George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

[121] covered with trees, except within sixty yards

chap. V.} 1754.

of it. On the third day of July, about noon, six hundred French, with one hundred Indians, came¹ in eight, and took possession of one of the eminences, where every soldier found a large tree for his shelter, and could fire in security on the troops beneath. For nine hours, in a heavy rain, the fire was returned. The tranquil courage of Washington spread its influence through the raw provincial levies, so inferior to the French in numbers and in position. At last,² after thirty of the English, and but three of the French had been killed, De Villiers himself fearing his ammunition would give out, proposed a parley. The terms of capitulation which were offered were interpreted to Washington, who did not understand French, and, as interpreted, were accepted. On the fourth day of July, the English garrison, retaining all its effects, withdrew from the basin of the Ohio. In the whole valley of the Mississippi, to its head-springs in the Alleghanies, no standard floated but that of France.

Hope might dawn from Albany. There, on the nineteenth day of June, 1754, assembled the memorable congress³ of commissioners from every colony north of the Potomac. The Virginia government, too, was represented by the presiding officer, Delancey, the lieutenant-governor of New York. They met to concert measures of defence, and to treat with the Six Nations and the tribes in their alliance. America had never seen an assembly so venerable for