On their own ground they were far more formidable than the best European troops.  The British grenadiers throughout the eighteenth century showed themselves superior, in the actual shock of battle, to any infantry of continental Europe; if they ever met an over-match, it was when pitted against the Scotch highlanders.  Yet both grenadier and highlander, the heroes of Minden, the heirs to the glory of Marlborough’s campaigns, as well as the sinewy soldiers who shared in the charges of Prestonpans and Culloden, proved helpless when led against the dark tribesmen of the forest.  On the march they could not be trusted thirty yards from the column without getting lost in the woods[16]—­the mountain training of the highlanders apparently standing them in no stead whatever,—­and were only able to get around at all when convoyed by backwoodsmen.  In fight they fared even worse.  The British regulars at Braddock’s battle, and the highlanders at Grant’s defeat a few years later, suffered the same fate.  Both battles were fair fights; neither was a surprise; yet the stubborn valor of the red-coated grenadier and the headlong courage of the kilted Scot proved of less than no avail.  Not only were they utterly routed and destroyed in each case by an inferior force of Indians (the French taking little part in the conflict), but they were able to make no effective resistance whatever; it is to this day doubtful whether these superb regulars were able, in the battles where they were destroyed, to so much as kill one Indian for every hundred of their own men who fell.  The provincials who were with the regulars were the only troops who caused any loss to the foe; and this was true in but a less degree of Bouquet’s fight at Bushy Run.  Here Bouquet, by a clever stratagem, gained the victory over an enemy inferior in numbers to himself; but only after a two days’ struggle in which he suffered a fourfold greater loss than he inflicted.[17]

When hemmed in so that they had no hope of escape, the Indians fought to the death; but when a way of retreat was open they would not stand cutting like British, French, or American regulars, and so, though with a nearly equal force, would retire if they were suffering heavily, even if they were causing their foes to suffer still more.  This was not due to lack of courage; it was their system, for they were few in numbers, and they did not believe in losing their men.[18] The Wyandots were exceptions to this rule, for with them it was a point of honor not to yield, and so they were of all the tribes the most dangerous in an actual pitched battle.[19]