Original.
Calvert
Papers.
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have been sent out every Day & altho several Indians have
been lately discovered within the Limits of this province yet
none of them have dared to venture down to fall on the Set-
tlements, nor have they done any Mischief below this place
besides killing the Horse of an Express that I sent about a fort-
night ago to Carlyle. TheEarl of Loudoun's being superceeded
at such a time.together with the teedious passage which the Ves-
sel had that was freighted with the Artillery & Stores for this
Expedition, the late Arrival of Colo Montgomeries Battalion &
the Backwardness of the several Assemblys, the Difficulty of
Collecting Waggons &c. & the time that has been & must be
still spent in opening a new Road from Carlyle in Pensilvania to
Fort Cumberland by the way of Rays Town, will I believe keep
the Army on this side the Allegany Mountains till the Middle or
at least till the Beginning of August. The General has I hear
been much indisposed but he is now recovered & was expected
at Carlyle the Beginning of this week. Colo Bouquet with
Six Companies of the Virginia Forces & some of the Pensil-
vania Troops has been a good while employed in opening a
Road from Carlyle towards the Allegany Mountains, which is
likely to prove a very laborious Task & it is said that that
Road when it is finished will be far from a good one. Colo
Bouquet has desired me to have one made from this place to
Fort Cumberland. Sr Iohn St Clair has within this week sent
a small Detachmt of the Royal American Regiment & two
Companies of the Pensilvania Forces hither with 60 waggons
loaded with Bomb Shells & Musquet Ball which he hopes can
be conveyed to Fort Cumberland by water. Had these
Stores & twice as many more been sent hither the Beginning
of May they might have been carried up by Water long before
this time, & at half the Expence that they could be carried by
Land, but the Potowmack is now too low for any Vessels
larger than Canoes that will carry 1800 weight to pass, nor
will these (of which it will not be possible to collect more than
12 or 13) be able to make a second Trip. They were loaded
& sent off the 2d Instant under a Convoy of 50 Men composed
of some of our Provincials & of the Detachment of Royal
Americans, The Rest of the Royal American Detachment &
the two Pensilvania Companies are going upon the Road
which Colo Bouquet hath desired me to have made thro this
province to Fort Cumberland; It would give me great pleasure
to see it compleated because it will hereafter be of vast advan-
tage to this province, & if this Road had been opened in the
Spring it would in my Opinion have been the best rout that
the Army could have Marched, the Country being according
to the representations that have been made to me much more
level than that thro which the new Road that Colo Bouquet is
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