The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

PART I.] THE FRENCH WAR. 81
Creek, I acquainted you, that, unless the number of
wagons was retrenched, and the carriage-horses increased, we should never be able to see Fort Duquesne.*
This, in two days afterwards (which was about the time
they got to the Little Meadows, with some' of their foremost wagons, and strongest teams), they themselves
were convinced of; for they found, that, besides the
extreme difficulty of getting the wagons along at all,
they had often a line of three or four miles in length;
and the soldiers guarding them were so dispersed, that,
if we had been attacked either in front, centre, or rear,
the part so attacked must have been cut off, or totally
routed, before they could be sustained by any other
corps.
At the Little Meadows a second council was called
(for there had been one before), wherein the urgency
for horses was again represented to the officers of the
different corps, and how laudable a farther retrenchment of their baggage would be, that the spare ones
might be turned over for the public service. In order
to encourage this, I gave up my best horse, which I
have never heard of since, and took no more baggage
than half my portmanteau would easily contain. It is
said, however, that the number reduced by this second
attempt was only from two hundred and ten or twelve,
to two hundred, which had no perceivable effect.
The General, before they met in council, asked my
private opinion concerning the expedition. I urged him,
in the warmest terms I was able, to push forward, if he
even did it with a small but chosen band, with such. In the letter here referred to he says; —"The difficulties arising in
our march, from having such a number of wagons, will, I fear, prove an
insurmountable obstacle, unless some scheme can be fallen upon to retrench the wagons, and increase the number of bat-horses, which is what
I recommended at first, and which I believe is now found to be the best
means of transporting our provisions and stores to the Ohio."
VOL. II. 11