Note 337 — Chapter XXII · 1763. DESOLATION OF THE FRONTIERS.
Reading edition
Extract from a MS. Letter—John Elder to Governor Penn:—
“Paxton, 4th August, 1763.
“Sir:
“The service your Honr was pleased to appoint me to, I have performed to the best of my power; tho’ not with success equal to my desires. However, both companies will, I imagine, be complete in a few days: there are now upwards of 30 men in each, exclusive of officers, who are now and have been employed since their enlistment in such service as is thought most safe and encouraging to the Frontier inhabitants, who are here and everywhere else in the back countries quite sunk and dispirited, so that it’s to be feared that on any attack of the enemy, a considerable part of the country will be evacuated, as all seem inclinable to seek safety rather in flight than in opposing the Savage Foe.”