George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 5, 13th edition.

[123] most easily be relieved. On the twenty-second of

chap VII.} 1763. June.

June, after a two days defence, the commander, out of his senses¹ with terror, capitulated;² giving up the sole chance of saving his men from the scalpingknife.³ He himself, with a few others, were carried in triumph by the Indians to Detroit.⁴

The capitulation at Erie left Le Boeuf without hope. Attacked on the eighteenth, its gallant officer kept off the enemy till midnight. The Indians then succeeded in setting the blockhouse on fire; but he .escaped secretly, with his garrison, into the woods,⁵ while the enemy believed them all buried in the flames.⁶

As the fugitives, on their way to Fort Pitt, passed Venango, they saw nothing but ruins. The fort at that place was consumed, never to be rebuilt; and not one of its garrison was left alive to tell the story of its destruction.⁷

Nor was it the garrisoned stockades only that encountered the fury of the savages. They roamed the wilderness, massacring all whom they met. They struck down more than a hundreds⁸ traders in the woods, scalping every one of them; quaffing their gushing life-blood, horribly mutilating their bodies.