Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 5).djvu/29

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THE OLD TRADING PATH
25

plied by the northern colonies might take a shorter course than by way of the roads then being opened through Maryland and Virginia.[1] Morris immediately replied " . . there is no Waggon Road from Carlisle West through the Mountains but only a Horse Path, by which the Indian Traders used to carry their Goods and Skins to and from the Ohio while that Trade remained open."[2] Though Morris usually made requests of the assembly in vain, the request concerning this road was granted, and Morris was empowered, in the middle of March, to open a road "through Carlisle and Shippensburg to the Yoijogain, and to the camp at Will Creek."[3] He immediately appointed George Croghan, John Armstrong, James Burd, William Buchannan, and Adam Hoops to find a road to the three forks of the Youghiogheny—or "Turkey Foot" as the spot was familiarly known on the frontier. On April 29 Burd reported as follows to Morris: " . . We have viewed and layed out the Roads

  1. Pennsylvania Colonial Records, vol. vi, p. 300.
  2. Id., p. 302.
  3. Id., p. 318.