12th. Still busy making preparations for the Indians, and expect them every day. 21st. Ensign Kingsbury was ordered to take a party of men into the commandant’s house and put it in the best order for defence, and to remain there during the night. 26th. The troops are again brought to half rations. I went with a party of men after a raft of timber to construct our barracks. 27th. Lieutenant Smith embarked in quest of provisions. We are on short allowance, and expect the Indians every day to attack us. Our men are very uneasy, laying various plans to desert, but are so closely watched that it is very difficult for them to escape. October 2nd. Lieutenant Smith returned with provisions sufficient only for a short time. We are busily occupied in erecting the barracks. 10th. Major Doughty and Captain Strong left here for New England. 11th. The Indians made us a visit and stole one of our horses as it was feeding in the woods. 16th. Captain Tunis called again at the fort and says the Indians had repented of their design to attack the garrison. November 3rd. Captain Tunis and a number of Indians, with two squaws, came into the garrison. At night they got very drunk and threatened the guard with their tomahawks and knives. 5th. Uling, a trader on the river, arrived with provisions. 9th. The hunters brought in about thirty deer and a great number of turkeys. 25th. Captain Hart’s and McCurdy’s companies came in from the survey of the seven ranges. They had a cold, wearisome time; their clothes and shoes wore out, and some of their feet badly frozen. December 3rd. Uling arrived with twenty kegs of flour and ten kegs of whiskey and some dry goods. Our rations now consist of a little venison, without any bread; as a substitute we have some corn and potatoes. The weather is very cold and the river full of ice. 13th. Lieutenant Pratt embarked in a boat for Flinn’s Station (now Belleville), distant thirty miles below the garrison, for a load of corn and potatoes. The troops are in great distress for provisions. About twelve miles below they landed on account of the storm, and their boat was carried off by the ice with a considerable amount of goods in it. 19th. Weather more moderate. Ensign Kingsbury embarked for Flinn’s Station to make another trial for provisions. 22nd. Ensign Kingsbury returned with about sixty bushels of corn and about twenty of potatoes. 24th. We drew for our station about a peck of frozen potatoes. As Christmas is so near we are making all the preparations in our power to celebrate it. 25th. This being Christmas day, the sergeant celebrated it by a dinner, to which was added a plentiful supply of wine.