claimed that they were for peace, the Mingoes agreed with them; the Shawanese promised to send the belts to all the Indians and in twelve days to meet again. And at break of day, as the guns of the fort boomed out their call to the early mass, Post and his party moved silently away by another road from the one by which they had come, for fear of being pursued by the French. The apostle of peace had won a great victory; not an Indian whom he had reached, raised an arm against the English.
In the meantime, Forbes' army was on the march. One-half of the entire force was from Pennsylvania, besides nearly all of the thousand wagoners and laborers. The province raised twenty-seven hundred soldiers of its own, which included a troop of fifty light horse. The detachment of three hundred and sixty-five Royal Americans, although a regular force, was part of a regiment recruited a short time before among the German settlers of Pennsylvania, in pursuance of an Act of Parliament enacted in 1755, because the Germans "were all zealous Protestants, and in general, strong, hardy men, and faithful soldiers might be raised out of them, particularly proper to oppose the French." Colonel Henry Boquet, the lieutenant-colonel of the Royal Americans, was appointed by General Forbes as his second in command. This brilliant officer was born in Switzerland in 1719, and was consequently thirty-nine years old. While still a very young man, he had distinguished himself in the service of the King of Sardinia; then he had entered the service of the Prince of Orange in Holland. Boquet became the companion of the savants of the University of Leyden; and becoming intimate with several distinguished Englishmen, when the regiment of Royal Americans was organized, he, with a number of other Swiss and German officers, was induced to come to America to undertake the command. He was of imposing appearance, of great polish of manners, and moved in the best circles of society in Philadelphia. Colonel John Armstrong, who, two years before, had led the successful expedition against the Indians at Kittanning, was in direct command of the provincials from Pennsylvania.
In April, after the Seventy-seventh Highlanders under Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Montgomery arrived, Colonel Boquet set out with the regulars on his march to Raystown, which he reached early in June. There he immediately set to work erecting a fort, which he called Fort Bedford, after the Duke of Bedford, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland under Pitt, where the town of Bedford now stands. Thus far, there was a travelled road. The question which now con-
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