dian hunting garb, and even of
adopting it himself. Two companies were accordingly equipped in this
style, and sent under the command of Major Lewis to head-quarters. The
experiment was successful.

The array was now annoyed by scouting parties of Indians hovering
about the neighborhood. Expresses passing between the posts were fired
upon; a wagoner was shot down. Washington sent out counter-parties of
Cherokees. Colonel Bouquet required that each party should be
accompanied by an officer and a number of white men. Washington
complied with the order, though he considered them an encumbrance
rather than an advantage. On the other hand, he earnestly
discountenanced a proposition of Colonel Bouquet, to make an irruption
into the enemy's country with a strong party of regulars. Such a
detachment, he observed, could not be sent without a cumbersome train
of supplies, which would discover it to the enemy, who must at that
time be collecting his whole force at Fort Duquesne; the enterprise,
therefore, would be likely to terminate in a miscarriage, if not in
the destruction of the party. We shall see that his opinion was
oracular.

As Washington intended to retire from military life at the close of
this campaign, he had proposed himself to the electors of Frederick
County as their representative in the House of Burgesses. The election
was coming on at Winchester; his friends pressed him to attend it, and
Colonel Bouquet gave him leave of absence; but he declined to absent
himself from his post for the promotion of his political interests.
There were three competitors in the field, yet so high was the public
opinion of his merit, that, though Winchester had been his
head-quarters for two or three years past, and he had occasionally
enforced martial law with a rigorous hand, he was elected by a large
majority.

On the 21st of July arrived tidings of the brilliant success of that
part of the scheme of the year's campaign conducted by General Amherst
and Admiral Boscawen. This intelligence increased Washington's
impatience at the delays of the expedition with which he was
connected. He wished to rival these successes by a brilliant blow in
the south. Understanding that the commander-in-chief had some thoughts
of throwing a body of light troops in the advance, he wrote to Colonel
Bouquet, earnestly soliciting his influence to have himself and his
Virginia regiment included in the detachment.

He soon learnt to his surprise tha