They were excellent woodsmen, skilful hunters, and perhaps the best
bush-fighters in all Canada.
[Footnote 741: "Il n'y avoit que 1,100 Francois et 200 sauvages."
_Vaudreuil au Ministre, 30 Oct. 1759._ Johnson says "1,200 men, with a
number of Indians." _Johnson to Amherst, 25 July, 1759._ Portneuf,
commanding at Presquisle, wrote to Pouchot that there were 1,600 French
and 1,200 Indians. Pouchot, II. 94. A letter from Aubry to Pouchot put
the whole at 2,500, half of them Indians. _Historical Magazine_, V.,
Second Series, 199.]
When Pouchot heard the firing, he went with a wounded artillery officer
to the bastion next the river; and as the forest had been cut away for a
great distance, they could see more than a mile and a half along the
shore. There, by glimpses among trees and bushes, they descried bodies
of men, now advancing, and now retreating; Indians in rapid movement,
and the smoke of guns, the sound of which reached their ears in heavy
volleys, or a sharp and angry rattle. Meanwhile the English cannon had
ceased their fire, and the silent trenches seemed deserted, as if their
occupants were gone to meet the advancing foe. There was a call in the
fort for volunteers to sally and destroy the works; but no sooner did
they show themselves along the covered way than the seemingly abandoned
trenches were thronged with men and bayonets, and the attempt was given
up. The distant firing lasted half an hour, then ceased, and Pouchot
remained in suspense; till, at two in the afternoon, a friendly
Onondaga, who had passed unnoticed through the English lines, came to
him with the announcement that the French and their allies had been
routed and cut to pieces.
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