A Short History of Pittsburgh

ed behind rocks and trees as if the very earth had swallowed them.

The unsuspecting English came on. But here, when they have crossed, is a level plain, elevated but a few feet above the surface of the river, extending nearly half a mile landwards, and then gradually ascending into thickly wooded hills, with Fort Duquesne beyond. The troops in front had crossed the plain and plunged into the road through the forest for a hundred feet when a heavy discharge of musketry and arrows was poured upon them, which wrought in them a consternation all the greater because they could see no foe anywhere. They shot at random, and not without effect, for when Beaujeu fell the Canadians began to flee and the Indians quailed in their covers before the cannon fire of the English. But the French fighters were rallied back to their hidden recesses, and they now kept up an incessant and destructive fire. In this distressing situation the English fell back into the plain. Braddock rode in among them, and he and his officer