on Monday first."[27] Thus, slowly, the Old Trading Path was widened into a rough roadway westward from Carlisle. On May 26, John Armstrong wrote Governor Morris that there were over a hundred choppers at work.[28] Five days later Burd wrote Richard Peters that there were one hundred and fifty at work; but he adds, ominously: "The People are all anxious to have arms, and if You can procure me arms I would not trouble the General for a cover; but if you can't they will not be willing to go past Ray's Town without a guard."[29] Little wonder: the van of Braddock's army had struck westward into the Alleghenies the day before this was written, and already the woods were full of spies sent out by the French, and many massacres had been reported. The horses and wagons which Franklin had secured for Braddock comprised almost his whole equipment. These had gone to Fort Cumberland by the old "Monocasy Road" and Watkins Ferry.[30] On the twelfth of June Allison and Maxwell wrote Richard Peters that "Sideling Hill," sixty-seven miles west of Carlisle, and thirty miles east of Raystown, "is cut very artificially, nay more so than We ever saw any; the first waggon that carried a Load up it took fifteen Hundred without ever stopping;" there were, however, many discouragements--"for four Days the Labourers had not one Glass of Liquor!"[31] On June 15 William Buchannan reported that the road was cleared to Raystown.[32] But some of the wagons were "pretty much damnified." On the seventeenth Edward Shippen wrote Morris from Lancaster: "I understand Mr. Burd has cut the Road 5 Miles beyond Ray's Town, which is 90 Miles from Shippensburg."[33] On the twenty-first General Braddock wrote as follows to Governor Morris from Bear Camp (seven miles west of Little Crossings): "As it is perfectly understood here in what Part the Road making in your Province is to communicate w^{th} that thro' w^{ch} I am now proceeding to Fort Du Quesne, I must beg that you and Mr Peters will immediately settle it, and send an express on Purpose after me with the most exact Description of it, that there may be no Mistake in a Matter of so much Importance."[34] On July 3 Morris wrote Burd, who was in command of the working party, concerning this request of Braddock's. He takes it "for granted ... that the Road must pass the Turkey Foot ... and that there cou'd be no Road got to the Northward." Under such circumstances he affirmed that the nearest course to Braddock's Road would be a straight line from Turkey Foot (Confluence, Pennsylvania) to the Great Crossings of the Youghiogheny (Smithfield, Pennsylvania). He asked Burd to settle this point and send his decision immediately to Braddock.[35] [Illustration: SHIPPEN'S DRAUGHT OF THE MONONGAHELA AND YOUGHIOGHENY RIVERS AND BRADDOCK'S ROAD (1759) (_Great Crossings was the intended junction of Paddock's Road and Burd's_) (_From the original in possession of Pennsylvania Historical Society_)]