It is very difficult to unravel what General Forbes continually calls the plot of certain Virginians to force him into Braddock's Road. The matter is of additional interest because, in his letter to Bouquet of August 9, Forbes utters a very sharp criticism of Washington: "By a very unguarded letter of Col. Washington's that accidentally fell into my hands, I am now at the bottom of their scheme against this new road, a scheme that I think was a shame for any officer to be concerned in, but more of this at [our] meeting." Again on September 4 he wrote: "Therefore [I] would consult C. Washington, altho perhaps not follow his advice, as his Behaviour about the roads, was in no ways like a soldier." What letter this was of Washington's I do not know. It could not have been the letter written to Halket (page 113); it hardly seems possible that it could have been the following letter which Washington wrote to Governor Fouquier: "The Pennsylvanians, whose present as well as future interest it was to have the expedition conducted through their government, and along that way, because it secures their frontiers at present, and their trade hereafter, a chain of forts being erected, had prejudiced the General absolutely against the old road, and made him believe that we were the partial people, and determined him at all events to pursue that route."[71] The doubt is not whether Forbes would have spoken sharply if he had seen this letter, but whether it could have fallen into his hands. It was undoubtedly sent from Fort Cumberland straight to Winchester and Williamsburg. From one point the letter does Washington no credit, though it shows plainly that there was a bitter factional fight and that he felt strongly the righteousness of the Virginian side of the question, for which he is not to be blamed. As to his accusation against his general, it seems to me unreasonably bitter. Forbes's correspondence with Bouquet is convincing proof of the falseness of Washington's theory that the Pennsylvanians "had prejudiced the General absolutely against the old road ... and determined him at all events to pursue that (new) route." After wrestling with the route question two months Forbes wrote General Abercrombie as late as July 25 that he was unwilling to bring the divisions of his army together "till the Route is finally determined." Forbes had no predilection for Pennsylvanians; when, in September, a spirit of jealousy appeared concerning the province from which the army provisions should be obtained, Forbes wrote Bouquet (September 17): "I believe neither you nor I values one farthing where we get provisions from, provided we are supplyed, or Interest ourselves either with Virginia or Pennsylvania, which last I hope will be damn'd for their treatment of us with the Waggons, and every other thing where they could profit by us from their impositions, altho at the risque of our perdition."