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.1 THE FRENCH WVAR. 309
greater part of my regiment is on the other road,* so that
I have but few of the first regiment remaining with me,
and eight companies of the second only, whose officers
and men cannot be supposed to know much of the service, or of the country, and nearly, if not quite, a fifth of
them sick. I thought it incumbent on me to mention
these things, that you may know our condition. At the
same time I beg leave to assure you, that nothing will
give me greater pleasure than to proceed with any number of men, that the General or yourself shall think
proper to order.
With regard to keeping out a — succession of strong
parties on this road, from the troops here, I must beg
leave to remark, that we have not so much as one packhorse upon which to take provisions, having been under
the necessity the other day of pressing five horses from
some countrymen, who came to camp upon business,
before I could equip Captain McKenzie's party for a
fourteen days'. march. We have not an ounce of salt
provision of any kind here, and it is impossible to preserve the fresh, especially as we have no salt, by any
other means than barbacuing it in the Indiaq manner.
In doing this, nearly half is lost, so that a party receiving
ten days' provisions will be obliged to live upon little
better than five days' allowance of meat, a thing impracticable.
A great many of Colonel Byrd's men are very sickly;
the rest are become dejected. This sickness. and depression of spirits cannot arise from the situation of our
camp, which is undoubtedly the most healthy of any
ground in this vicinity, but is occasioned, I apprehend,
by the change in their mode of living, and by the limestone water. The soldiers of the first regiment, like
* The companies of the first regiment were chiefly with Colonel Stephen at Raystown, or on the way to Loyal Hanna.