of those dreary latitudes saved De la Mothe's fleet; two of his vessels, indeed, fell into the hands of his enemies, but the remainder entered the Canadian ports in safety. On the news of this attack reaching Paris, M. de Mirepoix, the embassador, was recalled from London, and loud complaints were made by the French against Boscawen's conduct. On the part of Great Britain it was answered, that the aggressions of the Canadians in Virginia justified the act of hostility.

On the 8th of May General Braddock joined the headquarters of the army at a village on the Potomac; on the 10th he marched to Will's Creek, and encamped on a hill near Fort Cumberland. Here he remained till the 28th, passing the time in horse-races, reviews, and conferences with the Indians. These red warriors were astonished at the number of the British, their uniform dress, and their arms, the regularity of their march, the tremendous effect of their

* 66 Captain, afterward Lord Howe, after an engagement in which he displayed equal skill and intrepidity, succeeded in taking the two French ships, the Alcide and the Lys."-Lord Mahon's History of England, vol. iv., p. 68.

† "At home, in the king's absence, our councils were most feeble and wavering. A great difference appeared among the members of the regency. The Duke of Cumberland, always inclined to vigorous measures, wished to declare war at once, and to strike the first blow... The Duke of Newcastle, trimming and trembling as was ever his wont, thought only of keeping off the storm as long as possible, and of shifting its responsibility from himself. . . . . At length, as a kind of compromise, it was agreed that there should be no declaration of war; that our fleet should attack the French ships of the line, if it fell in with any, but by no means disturb any smaller men-of-war or any vessels engaged in trade. When, at the Board of Regency, these instructions came round to the bottom of the table to be signed by Fox, he turned to Lord Anson, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and asked if there were no objections to them. 'Yes,' answered Anson, 'a hundred; but it pleases those at the upper end of the table, and will signify nothing, for the French will declare war next week, if they have not done it already. While the prospects of peace grew darker and darker, there was also gathering a cloud of popular resentment and distrust against the minister. It was often asked whether these were times when all power could be safely monopolized by the Duke of Newcastle ? Was every thing to be risked-perhaps every thing lost-for the sake of one hoary jobber at the Treasury ?"-Lord Mahon's History of England, vol. iv., p. 72.

1

1. War was not déclared against France until May in the following year.

artillery, and the strange noises of their drums and fifes; but, unfortunately, the haughty general was not wise enough to conciliate his important allies, or to avail himself of their experience in forest warfare; he, however, with disdainful generosity, gave them numerous presents, and provided the warriors with arms and clothing.

The force now assembled in camp at Fort Cumberland consisted of the 44th (Sir Peter Halket's) and the 48th (Colonel Dunbar's) regiments, each of 700 men, with three New York and Carolina companies of 100, and ten of Virginia and Maryland (fifty strong), a troop of Provincial light horse, thirty seamen, and twelve pieces of field artillery: in all, 2300 men.* The Delawares and other friendly Indians, whose services were unfortunately so lightly valued, added considerably to the numbers of this formidable body.

Braddock was aware that the French garrison of Fort du Quesne only numbered 200 men, and earnestly desired to advance in early spring with his overwhelming force, but by an unfortunate exercise of corrupt influence at home his troops had been ordered to land in Virginia, where the inhabitants, altogether engrossed with the culture of tobacco, were unable to supply the necessary provisions and means of transport. Had they been landed in the agricultural state of Pennsylvania, all demands could have been readily supplied, their march shortened, and a large outlay saved to the British government. When the general found that the Virginians could not meet his views, he made a requisition on the neighboring state for 150 wagons, 300 horses, and a large quantity of forage and provisions: these were readily promised, but not a tenth part arrived at the appointed time. His disappointment was, however, somewhat mitigated by a small supply which Mr. Franklin sent shortly after from Philadelphia. By the exertions of this energetic man, Braddock was at length furnished with all his requisitions,† and then prepared to advance.

* MS. Journal of Major-general Braddock's Expedition against Fort du Quesne, 1755. Royal Artillery Library, Woolwich.

Mr. Franklin had observed that Sir John St. Clair's uniform (the quarter-master general) was of the hussar kind, and this gave

The unfortunate selection of the chief of this expedition was, however, more fatal than difficulty or delay; his character was unsuited for such a command in every point except that of personal courage: haughty, self-sufficient, and overbearing, he estranged the good-will, and rejected the counsel of his Indian and Provincial allies. His troops were harassed by the endeavor to enforce a formal and rigid discipline, which the nature of the service rendered him a hint which he immediately improved: he caused a report to be propagated among the Germans that, except 150 wagons could be got ready and sent to the general within a certain time, St. Clair, who was a hussar, would come among them, and take away what he found by force. The Germans, having formerly lived under despotic power, knew the hussars too well to doubt their serving themselves, and believing that General St. Clair was indeed a hussar, they provided, instead of 150, 200 wagons, and sent them within the time that Franklin had limited. The Pennsylvanians also advanced a further sum above the king's bounty, and sent him 190 wagons more, laden with a ton of corn and oats, four wagons with provisions and wine for the officers, and 60 head of fine cattle for the army."-Gentleman's Magazine, August, 1755.

* "Those who have experienced only the severities and dangers of a campaign in Europe can scarcely form an idea of what is to be done and endured in an American war. In an American campaign every thing is terrible-the face of the country, the climate, the enemy. There is no refreshment for the healthy nor relief for the sick. A vast inhospitable desert surrounds the troops where victories are not decisive, but defeats are ruinous, and simple death is the least misfortune that can happen to a soldier. This forms a service truly critical, in which all the firmness of the body and the mind is put to the severest trial, and all the exertions of courage and address are called out. If the actions of these rude campaigns are of less dignity, the adventures in them are more interesting to the heart, and more amusing to the imagination than the details of a regular war.”—(Burke, Annual Register, 1763.) “Yet Adam Smith ventures to assert, in the plenitude of learned ignorance and ingenious error, that 'nothing can be more contemptible than an Indian war in North America.' Colonel Barré, who had served in America, declared, in his celebrated speech upon American taxation, in 1765, that the Indians were as enemies 'the most subtile and the most formidable of any people upon the face of God's earth.'"-Graham's History of the United States, vol. iv., p. 448.

"You will see...

the condition of the troops in this country, particularly that of the infamous Free Companies of New York." Letter from General Braddock to Colonel Napier, Adjutant General. Williamsburg, Feb. 24, 1754.

impracticable. Through the tangled and trackless passes of the Alleganies, he adhered with stubborn bigotry to a system of operations only suited to the open plains of civilized Europe. But his greatest and worst error was to despise his foe: in spite of the warnings of the Duke of Cumberland, his patron and friend, he scorned to take precautions against the dangerous ambush of the American savage.

On the 29th, Major Chapman, with 600 men and two guns, marched from the camp: Sir John St. Clair, quarter-master general, some engineers, and seamen, accompanied this detachment to clear the roads and reconnoiter the country. From that time till the 10th of June an incredible amount of useless and harassing toil was wasted in widening and leveling the forest paths, and erecting unnecessarily elaborate bridges. At length, on the 10th, Braddock followed with the rest of his army, and reached the Little Meadows that night, a distance of twenty-two miles. In spite of the facilities afforded by the labors of the pioneers, great difficulty was experienced in the conveyance of the heavy stores. During the route still to be pursued, where no preparations had been made, greater delays were to be expected. At the same time the general was stimulated to activity by information that the French soon expected a reenforcement at Fort du Quesne of 500 regular troops; with more of energy than he had yet displayed, he selected 1200 men, and taking also ten guns, the seamen, and some indispensable supplies of provisions and ammunition, he pushed boldly on into the pathless and almost unknown solitudes of the Alleganies. Colonel Dunbar, with the rest of the army and the heavy luggage, followed as they best might.

*"The (Duke of Cumberland), who is now the soul of the regency, is much dissatisfied at the slowness of General Braddock, who does not march as if he was at all impatient to be scalped. It is said for him that he has had bad guides, that the roads are exceedingly difficult, and that it was necessary to drag as much artillery as he does. This is not the first time, as witness in Hawley, that the duke has found that brutality did not necessarily constitute a general. Braddock is a very Iroquois in disposition."-Walpole's Letters to Sir H. Mann, Aug. 21, 1755.

To trace the unfortunate Braddock through his tedious march of 130 miles would be wearisome and unnecessary. His progress was retarded by useless labors in making roads, or rather tracks, and yet no prudent caution was observed; he persisted in refusing or neglecting the offers of the Provincials and Indians to scour the woods and explore the passes in his front.* Sir Peter Halket and other British officers ventured to remonstrate in strong terms against the dangerous carelessness of the march, but their instances seemed only to confirm the obstinate determination of the general. Washington, who acted as his aid-de-camp, also urged an alteration of arrangement, and with such vehement pertinacity that the irritated chief ordered his Virginian companies to undertake the inglorious duties of the rearguard.

M. de Contrecœur, commandant of Fort du Quesne, had received information of all Braddock's movements from the Indians. With the view of embarrassing the English advance rather than of offering any serious resistance, he dispatched M. de Beaujeu, with 250 of the marine, or colony troops, toward the line of march which Braddock was expected to take; this detachment was afterward strengthened by about 600 Indians, principally Outamacs, and the united force took up a favorable position, where the underwood and long grass concealed them from the approaching enemy.

Intelligence of a contradictory nature as to the strength and movements of the French had been every day carried to the unfortunate Braddock by Indians professing to be his friends, and by doubly traitorous deserters. Still, under a fatal conviction of security, he had pursued his march, meeting with no interruption, except in taking "eight or nine scalps, a number much inferior to expectation.” On the 8th of July, following the winding course which the difficulty of the country rendered necessary, he crossed the Monongahela River, encamped upon the bank at the opposite side from Fort du Quesne, and sent Sir John St. Clair

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* "Want of intelligence and reconnoitering parties was the sole cause of defeat."-General Kane's Mil. Hist. of Great Britain to 1757.