The cold was so extremely severe, that Mr. Gist had all his fingers,
and some of his toes frozen, and the water was shut up so hard, that
we found no difficulty in getting off the island on the ice in the
morning, and went to Mr. Frazier's. We met here with twenty warriors,
who were going to the southward to war; but coming to a place on the
head of the great Kanawa, where they found seven people killed and
scalped, (all but one woman with very light hair) they turned about
and ran back, for fear the inhabitants should rise and take them as
the authors of the murder. They report that the bodies were lying
about the house, and some of them much torn and eaten by the hogs. By
the marks which were left, they say they were French Indians of the
Ottoway nation, &c. who did it.

As we intended to take horses here, and it required some time to find
them, I went up about three miles to the mouth of Yohogany, to visit
queen Alliquippa, who had expressed great concern that we passed her
in going to the fort. I made her a present of a watch coat and a
bottle of rum, which latter was thought much the best present of the
two.

Tuesday, the first of January, we left Mr. Frazier's house, and
arrived at Mr. Gist's, at Monongahela, the second, where I bought a
horse, saddle, &c. The sixth, we met seventeen horses loaded with
materials and stores for a fort at the forks of Ohio, and the day
after, some families going out to settle. This day, we arrived at
Wills' creek, after as fatiguing a journey as it is possible to
conceive, rendered so by excessive bad weather. From the first day of
December to the fifteenth, there was but one day on which it did not
rain or snow incessantly; and throughout the whole journey, we met
with nothing but one continued series of cold, wet weather, which