MR. C. G. F. DUMAS, in presenting to the public his French translation of the Account of Bouquet's Expedition against the Ohio Indians, published at Amsterdam in 1769, says he had had the intention of writing Bouquet's life, and for that purpose had counted upon securing many of his private letters. Bouquet, says Dumas,1" managed his pen as well as he wielded his arms, and that is saying a great deal. I did not despair, in making use of his own colors, of painting his portrait in a manner worthy of him. But the very circumstance which has preserved to posterity the papers of so many other great men, their intrinsic value, has been the misfortune of those of Mr. Bouquet. Everybody was anxious to read his letters; whenever they arrived they were laid hands upon, and were widely circulated. They to whom they were addressed could

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has in its Library, besides the French edition of Bouquet's Expedition, the original edition published at Philadelphia in 1765 by Bradford, the London reprint of 1766, and an edition published at Cincinnati in 1868 by R. Clarke & Co., with an introduction by Mr. Parkman. The original Philadelphia edition is very rare. A copy was sold last year for $52.50.

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not get them again; in fact they have disappeared, and with all the stir I have made I have not been able to recover a single one of them. I have only been able to procure some dates of the principal events of his life, and I add the little I can remember having heard related in company by several of his friends."

Dumas then gives, in three or four pages, an outline of Bouquet's life, fortunately giving the larger space to his career in Europe, for of this we know nothing from any other source. We should like to have fuller details of the course of training which enabled Bouquet to cope successfully with the Indians, in a field where so few European generals added anything to their reputation, and how it was that he, a foreigner, learned to understand the politics of the American colonists better than most of their English kinsmen. The sketch by Dumas is well known through Mr. Parkman's translation, published in the recent Cincinnati edition of Bouquet's Expedition against the Ohio Indians, before referred to. To this translation Mr. Parkman has added some valuable explanatory notes, but as to Bouquet's life in Europe, no new matter. If Dumas, living in Holland among Bouquet's friends, and within four years of his death, has told us all he could ascertain about Bouquet's European career, it is not to be expected that research at the present day can lead to new information. For the benefit of those who have not access to Mr. Parkman's translation I shall briefly recapitulate the main facts therein contained. In America, Bouquet's military services against the French, and afterwards against the Indians, have been so fully described in the general history of the colonies, that I shall not relate them in detail. More fortunate than Dumas, I have in my possession a few confidential letters from Bouquet, at various posts in Pennsylvania, to a lady in Philadelphia. I shall state a few facts and make a few observations to introduce and explain these letters which are now printed for the first time.

Henry Bouquet was born at Rolle, a small Swiss town on the northern shore of the Lake of Geneva, in 1719. At the

age of seventeen he entered the army of the Low Countries, and at nineteen was commissioned an ensign. After that, he served with distinction under the King of Sardinia in the war against France and Spain. In 1748 he re-entered the Dutch service, and was employed by the Prince of Orange in occupying the posts in the Low Countries lately evacuated by the French under the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and in arranging the return of prisoners. He then travelled in Italy in company with Lord Middleton, and it is probably to this association that he owed his surprising knowledge of English. The letters that I shall transcribe would hardly be supposed to be the composition of a foreigner, who probably never left the continent of Europe till he was approaching middle age. On his return from Italy Bouquet lived several years at the Hague, industriously studying his profession and cultivating the friendship of the learned men of that place.

The war between England and France, in America, opened disastrously for the English in 1755. It was necessary for the English government to send out reinforcements, and Parliament passed the Act of 29 Geo. II., c. v. Under this act a corps was organized styled the "Royal American Regiment," for service in the colonies. This body was to consist of four battalions of 1000 men each. Fifty of the officers might be foreign Protestants, while the enlisted men were to be raised principally from among the German settlers in America. It was probably hoped that by this means some military enthusiasm might be excited among an apathetic population. Sir Joseph Yorke, the English Ambassador at the Hague, persuaded Bouquet and his friend and compatriot Frederick Haldimand to join this corps with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Bouquet sailed for America in the summer of 1756, and here, where the most brilliant portion of his life was beginning, the sketch by Dumas practically closes.

While the native English officers, engaged in America, often owed their advancement to exterior influence, Bouquet seems to have gained his promotions by merit and hard service under various commanders. Dumas tells us nothing of his family. His name is not distinguished, and in his will he

disposed of a large lauded estate without naming a single relative.

Bouquet, with several other officers of the Royal Americans, arrived in New York in June. The Earl of Loudoun, who had been appointed colonel of the corps, and commanderin-chief of the army in America, preceded him by some weeks. Lord Loudoun seems to have been as incapable of understanding the temper of the Colonies as was Braddock, and without Braddock's personal courage. Franklin says a friend of his remarked that Loudoun was like St. George on the sign boards, being always on horseback and never riding on. On Nov. 24, 1756, Loudoun informed Governor Denny, of Pennsylvania, that quarters in Philadelphia must be provided for a battalion of the Royal Americans, and two independent companies, and the Governor transmitted the message to the Assembly, requesting them to act. The Assembly passed a bill providing for billets for the troops on the public houses of Philadelphia, which bill the Governor signed.

The troops now arrived in Philadelphia under the command of Bouquet, who complained bitterly to the Governor that the quarters assigned to him were inadequate to his needs,' that his men were suffering severely from the cold, that the smallpox was increasing among them, and that he was" cruelly and barbarously treated." Bouquet went on to write that, as a foreigner, he was loath to take violent measures, but that if something were not instantly done, he hoped the Governor would issue to the sheriff a warrant to assign him quarters in private houses. The Governor, in accordance with Bouquet's request, gave him a warrant directed to the sheriff, with a blank for the number of soldiers to be provided for in private houses. Bouquet afterwards stated that he did not wish this warrant to be used, but that he hoped that the Assembly would be stimulated to do something for him by the knowledge that such an instrument had issued. He lent the warrant to the sheriff, who promised to return it immediately, but who nevertheless took it directly to the Assembly,

1 Col. Records, vol. vii. p. 358.