108 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1755. 



them, and invited them to follow him out to battle ; 

 but the boldest stood aghast at the peril, and none 

 would accept the challenge. A second interview 

 took place with no better success ; but the French- 

 man was resolved to carry his point. " I am de- 

 termined to go," he exclaimed. " What, will you 

 suffer your father to go alone ] " ^ His daring 

 proved contagious. The warriors hesitated no 

 longer ; and when, on the morning of the ninth 

 of July, a scout ran in with the news that the 

 English army was but a few miles distant, the In- 

 dian camps were at once astir with the turmoil of 

 preparation. Chiefs harangued their yelling fol- 

 lowers, braves bedaubed themselves with war-paint, 

 smeared themselves with grease, hung feathers in 

 their scalp-locks, and whooped and stamped till 

 they had wrought themselves into a delirium of 

 valor. 



That morning, James Smith, an English prisoner 

 recently captured on the frontier of Pennsylvania, 

 stood on the rampart, and saw the half-frenzied 

 multitude thronging about the gateway, where kegs 

 of bullets and gunpowder were broken open, that 

 each might help himself at will.^ Then band after 

 band hastened away towards the forest, followed 

 and supported by nearly two hundred and fifty 

 French and Canadians, commanded by Beaujeu. 



1 Sparks's Life and Writings of Washington, II. 473. I am indebted to 

 the kindness of President Sparks for copies of several French manuscripts, 

 which throw much light on the incidents of the battle. These manu- 

 scripts are alluded to in the Life and Writings of Washington. 



2 Smith's Narrative. This interesting account has been several times 

 published. It may be found in Drake's Tragedies of the Wilderness. 



