had any definite plan for the construction of a new road.
On the other hand Forbes very correctly doubted the advisability of using Braddock's long route when his army was once gathered together along the road from Carlisle to Raystown. Bouquet stated his (Forbes's) position very soundly when he said: "You cannot take the Cumberland until you are in a position to demonstrate the impossibility of finding another road, or at any rate the impossibility of opening one without risking the expedition by too great an expenditure of time." Moreover, Forbes had a comprehensive view of the situation such as probably no one else had.
So far as Bouquet's position was concerned, his correspondence shows that he was assiduous in carrying out Forbes's directions; as to any conspiracy on his part to win Forbes over to the Pennsylvania route, as Washington insinuated, who can believe one existed after reading his letters? Bouquet very properly threw the burden of ultimate decision upon Forbes, as it was his duty to do; he sent him all the information which he could obtain, pro and con,
