7th.—We came in sight of fort _Venango_, belonging to the _French_, situate between two mountains, in a fork of the _Ohio_ river. I prayed the Lord to blind them, as he did the enemies of _Lot_ and _Elisha_, that I might pass unknown. When we arrived, the fort being on the other side of the river, we hallooed, and desired them to fetch us over; which they were afraid to do; but shewed us a place where we might ford. We slept that night within half gun shot of the fort. 8th.—This morning I hunted for my horse, round the fort, within ten yards of it. The Lord heard my prayer, and I passed unknown till we had mounted our horses to go off, when two _Frenchmen_ came to take leave of the _Indians_, and were much surprised at seeing me, but said nothing. By what I could learn of _Pisquetumen_, and the _Indians_, who went into the fort, the garrison consisted of only six men, and an officer blind of one eye.[23] They enquired much of the _Indians_ concerning the _English_, whether they knew of any party coming to attack them, of which they were apprehensive. 9th.—Heavy rains all night and day: we slept on swampy ground. 10th.—We imagined we were near _Kushkushkee_; and having travelled three miles, we met three _Frenchmen_, who appeared very shy of us, but said nothing more than to enquire, whether we knew of any _English_ coming against fort _Venango_. After we travelled two miles farther, we met with an _Indian_, and one that I took to be a runagade _English Indian_ trader; he spoke good _English_, was very curious in examining every thing, particularly the silver medal about Pisquitumen’s neck. He appeared by his countenance to be guilty. We enquired of them where we were, and found we were lost, and within twenty miles of fort _Duquesne_. We struck out of the road to the right, and slept between two mountains; and being destitute of food, two went to hunt, and others to seek a road, but to no purpose. 11th.—We went to the place where they had killed two deers, and _Pisquetumen_ and I roasted the meat. Two went to hunt for the road, to know which way we should go: one came back, and found a road; the other lost himself. 12th.—The rest of us hunted for him, but in vain; so, as we could not find him, we concluded to set off, leaving such marks, that, if he returned, he might know which way to follow us; and we left him some meat. We came to the river _Conaquonashon_ [Conequenessing Creek], where was an old _Indian_ town. We were then fifteen miles from _Kushkushkee_. There we stopt, and sent forward _Pisquetumen_ with four strings of _wampum_ to apprize the town of our coming,[24] with this message: