course to Fort Cumberland from Philadelphia for the army was through populous Pennsylvania, and his understanding that the Braddock Road would be followed from that point would easily explain why he had provided forage at Fort Cumberland, which occasioned Forbes's criticism in his letter of July 14. Indeed from Forbes's letters of June 16, 19, and 27, it does not seem that he had any definite plan for the construction of a new road. On the other hand Forbes very correctly doubted the advisability of using Braddock's long route when his army was once gathered together along the road from Carlisle to Raystown. Bouquet stated his (Forbes's) position very soundly when he said: "You cannot take the Cumberland until you are in a position to demonstrate the impossibility of finding another road, or at any rate the impossibility of opening one without risking the expedition by too great an expenditure of time." Moreover, Forbes had a comprehensive view of the situation such as probably no one else had. So far as Bouquet's position was concerned, his correspondence shows that he was assiduous in carrying out Forbes's directions; as to any conspiracy on his part to win Forbes over to the Pennsylvania route, as Washington insinuated, who can believe one existed after reading his letters? Bouquet very properly threw the burden of ultimate decision upon Forbes, as it was his duty to do; he sent him all the information which he could obtain, pro and con, concerning all routes; he sent Colonel Burd out, with his guides, in order to have testimony upon which he was sure he could rely; he urged Forbes to defer his decision of route until he (Forbes) could have a personal interview with Washington; he had Braddock's Road partly cleared and plainly described it as needing "very little in the way of repair;" he never seems to have attempted to minimize the difficulties of making a new route or maximize those of the old; he continually urges the necessity of great caution in the selection of a route.