of Mr. Steward, at the court-house, where they plotted to blow me up with powder that night, as I was informed; but all they could collect was half a pound. They fixed it for explosion, expecting I was sitting directly over it, but in this they were mistaken. Fire was put to it, and it went off with considerable noise, forcing up a small plank, from which I received no damage. The next scheme they devised was to smoke me with brimstone and Indian pepper. They had to wait certain opportunities to accomplish the same. The lower part of the jail door was a few inches above its sill. When the wind was favorable, they would get pods of Indian pepper, empty them of their contents, and fill them with brimstone, and set them burning, so that the whole jail would be filled with the killing smoke, and oblige me to go to cracks, and put my mouth to them in order to prevent suffocation. At length a certain doctor and the jailer formed a scheme to poison me, which they actually effected."

From this more than savage cruelty Mr. Ireland became extremely ill, was attended by several physicians, and in some degree restored to health and activity; but he never entirely recovered from the great injury which his constitution received.

The author had the satisfaction of an intimate personal acquaintance with Mr. Ireland, and lived a near neighbor to him for several years before his death. He was a native Scotsman; of course his pronunciation was a little broad. He had a fine commanding voice, easy delivery, with a beautiful natural elocution in his sermonizing. His language, perhaps, was not as purely classical as some of his cotemporaries; but such was his powerful elocution, particularly on the subject of the crucifixion and sufferings of our Savior, that he never failed to cause a tiood of tears to flow from the eyes of his audience, whenever he touched that theme. In his younger years he was industrious, zealous, sparing no pains to propagate his religious opinions and principles, and was very successful in gaining proselytes:

hence he became an object of great resentment to the established clergy, and they resorted to every means within their reach, to silence and put him down. But in this they failed. He at length triumphed over his persecutors, was instrumental in founding several churches, and lived to see his labors in the ministry crowned with great success,

CHAPTER VI.

Breaking out of the Indian war.

It has been noticed in a preceding chapter, that in the year 1753, emissaries from the Western Indians came among the Valley Indians, inviting them to cross the Allegany mountains, and that in the spring of the year 1754, the Indians suddenly and unexpectedly moved off, and entirely left the valley.

That this movement of the Indians was made under the influence of the French, there is but little doubt. In the year 1753, Maj. George Washington (since the illustrious Gen. Washington,) was sent by governor Dinwiddie, the then colonial governor of Virginia, with a letter to the French commander on the western waters, remonstrating against his encroachments upon the territory of Virginia. This letter of remonstrance was disregarded by the Frenchman, and very soon afterwards the war, commonly called "Braddock's war," between the British government and France, commenced. In the year 1754, the government of Virginia raised an armed force, with the intention of dislodging the French from their fortified places within the limits of the colony. The command of this army was given to Col. Fry, and George Washington was appointed lieutenant-colonel under him, Their little army amounted to three hun

dred men. "Washington advanced at the head of two companies of this regiment, early in April, to the Great Meadows, where he was informed by some friendly Indians, that the French were erecting fortifications in the forks between the Allegany and Monongahela rivers, and also that a detachment was on its march from that place towards the Great Meadows. War had not been formally declared between France and England; but as neither were disposed to recede from their claim to the lands on the Ohio, it was deemed inevitable, and on the point of commencing. Several circumstances were supposed to indicate a hostile intention on the part of the French detachment. Washington, under the guidance of some friendly Indians, on a dark rainy night surprised their encampment, and firing once, rushed in and surrounded them. The commander, Dumonville, was killed, with 8 or 9 others; one escaped, and all the rest immediately surrendered. Soon after this affair, Col. Fry died, and the command of the regiment devolved on Washington, who speedily collected the whole at the Great Meadows. Two independent companies of regulars, one from New-York and one from South Carolina, soon after arrived at the same place. Col. Washington was now at the head of nearly four hundred men. A stockade, afterwards called Fort Necessity, was erected at the Great Meadows, in which a small force was left, and the main body advanced with a view to dislodging the French from Fort Duquesne,* which they had recently erected at the confluence of the Allegany and Monongahela rivers. They had not proceeded more than thirteen miles, when they were informed by friendly Indians that the French, as numerous as pigeons in the woods, were advancing in an hostile manner towards the English settlements, and also that Fort Duquesne had been strongly reinforced. In this critical situation a council of war unanimously recommended a retreat to the Great Meadows, which

* Fort Duquesne, so called in honor of the French commander, was, after it fell into the hands of the English, called Fort Pitt, and is now Pittsburg.

*

was effected without delay, and every exertion made to render Fort Necessity tenable, before the works intended for that purpose were completed. Mons. de Villier, with a considerable force, attacked the fort. The assailants were covered by trees and high grass." The Americans received them with great resolution, and fought some within the stockade, and others in the surrounding ditch. Washington continued the whole day on the outside of the fort, and conducted the defence with the greatest coolness and intrepidity. The engagement lasted from 10 o'clock in the morning till night, when the French commander demanded a parley, and offered terms of capitulation. His first and second proposals were rejected, and Washington would accept of none but the following honorable ones, which were mutually agreed upon in the course of the night : The fort to be surrendered on condition that the garrison should march out with the honors of war, and be permitted to retain their arms and baggage, and to marchı unmolested into the inhabited parts of Virginia."t

In 1755 the British government sent Gen. Braddock, at the head of two regiments, to this country. Col. Washington had previously resigned the command of the Virginia troops. Braddock invited him to join the service as one of his volunteer aids, which invitation he readily accepted, and joined Braddock near Alexandria. The army moved on for the west, and in their march out erected Fort Cumberland. The circumstances attending the unfortunate defeat of Braddock, and the dreadful slaughter of his army near Pitts

*It is presumable that the grass here spoken of by Dr. Ramsay was of the growth of the preceding year. It is not probable that the grass, the growth of the year 1754, so early in the season, had grown of sufficient hight to conceal a man.

Ramsay's Life of Washington.

Then called Bellhaven.

Fort Cumberland was built in the year 1755, in the fork between Wills creek and North branch of the Potomac, the remains of which are yet to be seen. It is about 55 miles north west of Winchester, on the Maryland side of the Potomac. There is now a considerable town at this place. The garrison left at it was commanded by Maj. Livingston. Mr. John Tomlinson gave the author this information. On the ancient site of the fort, there are several dwelling houses, and a new brick Episcopal church.

burg, are too generally known to require a detailed account in this work: suffice it to say that the defeat was attended with the most disastrous consequences to our country. The whole western frontier was left exposed to the ravages of the forces of the French and Indians combined.

After the defeat and fall of Braddock, Col. Dunbar, the next in command of the British army, retreated to Philadelphia, and the defence of the country fell upon Washington, with the few troops the colonies were able to raise. The people forthwith erected stockade forts in every part of the valley, and took shelter in them. Many families were driven off, some east of the Blue ridge, and others into Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Immediately after the defeat of Braddock, Washington retreated to Winchester, in the county of Frederick, and in the autumn of 1755 built Fort Loudoun. The venerable and highly respectable Lewis Neill, who was born on Opequon, about 5 miles east of Winchester, in 1747, stated to the author, that when he was about 8 years of age, his father had business at the fort, and that he went with him into it. Mr. Thomas Barrett, another aged and respectable citizen, states that he has often heard his father say, that Fort Loudoun was built the same year and immediately after Braddock's defeat. Our highly respectable and venerable general John Smith, who settled in Winchester in 1773, informed the author that he had seen and conversed with some of Washington's officers soon after he settled in Winchester, and they stated to him that Washington marked out the site of the fort, and superintended the work; that he bought a lot in Winchester, erected a smith's shop on it, and brought from Mount Vernon his own blacksmith to make the necessary iron work for the fort. These officers pointed out to Gen. Smith the spot where Gen. Washington's huts or cabins were erected for his residence while in the fort. The great highway leading from Winchester to the north, passes through the fort precisely where Washington's quarters were erect