ndred of those
people, who might have been of great use to his army as guides, scouts,
etc., if he had treated them kindly; but he slighted and neglected them,
and they gradually left him.

In conversation with him one day, he was giving me some account of his
intended progress. "After taking Fort Duquesne," says he, "I am to
proceed to Niagara; and, having taken that, to Frontenac, if the season
will allow time; and I suppose it will, for Duquesne can hardly detain
me above three or four days; and then I see nothing that can obstruct my
march to Niagara." Having before resolved in my mind the long line his
army must make in their march by a very narrow road, to be cut for them
through the woods and bushes, and also what I had read of a former
defeat of fifteen hundred French, who invaded the Iroquois country, I
had conceived some doubts and some fears for the event of the campaign.
But I ventured only to say, "To be sure, sir, if you arrive well before
Duquesne, with these fine troops, so well provided with artillery, that
place not yet completely fortified, and as we hear with no very strong
garrison, can probably make but a short resistance. The only danger I
apprehend of obstruction to your march is from ambuscades of Indians,
who, by constant practice, are dexterous in laying and executing them;
and the slender line, near four miles long, which your army must make,
may expose it to be attacked by surprise in its flanks, and to be cut
like a thread into several pieces, which, from their distance, cannot
come up in time to support each other."

[Illustration: ON THE MARCH]

He smiled at my ignorance, and replied, "These savages may, indeed, be a
formidable enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the king's
regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make
any impression." I was conscious of an impropriety in my disputing with
a military man in matters of his profession, and said no more. The
enemy, however, did not take the advantage of his army which I
apprehended its long line of march exposed it to, but let it advance
without interruption till within nine miles of the place; and then, when
more in a body (for it had just passed a river, where the front had
halted till all were come over), and in a more open part of the woods
than any it had passed, attacked its advanced guard by a heavy fire from
behind trees and bushes, which was the first intelligence the general
had of an enemy's be