h being frightened by the firing, ran off
and were lost. The party consisted of upwards of twenty
Indians. By the tracks of blood, we imagined several of them
were wounded." This affair occurred Oct. 12th.--L. C. D.

[75] CHAPTER IV.

During the continuance of the French war, and of that with the Indians
which immediately succeeded it, the entire frontier from New York to
Georgia was exposed to the merciless fury of the savages. In no
instance were the measures of defence adopted by the different
colonies, adequate to their object.--From some unaccountable fatuity
in those who had the direction of this matter, a defensive war, which
alone could have checked aggression and prevented the effusion of
blood, was delayed 'till the whole population, of the country west of
the Blue ridge, had retired east of those mountains; or were cooped up
in forts.

The chief means of defence employed, were the militia of the adjoining
counties, and the establishment of a line of forts and block-houses,
dispersed along a considerable extent of country, and occupied by
detachments of British colonial troops, or by militiamen. All these
were utterly incompetent to effect security; partly from the
circumstances of the case, and somewhat from the entire want of
discipline, and the absence of that subordination which is absolutely
necessary to render an army effective.

So great and apparent were the insubordination and remissness of duty,
on the part of the various garrisons, that Gen. Washington, declared
them "utterly inefficient and useless;" and the inhabitants
themselves, could place no reliance whatever on them, for protection.
In a particular instance, such were the inattention and carelessness
of the garrison that several children playing under the walls of the
fort, were run down and caught by the Indians, who were not discovered
'till they arrived at the very gate.[1]

In Virginia the error of confiding on the militia, soon became
apparent.[2] Upon the earnest remonstrance and entreaty of General
Washington, the colonial legislature substituted a force of
regulars,[3] [76] which at once effected the partial security of her
frontier, and gave confidence to the inhabitants.

In Pennsylvania, from the pacific disposition of her rulers and their
abhorrence of war of any kind, her border settlements suffered most
severely. The whole extent of her frontier was desolated by the
Indians, and irruptions we