It was not long after this event when the head of the
military authorities in the Colony, apprised of the fate
of these captured posts, and made acquainted with the
perilous condition of Fort Detroit, which was then reduced
to the last extremity, sought an officer who would
volunteer the charge of supplies from Albany to Buffalo,
and thence across the lake to Detroit, which, if possible,
he was to relieve. That volunteer was promptly found in
my maternal grandfather, Mr. Erskine, from Strabane, in
the North of Ireland, then an officer in the Commissariat
Department. The difficulty of the undertaking will be
obvious to those who understand the danger attending a
journey through the Western wilderness, beset as it was
by the warriors of Ponteac, ever on the lookout to prevent
succor to the garrison, and yet the duty was successfully
accomplished. He left Albany with provisions and ammunition
sufficient to fill several Schnectady boats--I think
seven--and yet conducted his charge with such prudence
and foresight, that notwithstanding the vigilance of
Ponteac, he finally and after long watching succeeded,
under cover of a dark and stormy night, in throwing into
the fort.
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