dds: "When I had cut the road, and finished
the fort," etc.

The other part of the story, about Capt. John Gibson commanding
at Fort Pitt in "the fall of 1758," is equally erroneous, as
Gen. Forbes did not possess himself of Fort Duquesne till Nov.
25th, 1758, within five days of the conclusion of "fall" in
that year; and Gen. Forbes commanded there in person until he
left for Philadelphia, Dec. 3d following. There is, moreover,
no evidence that Gibson was then in service. The story of his
decapitating Kis-ke-pi-la, or the Little Eagle, if there was
such a person, or of his beheading any other Indian, is not at
all probable. He was an Indian trader for many years, and was
made prisoner by the Indians in 1763, and detained a long time
in captivity.

Gibson could not by any such decapitating exploit, have
originated the designation of "Big Knife," or "Big Knife
warrior," for this appellation had long before been applied
to the Virginians. Gist says in his Journal, Dec. 7th, 1750, in
speaking of crossing Elk's Eye Creek--the Muskingum--and
reaching an Indian hamlet, that the Indians were all out
hunting; that "the old Frenchman, Mark Coonce, living there,
was civil to me; but after I was gone to my camp, upon his
understanding I came from Virginia, he called me _Big
Knife_." Col. James Smith, then a prisoner with the Indians,
says the Indians assigned as a reason why they did not oppose
Gen. Forbes in 1758, that if they had been only red coats
they could have subdued them; "but they could not withstand
_Ash-a-le-co-a_, or the _Great Knife_, which was the name they
gave the Virginians."--L. C. D.

------

_Comment by R. G. T._--See note on p. 77, regarding erection of
early forts at Redstone. James Veech, in _Monongahela of Old_,
says, "We know that the late Col. James Paull served a month's
duty in a drafted militia company in guarding Continental
stores here [Fort Burd] in 1778." The term "Big Knives" or
"Long Knives" may have had reference either to the long knives
carried by early white hunters, or the swords worn by backwoods
militia officers. See Roosevelt's _Winning of the West_, I., p.
197.

[62] CHAPTER III.

The destruction of the Roano