purchased a supply of such commodities as he judged would be most useful
in camp, such as coffee, tea, sugar, biscuit, butter, cheese, hams, &c.,
and dividing these stores into parcels, so as to make one for each officer
in the army, he placed the parcels upon as many horses, and sent them to
the camp. The supply intended for each officer made a load for one horse.

[Illustration: Supply Horse.]

Notwithstanding all these efforts, however, to promote the success of
Braddock's expedition, it was destined, as is well known, to come to a
very disastrous end. Braddock allowed himself to fall into an ambuscade.
Here he was attacked by the Indians with terrible fury. The men stood
their ground as long as possible, but finally were seized with a panic and
fled in all directions. The wagoners--men who had come from the
Philadelphia farms in charge of the wagons that had been furnished in
answer to Franklin's call--in making their escape, took each a horse out of
his team, and galloped away, and thus the wagons themselves and all the
provisions, ammunition, and military stores of every kind, fell into the
hands of the enemy. Braddock himself was wounded, nearly half of the
troops were killed, and the whole object of the expedition was completely
frustrated. The wounded general was conveyed back about forty miles to the
rear, and there, a few days afterward, he died.

[Illustration: Braddock's Escape.]

Of course a feeling of great alarm was awakened throughout Pennsylvania as
the tidings of this disaster were spread abroad. Every one was convinced
that some efficient measures must at once he adopted to defend the country
from the incursions of the French and Indians on the frontier. There was,
however, a very serious difficulty in the way of taking such measures.

This difficulty was, an obstinate quarrel which had existed for a long
time between the governor and the Assembly. The governor was appointed in
England, and he represented the views and the interests of the English
proprietors of the colony. The Assembly were elected by the people of the
colony, and of course represented their interests and views. Now the
proprietors had instructed the governor to insist that _their_ property
should not be subject to taxation; and to refuse his assent to all bills
for raising money unless the property of the proprietors should be
exempted. On the other hand the colonists maintained that the