1754.] DEATH OF JUMONVILLE. 99 



midwinter forest, retraced his steps, with one attend- 

 ant, to the Enghsh borders. 



With the first opening of spring, a newly raised 

 company of Virginian backwoodsmen, under Cap- 

 tain Trent, hastened across the mountains, and 

 began to build a fort at the confluence of the 

 Monongahela and Alleghany, where Pittsburg now 

 stands ; when suddenly they found themselves 

 invested by a host of French and Indians, who, 

 with sixty bateaux and three hundred canoes, had 

 descended from Le Boeuf and Venango.^ The 

 English were ordered to evacuate the spot ; and, 

 being quite unable to resist, they obeyed the sum- 

 mons, and withdrew in great discomfiture towards 

 Virginia. Meanwhile Washington, with another 

 party of backwoodsmen, was advancing from the 

 borders ; and, hearing of Trent's disaster, he 

 resolved to fortify himself on the Monongahela, 

 and hold his ground, if possible, until fresh troops 

 could arrive to support him. The French sent out 

 a scouting party under M. Jumonville, with the 

 design, probably, of watching his movements ; but, 

 on a dark and stormy night, Washington surprised 

 them, as they lay lurking in a rocky glen not far 

 from his camp, killed the officer, and captured the 

 whole detachment.^ Learning that the French, 

 enraged by this reverse, were about to attack him 

 in great force, he thought it prudent to fall back, 

 and retired accordingly to a spot called the Great 



1 Sparks, Life and Writings of Washington, II. 6. 



2 Sparks, II. 447. The conduct of Washington in this affair is 

 regarded by French writers as a stain on his memorj. 



