threat of the great Ottawa
conspirator that he would exterminate the whites west of the Alleghanies
was wellnigh fulfilled. Over two hundred traders with their servants
fell victims to his remorseless march of slaughter and rapine, and goods
estimated at over half a million dollars became the spoils of the
confederated tribes.

The result of Pontiac's widespread and successful uprising struck untold
terror to the settlers along the Western frontier of Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and Virginia. The savages, roused to the highest pitch of fury
and weltering in the blood of their victims, were burning the cabins and
crops of the defenceless whites and massacring the men, women, and
children. Many hundreds of the forest-dwellers with their families
flocked to the stockades and protected posts. Particularly in the
Pennsylvania country did dread and consternation prevail. The
frontiersmen west of the Alleghanies fled east over the mountains to
Carlisle, Lancaster, and numbers even continued their flight to
Philadelphia. Pontiac was making good his threat that he would drive the
pale-faces back to the sea.

But Forts Niagara and Pitt were still in the possession of the
"red-coats," as the British soldiers were often called by the forest
"redskins." Following the total destruction of Le Boeuf and Venango,
the Senecas made an attack on Fort Niagara, an extensive work on the
east side of Niagara River, near its mouth as it empties into Lake
Ontario. This fort guarded the access to the whole interior country by
way of Canada and the St. Lawrence. The fort was strongly buil