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88 to spare, and which wou'd give the french and Indians too favorable an opportunity of attacking on that laborious Work. I think it will be more eligible to fall down on fort Cumberland, and get on from thence to the great Crossing, after making a Block house, at the little meadows. This will advance us 40 miles from fort Cumberland, and a deposite may be made at that place."

No one can read this strange letter without realizing Bouquet's unhappy situation: a vacillating know-nothing for quartermaster-general, and a commander-in-chief detained from coming to the front. Bouquet wrote to Forbes, who answered that the course of the proposed new road should be examined before that route was abandoned. "I have yours of the 14undefined," wrote Forbes on June 19, "from Fort Loudon and I am sorry that you are obliged to change our Route, and shall be glad to find the road proposed by Govundefined Sharp practicable, in which case I should think it ought to be sett about immediately. I suppose you will reconnoitre the road across the Allegany mountains from Reas town