Price and seven men
laboriously toiled through the forest to Fort Pitt, where
they arrived on June 26. Ultimately, all save two of the
garrison of Fort Le Boeuf reached safety.
The circumstances attending the destruction of Fort
Venango on June 20 are but vaguely known. This fort,
situated near the site of the present city of Franklin,
had long been a centre of Indian trade. In the days o
the French occupation it was known as Fort Machault.
After the French abandoned the place in the summer of
1760 a new fort had been erected and named Venango. In
1763 there was a small garrison here under Lieutenant
Gordon. For a time all that was known of its fate was
reported by the fugitives from Le Boeuf and a soldier
named Gray, who had escaped from Presqu'isle. These
fugitives had found Venango completely destroyed, and,
in the ruins, the blackened bones of the garrison. It
was afterwards learned that the attacking Indians were
Senecas, and that they had tortured the commandant to
death over a slow fire, after compelling him to write
down the reason for the attack. It was threefold: (1)
the British charged exorbitant prices for powder, shot,
and clothing; (2) when Indians were ill-treated by British
soldiers they could obtain no redress; (3) contrary to
the wishes of the Indians, forts were being built in
their country, and these could mean but one thing--the
determination of the invaders to deprive them of their
hunting-grounds.
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