THE LONDON CHRONICLE, England, August 25, 1763

• Pontiac's War near the beginning
• Carlisle, Pennsylvania staging ground

Beginning on page 5 is an: "Extract of a letter from Carlisle, July 12, 1763" which includes: "... I embrace this first leisure, since yesterday morning, to transmit you a brief account of our present state of affairs here... flying families, obliged to abandon house and possession, to save their lives by an hasty escape' mourning widows, bewailing their husbands surprized and massacred by savage rage; tender parents, lamenting the fruit of their own bodies, cropt in the very bloom of life by a barbarous hand; with relations and acquaintances, pouring out sorrow for murdered neighbours and friends, present a varied scene of mingled distress... And our advices received since the above, say that the Sheriff's party had returned: That about 18 or 20 miles from Carlisle, they fell in with a number of Indians at a house, and shot down one of them; upon which the others took to the fields, when our people pursued, and knocked down two or three more of the enemy; but though they followed for some time, they could not come up with them, nor find some of those that were wounded...".
Many other reports headed: "America" taking a bit more than a full page. An unusual wealth of reporting from America in a single issue.
Eight pages, 8 14 by 11 inches, very nice condition.

Background: This issue stands out as a extraordinarily rare and vivid primary source, capturing first-hand accounts of the opening salvos of Pontiac’s War—a major Native American confederated uprising against British expansion following the French and Indian War—at a time when European newspapers typically carried sparse, heavily delayed colonial news. Containing an unusual concentration of over a full page dedicated to American developments, the paper offers remarkably raw, unfiltered reporting straight from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, which was serving as a crowded, panicked staging ground for thousands of refugees fleeing frontier massacres. The detailed depiction of militia retaliations and fleeing, devastated families reflects the intense crisis along the mid-Atlantic backcountry—the very violence and instability that, just two months later, drove King George III to issue the historic Royal Proclamation of 1763 in an effort to halt western colonial settlement.