"That for your Indians!" said Braddock, snapping his fingers. "They will not stay in their hiding places long when my men come up."
Soon after they came into a narrow place, with steep banks and thick bushes all around. And suddenly loud Indian war-whoops and the crack of guns came from those bushes. Not a man could be seen, but bullets flew like hail-stones among the red-coats. The soldiers fired back, but they wasted their bullets on the bushes. Washington and his men ran into the woods and got behind trees like the Indians, but Braddock would not let his men do the same, and they were shot down like sheep. At length General Braddock fell wounded, and then his brave red-coats turned and ran for their lives. Very likely not a man of them would have got away if Washington and his men had not kept back the French and Indians.
This defeat was a bad business for the poor settlers, for the savage redskins began murdering them on all sides, and during all the rest of the war Washington was kept busy fighting with these Indians. Not till four years afterwards was he able to take Fort Duquesne from the French.
Then another body of men was sent through the woods and over the mountains to capture this fort. But their general did as Braddock had done before him, spending so much time cutting a highroad through the woods that the whole season passed away and he was ready to turn and march back. Then Washington, who was with him, asked permission to go forward with his rangers. The general told him to go and he hurried through the woods and to the fort. When he came near it the French took to their boats and paddled off down the river, so that Washington took the fort without firing a shot.
CHAPTER X
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR AND THE STORY OF THE ACADIANS
HAVE any of my young readers read the beautiful poem of "Evangeline," written by the poet Longfellow? Very likely it is too old for you, though the time will come when you will read it and enjoy it greatly. Evangeline was a pretty and pious woman who lived in a French settlement called Acadia, on the Atlantic coast. You will not find this name on any of your maps, but must look for Nova Scotia, by which name Acadia is now known. The story of Evangeline tells us about the cruel way in which the poor Acadians were treated by the English. It is a sad and pathetic story, as you will see when you have read it.
It was one of the wicked results of the war between the French and the English. There were many cruel deeds in this war, and the people who suffered the most were those who had the least to do with the fighting. In one place a quiet, happy family of father, mother and children, living on a lonely farm, and not dreaming of any danger, suddenly hear the wild war-whoop of the Indians, and soon see their doors broken open and their house blazing, and are carried off into cruel captivity—those who are not killed on the spot. In another place all the people of a village are driven from their comfortable homes by soldiers and forced to wander and beg their bread in distant lands. And all this takes place because the kings of England and France, three thousand miles away, are quarreling about some lands which do not belong to either of them. If those who brought on wars had to suffer for them they would soon come to an end. But they revel and feast in their splendid palaces while poor and innocent people endure the suffering. The war that began in the wilds of western Pennsylvania, between the French and Indians and the English lasted seven years, from 1754 to 1761. During that time there were many terrible battles, and thousands of soldiers were killed, and there was much suffering and slaughter among the people, and burning of houses, and destruction of property, and horrors of all sorts.