erpreter, join'd him on his march with one hundred 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 revolv'd in my mind the long line
his army must make in their march by a very narrow road, to be cut for
them thro' 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 conceiv'd some doubts and some fears for the event of the campaign.
But I ventur'd 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 compleatly 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 attack'd by surprise in its flanks, and to be cut
like a thread into several pieces, which, from their distance, can not
come up in time to support each other."

He smil'd at my ignorance, and reply'd, "These savages may, indeed, be
a formidable enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the king's
regular and disciplin'd 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 expos'd 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 pass'd, attack'd its advanced guard by a heavy
fire from behind trees and bushes, which was the first intelligence the
general had