The task before Captain Colden's slender force was full of danger. His
numbers might have been five times as great and then they would not
have been too many to build and hold the fort he was sent to build and
hold. But he had no thought of turning back, and, as soon as
Daganoweda and the Mohawks were gone, they started, bending their
course somewhat farther toward the south. At the ford of a river
twenty men with horses carrying food, ammunition and other supplies
were to meet them, and they reckoned that they could reach it by
midnight.
The men with the horses had been sent from another point, and it was
not thought then that there was any danger of French and Indian attack
before the junction was made, but the colonial authorities had
reckoned without the vigor and daring of St. Luc. Now the most cruel
fears assailed young Captain Colden, and Robert and the hunter could
not find much argument to remove them. It was possible that the second
force had been ambushed also, and, if so, it had certainly been
destroyed, being capable of no such resistance as that made by
Colden's men, and without the aid of the three friends and the
Mohawks. And if the supplies were gone the expedition would be
useless.
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