Printed for the AUTHOR; and sold by J. RIDLEY, in St. James’s-Street; W. NICOLL, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard; and C. HENDERSON, at the Royal-Exchange.
MDCCLXV.
THE PREFACE.
After extracting this detail from my Journal, and supplying many circumstances from my memory, I was very much at a loss what title to give it. MEMOIRS seemed to answer my design with the greatest propriety; but that being so commonly misapplied, I was afraid the public would expect a romance, where I only intended laying down a few facts, for the vindication of my own conduct. I do not, however, by this mean to suggest to my reader, that he will find here only a bare uninteresting narrative; no, I have added all in my power to make it useful and agreeable to others, as it was necessary to myself; and indeed it was highly so, since a person who bears ill treatment without complaining, is generally held by his friends pusillanimous, or believed to be withheld by secret motives from his own justification. I know not what mine think, but it will not be amiss to inforce their good opinion of me, by laying all my actions open to their view, And as once publishing will be more general, and save many repetitions of a disagreeable narration, this motive first induced me to write, to exchange my sword for a pen, that I wield as a soldier, who never dreamt of the beauties of stile, or propriety of expression. Excuse then, gentle reader, all the faults that may occur, in consideration that these are not my weapons, and that tho’ I received almost as good an education as Virginia could bestow on me, it only sufficed to sit me for a soldier, and not for a scholar; but tho’ this was the chief end I proposed from it, I have, occasionally deviating from my main design, added whatever I thought curious and entertaining, that occurred to my observation, in the Cherokee country, and my travels to and from it, not omitting the principal dangers I have passed through, and the expences I have been at, that the reader, weighing them and the rewards I have received, may judge where the balance is due. I do not doubt but I shall be censured for exposing so freely the actions of Mr. Κακοανθροπος; but to this I was constrained by the clamours made against the unnecessary and extravagant expences into which the reception of the Indians had drawn the government. To unveil where the unnecessary and extravagance of it lay, became my duty; and I cannot say but I took some pleasure in detecting the person in the crime he so arfully had laid to my charge: It is, I presume, very pardonable in a person who has so much reason to complain of his unfair practices towards him. As to the manners of the Indians, I grant they have been often represented, and yet I have never seen any account to my perfect satisfaction, being more frequently taken from the reports of traders, as ignorant and incapable of making just observations as the natives themselves, than from the writer’s own experience. These I took upon the spot, and if I have failed in relating them, it is thro’ want of art in expression, and not of due knowledge in point of facts. As, however, I did not take upon me to write as an author who seeks applause, but compelled by the necessity of vindicating myself, I once more beg the public to pass over, with a candid indulgence, the many faults that may deserve their censure.
THE MEMOIRS, &c.
Notwithstanding my aversion to formal beginnings, and any thing that may relish of romance, as the reader may desire some knowledge of the person who has submitted his actions to his judgment, I shall, in hastening to my principal design, just acquaint him, that my father was an inhabitant of Virginia, who dying while I was yet a minor, left me a small fortune, no ways sufficient for my support, without some employment. For some time, by the advice of my friends, I proposed following the more lucrative one of commerce, but after my minorship was elapsed, my genius burst out. Arms had been my delight from my infancy, and I now resolved to gratify that inclination, by entering into the service. Pursuing this resolution, I made my first campaign in the year 1756, with a company of gentlemen called the Patriot Blues, who served the country at their own expence; but whether terrified by our formidable appearance, or superior numbers, the enemy still avoided us; so that, notwithstanding many recent tracks and fires, we never could come to an engagement. On our return, I made application for a commission in the Virginia regiment, then commanded by Col. Washington; but there being at that time no vacancy, I returned home.
In the year 1758, a new regiment was raised for that year’s service, to be commanded by the Hon. William Byrd, Esq; from whom I not only received an ensigncy, but as subalterns were to be appointed to a troop of light-horse, he honoured me with the cornetcy of that also. I was soon after ordered on an escort, in which service I continued till July, when I joined the army at Ray’s-Town, where I found General Forbes already arrived. The army then marched to Fort Ligonier, on the way to Fort Du Quesne. I was seized here by a violent fit of sickness, caught in searching for some of the troop-horses that were lost, by overheating myself with running, and drinking a large quantity of cold water, which rendered me incapable of duty. I got something better about the time the troops marched for Fort Du Quesne and could sit my horse when helped on, but was ordered back by the General, who, however, on my telling the doctor I hoped to do duty in a day or two, permitted me to continue the march. We heard the French blow up their magazine, while yet some miles off; and, on our arrival, we found the barracks, and every thing of value, in flames. My malady rather increased, so that I was at last compelled to petition for my return. I lost my horse at Fort Ligonier, the third I had lost during the campaign; and being obliged to mount a very weak one, I met with great difficulty in crossing the Allegany mountains; and before I reached Ray’s Town my horse was entirely knocked up. I bought another, and proceeded to Winchester, where, in a little time, I got perfectly recovered.
Those light-horsemen that survived the campaign, were herein want of all necessaries; and no money being sent up from Williamsburg to pay them, I advanced upwards of an hundred pounds, intending to reimburse myself from the first that should arrive; mean while the troops I belonged to were disbanded, and I, in consequence, out of pay. I had no further business at Winchester than to wait for this money, which I did, till my patience being quite exhausted, I resolved to go down the country in search of it. On my arrival at Williamsburg, I was informed the money had been sent up to me by the paymaster. I returned immediately to Winchester, near 200 miles, where I found the paymaster had paid it to the Lieutenant of the troop, who had appropriated it to his own use. He returned me fifty pounds, but it has never been in his power to pay me the remainder, and to all appearance it never will.
After such unfortunate essays I began to give over all thoughts of the army, when Col. Byrd was appointed to the command of the old regiment, in the room of Col. Washington, who resigned; on which I was unfortunately induced to accept another commission. I served another campaign in the year 1759, under General Stanwix, in the same quarter; but on our arrival at Pittsburg, formerly Fort Du Quesne, I had little employment, except looking over the men at work, till the fall of the leaf, when the General gave me the command of Fort Burd, about sixty miles to the eastward of Pittsburg, where I continued about nine months at a very great expence, partly through hospitality to those who passed to and from Pittsburg, and the dearness of necessaries, and partly by building myself a house, and making several improvements, and finishing the half-constructed fort, for which I never received any gratuity. I was relieved by a company of the Pensylvania regiment in the spring, and returned to Pittsburg, but found Col. Byrd with one half of the regiment ordered against the Cherokees, now become our most inveterate enemies; while the remainder under Col. Stephen were destined to serve on the Ohio. I will not fatigue the reader with an account of campaigns wherewith all our news-papers were filled, but confine myself to what more immediately concerned me.
I remained at Pittsburg till autumn, when I obtained permission to pass the winter at home. I accordingly set out in company with an Ensign named Seayres, who had obtained the same permission: we found great difficulties from the badness of the road, of which I may quote the following instance. After marching three whole days from Pittsburg to the place where General Braddock first crossed the Yawyawgany river (little better than sixty miles), and leaving one of my horses fast in the mire, we found, to our great surprise, the river about twelve feet high. We waited a whole day in hopes of its falling, but had the mortification to find it had rather rose a foot; our provisions beginning to run short, we hunted to recruit them, but without any success, which obliged us to come to an immediate determination. We at last resolved to look for some other crossing-place; we found about two miles lower, a part of the river, which by its breadth we judged to be fordable; but as the water was muddy, and the bottom could not be seen, there was a considerable risk in attempting it, especially as it lay under a fall, from whence the current darted with great impetuosity. After some deliberation, we resolved to venture it; pushed on by the fears of starving, if we remained any longer where we were, Mr. Seayres proposed himself to try it first; mounting therefore the best of our horses, he plunged into the stream: for the first hundred yards the water reached little higher than the horse’s belly, but before he got to a small island in the middle, which we had resolved to rest at, he was quite up to the saddle-skirts; after halting a little time, he set out again for the opposite side, but found it impossible to proceed, a deep channel lying between him and the shore, into which he often plunged, but was as often obliged to turn back, at a great hazard of being carried away by the current. Despairing at last of being able to cross it, yet unwilling to return, he forced up the shallow part about an hundred yards, towards the falls, making several attempts to cross, which he at last effected; but the banks being excessively steep, he found as much difficulty and danger in climbing them, as he had before done in crossing. We then followed, and tho’ we now knew exactly what course to keep, as our horses were weaker, and more heavily loaded, our task was not less dangerous or difficult. We found the bottom so rocky and irregular, that the horses staggered with their loads. The rapidity of the stream, and the false steps they made, threatened every moment to leave their burthens and lives in the middle of the stream. One of them, on which my servant was mounted, actually fell, letting my portmantua into the water, which luckily lodged among the limbs of an old tree, that had been washed down by the current; the horse recovered himself, and all the damage occasioned by this accident was, the spoiling of my cloaths, and to the amount of forty pounds in paper money, which got so wet, and stuck so fast together, that the greatest part of it was rendered entirely useless. Happy, however, that this was our only loss, and that we escaped with our lives.
