[737]
[Footnote 736: Pouchot says 515, besides 60 men from Little Niagara;
Vaudreuil gives a total of 589.]
[Footnote 737: Pouchot, II. 52, 59. _Proces de Bigot, Cadet, et autres,
Memoire pour Daniel de Joncaire-Chabert._]
Pouchot had another resource, on which he confidently relied. In
obedience to an order from Vaudreuil, the French population of the
Illinois, Detroit, and other distant posts, joined with troops of
Western Indians, had come down the Lakes to recover Pittsburg, undo the
work of Forbes, and restore French ascendency on the Ohio. Pittsburg had
been in imminent danger; nor was it yet safe, though General Stanwix was
sparing no effort to succor it.[738] These mixed bands of white men and
red, bushrangers and savages, were now gathered, partly at Le Boeuf and
Venango, but chiefly at Presquisle, under command of Aubry, Ligneris,
Marin, and other partisan chiefs, the best in Canada. No sooner did
Pouchot learn that the English were coming to attack him than he sent a
messenger to summon them all to his aid.[739]
[Footnote 738: _Letters of Colonel Hugh Mercer, commanding at Pittsburg,
January-June, 1759. Letters of Stanwix, May-July, 1759. Letter from
Pittsburg_, in _Boston News Letter_, No. 3,023. _Narrative of John
Ormsby._]
[Footnote 739: Pouchot, II. 46.]
The siege was begun in form, though the English engineers were so
incompetent that the trenches, as first laid out, were scoured by the
fire of the place, and had to be made anew.
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