THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE 107 
pelled the glamour of invincibleness which had hitherto 
hung about the trained soldiery of Britain. When 
Braddock was appointed commander-in-chief of the 
forces which were to ward off French aggression in 
the Ohio Valley, he set about his task in high spirits. 
He told Benjamin Franklin that Fort Duquesne could 
hardly detain him more than three or four days, and 
then he would be ready to march across country to 
Niagara, and thence to Fort Frontenac. And when 
the sagacious Franklin reminded him that the Indians 
were adepts in the art of laying ambuscades, he scorn- 
fully answered, “ The savages may be formidable to 
your raw American militia; upon the king’s regulars 
and disciplined troops it is impossible that they should 
make any impression.” In this too confident mood 
the expedition started. There were more than two 
thousand men in all, — British regulars, and colonial 
militia from Virginia and New York. Washington 
was there as aid to General Braddock, and along with 
him, arrayed under one banner, were Horatio Gates 
and Thomas Gage. In every way Braddock made 
light of his American allies, calling in question, not 
only their bravery and skill, but even their common 
honesty, and behaving in all respects as disagreeably 
as he could. Their road was difficult in the extreme. 
At its best it was a bridle-path no more than ten feet 
wide, and desperately encumbered with underbrush 
and fallen tree-trunks. Through the dense forest and 
over the rugged mountains they thus made their way 
in a straggling line nearly four miles long, exposed at 
every moment to sudden overthrow by a flank attack ; 
and so slow was their progress that it took them five 
weeks to accomplish one hundred and thirty miles. 
