Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 4).djvu/79

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
TO FORT CUMBERLAND
75

Alligany Mountains, I have apply'd to Governor Morris to get a Road cut from Shippensburg in that Province to the River Youghyaughani; up which he informs me he has set a proper Number of Men at work, and that it will be compleated in a Month: This I look upon to be an Affair of the greatest Importance, as well for securing future Supplies of Provisions, as for obtaining more speedy Intelligence of what passes in the Northern Colonies.[1]

"I wait now for the last Convoy and shall, if I do not meet with further Disappointments, begin my March over the Alleghaney Mountains in about five days. The Difficulties we have to meet with by the best Accounts are very great; the Distance from hence to the Forts is an hundred and ten miles, a Road to be cut and made the whole way with infinite Toil and Labor, over rocky Mountains of an excessive Height and Steepness, and many Stoney Creeks and Rivers to cross."

Braddock's army under Halket and Dun-

  1. For these early routes through Pennsylvania, partially opened in 1755, see Historic Highways of America, vol. v., chap. I.